DVD-Audio compatibility

INTRODUCTION

Note:

The DVD-Audio signal can only be output via the analogue output. Digi- tal playback is not possible.

DVD-Audio enables a very high audio quality, surround sound as well as addi- tional features, which are not available on CD. The discs are outwardly identi- cally to DVD-Video discs, however they have been developed to save audio signals in high quality. Beside High-Resolution-Audio, DVD-Audio discs can also contain video clips, still frames, text and menus for navigation. There is no regional coding of DVD-Audio discs.

Important note:

In this operation manual the expression “DVD” means DVD-Video and DVD- Audio. If a function is only valid for a special kind of DVD disc, this will be indi- cated.

SUPER AUDIO CD

Note:

The SACD signal can only be output via the analogue output. Digital play- back is not possible.

SACD compatibility

Super Audio CD (SACD) is a new, revolutionary audio format that offers high- resolution audio in either two-channel stereo or multi-channel audio.

SACD is based on a new digital audio technology, so-called DSD (Direct Stre- am Digital). DSD operates with 1-bit Delta-Sigma modulation, an 1-bit repro- duction of the wave form with 2.8224 MHz sampling, in order to reproduce the analogue original wave form and to produce a natural sound comprising all nuances and the feeling of the original material.

The frequency response for SACDs is 100 kHz, the dynamic range is above 120 dB. Standard CDs do not include frequencies that are not audible by humans even though the recordings contain such frequencies. Whereas the SACD format has a sampling rate that is 64 times higher than the sampling rate of CDs (2.8224 MHz compared with 44.1 kHz). This results in a faithfull repro- duction of the original source material. Furthermore, the "Super Bit Mapping Direct" process and the hybrid disc technology enable that most of the DSD sound quality of SACDs is audible on customary CD players.

HDCD compatibility

HDCD (High Definition Compatible Digital) is a technology for coding respecti- vely decoding audio data.

This technique shall improve the sound quality (more detailed reproduction) and the dynamics of digital audio recordings, especially on CD or DVD, and thus reduce existing disadvantages of conventionally coded CDs. According to the developers the effect of a more detailed reproduction is among others rea- ched by coding the audio data with a resolution of 20 bits instead of customary 16 bits.

Data transfer rates

The maximum speed for playing CDs is 4x. The corresponding data transfer rate is 600 KB/sec. The maximum speed for playing DVDs is 2x with a data transfer rate of 2700 KB/sec.