the new music format! 24 bit audio and DVD's for all?

[losthighway]

I think that matches with what I'm thinking. The only thing is, I don't know anyone with audiophile grade turntable, receiver etc. I enjoy my records, but they don't sound "the best". There is less definition in both the low and high end with a mid-grade phono setup. The art still kicks cd packagings butt.

[farview]

Korea is going to have 10GB/sec download speeds within the year. They're not too far from that now. The USA is way behind.

It's pretty easy to get those speeds when less than 1% of the population has a computer AND most of the internet content is filtered out (at least in North Korea it is)

USA has a much harder task. We are a physically much bigger country to string wire across AND 3/4 of the population has a computer that is on the internet every day. Feeding 20 computers in a small area at 10GB/sec is much easier than millions of computers across a 3000 X 1500 mile area.

A significant percentage of the population in both north and south Korea don't even have telephone service. Fast download speeds are beside the point.

[drumsound]

The music providers have not pushed and marked hi rez formats. It really is that simple. I know I'm not the only one here who remembers the introduction of the CD. There were commercials, there were TV news stories, newspaper stories. Sony had home, car and portable players and others followed suit. The CD was the MUST HAVE technology. We were told our entire music collection would come alive (and you will rebuy making both manufacturers and labels) tons of cash.

No one has had this type of marketing vision with hi rez audio delivery. They have however had this type of vision with data compression and portable devices...

[argonautlabs]

Higher resolution doesn't matter much when you squish all of the dynamic range out with a brickwall limiter. I'd be happy with CD quality music if more conservatively mastered. Then maybe we can talk higher resolution?

[noon]

The USA trails other industrialized nations in high-speed Internet access and may never catch up unless quick action is taken by public-policymakers, a report commissioned by the Communications Workers of America warns.

The median U.S. download speed now is 1.97 megabits per second ? a fraction of the 61 megabits per second enjoyed by consumers in Japan, says the report released Monday. Other speedy countries include South Korea (median 45 megabits), France (17 megabits) and Canada (7 megabits). :USA Today, 2007

More recent:
http://blog.cleveland.com/pdgraphics/20 ... GSPEED.pdf[/url]

[themagicmanmdt]

The music providers have not pushed and marked hi rez formats. It really is that simple. I know I'm not the only one here who remembers the introduction of the CD. There were commercials, there were TV news stories, newspaper stories. Sony had home, car and portable players and others followed suit. The CD was the MUST HAVE technology. We were told our entire music collection would come alive (and you will rebuy making both manufacturers and labels) tons of cash.

No one has had this type of marketing vision with hi rez audio delivery. They have however had this type of vision with data compression and portable devices...

Well, CD was a marked improvement over cassette, so there was an obvious change in quality.

From 16bit to 24bit, to my ears, is like going from DVD to Blu-Ray.

Then again, you need that good TV to tell the difference.

People can tell visual definition like that right away - audio just isn't the same...

[daved]

Of course maximum compatability vs. quality equation is still answered by old-fashioned DVD, which plays in all computer optical drives these days, all home dvd players (which are connected to the home stereo), and even many cars.

The plain vanilla DVD-V spec allows you to put uncompressed 96/24 stereo audio on things today, but higher bitrates are out of spec without compression. DVD-A discs playback in DVD-V players - the key benefit of A is you can do lossless-compressed 5.1 high res if you forego picture. That said, high-rate lossy compressed 5.1 can sound very, very good, so the DVD-V side isn't giving up a lot of quality but gives you a lot of wow.

Further, you can pack these discs with lossy and lossless files for ipods and portables... all DVD formats are folder-layouts on an ISO disc structure. No magic.

T Bone Burnett seems to be jazzed about a format that is essentially what the majors called "DVD-Music" back in the 90s. Maybe no one told him, or maybe he's just playing along with a joke to relaunch a good idea that got lost in the Napster fiasco. Still it's a good thing to sell quality as a premium, regardless of the label you attach to it.

[wedge]

*wonders when it will become possible to afford heat in the wintertime again*

Not too long a wait... About 15 years or so...

[MoreSpaceEcho]

great. just thaw me out then.

[DGoody]

There is a bubbling rumour that in the next big ipod redesign, there will be HDMI output, which will solve the issue of Hi-Def video and audio delivery via download.

Physical media is definitely going the way of the wooly mammoth, but I see HD as the next big buzz word in audio and video.

The new Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD PCM bitstream surround stuff is coming into view rapidly, and with it, a whole host of new options for the end user that are far more convenient than anything we've seen prior to this.

HDMI is a pretty remarkable conduit for this stuff. One cable, very good quality, affordable. Doesn't get better than that for this stuff.

Also, Fruenhof and Dolby are both working on "5.1 mimicking" in the headphone realm, and rumours abound that this software may be licensed to Apple for the next ipod generation as well. It's a process that localizes the "speakers" while using headphones, a perennial stumbling block for 5.1 audio for music.

I for one, am all for it. 5.1 and HD audio are wonderful formats and they pose an entirely new host of opportunities for us to work.

[themagicmanmdt]

now THAT'S funny -

24 bit audio through $10 earbuds!

[0-it-hz]

I don't see how $10 earbuds are worse than $10 car speakers or a boom-box or whatever... I know they are crap, but crap has been standard on the street for a while now.

[Babaluma]

you don't HAVE to use $10 earbuds and listen to crappy .mp3's on your ipod. my etymotic er-4p's are $200 earbuds, and i listen to .flacs - it sounds amazing.

[farview]

That's because you actually care about audio. Most people do not. Most people couldn't tell the difference between 16 bit and 24 bit without a direct A/B comparison. Even less would be able to tell which one was which.

The big selling point (to the consumer) of CDs was that there was no hiss, pops, or skips and CDs were advertised as being indestrucible. The average consumers experience with lp, cassette, and 8-track was plauged by problems that got in the way of enjoying the music. The dynamic range of those mediums was never a concern of the average consumer.

[themagicmanmdt]

That's because you actually care about audio. Most people do not. Most people couldn't tell the difference between 16 bit and 24 bit without a direct A/B comparison. Even less would be able to tell which one was which.

The big selling point (to the consumer) of CDs was that there was no hiss, pops, or skips and CDs were advertised as being indestrucible. The average consumers experience with lp, cassette, and 8-track was plauged by problems that got in the way of enjoying the music. The dynamic range of those mediums was never a concern of the average consumer.

yep - you never notice the hiss when you're driving.