| Editorial December 2004
SACD and DVD-Audio are Dead
Surround sound will live forever, however. But it
won’t live on for much longer in the forms of SACD and DVD-Audio discs. The dawn of
HD-DVD and Blu-ray is upon us, and with that comes the promise of lossless, uncompressed
audio, along with high-definition video. With these discs lining the shelves of our stores
within two years, why would anyone buy a DVD-Audio disc or SACD, let alone a unit to play
them?
The two beleaguered high-resolution audio formats each had
an opportunity to win the hearts and ears of surround-sound enthusiasts, but that window
has now officially closed. What was originally called a format war barely materialized
into a format argument -- neither format gained any foothold with consumers at large.
Enter any Best Buy or Sam Goody across the country and ask for either format by name; your
chance of finding a salesperson who even knows what you’re asking for is slim. It
seems that while audiophiles were touting the emergence of high-resolution audio -- I was
one of them -- the public was busy filling up their DVD collections with music concerts
galore.
Up to now, Denon has embraced the universal audio/video
player -- a subset of DVD machine that includes both SACD and DVD-Audio playback. But with
the recent introduction of their DVD-1910 DVD player, Denon announced that it has eschewed
both formats in the new machine. Their reasoning, apparently, was that the money was
better spent on other portions of the player -- areas that the general consumer and buyer
of the DVD-1910 might actually use. I predict that other companies will soon follow suit.
Perhaps the most striking sign that SACD and DVD-Audio are
dead are the sales of flat-panel monitors. In my February 2004 editorial, "The
Flat-Panel Revolution," I pronounced the future decidedly flat. The numbers
are staggering: Almost a half-million flat-panel TVs were sold in the first quarter of
2004, representing almost $270 million USD in revenue, according to the Consumer
Electronics Association. The market penetration of HDTV is an estimated 9-11% in North
America. These numbers are growing every day. Having seen the writing on the wall,
progressive companies are embracing the hi-def-and-flat phenomenon by gearing up their
production of software to play on these TVs. Blu-ray and HD-DVD -- the competing
technologies for the almighty hi-def DVD dollar, aka the real format war -- are
both designed with high-resolution audio in mind. DTS says that its DTS-HD format includes
"lossless technology for next generation formats."
Lossless audio and high-definition video? Sign me
up, brother!
The details are still sketchy, but if the promise of a disc
format with high-definition video along with high-resolution sound makes it to market
soon, it will succeed wildly. Sales of flat-panel HDTVs are driving the new disc format(s)
to fruition. It’s only a matter of time before it all comes together. When it does,
it will be the "perfect storm" for DVD-Audio and SACD. With HD-DVD and/or
Blu-ray coming on like a 100-foot tidal wave, they simply won’t be able to survive as
viable, standalone formats. Might they exist in some niche way? Perhaps, but I
wouldn’t even count on that. Might they survive as a menu subset within a new disc
format? You’re grasping at straws if you think companies will spend much money on that.
There are some gasps of breath still left in SACD and
DVD-A, but don’t blink: these formats are all but gone. And if the 2005 Consumer
Electronics Show reveals any sign that high-definition DVD is around the corner,
practically no one will notice their passing.
...Jeff Fritz
editor@hometheatersound.com |
