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New Audio Disc Formats and Copyrights

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the isn't-that-a-mess dept.

JollyGoodChase writes "CNN has an article on Super Audio CD digital watermarking and the lack of digital outputs on any SACD or DVD-Audio players. Covers dealer responses, tech issues, and consumer options in a good summation of this technology."

6 of 321 comments (clear)

  1. i'm going to guess... by no+reason+to+be+here · · Score: 5, Insightful

    that just like DVD-region encoding and similar BS that this will begin to disappear in a few years, if the standard is to survive.

    also, did anyone else notice IBM as one of the companies ultimately behind DVD-audio? Do you think big blue will give linux hackers information on the copy-protection scheme used in DVD-audio as part of their commitement to opensource/free software?

    --
    my pet machine
    1. Re:i'm going to guess... by garcia · · Score: 4, Insightful

      no, this is a lack of digital outputs. I am less worried about the damn security, I am worried that I will not be able to use these players w/the other devices I already have...

      Now, do these morons really think that people care about "superior audio quality" when they really only want to rip/download MP3s?

      The only time I am interested in SUPERIOR audio quality is when I am going to be listening to a live show (SBD), and when I am doing that, it is either already on CD, SHN, etc, or on tape (Nakamichi).

      MP3s are for people that want to download music to enjoy, not to worry about sound quality. Only people who are SERIOUS about sound quality would buy these players, and I am already sure they haven't used MP3s too much.

  2. Does it sound better than CD-Audio? by Chester+K · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Consumers aren't going to run out and buy all new hardware just to support a new format that gives them really no added capabilities over their existing hardware.... CD-Audio is good enough quality sound; this new format doesn't offer enough of an improvement for it to catch on -- and that'd be the case even if the formats weren't fair-use crippled. Once you throw that into the equation, these formats have an even dimmer potential.

    A format doesn't begin mass market acceptance until the fanatic audiophiles buy into it at the beginning, and those are exactly the types of people who will raise the biggest stink about the copy protection, and the lack of digital audio out.

    --

    NO CARRIER
    1. Re:Does it sound better than CD-Audio? by fyonn · · Score: 5, Insightful

      These are exactly the people who won't care about copy protection

      these are exactly the kind of people who *will* care about copy protection as it means they can;t reuse their investment in high quality external dac's and means that they have to rely on the bass management capabilities in the player (which are usually fairly basic) and can't use the often much more advanced fine bass control available to the pre/pro.

      audiophiles don't give a stuff about mp3's really, but what they do care about is quality of sound and doing things right. a 6 channel analogue out means that they are not maximising the capabilities of their equipment.

      here's an example. the player might allow you to set a bass crossover of 80hz, yet you main speakers can go down to 45hz, and at better quality than your sub. your pre/pro will allow you a much finer control of the crossover point but thats irrelevant as you can;t use it.

      more importantly I think. one of the coming "big things" is room correction. the biggest influence on sound quality for many people is the room you're listening to the music in. systems by companies such as TacT allow you to measure the frequency characteristics of the room and pre-correct the audio signal for the room before it hits the power amp (and therefore, speaker). this requires a digital copy of the sound to work on and if all you can get from your player is analogue then thats a wasted preamp stage and it means that it's quite likely that a cd could sound far better than an sacd or dvda as the cd signal is being properly processed to sound great in your room, and the sacd/dvda isn't.

      thats why audiophiles care

      dave

      PS. room correction is a pretty small field in consumer electronics now, but I reckon it'll become bigger news in 5-10 years

  3. Still copyable by upt1me · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If there is sound coming out of my speakers there will always be a way to make that sound into a mp3. Don't they understand consumers want mp3s or some other digital format.

  4. No digital outputs, but.... by tonywestonuk · · Score: 5, Insightful
    What is stopping someone recording the Analogue outputs using a high quality sound card, and then burning the results onto CD?.... I'm pritty sure that there would be very few people who could tell the minute difference in qualtity, and then the format would be fully copyable by anyone....... So what about the digital watermark- since I doubt that every CD sold would have a different watermark, and therefor they'd still be unable to trace the original 'CD Pirate' from the n'th copy down the line.

    AFAIK, Digital watermarks are removed when the music is encoded with Ogg/MP3 , after all these compressions work by removing the sound elements that humans percive poorly.

    Maybe, this is just a way of ensuring only 'approved' cd's are playable on this equipment, and therefore protecting their monopoly from the threat of joe blogs distibuting his own music without going through a record company....