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Thread: SACD or DVD-A?

  1. #21
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    Curtis, I'm getting the Police greatest hits SACD and the Alice Cooper "Welcome to My Nightmare" dvd-a for Christmas. I'm considering the R.E.M. greatest hits dvd-a and maybe the Norah Jones SACD. The 25th can't get here too soon! []

  2. #22
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    I am going to have to go get the REM Greatest Hits DVD-A.

    -curtis

  3. #23
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    I wonder how much of an improvement DVD-A/SACD is over DPLII - Music mode. I dont have a DVD-A/SACD player yet but DPLII - Music seems to do a good job of distributing the sound to all the speakers. I know DVD-A/SACD is higher quality, but as i understand it, a DVD-A CD will play in DD 5.1 anyway.

  4. #24
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    azanon,

    DVD-A and SACD are much different than DPLII. DPLII for music is a processing mode, and interprets a two channel source into surround mode. DVD-A and SACD offers higher resolution and has actually been recorded in to discrete multi-channel format.

    Most DVD-A's also have a DD5.1 track, but remember, this is not hi-resolution.

    -curtis

  5. #25
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    Curtis is right, DPLII creates synthetic surround channels to simulate true discrete multi-channel audio. It does a great job doing what it was designed for, but it isn't Hi-Rez.

  6. #26
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    Well i'm wanting to get a player (looking at the multipurpose pioneer 563a), but what makes me hesistate is that ive read that in some cases, the dvd-a/sacd can sound worse than the 2-channel variant. For example, i read a review recently on the new Faith Hill DVD-A (sorry, forgot where) and the reviewer said the 2-channel version sounded best and that her voice sounded distored on the 5.1 HD version.

    Also, i'll have to admit its hard for me to think of dolby digital as being "low-definition" even though i do understand the bitrate or whathaveyou is higher on DVD-A/SACD.

  7. #27
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    <blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Arial, Verdana, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by azanon

    ......but what makes me hesistate is that ive read that in some cases, the dvd-a/sacd can sound worse than the 2-channel variant. For example, i read a review recently on the new Faith Hill DVD-A (sorry, forgot where) and the reviewer said the 2-channel version sounded best and that her voice sounded distored on the 5.1 HD version.
    <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

    Most definitely. Just like a 2-channel mix can be recorded and mixed badly. Just think how much more difficult it would be to mix a 5-channel recording.

    -curtis

  8. #28
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    Well i can understand that, but I cant say that ive ever heard a bad Dolby Digital movie where i thought to myself - you know, that would sound much better in stereo. I've also have yet to see a true HDTV program where i though to myself, wish i could see that in single definition! I
    guess what i'm getting at is if 5 channel sound is causing a significant amount of foulups in recordings, why bother. I really dont know if that Faith Hill SACD was an anomoly, or if bad recordings are happening a lot in these early years of DVD-A/SACD. Besides, DVD-A's will get you DD 5.1 output anyway on a regular DVD player, and the only thing one is lacking is the higher resolution output. So i guess i havent decided if there is compelling evidence to dive into it, or is it just a mild tweak that sometimes results in even worse sound.

  9. #29
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    Movie is much different than music. For movies, you have specific places you want the sound to be. For music, how do you define what sound/instrument should come out of what channel and at what level? It is much more of an art form.

    Checking out DVD-A and SACD is exactly why I got the 563a....inexpensive, and works fine as a CD/DVD player. Both formats are still in infancy. Not a lot of titles out there.

    And remember...a DVD-A disc does not always have a DD5.1 track.

    -curtis

  10. #30
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    I was looking at a review of a couple DVD-A titles yesterday, the first time I've every read a review of that format. It was Aerosmiths 'Toys in the Attic' and a Led Zeppelin one too ('How the West was Won', I think).

    In both cases, the reviewer said there were hits and misses on each disc. For example, he described imbalances where the vocal (Steven Tyler of Aersosmith) on one channel was dwarfed by the instrumentation coming from the others.

    I guess there is an art to it, and it's not a cut and dried easy process.

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