[mythtv-users] DVD-Audio

[Drew Lenze]

I'm don't think I've seen this discussed, so I guess I'll stick my toe in
the water.  I recently purchased a new DVD player which supports the
DVD-Audio format.  For those that haven't heard of this format, it provides
audio data which is digitized at higher rates than CDs (up to 192 KHz
although most are 96 KHz) and higher resolution (24 bits), and it also
support more than just 2 channels (stereo), with most discs supporting full
5.1 surround sound.  There aren't THAT many different DVD-Audio discs out
right now, but some of the very best are including Queen's "A Night at the
Opera", Eagles "Hotel California", Metallica's black album, and
Queensryche's "Empire", just to mention a few.  You do need a special DVD
player to play them, although most discs also come with Dolby Digital tracks
also, and these tracks can be played on a normal DVD player.  With these you
do get the surround sound, but you give up the higher resolution, so to take
full advantage of DVD-Audio you need the special DVD player.

As to how they sound, THEY'RE AWESOME!!!  This is my opinion only, but my
ears are probably worse than most, being the veterans of over 100 concerts.

So why am I mentioning DVD-Audio on a MythTV message board?  Now that I've
heard DVD-Audios, I'll never be able to able to have a home entertainment
system that lacks DVD-Audio support (at least until something even better
comes out).  So the question is can a computer with a DVD drive support
DVD-Audio?  I think this would be a great addition to MythTV.

As with other new standards, there is a competing high resolution audio
format called SACD, which uses a different digitizing scheme.  One notable
SACD disc with is available is Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon".  A
friend of mine who has a SACD compatible DVD player put a SACD disc in his
computer DVD player and it didn't even recognize the disc as a valid DVD, so
I'm guessing that adding SACD support maybe impossible without some
different hardware, but I thought I'd mention it to those of you who like a
challenge.

WARNING:  For those of you who like music, don't listen to DVD-Audio or SACD
unless you have the cash for a new DVD player.  You'll be so impressed that
you'll HAVE to have it.

Drew