Is the Pioneer a DVD-A player? If so then possibly on the album tracks are recorded as actual DVD-A data whereas the rest has to be accessed through the menu? I've only ever had standard DVD players so I'm not sure how the discs behave on proper DVD-A players.

it plays DVD-Audio, SACD DVD Video and some recordable formats. I can't get to the menu only it plays the DVD-audio part. there is a screen after track 12 that you then can go back to the previous tracks but not go on. this is weird since its an Elite player,

As far as I know I've never had a DVD-Audio capable player so I can't really help. It seems surprising though that there would be content inaccessible if you play the disc on a DVD-A player, but then stranger things have happened.

Out of interest were there ever any DVD-A capable LD/DVD machines? I know some of the Elite DVD players were DVD-A capable. I assumed there wasn't but I was reading http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/laserdisc_archive/pioneer/pioneer_dvl-919/pioneer_dvl-919.htm about the DVL-919 and it mentions:



Does this mean that the DVL 919 is DVD-Audio capable? I've tried playing my Nightwish DVD-A (the only DVD-A I have) on the DVL 919 and just got the standard dolby digital options rather than playing the AUDIO_TS content. Perhaps it only plays pure DVD-As with no VIDEO_TS folder.

i had to change a setting so I could play DVD Video. so now I have the annoyance of having to do that instead of it being automatic.

If you want to play the videos then put it on to video, but if you want to listen to the audio then you're probably better off listening to it as a DVD-Audio rather than Video.

I have several SACDs. Bought them mainly online, but if you look real hard at used CD stores, you will find the hybrid ones.

Received this in the mail from Levykauppa Äx in Finland the other week and am just giving it a spin on my new (second hand) SACD/Surround system.

Sounding good so far. It's been a while since I've listened to my Once DVD-A so I can't accuratly compare but from what I remember it sounds better mixed. I'll give Once another spin at some point and let you know.

Slightly off topic but as there seem to be a few Nightwish fans in this thread I thought I'd ask what you guys make of the new album. I'm in two minds about it, to me it sounds more like a soundtrack than an album, still a good release though.

Have given Once another listen, Dark Passion Play is deffinetly better mixed but has no extras or bonus tracks at all whereas Once has bonus tracks and videos. Once also has a few annoying quirks when being played on a DVD-V player; each song is a separate title which causes a pause between each track, and a screw up in the programming causes Creek Mary's Blood to be played twice. As I don't have a DVD-A player I can't report if these problems are fixed in the DVD-A part of the disc.

The DVD-V surround sound mix of Tubular Bells sounds great, I recommend it if you like the album.

Now that I have a SACD player I finally gave Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds a spin and it sounds great. There's a few new effects and such but it's a wonderful surround album.

I also picked up these two beauties the other week:



Both sound absolutely amazing. Both are very faithful to the original stereo mixes but give wonderful surround experiences. You can still pick up Dark Side of the Moon pretty easily for a cheap price but the Wish You Were Here SACD is selling £40-£50 and it's only just been released. I'd just sold a whole load of stuff on ebay so thought I'd treat myself, otherwise I don't think I'd have been able to justify it.

I've been meaning to post about this for a while now. A few weeks ago I finally got hold of this:

I think this disc has finally settled the DVD-A vs SACD debate for me. I wish all DVD-As could be this good but I find most to be disappointing, so on the whole SACD wins, but this album shows just what DVD-A can be capable of; It simply sounds amazing!

If you enjoy surround albums you have to hear this. Everything is crystal clear and it sounds so warm, listening to this has been the most vinyl like experience I've had listening to a digital album. I'm guessing this is down to the 96/24 DTS track. I'm so impressed that I'm going to have to track down a copy of Hotel California which was also released with 96/24 DTS.

My father has a few SACD releases, including the Dark Side of the Moon from above. He also has a few Living Stereo 4 channel SACD releases. Some of them sound really impressive

SACD

Dire Straits: Brothers in Arms
Bangles: Greatest Hits
ET: Soundtrack
The Mission: Soundtrack
Dances With Wolves: Soundtrack
Michael Jackson: Thriller
Jacques Brell: The best of
Simple Minds: Greatest Hits

Are SACD's still being released?

Yeah, I think they're still pretty big in Asia but we still get the occasional release over here, the most recent release I know of being the Pink Floyd 'Wish You Were Here' SACD I mentioned above which was released at the beginning of this year.

I love my SACDs (last one I bought were the Hiromi Uehara ones, the whole set).

So, SACD definitely coming to LDDb

Julien

I currently have two DVD-Audio discs:

The Eagles - Hotel California
Barenaked Ladies - Everything to Everyone.


I also have 3 SACDs:

Elton John - Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
Norah Jones - Come Away With Me
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon.


To address some things people said earlier:

One of the annoyances of DVD-Audio was that it was always designed to be used with your TV. There were graphical menus and such you had to sort through; the ability to play a disc like you would a CD depended on your player.

The other issue is they made these things backwards-compatible for regular DVD players. Good in theory, except in some cases where there was additional content on the audio portion that wasn't on the video. The other hurdle was the audio on the video portions was usually in a DD or dts format, sometimes in only a 5.1 mix.

I honestly have only dealt with the DVD-A portion with both of my DVD-Audio discs; I haven't read the video portion to see what formats they have. 96/24 dts on a DVD-A is an entirely new one to me; but I'm sure it was another attempt to grab a market segment by giving them a portion of high-resolution surround.

Hotel California only had DD 5.1 and dts 5.1 on it's video portion, and both of those were 48khz. While the idea of it being in 96/24 dts isn't lost on me; as it was done in 192khz stereo and 96khz 5.1 for DVD-A; I haven't seen that disc. It could of been used on the BD-Audio disc for video compatibility.

Anyway, most people who didn't have a DVD-A player really didn't get the full benefit of DVD-Audio...they just got slightly better mastered, and surround, lossy audio. The people who had DVD-A/V players got confused by the difference in content between discs. My BNL DVD-A mentioned having the acoustic sessions as a video; yet it was also on the DVD-A portion, although in standard redbook resolution.

SACD on the other hand was developed by sony to be a direct replacement for the CD. No GUI, no video features; stick the disc in and use it like you would a CD. Yes, it sounds outstanding and it works like it's the closest thing to analog we'll get with digital. And unlike DVD-A, you don't have to take a resolution hit just because you want 5.1.

The other monkey in this whole high-resolution media craze, is HDTracks. If you've never heard of it, they're a legit site that sells albums in high-resolution. No DRM, just straight up FLAC files. Can one hear the difference between SACD and 192khz? Maybe, depending how tuned you're hearing is; and by that point people just sit there and tell you that you're nuts. But, if one does 44.1/16 properly, you can still barely tell the difference. But then again; I've spent the last few days recording over pre-recorded cassette tapes enjoying the sweet sounds of a dbx NR unit.

-Jay

Cheers for the info dewdude.

Yeah, DVD-A can be a bit confusing about what you're actually listening to, but if you're willing to put up with some menus I do think they are capable of some of the best digital audio I've ever heard (Queen's DVD-A of Night At the Opera for example). On the whole though I agree; I'd take SACD over DVD-A almost any day.

I would love to get my hands on the DVD-A of Hotel California some day.

Let me dig through my stuff, I might be able to help out with that.