[QUOTE]Originally posted by Matthew Hill:
[B]Bosso: you've said again, that PCM is an IN only format... in my earlier post I was asking why you believe this to be so.
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matthew: if you're looking for some sort of technical paper from me...sorry...i'm the wrong guy to ask that.

i only looked at the available evidence and common sense. you can upconvert or downconvert a pcm format to another pcm format. it isn't changed to a new scheme, only higher or lower bit and/or sampling rates of pcm format. at some point, as you go up in resolution, you gain less and less as you trade loss by processing...this is according to the people who invented it.

that aside, suppose you archive in pcm and another format comes along. how would you convert pcm to whatever the new format is?

more importantly, as evidence, the sony engineers say once in pcm, stuck in pcm and the dvd-a camp doesn't deny it when they do. in fact, i find zero info on the subject of pcm archiving/ conversion to a future format except this telling statement in a dvd-a promo paper under 'archiving':

"with so many professional digital formats, there's no knowing for sure which ones will be around and playable in 10 or 15 years. it may be safest to prepare, mix and copy to tried and true analog tape with dolby sr for long term archiving and storage regardless of which digital format was used in the original recording."

on the other side, sony says that dsd rivals 30 ips 1/2" tape and is the preferred archiving method as it can be converted later to any digital format.

i believe, short of better dacs being the rule rather than the exception, we are hearing pcm at it's best in it's current 24/192 state. we haven't heard dsd yet at all and won't until the receivers/prepros come out that can process it. the industry engineers, producers and musicians who have heard it are unanimous, that i've read/talked to.

also, sacd is backward compatable. the cd layer of a hybrid disc will play on a boombox. this is important to retailers who won't have to double stock.

i'm not an engineer and...well, let's just say i have a vested interest in predicting the winner. i ask, i read, i reason. any dvd-a proponents are welcome to chime in.