Calling all techies - DVD-A question

[Belinda Barfield]

I have a new car (new to me anyway) equipped with a DVD-A player. I spent half the day driving around town trying to find a store that sells DVD-A discs. No luck. Is there an Internet source that you would recommend?

Technical question - why is it so difficult to find these, and why hasn't the "technology" taken off more rapidly? :confused:

[Jeff Bratt]

DVD audio is a relatively new standard - disks are few and far between. I would be very surprised if the deck does not also play regular CDs...

[Belinda Barfield]

Thanks for the reply Jeff. Yes, it does play CDs as well. I have a sample DVD-A that came with the car and the sound is phenomenol. I was under the impression that DVD-A had been around since about 2003 or so, so I thought maybe the discs would be easier to find.

[Don Abele]

DVD-A was released around 2000, just a year after the SACD (Super Audio CD) format was introduced. The claim to fame for them is 5.1 digital sound, vice 2 channel for a standard CD. The DVD-A was a step up as the disc can contain A LOT more audio. Both formats have been slow to be adopted because of the need to upgrade existing DVD or CD players. The nice thing about SACD's is that many of them are "hybrid" and contain both the 5.1 version as well as the standard 2 channel CD audio.

I have several SACD's that came with my home theater DVD player (which also plays SACD discs). They are classical music and sound AWESOME on my Infinity system.

I know this doesn't really answer your question...but it's what I know about the two formats.

Be well,

Doc

[Lance Norris]

Belinda... DVD-Audio is basically a dead format. It never really gave the added benefits that studios thought the people would fall over each other to run out and buy. DVD video was so superior to VHS that it took off like gangbusters, but the upgrade from CD to DVD-A wasnt enough of an improvement to make it stick. And it also had to compete with a seperate and uncompatible high rez disc format, Sonys SACD(super audio cd). The fact that there were 2 formats, and 2 types of players that wouldnt play the other type audio disc, and the fact that to get full benefit from the DVD-A disc, you needed a new DVD player, it just didnt take off. It seems people have so many different directions to spend their enertainment dollars these days, that a high quality audio format just isnt a priority in todays world of low-resolution, compressed, internet delivered, audio formats(mp3, wma and so forth). DVD-Audio(and SACD)did promise one very cool benefit over cd, multi-channel playback. The one DVD-A disc I have(Queen, Night at the Opera) is so much more transparent, and the 5 channel audio, so neat, that I wish DVD-A would have become more popular. Since I dont have a DVD-A player, I can only listen to the Dolby Digital tracks that are on the disc, instead of the high rez tracks, but even then, its much better than cd. Amazon.com has some DVD-A discs.

[Belinda Barfield]

Thanks Doc, and Lance.

Lance, your response verifies what I was sort of guessing. I'm a Queen fan as well so I'll have to look for that one. I'd really like to find "It's a Kind of Magic".

I'm so behind on technology I should have known DVD-A is a dead format since it hasn't slapped me up beside the head!

[David G Baker]

Belinda,
Don't feel too bad about being behind in technology, I have never heard of DVD-A. I was a sound engineer for ABC for many years but when I retired I really retired and closed the door on the modern technology.

[Bill Cunningham]

Our local walmart has audio dvd's. Almost as many as video dvd's.. 5-7 channel sound on dvd is pretty awesome to this half deaf old fart...

[Al Willits]

Try the local walmarts, targets, etc and sometimes you'll find them in the discount bins, also try the used CD places, both SACD and DVD-A were nice idea's but didn't go over well as Lance mentioned.

So keep a eye out and you should be able to find a few discounted disks out there.

Al