Quote Originally Posted by kexodusc
Maybe I'm way off because I don't own a player or DVD-A's yet, but I thought most DVD-A's had a hi rez 2-channel track in addition to DD, DTS, and the the 96/24 PCM or whatever...am I wrong?
The DVD-A is compatible with all players because they all include separate video and audio layers. The video layer is what can be read by any DVD player, and they typically contain at least a 5.1 DD track and another two-channel track, but the format for that depends on the disc. Some of them have a 2.0 DD track, while others include an uncompressed PCM track that can range from 44.1/16 CD resolution all the way up to 96/24 resolution.

Keep in mind that 96/24 PCM is the SAME resolution as the channels on a 5.1 DVD-A track (two-channel DVD-A tracks can go up to 192/24 resolution). Because of copy protection and space concerns, most DVD-As only include the high res two-channel tracks (even if only encoded to 96/24 or lower resolution) on the audio layer. Even before the DVD-A format was finalized, the DVD format has always had provisions built in for 96/24 resolution audio on the video layer, and a few labels like Chesky and Classic Records have put out audio-only two-channel DVDs in 96/24 resolution. The major labels did not embrace this as an audio format because they wanted any high res format to have copy protection built in, which DVD-A includes.

The DVD-As that Classic Records and Chesky put out DO include a 96/24 PCM track on the video layer, and the tracks that I've heard thus far sound very nice, and I don't own a DVD-A player yet either.