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"James Hines" <jth3@webtv.net> put forth: > As a recording medium, however, I would limit myself to either good > old stereo - or at most - a five channel surround system. Bingo, James - remember however that while the technology for DVD Audio is with us, there's no content out there to speak of, and therefore no awareness nor demand. I was at DVD Europe a few months ago (as cartoonist for Medialine News, my sole paying job) and got a chance to talk to a load of people in this biz. There's still a lot of debate on the value of DVD Audio, but it's primarily because the manufacturers/distributors over here want to concentrate on the video content, as if to not distract the consumer and collapse the market. Yeah, typical paranoia - but most folks still do think that DVD means "Digital Video Disk", when the "V" is actually for "Versatile". Audio Source Tracks for DVD: Notes for Producers http://www.dolby.com/tech/l.in.9901.audiosource.html Making the Most of Audio Source Tracks for DVD http://www.dolby.com/digital/l.in.9901.makingthemost.html The above are from Dolby's "Tech" page at http://www.dolby.com/tech/ But wait! There's more! > In all reality, unless you listen to music sitting in the third > point of an equilateral triangle with two stereo speakers, you are still > better off listening to music in MONO. Ugh, I disagree, Homeboy! Even in a car one can tell the difference between mono and stereo. Have you ever investigated the idea of three-channel? Brian Eno put the setup for such a thing in the liner notes for "On Land", which alas are in storage with my vinyl in LA - but essentially it's such that you have a single speaker that's lower-impedance than your pair of other speakers, connected up so that one terminal is on the Left -, and the other on Right +. What one gets out of that speaker is a "subtracted" sound, as he put it. In combination with two speakers however, this produces a more "3D" result. Eno wasn't the first to exploit this, though. The original release of Alice Cooper's "Welcome to My Nightmare" concert film in a select few theaters (before it hit the midnight circuit) used this same setup, with the third speaker in the back. It was quite cheap to implement, and only required a third speaker and amp, and the wires to hook it up. > But if you MUST have more than stereo, many people ( Maybe a full > 5% of the population ?) in this country are now able to listen to music > back on a five channel surround system. Just about everyone who has a DVD player that's more than a PlayStation 2 has it hooked up to a Surround-capable stereo system. That would be nearly 30% according to several folks I talked to at DVD Europe. This is called an embryonic market, but as they all do, this will grow. Warner Bros. (Satan's record company) just released a bunch of stuff on DVD Audio for the first time. I think DVD Audio may well make for a richer listening experience, and provide a number of us on this list with some real money once it kicks in. It's not just positive thinking to say "it's just a matter of time", and not much time at that. In closing it should also be remembered that both AC3 and 5.1 Surround are also playable on PCs for very little money, and that it's mainly the encoding right now that is expensive. Someone's going to figure out how to make it cheaper, because I think a lot of producers and musicians really want to exploit this medium, for home AND theater use (and that includes Soundtracks too). Stephen Goodman http://www.earthlight.net/Gallery_Front.html - Cartoons & Illustrations http://www.earthlight.net/Studios * The free Loop of the Week! http://www.live365.com/stations/218194 * EarthLight Online / Live!