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Jens
Joined: 11 Nov 2007
Posts: 99
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 Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:27 pm Post subject: New Bravia home theatre system range: all models with SACD |
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There has been little if any SACD product news from Sony's home AV division for a while but today Sony (Europe) announced a range of four Bravia-branded home theatre systems, all with SACD playback.
The models are:
- DAV-DZ260
- DAV-DZ560
- DAV-DZ660
- DAV-DZ860W
You can find the press release here. |
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The Seventh Taylor
Joined: 17 Aug 2007
Posts: 401
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| Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 7:57 pm Post subject: |
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One would almost think it's a European thing. Pioneer Europe has just announced four new Home Cinema Systems, three of which play DVD and BD, the other DVD and SACD. Sadly Pioneer still didn't manage to create a drive that plays BD as well as SACD (and apparently Sony doesn't offer it to them).
| Quote: | Building on the success of last year’s LX01, the portfolio includes:- LX01BD: Blu-ray Disc Home Cinema System with Omni-Directional Speakers
- LX03BD: Blu-ray Disc Home Cinema System with 5.1 AV Receiver and Satellite Speakers
- LX08BD: Blu-ray Disc Home Cinema System with 5.1 AV Receiver
- LX03: DVD Home Cinema System with Satellite Speakers
The LX03, LX03BD and LX08BD home cinema systems will be available in October; the LX01BD in November. |
See Pioneer press release. |
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Brandon B
Joined: 14 Oct 2007
Posts: 392
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| Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 1:35 am Post subject: |
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That seems odd. Since SACD is just a CD/DVD 2 layer hybrid, I would think any DVD read head capable of reading dual layer disks (i.e. virtually all dvd drives) could do so.
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The Seventh Taylor
Joined: 17 Aug 2007
Posts: 401
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| Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 7:11 am Post subject: |
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No, there's more to it. It seems specific hardware is involved. See this chapter in the FAQ:
http://www.ps3sacd.com/faq.html#_Toc180147568
This is probably also why no PC can play SACD, even though some support DSD playback. |
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Brandon B
Joined: 14 Oct 2007
Posts: 392
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| Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 7:43 pm Post subject: |
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Can you find any backup reference for that? The FAQ you link to says it is presumed but unknown, and this paper:
http://www.datarius.com/news/news-PDF/testingsacd.pdf
would seem to disagree:
| Quote: | SACD Hybrid physical requirements: comparison CD/DVD.
All properties of the CD layer in the SACD Hybrid Disc must comply with the ‘Red Book’ CD Specifications. The High Frequency (HF) and servo
properties of the HD SACD layer as well as its mechanical and optical
parameters are the same as those specified for DVD 5. Only the logical layout of the content, the data format, and the copy protection measures
are typical for SACD Hybrid. |
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The Seventh Taylor
Joined: 17 Aug 2007
Posts: 401
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| Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 11:34 pm Post subject: |
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| Brandon B wrote: | | Can you find any backup reference for that? |
Not really, no hard evidence at least. There's some (speculative?) discussion about it here: http://www.ps3sacd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=576#576
The explanation that some piece of hardware is involved otherwise they wouldn't have taken it out of the 40GB model does seem plausible to me. |
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Brandon B
Joined: 14 Oct 2007
Posts: 392
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| Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 10:48 pm Post subject: |
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Ah, OK. I would think the hardware in question is a more expensive set of DACs which do DSD conversion, rather than the optical laser pickup.
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The Seventh Taylor
Joined: 17 Aug 2007
Posts: 401
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| Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 10:59 pm Post subject: |
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| Brandon B wrote: | | I would think the hardware in question is a more expensive set of DACs which do DSD conversion, rather than the optical laser pickup. |
That's a possibility but I think D/A conversion in PS3 is done after the DSD-to-PCM conversion anyway, so even in the SACD-compatible versions they never needed DSD DACs (this must be possible to determine by closely comparing the different boards).
This (combined with another possible hardware constraint) may also be the explanation why PS3 always converts DSD to PCM with no option for bitstream output (like I suggested here). |
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Brandon B
Joined: 14 Oct 2007
Posts: 392
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| Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 6:18 pm Post subject: |
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I wasn't really clear. I meant they may have been able to use cheaper DACs that only converted PCM, instead of those that could convert PCM as well as accept DSD and transcode it to PCM.
Or do we know for sure that the DSD to PCM conversion is handled by the Cell?
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PS3SACD
Site Admin
Joined: 17 Aug 2007
Posts: 316
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| Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 9:24 pm Post subject: |
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| Brandon B wrote: | | Or do we know for sure that the DSD to PCM conversion is handled by the Cell? |
We do. It takes 5 SPEs -- 3 for DTS decompression and 2 for DSD-to-PCM conversion. See this article |
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Brandon B
Joined: 14 Oct 2007
Posts: 392
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| Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 9:31 pm Post subject: |
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Well, that would leave the optical pickup as the only hardware possible for a cost reduction, but I cannot think of any reason the pickup would need to be different to read SACDs.
Maybe just an additional way to upsell the more expensive model, since they know most people buying SACDs have the extra $100 to spring for it. |
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PS3SACD
Site Admin
Joined: 17 Aug 2007
Posts: 316
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| Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 9:45 pm Post subject: |
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| Brandon B wrote: | | I cannot think of any reason the pickup would need to be different to read SACDs. |
Essentially just one reason: SACD's specific copy protection measures.
That's why no PC DVD-ROM drive can read SACDs. |
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PS3SACD
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Joined: 17 Aug 2007
Posts: 316
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| Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2008 8:12 pm Post subject: |
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There now appear to be a few Blu-ray Disc-based Home Theater Systems from Sony offering SACD playback.
See our coverage on the news page. |
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