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RE: Charles, I chose my wording carefully

Posted by Charles Hansen (M) on May 30, 2007 at 14:27:06

In Reply to: Charles, I chose my wording carefully posted by racerguy on May 30, 2007 at 10:10:31:

<< I recognize that it is POSSIBLE, but it simply isn't a realistic option >>

I'm not so sure that it is (or isn't) realistic. I suppose it depends on whether or not the existing hardware supports multi-channel PCM. And I honestly don't know that answer to that.

When DVD first came out, all of the players had only two (stereo) analog outputs. So clearly a multi-channel PCM disc wouldn't play more than the front two channels on a machine like that. DTS was added to the DVD-Video specification at the 11th hour, and when DTS discs first became popular there were very few surround-sound processors that could decode DTS. So for several years all DVD-Video players above the cheapest entry level models had built-in DTS decoding and 5.1 analog outputs. What I don't know is what would happen if you were to play a multi-channel PCM DVD-Video disc in a player like that. It might play all of the channels and it might not.

I never tried the experiment because the authoring software for DVD-Video was (is?) very costly and complex. (I have made some multi-channel DVD-Audio discs with Cirlinca's $35 package, and it is trivially easy.)

But whether or not the existing hardware supports multi-channel PCM is somewhat besides the point. The point is that if there really were a demand for high-resolution surround sound (which I doubt), it would have been a hell of a lot easier to do it with DVD-Video instead of making a complete new format (eg, DVD-Audio or SACD). They could have easily have made "multi-channel" DVD-Video players for more money than a normal "stereo" DVD-Video player, just like you can get a multi-channel receiver for more money than a stereo receiver.

I still maintain that the decision to attempt the introduction of a new format two years after the introduction of DVD-Video was a colossal mistake. A brief look at the history of music playback formats, noting what was successful and what wasn't successful (and why) would have saved a lot of people a lot of time and money...

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Schiit Audio

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