WHAT IS DVD-AUDIO               updated March 3, 2001     SAMPLING RATES    BITS 1    BITS 2

The first DVD-Audio players from Technics and Panasonic went on sale in Japan on
June 30th 2000 and on July 1st 2000 in the U.S. A European launch is expected in
September.

DVD-Audio is the long overdue member of the "Digital Versatile Disc" family. This
new audio format promises a level of domestic audio performance that greatly
exceeds Compact Disc. Working Group 4 of the DVD FORUM began formal
discussions on DVD-Audio in January 1996.

The DVD FORUM, comprising over 200 companies, aims to ensure that new variants
of the DVD format (i.e. DVD-R, DVD-RW, and DVD-Audio) have universally agreed
specifications. This is wonderful in that it greatly lessens the chance of multiple
incompatible rival formats, however achieving concurrence between so many different
interest groups takes time.

In the case of DVD-Audio it has taken what seems a long, long time. Since initial
discussions commenced, the format has been plagued by a series of delays, both
technical and political.

In February 1999, after three years of negotiation, the DVD FORUM published the
Version 1.0 DVD-Audio disc specification. The actual format launch was expected to
occur in October 1999.

Alas, it was not to be; further technical issues put the expected date back, first to
spring 2000 and then not surprisingly to summer 2000. These issues revolved around
technologies designed to prevent copying of discs. CSS, an encryption tool that
prevented the copying of DVD-Video discs, could be bypassed by downloading a
small file called DeCSS from the 'net.

A variant of CSS was to be used with DVD-Audio but it was feared that it too could be
readily hacked and had to be replaced with a more robust encryption tool. CPRM has
been chosen as the successor to CSS.

Digital Watermarking technology, used to regulate permitted copying (numbers of
copies allowed and at what sampling rate) was also deemed to be flawed.
And what was the flaw? Apparently the digital watermarking technology chosen
for use with DVD-Audio is occasionally audible on playback!

This you would imagine would be utterly unacceptable but there is still a lot of
controversy surrounding the chosen technology. At least one well known U.S.
audiophile label has publicly stated that it will not be using the watermarking system
chosen for  DVD-Audio.

It should be noted that encryption and watermarking are not mandatory requirements,
their use on discs is at the discretion of the labels releasing them.

These events have conspired to keep DVD-Audio hardware out of our clammy hands
until now with players from several leading names now available in the States and
Japan. However the lack of software available to coincide with the launch was
astounding to say the least.

The Worlds first commercial DVD-Audio disc comes from German Audiophile
company Audionet. The disc "RETOLD" is a collection of Jazz standards performed
by the "Hamamura Quintet". The disc is compatible with DVD-Audio players and also
most importantly with 96/24 DVD-Video It contains music in the video zone of the disc
ensuring that 96/24 players can play it. They cannot however play the 192/24 stereo or
48/24 five channel surround tracks in the audio zone of the disc. This requires a full
spec DVD-Audio player.

Since October 2000 DVD-Audio discs have begun to arrive from a small number of
American labels. Major label support has been mainly from the Warner group, with
other discs emanating from new labels such as Silverline Records, Surroundedby Entertainment and AIX. Several others say releases are imminent.
A complete rundown of what's available and what's scheduled for release will
appear from March 2001 on our DISCS pages.

European software support for the format has been nonexistent bar "RETOLD" from Audionet mentioned above. Deutsche Grammophon recently announced the
imminent release of 5 discs containing Beethovens 9 Symphonies.

Asian support for DVD-audio software seems to be at a similar stage numbers wise
as the U.S. Pioneer have at least 12 titles currently available inJapan. We will be
bringing you a full list of DVD-Audio discs available in Asia as soon as possible.
So do check back soon!
                                                             Denis Powell