Quote Originally Posted by nightflier
Does anyone know: if the SACD omission is because it is technically expensive or because it's a licensing issue?
Without knowing anything about the specifics on the models in question, I would suspect that it's because of HDMI. Since HDMI 1.2 and 1.3 support digital DSD streaming, the SACD can be output digitally and decoded with a compatible processor/receiver. It's no different than DVD players that digitally output a DTS or DD track, but don't include any internal decoders. Also, the first batch of Sony Blu-ray players do not have any internal decoding for lossless Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD. I'm not even sure what multichannel internal sound format decoding that they have on board.

Strange that Sony would exclude those features from their introductory Blu-ray player, but then again, it's clear now that Blu-ray was rushed to market before the format was ready with feature support that was spotty at best (i.e., at launch, BD-Java was not yet implemented, the BDA was still debugging the dual layer BD-50 disc format, MPEG-4 and VC-1 Blu-ray authoring were not yet implemented, TrueHD and DTS-HD support was nonexistent, etc.). The need to get the PS3 out by November drove the launch timing, and the first gen players and disc releases suffered as a result. I don't think that we'll see the real story on the direction of Blu-ray hardware until new Blu-ray players start requiring profile 1.1 compliance in November.

IMO, the real question is not whether these Blu-ray players can do the SACD DSD decoding internally (we know that they don't) but rather do they include any kind of SACD functionality using a digital HDMI output (i.e., can they read the SACD layers in the first place)? An example of this is Oppo Digital's universal players, which can read SACDs and transcode the DSD bitstream into a 88.2/24 PCM signal that most HDMI receivers can natively decode (v. 1.1 and higher). Other universal players from Pioneer, Yamaha, and Denon, among others, also read SACDs and output the DSD bitstream digitally using iLink connections. Would only make sense that at least some newer Blu-ray players include that same capability using HDMI connections.

If Sony excludes any kind of SACD functionality from their Blu-ray players (now or in the future), then that would be a major blunder IMO. A lot of these issues are fixable via firmware updates, the question remains though whether SACD is enough of an issue for Blu-ray manufacturers (and Sony in particular) to bother. For example, the recent version 1.9 firmware update for the PS3 added upscaling to 176.4/24 PCM resolution for CDs, but has not yet incorporated any kind of multichannel HDMI audio output for SACD (SACD playback is still stuck at two-channel analog on the PS3).

Their decision today to drop support for the ATRAC format (which underpins SDDS, MiniDisc, and their Connect music download service) from their new Video Walkman line might also be a sign that they will no longer support their legacy formats to the bitter end.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/faste...it_the_st.html