Yet another format that is involved in the CD wars vying for consumer's attention (and their wallets) is a fairly obscure format which is not a CD at all called DVD-Audio or DVD-A for short. The format which was first rolled out in 2000 is a high-quality audio format which was designed essentially to go head-to-head with Pacific Sonics HD-CD format as well as Sony's SACD format. Despite nearly eight years, the DVD-A format has yet to gain a firm footing in the heated compact disc competition, however, some CD labels are still producing DVD-A and there are many in the audio industry as well as consumer audiophiles who argue that the format is superior to SACD.

The odd aspect about DVD-A is that the format is not a CD, but rather a DVD which has only audio encoded on the disc. If necessary, a DVD-A can carry some video and still pictures as well. The DVD-A was developed by Sonic Solutions shortly after DVD movies began to dominate the market. DVD-A offered several advantages over standard compact discs. DVD-A's allowed record companies to store more music on the disc as well as higher quality audio due to the fact that the DVD-A could hold higher linear sampling rates and higher bit-per-sample resolution. In addition, DVD-A's allowed the use of additional channels for spatial sound reproduction. DVD-A's can contain two different audio resolutions; for example, one DVD-A album can contain both a 96HZ/24 bit 5.1 channel audio track as well as a 192HZ/ 24 bit stereo track.

Audio tracks on a DVD-A are stored on the disc in the Linear PCM format which is either uncompressed or losslessly compressed with Meridian Lossless Packing. The maximum but rate possible is 9.6 megabits per second. The LFE channels is actually full range, and can be recorded at the same resolution as the other channels. This permits it to e used instead as an extra main channel, for example, as a “height” speaker which is above the listening position. This has been done on some DVD-A releases, however, to take full advantage of this the end user may have to accommodate his/her speaker arrangement.

If the user does not have a 5.1 surround sound setup, DVD-A's may be able to downmix the 5.1 audio channel to two-channel audio provided that the coefficients were set in the stream at authoring. Downmixing can only be done to two-channel stereo, not to other configurations, such as 4.0 quad. DVD-A may also feature menus, text subtitles, still images. and video, plus in high end authoring systems, it is also possible to link directly into a Video TS folder that might contain video tracks, as well as PCK stereo and other “bonus” features.

The Flaming Lips release of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots was one of the first CD's released in the DVD-A format. Since its inception, the DVD-A format has come under intense competition from Sony's SACD format, JVC's xrcd format, and HDCD. To date, only a handful of albums have been released in the DVD-A format including some albums of the Beach Boys. Many audiophiles have argued that they could not hear that much difference in the quality of audio on a DVD-A as opposed to a standard CD or SACD. Many early DVD-A's were highly priced (some over $30.00 for a single album) which further hindered the progress of the format. Oddly enough, the format which would give the DVD-A the biggest run for it money was actually a variation of itself…the Dual Disc. Seeing the tremendous potential DVD-A's provided in being able to combine audio and video on some small disc, record companies began to produce Dual Discs where a consumer would get the CD plus a DVD with just the music videos or live performances.

The future of DVD-A remains unclear. With the success of Dual Disc CD/DVD and with SACD and HDCD slowly increasing in popularity, the DVD-A's days seem numbered. There are, however, a number of online retailers who continue to carry the format and there are many albums still available for those who want to explore the format's still untapped potential.