Dolby brings DVD-Audio to the PC - Launches Dolby in PC
Dolby and Creative have released information about the latest the SounBlaster Audigy 2 soundcards, that is according to the companies the first sound card technology to provide DVD-Audio playback on the personal computer.
This means you are able to play your DVD-Audio discs on both your home entertainment set, as in your personal computer. DVD-Audio is the format that is currently fighting with the SuperAudio CD to become the follow up of the current audio CD.
With the announcement from Creative Technology, DVD-Audio can now be enjoyed in a variety of environments. In addition to PC applications, DVD-Audio software can be enjoyed in portable DVD-Video players, tabletop DVD-Audio/Video players, and in the car. As an added bonus, the majority of multichannel DVD-Audio discs also include a companion audio track encoded in Dolby Digital, thereby insuring playback compatibility with the more than 200 million tabletop DVD players, game machines, and personal computers equipped with Dolby Digital technology currently in use worldwide. |
At the same time, Dolby has also released information about their Dolby in PC Initiative in which it has partners such as Microsoft and NVIDIA, to bring the Dolby technologies to even more PCs. Read their press release here.
More information about Dolby, DVD-Audio and SACD can be found and discussed in our Audio Forum.
Source: Yahoo.com
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Posted by Seán on Wednesday 30 October 2002 12:36
From what I read, there will be consumer DVD-Audio recording facilities available:
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news2.php3?ID=4983
But Sony are sticking to their propriety method as usual and will never sell SACD-Recording facilities to consumers, but only rent them to Studios: http://www.sacd.philips.com/b2b/downloads/content_protection.pdf
All though SACDs are selling better than DVD-Audio, I'd say this is likely to change once the DVD-Audio recorders starting being shipped
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news2.php3?ID=4983
But Sony are sticking to their propriety method as usual and will never sell SACD-Recording facilities to consumers, but only rent them to Studios: http://www.sacd.philips.com/b2b/downloads/content_protection.pdf
All though SACDs are selling better than DVD-Audio, I'd say this is likely to change once the DVD-Audio recorders starting being shipped
Can you use a standard DVDROM drive with DVDA discs? Also will you need special playback software (as well as the soundcard) to play them? Does WinDVD 4 or PowerDVD 4 not support DVDA discs?
Then also how do you get it to output to your Hi-Fi (Not PC speakers)? I use an SPDIF sending PCM but I heard DVDA is 24bit/96Khz and won't work on SPDIF but would require an amp with firewire or USB2 support as the data rate is too high for SPDIF. Sending analog again seems like such a backwards step. Yet nearly all DVDA players and current amplifiers are using the 5.1 analog outputs from the DVDA player to the amps 5.1 analog ins. Then people say how great the sound is. Hmm.
All sounds a bit confusing and messy to me. SACD will probably get waylaid by DVDA if it becomes popular enough.
Then also how do you get it to output to your Hi-Fi (Not PC speakers)? I use an SPDIF sending PCM but I heard DVDA is 24bit/96Khz and won't work on SPDIF but would require an amp with firewire or USB2 support as the data rate is too high for SPDIF. Sending analog again seems like such a backwards step. Yet nearly all DVDA players and current amplifiers are using the 5.1 analog outputs from the DVDA player to the amps 5.1 analog ins. Then people say how great the sound is. Hmm.
All sounds a bit confusing and messy to me. SACD will probably get waylaid by DVDA if it becomes popular enough.
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