As some may remember, Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio were two formats battling to take over the Audio CD, with much superior audio quality, not to mention surround sound capabilities also. However, with neither format making much of a dent into traditional Audio-CD sales, the record labels then tried introducing the DualDisc, which is a disc containing CD Audio on one side and DVD-Audio & Video on the other side, to allow the disc to be played in High Definition DVD-Audio players, while still offering legacy support for existing CD and DVD players.
After limited success of DualDisc, Warner music has worked on
a new disc to replace the DualDisc, which it hopes will grab a greater market share. This new disc will be called the DVD Album, which is effectively a double-sided dual-layer DVD. This gives extra capacity for more music videos and behind-the-scenes video footage of the band. The former CD side will be replaced with compressed DRM protected audio for playback in certain DRM compliant portable players or written to CD for legacy playback in CD players.
As Warner
has realised that most consumers have been playing DualDiscs in their PC, they have included various software applications targetted for PC users, including a Ringtone creator to allow consumers to create their own Ringtones from the disc's music. As with DualDiscs, the disc will also contain DVD-Audio tracks for playback in a DVD-Audio player and Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks for legacy playback in existing DVD players and PCs. The first DVD Albums will be available between late October and early November and will coincide with their Audio-CD only releases. So far, no pricing information has been made available at this time.
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DVD Album will take full advantage of the DVD format's multilayer capacity and include two-channel or multichannel music, far more video extras than hybrid CD/DVD DualDiscs, and pre-ripped but protected versions of the music. The pre-ripped music could be burned onto CDs in PCM format for playback in legacy CD players, transferred to a PC's hard drive in native form, and transferred to portable music players in native form according to digital-rights-management rules recognized by PCs and portable MP3 players. The pre-ripped, or already compressed, music's format was not disclosed. |
If Warner expects consumers to be able to use DRM protected tracks on their portable music player, the most likely codec they will use will most likely be Windows Media Audio, which would still be a problem for iPod owners. Unfortunately, as they offer the legacy CD audio as compressed files, these discs will not be as good as their former DualDiscs for those who regularly use a CD player or rip their tracks at higher bitrates to the compressed tracks that Warner will offer on its new discs.
Source: Consumer Electronics Net
