<font color='#000000'>Yet another medialinenews.com article. Lotsa good stuff in here to talk about !
DVD Conference Panel Is Upbeat for High-Res Audio
by Steve Harvey
(Sept. 19, 2002) Universal City, CA — Last month’s two-day DVD Entertainment Conference and Showcase, co-sponsored by the International Recording Media Association (IRMA) and Medialine magazine, presented DVD executives and audio professionals with some upbeat fare.
With so many format choices facing consumers relative to a simple audio CD purchase—including DVD-Video, DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD (SACD)—a panel of industry executives, moderated by Surround Associates partner Bobby Owsinski, offered attendees advice on “How to Market Multichannel High Resolution Audio.”
David Kawakami from Sony observed that there are 750 SACD titles worldwide, with 510 announced in the new fall catalog. Initially marketed as an audiophile format with stereo-only releases, the company is “putting a lot of emphasis on multichannel” with 197 of the new releases in 5.1-channel format, he announced.
Hi-Res Music’s David Swartz revealed an audiophile approach; the label only releases stereo DVDs, making the most of the format’s 24/96 capabilities.
Jeff Dean of 5.1 Entertainment estimated 70 to 75 titles by year’s end, with 10 a month from the Silverline label, from artists across the entire musical spectrum. With DVD players in an estimated 40 million households, “it’s a big market, and not just for audiophiles,” said Dean. Robin Hurley of Rhino/Warner Music Group revealed that, including 65 titles from Warner Bros., the group would have 300 titles by the end of the year. DTS Entertainment’s David Del Grosso reported 22 DTS titles are in production.
Hurley and Swartz both suggested that it would take just one or two releases produced by major artists specifically for the format for DVD-A to breakthrough. Del Grosso countered that, with 500 million CD players in existence, the transition to DVD-A could take “10, 20 or 30 years.” But, as he noted, the availability of complete 5.1 home theater systems for under $200 will assist in the transition.
Del Grosso was able to distill his company’s marketing strategy very simply: “Just shut up and press play.” That demonstrates the instant appeal of the multichannel DVD format to neophyte listeners, he said, noting, “There are two types of people: those who love DVD-Audio and those who haven’t heard it yet.”
Hurley offered that bonus content is one reason for the success of DVD-Video and will likewise help consumers migrate from CD to the DVD-Audio format. Asked if bonus content is a good or bad idea, Dean replied, “You don’t have to turn on the TV,” while observing that extra material in the package does make for a compelling product.
Kawakami revealed that, contrary to popular belief, SACD does, in fact, have an area for extra data, which could be images or video, but that it has not yet been developed. “We decided that the extra value should be the music, the music, the music,” he said. The end benefit of the super-high-resolution format is “the emotional connection,” he believed. SACD was originally designed as an extension to CD, he continued, offering “the least painful migration” through the inclusion of a CD layer in the hybrid disc.
http://www.medialinenews.com/issues/2002/september/dvd_07.shtml</font>
