Format play! long!

[SteveD]

This is my first post and it may be long but somebody, one of the philosephers or wisemen may speak some wisdom. A little history before the point..................
5years old got a Sony real-real, little tiny thing never heard of Sony until that time. In the early 60's you didn't buy Japanese stuff cause it was junk. My how times have changed!

9 years old first Emerson combination turntable, 8-track/cassette and AM/FM Stereo and it had 2 speakers each with 4" drivers and the fake tweeter horns. I would sit in my bean bag chair with a speaker next to each ear!

16years old, had a job and bought a real stereo! Radio shack Quad reciever, turntable and 4ea Optimus speakers. Bought Jimi Hendrix "are you experieced" quad album and before a could buy another album the technology was dead!

18years old bought a 4 track Teac real-real for live recording and new reciever and speakers causer the Radio Shack Quad system was junk
20years old, bought CD player! First person to buy one in Houston Area. Nice $600 yamaha, no remote, no programming just skip/repeat/stop and play.
First CD, Dark Side of the Moon. Had to get new speakers.
23 years old. Had to buy a Sony Betamax!
24 years old. Had to buy Stereo Super Betamax!
25 years old. Got Betmax camcorder
26 years old. Had to buy VHS cause Sony lost the formatt battle!
28 years old. Had to buy S-VHS cause the quality of regular VHS sucked!
28 years old. got S-VHS Camcorder
29 years old. Bought Pioneer Laser Disc player!
30 years old. Bought DAT player while in Japan on business.
31 years old. Bought new Pioneer laser disc player with AC-3 output(coax). Bought new reciever and new speakers for home theater.
36years old. Bought DVD Player
38 years old. Bought DV Camcorder
40 years old. Bought new Big Screen TV all new 6.1 surround system and of course new reciever.
41 years old. Bought Pioneer DV45A, Plays SACD/DVD-A! New THX2 reciever.

Now these formats are dead! Now we have a new HDCD? I need a new player for something not as good as the old DVD-A or SACD? I'm used to 3-4 years before they screw us. Why HDCD? I need Van HAlen on SACD or DVD-A not this new format thats not as good. This is only half the stuff I have listed that I have bought that is obsolete. If the record companys think I'm going for HDCD The can kiss my *ss and I'll start pirating off the internet. I'm a person they should love, not try to hurt by a constant changing of formats that don't make sense. The CD should be gone as we know it but the record companys don't want anything better because they are afraid somebody will steal it. They need to check with China about that not the American consumer who spends lots of money on software and hardware. DTS is one of the only companys that is trying to advance the state of the art in music and movie sound reproduction, not SDS or Dolby! my only point is that when you spend good money on a better format that they should support it for 5-10yrs. not 2-3yrs with DVD-A and SACD and only do limited titles. I may have to go buy some records and a $5000 turntable soon.

 

[SteveD]

Almost Forgot Dual Disc is dead now too. Not that it was something I was interested in but can't find them anywhere in my area. They were supposed to have DVD-A or SACD on one side and DVD video on the other. Didn't quite turn out that way either.

 

[MDS]

Just because there are new formats available, it doesn't necessarily mean that all of the older formats are dead. CD is definitely not dead.

DVD-A and SACD have made very little progress in interesting the average music buyer. DualDisc is junk - it is neither a DVD nor a CD, although it is marketed as being the best of both. The industry keeps trying new variations on the same old theme in the interest of adding 'value' for the consumer. That trend started with 'enhanced CDs' and was followed by 'Hyper CDs'. Neither of those two work reliably. If I notice one is ECD and a regular redbookd CD of the same title is available, I choose the regular CD. If an individual does find value in the new formats, they can vote with their wallet and purchase them, but CD and DVD aren't going away anytime soon.

As far as HDCD and Van Halen, I assume you are talking about the Van Halen remasters which are HDCD. I have all of them. Go ahead and buy them - you do not need an HDCD capable player or receiver to play them and you can rip the tracks with your computer's cd/r/w drive just fine.

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

HDCD actually predates SACD/DVDA, it just neever got noticed. They will play on regualr CD/DVD players. You'll need a midrange CD player to get HDCD decoding, which enables all 20 wonderous bits (I'm being sarcastic, they sound the same).

And they still make DVDA/SACD titles, you just have to like Jazz & classical, and browse the independant labels (Telarc, Chesky, etc etc).

 

[Shadow_Ferret]

DVDs and CDs are dead? Doubtful. There comes a point of diminished returns and moving to Blue-Ray/HDDVD and SACD/DVDA will be strictly a high-end enthusiast's venture. The rest of us are fed up and refuse to bother with new technology that shows us no advantages over the old.

Steve, man, the industry loves you! Every new technology that comes out you're right there with your checkbook.

Me? I started with albums. Stayed with albums, except for a sideways move to 8-tracks and cassettes for my cars, and didn't join the CD revolution until the mid-90s.

I bought VHS in the late 80s and I only joined the DVD revolution 2 years ago.

I'm the kind the industry hates. I wait to see if a technology has legs before I jump on it.

As far as the latest formats, I'm not holding my breath to see if they take off.

 

[outsider]

Almost Forgot Dual Disc is dead now too. Not that it was something I was interested in but can't find them anywhere in my area. They were supposed to have DVD-A or SACD on one side and DVD video on the other. Didn't quite turn out that way either.

I see a lot of DualDiscs at the stores in my area, but I haven't bought too many. Actually, the only ones I have purchased are from bands that I really love.
Anyway, back to the point, I really wish the industry would kill this format. None of the CD players I own can play the CD side-I had to make copies of the disc just so I could listen to it.

To me DualDisc is further proof that when you try to make something totally universal it ends up as a piece of junk.

 

[jcPanny]

SteveD,
Are you saving your money for a new Blu-Ray player?

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

Almost Forgot Dual Disc is dead now too.

Now from what I read in the new Sound & Vision the "dead" vinyl has managed to outsell SACD & DVDA combined in the 2004 model years (500K vinyl, 300K SACD, 100K DVDA). And they sold 7 million Dual Disks.

So ...... Yeah. Lets hear it for Lazarus formats!