On Mon, Mar 07, 2005 at 09:32:16PM +0100, Jens M Andreasen wrote: > Isn't this reading the spec upside down? As I understand it, it is the > disc that must follow the spec in order to be playable in a DVD-A > player. A manufacturer can produce a combined CD/RW/DVD+-[A-Z]/credit > card/FLAC toaster if there is a market for such a product.
I'm not so sure about that. Every manufacturer would need a license from the DVD consortium, and there will be conditions attached. The perverse thing is that while other industries are being forced to split up their activities (e.g. infrastructure and services in telecomm) in order to enable competition, the music industry and consumer equipment manufacturers are now one and the same. Only a few big ones remain, and nobody seems to see any harm in that. But even that small number of major companies can't always agree. For example, the only reason why such an abomination as SACD exists is because Sony is boycoting DVD-A, not for any technical merits the marketdroids have invented. In fact the future of DVD-A looks quite insecure ATM. -- FA
