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New DVD-Audio music releases and talk about the latest players.

Hybrid DVD-A disks next?

Saw this in today's NYT. Could one use the same technology for hybrid DVD-A/CDs?

A New Use for a CD's Flip Side
By CHRIS NELSON
Published: December 8, 2003

The days of buying concert videos and their accompanying soundtracks separately could soon be on the wane. OneDisc Technologies of Dallas is in talks with major and independent labels to begin making a combination single-disc product that plays DVD video on one side and CD audio on the other, the company's president, James Wilson, said.

A combination disc from the singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards, "Live From the Bowery Ballroom" on Rounder Records, is already in stores. One side includes three songs that play in a standard CD player, while the flip side features two DVD music videos. OneDisc owns a license for the technology involved.

For years, artists have included video footage on enhanced music CD's, but that video, viewable on a computer as a CD-ROM, does not have the same playback quality of DVD's. More recently, record labels have been bundling bonus DVD's with traditional CD's to entice music fans to buy albums rather than illegally downloading or copying them. Those packages include two separate discs, one for audio content and other for video.

"The problem here, in general for the music industry, is that the value of the piece of plastic that has the music on it is going down," Josh Bernoff, a principal analyst with Forrester Research, said.

If the industry adopts the new format, Mr. Wilson said, he envisions music fans being able to buy, for instance, The Band's "The Last Waltz" and getting both the film documentary and soundtrack album on double-sided disc, rather than having to pay for a DVD and a separate CD.

Ms. Edwards's release is not the first combined CD-DVD. The technology was developed by Warner Brothers and is now owned by Germany's DVD Plus International Inc., Mr. Wilson said. More than 70 combination titles have been released, mostly outside the United States, according to the DVD Plus Web site.

Early versions of the format were too thick for indash car CD players, but that problem has since been corrected, Mr. Wilson said. OneDisc is an American marketer for the DVD Plus technology.

"Live From the Bowery Ballroom" is being sold at Tower Records and several independent stores for about $5.99, Paul Foley, the general manager of Rounder, said. Since its release in November, the set has sold about 600 copies of the 8,000 made, according to Nielsen SoundScan.



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Topic - Hybrid DVD-A disks next? - Sky 12:25:36 12/08/03 (2)


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