Jens M Andreasen wrote: > On Tue, 2005-03-08 at 11:22 +0000, Dave Chapman wrote: > > >>I'm not sure what you mean by userfriendly. If you remove MLP and the >>encryption, then I would consider DVD-Audio as havng the potential to be >>very user-friendly. There is no need to create a new format - just >>"open" an existing one. > > > The need for a new format is the obvious advantage of FLAC compression. > On the other hand, iff the data fits on a single CD (oh wait, DVD) then > there is no need.
The problem with DVD-Audio is not so much the total playing time (dual layer disks may be able to help there) but it is the 9.6Mbit/s maximum bandwidth. 6 channels of 24-bit/96KHz uncompressed PCM is 13.842Mbit/s which is why MLP is compulsory in that case. I don't think that FLAC-on-DVD-Audio is any more or less likely to be supported by hardware manufacturers than a completely new format. Existing DVD-Audio players already support "unofficial" formats such as MP3/JPEG CDs, DivX etc. So unless there is a contractual clause specifically for "high resolution audio", the precedent has already been set. > Excuse me my ignorance, but: > > Is the spec open enough to create n-channel masters? If you mean do I understand the spec enough to author such disks, then the answer is almost a yes. The only DVD-Audio player I own at the moment is stereo-only, so I haven't investigated 6-channel authoring very much. But I have looked at it briefly, and I don't think 6 channels will be any harder than 2 channels. > Are there consumer > players in existence with more than two channels out? (and here I do not > mean the 5:1 audio from DVD movies.) Yes, most DVD-Audio capable players have 6 analogue outputs. It's only the very low-end ones which only support stereo output. Unsurprisingly, DVD-Audio players also have crippled digital outputs to prevent copying (and to prevent the use of external DACs - unless your DAC has the required encrypted digital connections). Dave.
