Thanks Dollarbill,

This is the Panasonic RP91 (a combo player, not a dedicated DVD-A player).
It has played all 3 discs, 2 with DD DTS multichannel, that do not appear to be DVD-A discs at all.
And the one which will play correctly in 6 ch direct (edit for clarity) when on optical imput denying access to the DD and DTS listed as additional formats on the jewel cover. (and I did muck around in the player’s setup without success trying to access these).

I can tell right off, - I need to surf and get my terms down, (thanks for the link).
When you state DVD-Video do you mean a player specifically for DVD- movies? (no SACD or DVD-A capabilities) or are you referring to the video portions, recorded on the music DVD-A’s or SACD discs?
What two of these new discs seem to be (just checked they are all Silverline) are simply what I had run into some posters (it appears incorrectly) referring to as super cd’s when what they were describing was a Multi-Channel disc capable of DD and DTS only (if this Silverline labeling is standard in the industry the term used on two classical selections was written as DVD-Music.)
I see on quick surf of your link that that term 'super CD' should likely only be properly used in reference to SACD?

I have to add that if Silverline has a bad rep for rolling out the bottom end of the format, I am in for huge treat when I locate some decent selections.

Hideous selections from the (70/80’s ?) have never sounded so good as they did in 6 ch direct with this disc. (well I liked 'Nutbush', I have a soft spot for Tina Tuner).

I saw Merc's post he had ‘given up’ on DVD-A, I wonder is it title availability or quality of the format that has led him that direction?


[This message has been edited by Smart Little Lena (edited September 04, 2002).]

SLL,

To answer your questions (as best I can):

"DVD-Video" player is one that does not play the high resolution DVD-Audio or SACD groups.

I can't really help with the "SACD = Super CD" thing. SACD is Sony's format for high resolution audio. They developed it and put it out but it apparently didn't impress the people developing DVD-A. As a result, we currently have competing formats. I know a little more about DVD-A simply because my player can play them.

You made one very good observation, though. The labeling of all these formats (not just Silverline) is not uniform so one has to be very careful.

As far as I know, all of the DVD-Audio players on the market are also DVD-Video players (although not all are progressive scan players) -- it's too easy to include both Audio & Video, I suspect. Sony has some SACD players that are not also DVD players, but they also have some SACD players that are also DVD-Video players. Format wars really can be a pain in the butt sometimes.

My Panasonic RA60 is pretty good about automatically identifying a disc as DVD-Audio and playing the DVD-A track. I've only got one disc with a DTS track on it (Toy Matinee), and I was able to get to that DTS track by treating the disc as a regular video DVD and looking around in the disc menus. The Silverline disc sounds a bit on the confusing side. According to Amazon.com , it's a DVD-Audio disc that also had DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. From what DollarBill said, though, it's very possible that poor mastering could make it particularly difficult to use...

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

My RP-91 also played the DVD-A ‘Women on Top’ and automatically detected, just by selecting 6 ch direct.

I followed your link, I’d on par with that reviewer, ‘Nutbush’ although not my favorite Tina Tuner piece, played background instruments with a clarity I have NEVER HEARD before on any of her CD’s, except in Live Concert. Even though it was probably the ‘oldest’ most minimalist fidelity of all the recordings transferred (similar to the quality when listening to some of the less scratchy Nat King Cole recordings). ‘Bette Davis Eyes’ was prob. my favorite track, maybe because it is just one of my favorite ‘songs’ offered on this DVD.

Gonk after your link I’m utterly confused, I see I need to surf a lot for this genre.

I pulled up my other two buys, Silverlines:
Night in Paris, London Philharmonic
Dream Suite III, London Philharmonic
And see that your link states that they ARE also DVD-Audio. The DVD logo on these two only has ‘Video’ lettered beneath the pic of the Disc.
Where-as the Silverline ‘Women on Top’ has the DVD logo with ‘Audio/Video’ lettered beneath the pic of the Disc.
I played all 3 quickly 2 nights ago, and could swear my impression of the 2 classical discs were no where near as well done as on the Rock disc. If my memory serves me, I got only 2 or 3 channels of sound while in 6 ch direct on the two classical discs. While I got a full 6 channel (well-blended) on the Rock.

They handled differently also. The two classical had a video menu to select DD or DTS. The rock had no such on screen video menu and no matter what I have tried I can’t get it to produce its DD or DTS layers.

Scratches Head.....

So either I’m not producing DVD-Audio out of the 2 classical discs when in 6 ch direct, (because something needs to be enabled) and I felt these sounded better on optical input: DTS. Or I have just learned that like DD 2.0/4.0/3.2 you can have 2 to 3 to 6 tracks recorded on a DVD-audio disc???

SLL,

DVD-A can have up to 6 or 7 channels on it, as well as a 2 channel (or 3 or 4 channel) mix on it. Some DVD-A disc have the choice between 2 and multi channel mixes. But if you are using a toslink (digital) connection to your reciever, then you are getting either a Dolby Digital or DTS signal since there aren't any recievers that can decode MLP (the DVD-A format) or DSD (the SACD format) on their own due to the industry dragging it's feet on decoding standards/copyright protection issues.

The other thing you ahve to watch out for on DVD-A's is something that is not a DVD-A but a DTS music DVD. I was snookered into buying one of these (they are often produced in the DVD-A super jewel case like DVD-A's). These are simply DVD's that have a DTS 5.1 mixed track an them, and do not have the same resolution as DVD-A's. Look carefully, and unless it has the little DVD logo with AUDIO written beneath it, it isn' a true DVD-A, but rather a multichannel DTS-DVD, or in some cases a multichannel DTS-CD.

Jason

Now stored in memory -thanks Jason!

I was in optical only to attempt to bring up the DTS /DD recorded portions since I wanted to compare.
Possibly what bothered me, was I liked the more enveloping sound of the ‘women’ disc with its 6 channels, vs the 2 or 3 on the classical discs. Or maybe the quality bug bit deeper that Dollarbill warned to watch out for from this label. I was not overwhelmed by the 2 classical discs while in analog.
The 6 channel Women on Top was very intriguing.
But its still a frustrating sticking point for my brain, that I can’t roust DD and DTS out of the ‘Women on Top’ disc no matter what I’ve tried and its there somewhere, (unless their lying)!

I need to hunt up ‘Blue Man Group’ I have a feeling my husband would love that one.

Some DVD-A Players are a little loopy in dealing with this...IS it possibly a double sided disc? A lot of the DVD-A that I have are double sided, with the Dolby Digital/DTS versions on one side, and the DVD-A on the other. (just like the DVD-Videos that have the Pan and Scan on one side, and the full version of the film on the other side.) If the disc is double sided, flip it over and maybe this will solve the problem.



Yes, this is an absolute MUST HAVE for me. IN fact a frind of mine cam into town this weekend. He got me into home theater by demoing his DVD player on day about two years ago when I took a trip to see a St. Paul Symphony concert. When he came up this weekend he was wondering about DVD-A/SACDand how they stacked up to CD (he was trying to figure out what the next step in his HT upgrade should be.)

Needless to say after Blue Man Group he was DVD-A all the way. His girlfriend jumped onboard the DVD-A bandwagon after I poped in Beethoven's 5th (Teldec label...you can find more info here http://www.daniel-barenboim.com/ ). She was blon away by the "you are there" feel to the disc...and we both felt that the SACD's felt like CD's with just a little more clarity, but nowhere near the presence of the DVD-A's.

Anyway, hope the info helps, and DEFINATLY pick up Blue Man Group.

Jason

SLL,

I just want to throw my support of Blue Man Group in with Jason's. It is a truly unique experience for which your subwoofer will thank you (or be really mad at you). It is also a disc that is double sided with DVD-A on one side and DD on the other so you can really try out both formats. I haven't listened to the DD side yet.

There's been some talk in the 950 Forum about bass management with DVD-A. This is a disc that calls for it. My receiver does not filter the subwoofer channel, so I get full range in the sub. The 950 should filter out anything over 120 hz. If anyone with a 950 has this disc and has compared both sides, I'd be really interested in your impressions.

Jason, no it’s single sided.
I should give it up since I can bring up the A track which would, by assumption, be the best version.

In radio shack the other day, the salesman was talking to me and complaining he could not bring up his DTS tracks which he plays through his secondary multi-channel system, (marantz). He has no problem accessing DTS if the disc has an on-screen menu offering DTS. I asked if his receiver was set to Auto Detect, or he had tried to manually select DTS as default, or checked the settings in his player. He said he had tried everything he could think of and nothing worked. Another guy was trying to talk to me at the same time, so I really did not hear the beginning of what the salesman had to say to me. I left thinking he had been discussing DVD videos, (although I was pondering that I thought all of my DVD-videos do have the disc ‘on screen menu’ select option for the DTS track). I wonder now if he was referring to DVD-A’s? The same scenario I’m running into?

If any with a larger library than my initial 3 run into this situation, and figure the workaround, let me know I’ve very curious to ‘solve’ this. I wonder if it’s a flag issue similar to DVD-video, however you would think manually selecting would circumvent this.

I have a list of recommended movies, I hope to have time to find this weekend, (big wedding next weekend so that’s out). If I’m lucky I might run into Blue Man Group, I should get out the phone book and see who has a decent selection of DVD-A’s locally, if not, - its time to find a good web site. If I do, DollarBill I’ll let you know how the bass handels here with the 950.

Thanks SLL,

Unless your panasonic has a setup parameter that disables the DVD-A or says "DVD-V Only", you won't be able to get to the DTS or DD tracks on that disc. If you can, try playing it on another DVD player, one that doesn't have DVD-A and you will have much better luck.