Much has been said about high definition
media, but what is it about ? To summarize, the high in high
definition means there is more information to encode the same image or music
than with standard definition media like NTSC or PAL TV, CD or
DVD-Video discs. More information means more precision to reproduce the original
signal, but also more space needed for storage.
High definition media are praised for
being visually and audibly more pleasing and lifelike.
DVD-Audio has been designed specifically for
the reproduction of high definition and surround music. The
increased storage space of a DVD-Audio disc can be used for high definition
music, surround music (more channels up to 5.1), more tracks compared to CD, or
a tradeoff of the previous. DVD-Audio Solo is used typically by our
customers for the following cases :
DVD-Audio Solo 2.0 plug-in for Windows Media
Player
Play high definition or surround
music
Convert vinyl records
collections
If you have high definition or surround music, either your own, or downloaded
from a legal site (e.g. music
archive, Linn records,
itrax, musicgiants), DVD-Audio is today
the most cost effective way to listen to it.
Many of our customers converted their music collections to DVD-Audio to listen
in their cars (e.g. Acura) to benefit from increased clarity with upsampling,
surround or consolidate on fewer discs.
Many audiophiles appreciate the warmth and sound stage of vinyl records. Most of
these qualities would be lost in digitizing to CD quality (16 bit / 44.1 kHz),
whereas digitizing to DVD-Audio quality (e.g. 24 bit / 96 kHz) preserves most of
them. See
here for a
practical example.
Extract more from CD
collections
DVD-Audio Solo Plus comes with a high quality upsampling algorithm that can
upsample CD music to higher resolution such as 24/96 kHz. Although no new
information is added, many users reported an improvement in music quality e.g.
"more fluid, less harsh and an all round better sound"