why cant dvd player play dvd-audio?

[bjornb17]

Hello,

As some of you may know, i just purchased a harman kardon DVD22 dvd player. It's fantastic and i dont have any regrets. I bought it knowing that it doesnt support dvd-audio, which isnt something i use anyway, but it did confuse me. Why would a dvd player not play dvd audio? How is the sound encoded? it uses a different format than dolby digital or what? plese let me know how this format works. Thanks!

[N. Abstentia]

Yes, it uses MLP (Meridian Lossless Processing) which is totally different from Dolby Digital which is why a DVD player must have DVD audio capability to be able to encode it.

[bjornb17]

okay, thanks for the clarification

[paul_pci]

Some DVD-A discs will play on a regular DVD player. Look for a sticker or notice that says, will play on all DVD players. But just know that it's NOT true DVD audio. It's merely a Dolby Digital or DTS surround format of the same music and, again, not the high resolution DVD-A that Absentia's talking about.

[Geoffcin]

Some DVD-A discs will play on a regular DVD player. Look for a sticker or notice that says, will play on all DVD players. But just know that it's NOT true DVD audio. It's merely a Dolby Digital or DTS surround format of the same music and, again, not the high resolution DVD-A that Absentia's talking about.

But it will default to Dolbly Digital. This is part of it's coding so it is bacwardly compatable with all DVD players. On mine you can switch back and forth, although not in a song. The DVD-Audio is clearly better, although DD is not bad.

[kexodusc]

Geoffcin's right - though I would like to ask a question too now as it falls under this topic. Most (if not all) of my DTS DVD-A's don't have a Dolby Digital 5.1 track on them, and my player for whatever reason doesn't read the 2.0 PCM as Dolby (though it does on other tracks)...can we assume that DTS produced DVD-A's don't have Dolby Digital on them, and that DTS compatible equipment is required?

[shokhead]

My DVD-A's default to DTS on my Sony.