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The DVD-Audio Resource

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October 20

More hardware news, with a sad recurring theme: Only in Japan... We reported earlier about the Victor XV-A250. The company has in the past week announced two successors: The EX-A200 set (consisting of SX-WD200 speaker system, RX-A200 integrated amplifier and XV-A200 DVD-Audio/Video player) and the very similar looking EX-A150 (similarly consisting of SX-WD150, RX-A150 and XV-A150 components). The latter is available in silver as well as champaign (EX-A150-N)

September 11

Not entirely surprisingy, at CEDIA 2011 Pioneer has launched a pair of Elite brand Universal BD players, likely equivalents of the two European models announced at IFA a week ago (see below) judging by the specifications. The American models are called Pioneer Elite BDP-52FD and BDP-53FD. The BDP-140 has also made its way to the other side of the pond. SRP is $499, $399 (and a mere $199) for the respective players.

September 4

Hardware news from Pioneer at IFA 2011: In the DVD era before Blu-ray Disc, Pioneer had always been offering universal DVD-Video/DVD-Audio/SACD players about as long as these formats have been around. As recently as last year, Pioneer has launched universal DVD players and home theater systems, but so far their Blu-ray Disc player range had been completely disjointed from this compatibility, offering only DVD-V, CD-DA, VCD and such. This year that has finally been corrected. At the 2011 IFA, Pioneer has announced two Universal BD players: the BDP-LX55 and BDP-440. (There's a third model, BDP-140, already available, that supports SACD but no DVD-Audio.)

Both will play Blu-ray 3D, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio SACD and CD discs plus FLAC, MKV, DivX Plus HD, WMV, WMA and MP3 files. Other new features include PQLS and double gold-plated HDMI ports on the BDP-LX55. Also available is a free Pioneer iControl AV2 app to control both players.

The BDP-440 will be out in October, the BDP-LX55 in November.

August 14

The two new King Crimson album reissues we reported below, Discipline and Starless and Bible Black are now available for pre-order from Amazon. They'll be released October 11, 2011. All seven albums released or announced thus far you'll find here.

July 31

The next two King Crimson titles in the 40th Anniversary series are in production. Neil Wilkes writes: The next 2 in the series will be "Discipline" & "Starless and Bible Black". Once again, these will feature brand new 5.1 and stereo mixes by Steven Wilson - who's first grammy must be a matter of time now, surely - and the much loved original stereo on the 30th anniversary edition masters all in 24/96 resolution. In addition, "Discipline" has a plethora of extras, including the original rough mixes in the originally planned running order (absolutely fascinating to hear these), plus a selection of out-takes, alternate versions & some footage from the BBC's "Old Grey Whistle Test".

"Starless & Bible Black" also has the new 5.1 & stereo mixes by steven, as well as the 30th anniversary master of the original mix. Bonus content here is a selection of various material, including live tracks recorded in Zurich 1973 and an assortment of alternate takes, rarities and promotional material.

These discs will be crammed to the rafters, with all content in MLP Lossless, DTS and 24-bit LPCM and no Dolby Digital in sight anywhere - as it should be for a music release.

In hardware news, there's a new universal Blu-ray Disc/DVD player from Yamaha that supports DVD-Audio as well as DVD-Video. It's the Aventage BD-A1010, successor to the BD-A1000 from 2010. MSRP is $499.95. Here is a complete list of such players.

In Japan, we also still see compact HiFi sets with DVD-Audio coming to market, like this Victor EX-AR9.

Why only in Japan? We don't know. Perhaps because this is Victor, the domestic brand of what's globally known as JVC (Japan Victor Company), just like the one we saw several months ago (see January coverage below). Here's the press release (in Japanese, via AV Watch).

June 29

Correction: the Caravan DVD advertised above and reported below is not a DVD-Audio disc as it does not contain a high-resolution multichannel PCM track. In fact it does not even contain a DTS track: the only surround sound is encoded in Dolby Digital. Apologies for our mistake, but shame on Universal for making such poor decisions.

June 28

Several new albums have been released on DVD-Audio in recent months. Here's an overview.

First of all, since having completed five remasters of King Crimson albums, Steven Wilson from Porcupine Tree has turned his attention to British progressive rock band Caravan. He has remastered and remixed their album In the land of grey and pink in stereo and 5.1, both of which you can find in high-resolution PCM on the DVD-Audio that's part of the 3-disc 40th anniversary edition. Out as of June 7, and reviewed here (sadly only the stereo portion).

Wilson is also responsible for the 5.1 mix of We're here because we're here by Anathema, a British rock band that nowadays are often considered prog rock.The DVD features both Advanced Resolution (MLP) streams and DTS streams. There is a full (independent) review - sadly only talking about the stereo mix - at Adequacy.net indie music reviews. The 5.1 DVD-Audio is part of a 3-disc package with a CD and a 7-inch, wrapped in a nice 7" gatefold sleeve/'bookshelf' type package. On K-Scope records. More Anathema music here.

Felonious Bosch have also released an album on DVD-Audio. Steve Clarke of Minnetonka Audio Software writes in the DVD-Audio group on LinkedIn: "I am very happy to let you all know that the Felonious Bosch has released it's DVD-Audio disc of Toybox. ... A giant thank you to the fabulous Neil Wilkes who authored the DVD-Audio disc. Neil has authored DVD-A's for Porcupine Tree, King Crimson and many others. ... His work is excellent and needs to be experienced first hand if you have not done so already. "

Lastly, Rwandan world music artist Dorothee Munyaneza has released a self-titled first album as a DVD-A/CD double pack which includes 5.1 versions in MLP high-resolution, dts 96/24 and Dolby Digital, Stereo LPCM and a dvd-rom folder of pre-diced mp3 versions with embedded artwork, desktop wallpaper and web links plus several extras. Label Luminary Records, 'a newly-established high-resolution surround music label based in London', wanted to emphasize the surround and high resolution content over the CD hence the way it is written.

This is a glorious record, and they also put out a 2-track teaser recently as a try-before-buy deal. Both this and the full record are available through the label as well as Amazon (UK), where there are already some very favorable reviews up.

March 5

Even in 2011 we continue to see DVD-Audio releases. Candian progressive rockers Rush are about to reissue their album Moving Pictures in the form of a 30th anniversary deluxe edition, or in fact two. One consists of a CD and a DVD-Audio, the other holds the same content on a CD and an (audio-only) Blu-ray Disc. The DVD and BD will feature a new 5.1-channel mix of the album presented in 24-bit 96 kHz PCM, DTS 5.1 and Dolby Digital as well as a high-resolution stereo PCM mix.

Both sets are scheduled for release next month (April 5) and available through Amazon (pre-order).

January 14

New DVD-Audio players still get developed and released, basically in the form of upmarket DVD-Video players and universal Blu-ray Disc players. The former type are getting rare but occasionally they still show up, like this beautiful and compact Victor (JVC) XV-A250 player (equipped with a convenient USB port), which together with receiver RX-A250 and a nice pair of speakers SX-WD250 forms the EX-A250 system (see press release and coverage, in Japanese) . It appears to be for the Japan market exclusively though.

The other type we see more and more. In recent hardware news, the following models have been announced or even introduced:

• Oppo BDP-93
• Oppo BDP-95
• Cambridge Audio 751BD
• Marantz UD-7006
• Yamaha BD-A1000

September 29

We're on Twitter now. We'll use it to announce news updates and perhaps interesting postings from the forum. We may also retweet relevant stuff from others. You can subscribe to our tweet feed here.

September 26

Oppo has announced the BDP-93 -- a brand new universal Blu-ray Disc player that, like all its predecessors, plays DVD-Audio. Other, new features include: Blu-ray 3D playback, streaming of Netflix and other network services, Wireless-N networking, dual HDMI outputs, dual USB ports and an eSATA port. It's Oppo's fourth universal BD player, or their fifth if we include the modified NuForce edition of the previous flagship model. Either way, it brings the total number of such players to 19. Here is a quick rundown.

Oppo BDP-83SE NuForce Edition

September 25

Following the first batch of King Crimson 40th Anniversary Editions last year (see post below), next month we'll get the second installment, with a fourth and fifth album reissued on DVD-Audio, remastered and remixed in full 5.1-channel: Islands and In the Wake of Poseidon. Both reissues consists of a CD and a DVD-Audio disc, where the CD contains the new mix of the album plus several bonus tracks, and the DVD-Audio disc contains the original mix in high-resolution stereo PCM, the new mix in high-res stereo PCM, and the new multichannel mix in MLP lossless surround sound as well as DTS 5.1. They'll be released October 12, 2010.

November 10

Today sees the release of a DVD-Audio title again. The first one in a while, and it's been in the making even longer. In the Court of the Crimson King, recorded 40 years ago, was supposed to be released on multichannel SACD 10 years ago but got canned. Now there's the 40th Anniversary Edition released today. The Deluxe package contains a CD and a DVD-Audio disc. This 5.1 mix was made by Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree with Robert Fripp, the founder of King Crimson, as executive producer. While at it, they've done the same for Red, reissued a month ago and Lizard, scheduled for January.

Is it possible we get two DVD-Audio releases in less than a month? Of course, but in this case there may be a mistake. Amazon.de lists a Tangerine Dream concert, Live at the London Astoria Theatre, to be released November 20, 2009, as DVD-Audio. Would Sony Music really issue a DVD-Audio title? The Sony Music site says so but we suspect it's actually a DVD-Video disc. Still, it could be interesting.

Not yet available but announced today is a new piece of DVD-Audio-capable hardware, the Special Edition of the Oppo BDP-83. All enhancements are in analog audio processing, which is good news for DVD-Audio fans who use the 5.1/7.1 'RCA type' cinch outputs rather than the digital HDMI interconnect. This table explains the differences between the two models. The BDP-83SE will cost $400 more than the regular version, making it almost twice as expensive.

May 6

There's a new DVD-Audio-compatible Blu-ray Disc player coming to market: the Oppo BDP-83. It's not the first one -- that was Panasonic's first-generation BD player DMP-BD10A -- but it we ignore HD-DVD then this will be the first universal disc player, supporting Blu-ray Disc, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, Super Audio CD (SACD), CDDA and a range of standard variants.

December 19

The year is coming to an end so it's a good time to look back. What we see is that although new DVD-Audio titles have come out this year, the best-selling release through this site this year has been: Hell Freezes Over by The Eagles, which isn't even a DVD-Audio disc really -- it's a DTS-CD, also available as on DVD-Video with DTS soundtrack.

DTS-CD		DVD-Video with DTS		DVD-Video with DTS

If you like these items you may also be interested in Farewell I Tour - Live from Melbourne -- another DVD-Video, even available on HD-DVD. We foresee this performance will be released on Blu-ray Disc at some point in the future.

October 11

It's going to be almost a year since the second box came out (that was on November 20, 2007) but on November 11, 2008 the third and final box of Genesis' remastered albums will be released: Genesis 1970-1975. The set covers the earliest period and consists of 13 CDs and DVDs. The latter contain 5.1-channel remixes. The following albums are included:

• Trespass
• Nursery Cryme
• Foxtrot
• Selling England By The Pound
• The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway

The DVDs each contain the whole album mixed in Dolby Digital 5.1 and 96-kHz/24-bit DTS, as well as video bonus-material. We know, this is not real DVD-Audio but it's still awesome! There is a bonus disc with non-album material. There is an SACD version too (released outside of the US).

You can find the box on the Genesis page in our Music Store.

July 1

The discs may not be new but they're very much sought after and they're currently available again: the soundtracks of all three Lord of the Rings movies:

• The Fellowship of the Ring
• The Two Towers
• The Return of the King

Each deluxe package consists of multiple CDs plus a DVD-Audio disc containing the film score in surround sound. Check the Soundtrack section of our music store.

April 1

R.E.M.'s new album, Accelerate, is out now. There may be no DVD-Audio version of this album but there is a special CD+DVD package that features a 64-page book and the Vincent Moon film 6 Days (which includes behind-the-scenes footage and performance pieces of various songs on the album) plus two bonus tracks "Red Head Walking" and "Airliner."

For R.E.M.'s collection of DVD-Audio albums click here or check our music store.

March 30

Last year, most of Genesis' albums were remastered and reissued in the form of two box sets, "Genesis 1976-1982" and "Genesis 1983-1998". Only the box set of the earliest years is yet to follow, some time this year. In Europe and some other parts of the world this was done using the SACD format but not in North America, like with other reissues (such as the Depeche Mode albums). Now Rhino has the same high-resolution 5.1-channel mixes and released them as CD+DVD sets. The DVDs aren't DVD-Audio discs but they do contain 24-bit 96 kHz DTS Surround sound, making them playable on regular DVD players.

Check our Music Store or go directly to the Genesis page.

March 10

Amazon Germany has some special offers for 'High Definition' music: an interesting selection of DVD-Audio titles (plus quite a few SACDs) with prices reduced by several euros.

March 4

A major artist enters the DVD-Audio fray today: Ringo Starr! Check the Top Picks in our music store for his 'Ringo in 5.1' album or just click on the cover below.

February 29

Welcome to DVD-A.net. At this site we aim to provide as much relevant information as possible about the DVD-Audio format -- about the standard and the hardware but above all about the music.

Although DVD-Audio has been around for a while this site is still fresh so please have some patience and check back frequently. In the meantime, we're open for business! Visit our DVD-Audio store. The shop is not complete yet but we've got a substantial number of DVD-Audio titles covered.

In the near future we aim to add an overview of (available) DVD-Audio players i.e. hardware, plus perhaps a list of suitable AV Receivers. Do check back. If you want to bookmark or share this page just click the button at the bottom.

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