We all know how awesome DVDs are for video. But have you ever heard of something called DVD-Audio?
If you haven’t, it’s not surprising. DVD-Audio is not exactly a household name.
The story of DVD-Audio actually starts with a different format: Super Audio CD. Following the success of the DVD format in the late 1990s, electronics giants Sony and Philips partnered to create an “improved” version of the well-loved CD. They called it “Super Audio CD,” or SACD for short. The theory was that the large capacity of a DVD disc–which can hold the data of approximately 6 CDs–could hold very high-quality audio. (Essentially, this is the same comparison as DVDs and Blu-Ray, the latter of which has a much higher data capacity than CD, thus making HD video possible.)
Not to be outdone, Toshiba developed its own high-quality audio disc, and called it “DVD-Audio.” And a (very) small format war ensued.
The problem was, both formats required new players–or at least, compatible DVD players, which in the late 1990s were much more expensive than they are today. While SACD discs could be played in regular CD players (due to two separate data layers), DVD-Audio discs were limited to DVD players. Dedicated SACD players, by contrast, ran a few thousand dollars! To make matters worse, the manufacturers rushed their products to stores, resulting in digital compression issues and other tech problems. But most importantly, consumers, who had spent a decade acquiring libraries of CD players, stereos, and Discmans, didn’t see a strong reason to switch to a format that “felt” the same as CD.
In this format war, neither format won. Ultimately, the rise of MP3s and the iPod made physical audio delivery largely moot. So despite their compatibility and technical glitches, it’s arguable that both formats would have failed anyway, just due to bad timing.
However, you can still see the remnants of DVD-Audio. Ever notice that “Audio_TS” folder that’s in the file structure of a DVD disc? That folder is there to hold DVD-Audio. Although DVD-Audio is technically irrelevant and useless, most DVD players still require that folder to be present so they can read a DVD correctly. It’s basically the tailbone of a DVD disc!
