I like a good action film but my favourite films tend to have a little more brain than brawn. Why is it then that my DVD collection consists of so many big, dumb action films? The answer is simple: because on a surround sound system, they sound really cool. Sitting in the middle of a room bustling with interesting sounds is entertaining so why is it that I can't do that with music? Why are we still limited to just two speakers? Why can't I listen to Paul Simon's "Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes" with the african vocalists surrounding me? Why can't I listen to a Garbage album (pick one, any one) and hear all of the cool bleeps coming from every angle? Whatever the music purists might say, hearing your favourite music mixed in surround sound would be entertaining as hell so why aren't DVD-audio discs all the rage? The problem is partly technical (my player can do Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS but not DVD-Audio) and partly a matter of supply (how many DVD-audio discs have you seen?). One of the mad music nuts who reviews stuff for
Michael D's DVD site has done
an interesting rant about the format and whether it will ever take off. You can find an earlier assessment of the format by him
here.
