Re: [SurroundSound] Looks Like Quadraphonic all over again

I think we've settled into a trend:

For all intents and purposes DVD-A is now officially dead. Yes, there may be a KC re-release here or there, but SW has moved on to Blu-ray, so the format that has been hanging on life support should now be declared dead. We'll continue to see user-created DVD-A's consisting of Quad transfers, upmixes, etc. but very little else. 

Despite premature reports of its demise, SACD is hanging on with hi-rez stereo releases and a few MCH re-releases. SHM-SACD is the biggest marketing baloney to come along in awhile, but it's keeping the SACD format alive.

The real battle for what little surround music is released is between lossy DTS and DD on DVD-V, and lossless DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD on Blu-ray. Concert videos continue to be released on Blu-ray, but for primarily audio-only releases, DVD-V seems to be favored by too many labels. While there are a few really good DVD-V releases (Chicago Transit Authority on Rhino's Quadio label comes to mind), there are far too many that sound mediocre at best.  Fortunately, we have a few artists/labels that understand the value of lossless (thank the gods for Steven Wilson). 

Multi-channel downloads also seem to be missing in action. This baffles me, but I still hold out hope that this is how surround music will survive in the long-term. We may be seeing the dying throes of physical media and artists/labels are wringing out the last dollar they can with expensive box sets before digital downloads become the norm. Let's hope that means in a hi-rez, lossless format.

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