DVD-Audio, which first appeared two years ago, is a format designed for use with multispeaker home cinema DVD systems. The discs can be played only on DVD players, and each title is specially remixed to take advantage of multispeaker surround-sound systems. Play the DVD-Audio of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, for example, and the chorus of voices comes at you from all corners of the room, each speaker producing its own identifiable sound. As a bonus, because they are DVDs, the discs can also contain visual material, such as portrait galleries and song lyrics. They don’t generally contain moving images, however, as there simply isn’t enough space on the disc. DVD-Audio’s proponents claim that the high capacity of the discs allows for less music to be lost to digital compression, resulting in near-perfect sound.

And DVD-Audio does sound great. Listening to Miles Davis’s Tutu on this format is like hearing it for the first time. Every breath, every phrase, is delivered with crystal clarity.

DVD-Audio sounds fabulous, plays on equipment that many of us already own and the discs cost around the same as a standard DVD. So why aren’t we all replacing our CD collections?

Because we can’t. DVD-Audios are expensive to produce, since master recordings must be specially remixed for multiple-speaker set-ups. This means that only recordings guaranteed to make money will be given the DVD-Audio treatment. Hence the proliferation of Fleetwood Mac albums and the like. Until more of us buy DVD-Audio discs, there’s little incentive for record companies to produce them. Until they do produce more discs, there’s little incentive for us to buy them. Catch-22.

Another stumbling block is the DVD equipment itself. While most one-piece DVD multispeaker systems are great for playing film soundtracks, they don’t match up to a good hi-fi separates system in terms of sound quality. And the music buffs who are DVD-Audio’s target market are likely to be precisely those people who have spent years assembling a good music system. How can you replace a system whose speakers alone cost £500 with a five-speaker system costing £300 and expect the same quality?

Nevertheless, many record companies are hoping that 2004 proves to be the year of DVD-Audio, not least because the format is (so far) pirate-proof. They point to the fact that 15 per cent of people buying DVD players in the UK are buying multispeaker systems, to the explosion in sales of DVD software and hardware, and to the superior sound quality of their product. Does DVDAudio belong on your shelf next to your CDs, or in the dustbin with your Betamax VCR? Only your wallet can decide.

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