Toshiba Showcases DVD Players With DVD-Audio Technology

6-Dec-02

Company Champions DVD-Audio As Next-Generation Successor To Compact Disc FormatToshiba, a primary innovator of DVD-Video technology, also contributed to the development of the high-resolution DVD-Audio standard and has proactively supported this revolutionary format since its inception. DVD-Audio offers fidelity, resolution, and dynamic range far beyond the capabilities of Compact Disc, simultaneously delivering remarkable two-channel and multichannel sonic realism to high-performance home entertainment systems.The Toshiba DVD-Audio/Video player lineup for Fall 2002 includes the SD4800, distinguished by progressive scan and a newly designed universal TV/DVD remote control and the portable SD-P2000, featuring two-channel DVD-Audio capability and a widescreen 8.9-inch, high-resolution 1024 x 600 display.""For years, musicians, engineers, and discriminating listeners have been awaiting a next-generation format that would transcend the sonic limitations of the Compact Disc and attain a much higher level of audio performance,"" said Jodi Sally, Director of Marketing for Toshiba DVD. ""With DVD-Audio, that format is now available. The musical realism provided by DVD-Audio is nothing less than astonishing.""""Every nuance of the original performance can be heard--from the most subtle details of vocal inflections, plucked and bowed strings, and cymbal strikes, to the ambience of a concert hall or recording venue, with its natural harmonics and hall reflections. Each is conveyed with the incredible realism, warmth, and detail of a high-quality DVD-Audio recording. As a result, the listener becomes more emotionally involved in the music than ever before,"" added Sally. The State-of-the-Art In Advanced Resolution Digital Audio Technology The DVD-Audio format represents a dramatic advancement over previous digital and analog audio technologies. The key to unlocking this potential is found in the sheer data storage capacity of the DVD disc. A single-sided, single-layer DVD-Audio disc can warehouse as much as 4.7 GB of data. In the case of a DVD-Video disc, the majority of this data is reserved for video reproduction and the audio is typically compressed. For DVD-Audio applications, the majority of the data on the disc is utilized to reproduce advanced resolution, multichannel and stereo audio. The massive data storage capacity of DVD discs is the key to reproducing spectacular two-channel or multi-channel music.Advanced resolution DVD-Audio is capable of up to 24-bit quantization and 192 kHz sampling, a remarkable 144 dB dynamic range and a frequency response from approximately 2 Hz to 96 kHz for two-channel stereo audio performance, and quality specifications that significantly exceed the 16-bit, 44.1 kHz CD audio standard. Producers of DVD-Audio software can also include video slide shows that feature song title and artist information, lyrics simultaneous with music, sheet music, and more. There is also a slide show capability that allows liner notes, discography, original liner artwork, and the like to be displayed. For added versatility, the DVD-Audio format also enables content providers to include related music videos on the DVD-Audio disc.Multichannel: The Key To Creating A Musical SoundstageBesides offering superior resolution and other advanced playback features, another key element that distinguishes DVD-Audio is its multichannel audio capability. The effect of multichannel DVD-Audio is one of total immersion in the music. Live multichannel DVD-Audio recordings can capture all of the ambience, presence, and vitality of the musicians and the hall environment, preserving it forever. With DVD-Audio, there is no need for artificial DSP environments like theater, stadium, or nightclub. Multichannel DVD-Audio can capture the entire essence of a live recording event, reproducing it in its entirety in your living room.In a studio environment, multichannel DVD-Audio places the listener in the middle of the recording. Subtle nuances and instrumentation that might ordinarily be lost in a two-channel mix are suddenly present. The listener hears and experiences the musicianship of the performers. Toshiba's SD4800 DVD-Audio/Video players delivers six-channel multichannel DVD-Audio playback via its six-channel analog outputs. The product also decodes high-resolution two-channel DVD-Audio (192 kHz /24-bit). The portable SD-P2000 player offers two-channel playback of DVD-Audio via its analog audio outputs, or through its two headphone jacks. Supported By Musicians And Industry Professionals With more than 400+ titles expected to be available, top recording artists and engineers have embraced the DVD-Audio format, and its unprecedented sonic virtues. John Kellogg, General Manager, Multichannel Audio and Music Production for Dolby Laboratories noted: ""As the successor to Compact Disc, DVD-Audio is the next great plateau in the delivery of recorded music. Its compelling capabilities and features are unsurpassed. Its sound quality is the best available ever. Now, for the first time, we can create a high-resolution digital PCM reference final master recording and, instead of converting it to some other consumer format, we can simply put it on a DVD-Audio disc and present it directly to the consumer. It doesn't get any better.""JR Richards, vocalist of the best-selling group Dishwalla, commenting on the band's decision to release its new album, Opaline, in the DVD-Audio format: ""DVD-Audio has given us the opportunity to approach our music from a whole new creative level. It takes music from two dimensions to three dimensions, increasing both the possibilities in making music and in experiencing it.""The DVD-Audio format offers a variety of options in disc mastering. Like DVD-Video discs, DVD-Audio discs can be single- or double-sided; the latter offering expanded data storage capacity 14 times greater than Compact Disc. The PCM sampling rates may vary according with different production requirements and program lengths. For example, two-channel DVD-Audio can be mastered at either 96 kHz/24-bit or 192 kHz/24-bit resolution (both vastly superior to CD-quality audio). To insure that multichannel performances can fit on a single side of a DVD-Audio disc, the format utilizes MLPô (Meridian Lossless Packing) encoding for high resolution multichannel DVD-Audio programs. During playback, the MLP function ""unpacks"" the data and outputs it in its original bit-for-bit high-resolution form, insuring sonic purity and fidelity that is completely faithful to the original multichannel digital master used to author the disc, meaning that no quality is left out.The majority of DVD-Audio discs also include a companion Dolby DigitalÆ and often a DTSÆ version of the advanced-resolution DVD-Audio soundtrack, enabling them to be played on 40 million DVD-Video players already installed in U.S. households. (This ensures backward compatibility of DVD-Audio software with virtually every DVD player manufactured to date.) More new DVD-Audio releases are expected to be available, complementing the nearly 320 already-existing DVD-Audio titles currently in the marketplace. With exciting new introductions planned by Warner Music, the label list continues to grow and includes WEA (Warner Brothers, Electra, Atlantic), EMI (Capitol,Virgin), Chesky Records, DTS, 5.1 Entertainment, and many others.Ensuring The Quality Gets To Your EarsTo take full advantage of the benefits of the DVD-Audio format, Toshiba DVD-Video/Audio players incorporate a wealth of the most advanced audio technologies, including leading-edge 192 kHz/24-bit DACs converters from Analog DevicesÆ, specially-selected components in the audio signal path to preserve sonic purity, and additional refinements on selected models. ""DVD-Audio restores value to the musical entertainment experience, providing consumers with a state-of-the-art medium that offers genuine pride of ownership, along with the assurance of knowing they will enjoy the highest level of audio reproduction ever attained from a home entertainment audio format. DVD-Audio also provides content producers as well as the listener with value-added feature sets not available from the Compact Disc format,"" concluded Sally.For more information about Toshiba, visit www.tacp.com.

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