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DVD-A question

I'm relatively new to DVD-A. I love the sound, but don't like the format itself, for various reasons:

1) You need a TV to play the disc. There is no TV in my music room (and never will be!), so SACD/CD/Vinyl rules there. Is there a DVD-A player out there that can be EASILY used without having to use the onscreen menus to select between 2CH/MCH, etc.?

2) Some DVD-A discs play a little snippet of music over and over again until you've done your setup and hit PLAY. For instance, I have "Monster" by R.E.M., and it plays about 30 seconds of "What's The Frequency, Kenneth" over and over until you stop it. It does this before you do your setup, AND after the disc ends. This is one of the most annoying things I've ever encountered. Is there a player out there that can essentially disable this "feature".

3) Where SACD has a discrete Stereo layer and a Multichannel layer, does DVD-A also have this? I've been reading a little bit, and it sounds to me like DVD-A in stereo is actually a mix-down of the multichannel information. Is this true? Is this something to be concerned with? Especially when choosing a DVD-A player?

I currently have a junky Toshiba player, and am thinking about getting a better DVD-A player. Or should I just keep my Toshiba because DVD-A is dead?

Thanks in advance.

Tom
tfkaudio

Showing 1 response by jeffreybehr

jeffreybehr's avatar
jeffreybehr
805 posts
 
1. Both of the DVD-A players I've owned allow you to preselect what the player will do to the disc. Even now mine just play without any television.
2. If you preprogram the player, you don't get any of the menu music.
3. DVD-As contain separate 2- and multichannel tracks.

YOUR DVD-A music may be dead, but mine isn't. The classical labels I buy still release music and I still buy it.

I prefer the sound of DVD-A to SACD, as do both of my 'multichannel friends'. Among other reasons, I find many SACDs to have a MUCH higher noise floor than ANY DVD-A.
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