Recently, there's been an interesting discussion of this very topic in The Perfect Vision and The Absolute Sound, two related journals of video and audio topics. Was anyone else unaware that dvd 5.1 sound isn't done at a high sampling rate? I was surprised to learn that, especially since dvd-a's do offer excellent sound. I suppose the primacy of the video content trumps the audio content quality! I for one still believe that a "super-universal" player, i.e. one that will play hd-dvd, blu-ray, sacd, dvd-a, dvd, cd, etc. will be created. (Hmm, will it also play my old direct-to-discs?)

Jay