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January 2001 • Rockbites Alternative Daily

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Elektra & Metallica boost DVD-Audio format 17 January 2001 DVD-Audio, first out of the gate but technically inferior in most ways to the competing Super Audio CD (SACD) format, gets a major boost on 27 February when Elektra releases Metallica’s self-titled 1991 LP.  Known as The Black Album, it has been a top 200 best seller in the US for every week since its release nearly a decade ago. It joins Neil Young’s recent live album Road Rocks Vol. 1 and a handfull of other DVD-Audio discs already available.     A consortium calling itself the DVD Forum backs DVD-Audio, motivated by a desire to circumvent licensing fees demanded by CD and SACD inventors Sony and Philips. The Forum’s members include Intel, IBM, Panasonic, and Toshiba, and boast endorsements for their DVD-Audio standard from major music labels. DVD-Audio Players are already available in the US.     SACD’s major backers, on the other hand, are just Philips and Sony. While dozens of discs have been released on SACD, they’ve been released in Europe not the US (that’s where the players are currently sold) and are in relatively low-selling genres including classical, jazz, and vocal (Mein Weg by Klaus Hoffmann, anyone?).     Here’s a bit of comparison info on the two formats Feature DVD-Audio SACD Encoding technology pulse-code modulation sigma-delta modulation Discs play on standard CD players no yes Players play standard CDs yes yes Players play DVD movies yes yes Dynamic range > 130 db > 120 db Frequency range 96 kHz (stereo) 48 kHz (multi-channel) 100 kHz (multi-channel) Playback time >60 min (uncompressed) >120 min (compressed) 74 min Player cost US$500 (current) US$300 (near future) US$2,000 (current) US$500 (future) | SACD info | | DVD audio site | | Metallica on Elektra | | top of page |

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