I think that's because there isn't really a market for DVD Audio anymore either. In fact I think DVD Audio is dead as an ongoing concern given Oppo's announcement. Yes I know there will be the odd release but most will now be DVD Video and Blu ray Audio and even these seem to be becoming rarer or part of expensive box sets. Is anyone still making a DVD Audio player?
What's funny is now that the end is here, Sony jumps on the dvd-audio bandwagon! Though that may be over already.
It’s amusing how the less compatible products have a penchant for winning audio format wars (DVD-A vs. SACD, HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray, DCC vs. Minidisc). In fact, it looks like whatever technology Sony supports then wins the format war. Of course, there are myriad exceptions to this rule, but recently that seems to be the case.
I would say that neither DCC nor Minidisc won that format war. If anything, DAT won that format war but even that win was tepid. As for dvd-a, my main issue with it is that so many discs are authored in a manner to make it difficult to know what you are playing without turning on a monitor. In that respect SACD is a much more consumer friendly format since you can simply tell your playback device which program you want to play (cd, SACD stereo, SACD multichannel) and then each disc will play the layer selected. Even nicer, for SACD stereo only discs you don't even have to change a setting since the player will default to SACD stereo if no multichannel area is present in the disc. DVD-A should have had its standard set the same way -- make the player have an interface where the user selects what to play and then when a disc is loaded and the play button pressed, the consumer gets what he has set as the default. Oh, and that horrible noise that accompanies the logos on most of the Warners dvd-a discs I have is just annoying. Before I listen to music I have to hear a few seconds of some stupid logo noise? Going back farther, Sony definitely lost the Betamax versus VHS war.
DVDA discs (certainly recently) have multiple options. As well as stereo and surround sound there is the flat transfer of the original album, alternative mixes and additional tracks from the sessions in a different section. Difficult to supply all those options on one SACD. Also DVDA was in effect stuck with having to access material in the same way video DVD was designed. An alternative format is Audio DVD video. Not true DVDA and a lower sampling rate (usually 48khz instead of 96khz). Sometimes the only option but often provided as an alternative to DVDA to enable playback on standard DVD players. Having said that navigating the menus and even identifying the correct format and tracks is very clunky even if you have a monitor connected.
That's pretty much where I'm headed. Including ripped SACDs. Can't really afford a backup universal right now, not even the Sony. I'll just treat my 103 gently, and hope for another decade of use. Meanwhile, a Mac Mini or some such will eventually be dropped into the 5.1 system as a dedicated player. I went out of my way to acquire 5.1 and/or hi res music titles; wanna enjoy them. No sense in denying that discs are being phased out, for whatever reason.
Just bought my 93 3,seems who in ebay. Paid close to $250 for it. I'll be looking for a second 93 next month, but I'm going to stick to a $190 limit. Anything over $200 for a user unit is a bit high. Beave
I don't even have a monitor, so have to navigate through a DVD-A menue would be a serious problems. BR-A either starts automatically or with a single click on the remote control. Even selecting the audio layer can be done over the remote control and the CXU display without problems. The only real letdown vs. the Oppo machines is that the CXU does not have an app, so navigating through a USB drive without a monitor does not really work. So no HiRes music from a harddisc for me for the foreseeable future...
Were it not for that horrible menu interface, and for no means of setting default program settings, I think that I would have preferred DVD-A. But the menu structure absolutely ruined the format for me. And Bluray disks suffer from the same issue. So SACD won this battle largely because of usability IMO. While SACDs can sound fantastic, DSD is inherently a PITA because of the lack of available software tools for natively processing it. But those annoying menus trumped the technological flaw of choosing DSD over high-res PCM. So SACD (just barely) won the format wars.
I think this is a bit overblown since there is much that can be done on DSD workstations now and even when there isn't the work is effectively done at 32/384 so there is no audible loss of quality. Plus you have the natural advantages of DSD, namely simpler filters.
DVD-A is my fav media as it so straightforward to rip with 1 caveat, BD is a pain to rip but the higher capacity, versatility is so much better. IMO, DVD-A should have been what SACD is now but Sony with their combination of market & content won that contest and then most of the independent content producers went SACD\DirectStream. It's like Linux v. Windows. I have lots of DSD content but generally I'm format agnostic as far as lossless goes, CD included. Recordings are defined far more by other factors, imo.
So Claus, who did your 203 mod? How does it sound? I'm seriously thinking of starting an Oppo Mod specific thread here. Anyone else be interested in that?
I bought both 203s modded for playback of all regions/zones of DVDs/BRs from 220 Electronics. I know the conversion piece is available separately, but these guys offer service on the units if needed (so they say) which is comforting, given Oppo’s announcement. The unit sounds good to me for music reproduction; I don’t have the critical room I would like to have, but playback is satisfactory over speakers and phones.
How are you guys setting up digital playback on your Oppo, in my case the 103 and 203. I just did a test with a couple of songs on a USB stick and it worked. I'm Mac based though with my digital music library.
In my case, if I don’t feed it a disc, I have our WD MyCloud 2-TB drive on Ethernet and the Oppo takes content from there.
Just got my 203 last week, and I have it set up that way for multichannel rips...for now. I do not get gapless playback - my understanding is that it only works with USB-connected storage. It may not matter to some, but Dark Side of the Moon should NOT have spaces between the tracks. So I'll be getting a powered hard drive, unless there's a way to stream from a Mac and have gapless playback. It's only folder browsing with a hard drive, but it works.
DAT came quite a bit before DCC or Minidisc. DCC was stillborn at launch. Minidisc at least sold a modicum of units. In the Minidisc vs. DCC format war, it is obvious and undeniable that Minidisc won. I am not saying the Minidisc was a huge seller, but compared to DCC is sure was.
Right, but I specified “audio” format wars in my post, not video format wars, for precisesly this reason. See here:
Minidisc sold really well in Japan, and did semi-decent business in Europe. It totally flopped in the US. DCC flopped everywhere, which is a pity. If Philips had gotten it to market just a couple of years earlier, I think it might have done really well. DAT never penetrated the consumer market at all. It did OK with professionals and musicians for awhile.
From a European point of view, I can second that. Nothing but a personal percecption, but it seems to me that Minidisc and DAT made quite a fuzz upon their introduction over here. There seemed to be high hopes for both formats and for a limited time, players were widely available. DCC, not so. Looking back, it really seems that this format was dead from the start.
Is it just me, or is it Personally, I think OT excursions are to be expected and even encouraged- sometimes the best stuff is merely tangential. Of course, they can also go on too long and clog up a thread, something I've been guilty of in the past... I think you're fine; the mourning appears to be pretty much over... But I must say I did find it rather ironic and sad to be discussing obsolete formats in a thread about Oppo's demise.
