The DVD Forum, which oversees standards for the DVD format (or at least purports too), has adopted FireWire as the standard for digital transmission of DVD-Audio signals. Normally such an announcement isn’t particularly worthy of being blogged, but the move means that instead having to connect the six analog outputs on a DVD-Audio player to six analog inputs on a pre-amp, you can connect them directly, and digitally, using a single FireWire cable. It’s simpler, and it’ll sound better. The industry seems pretty hopeful that making DVD-Audio systems less confusing will spur sales. Of course no one I know has a DVD-Audio player (or even wants one), so maybe the problem is just that most people are simply satisfied with CD quality sound.
