What is the difference between SA-CD and DVD-Audio?
Although both aim or aimed to succeed the audio CD as preferred carrier for music by providing higher fidelity sound and multichannel sound, there are a number of important differences between the two formats. • Compatibility – SA-CD provides the option of compatibility with CD players by means of the hybrid disc (see ‘What is a hybrid SA-CD?’ above). While this is an option, in practice all discs released nowadays are actually hybrid. Hybrid SA-CDs can also be played on plain vanilla DVD-Video players but only in ‘Red Book’ CD quality. DVD-Audio discs (other than Dual Discs) on the other hand are not compatible with CD players. The format does however mandate added tracks for compatibility with DVD-Video players. This can be in the form of Dolby Digital, DTS or high-resolution stereo PCM. • SA-CD uses DSD audio format while DVD-Audio employs PCM. The difference between DSD and PCM is explained above (see ‘What is the difference between PCM and DSD?’). Many variations are allowed in DV
