1.000.000 DVD-Audio Players Sold To Date

[Jiri]

 1.000.000 DVD-Audio Players Sold To Date

By Jerry Del Colliano

In a report slated for release this coming Monday, The DVD Entertainment Group is going to announce that over 1,000,000 DVD-Audio players have been sold to date. According to public reports from Sony, that is just behind their SACD players who topped 1,000,000 in November 2002 and have been selling well thanks to being a part of the very popular and affordable Sony Dream Systems.

Sources inside the DVD Entertainment Group also mentioned that Soundscan, the music industry source for tracking music sales, is going to soon start tracking sales of DVD-Audio titles as a new category. Up until now it has been unclear how much software and or hardware has been sold on either side of the format war.

The real challenge lies in getting mainstream consumers interested in converting their music collections from CD to either DVD-Audio or SACD or even both. In a recent reader survey only 2 percent of AudioRevolution.com's 16,500 survey entrants had either SACD or DVD-Audio currently installed in their system. Over 50 percent said they were interested in upgrading soon, but many are still confused. Confusion comes from many areas including the fact that very few players actually play DVD-Audio and SACD. Confusion comes from the fact that you (in almost all cases) need as many as eight total interconnect cables in order to hook up a DVD-Audio player or SACD with DVD capabilities. Confusion is worst at the retailers who have little interest in doing anything other than selling discs that are pre-sold for them by radio and MTV. Try getting a salesperson at Tower Records to talk to you about the advantages of a DVD-Audio disc over a CD.

While both formats are enjoying some level of success in the early goings, there is a long way to go to make a mainstream audience understand, let alone, clamor for DVD-Audio and SACD. It all starts with a demo – somewhere or somehow – if you hear the new audio formats you want to own it. The next step is the release of enough exciting new titles, loaded with added value goodies, surround sound mixes and more. This will lure more and more people into buying new players and software collections. Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon is going to be big for SACD. DTS has a number of DVD-Audio titles coming out soon and many smaller labels are cranking out content. With Universal Music Group readying more big name SACD and players like BMG and EMI in the U.S. treating to actually release more DVD-Audio titles – there could be a whole bunch of good reasons to head out to the record store.