comments to Amir edited at AVS.

[Danno]

but saved for posterity.

The mods rushed to his defense in record time.

Originally Posted by amirm

I don’t claim to be the expert here. But I have spent a decade managing and helping develop both lossless codecs and lossy codecs. I grew up with audio as my hobby and designed amplifiers and such while I was going to high school. I later became an electrical engineer and have managed development of professional audio and video gear for the broadcast industry. I have spent more money on my audio hobby than 99% of the people out there. My headphones alone cost more than most people's home theater (Stax electrostatic with differential tube amp and its sister with differential transistor output stage, clocking at $14K for both). This is driven by a Mark Levinson DAC which costs $8K. All the box does is convert digital audio to analog to drive said speaker. So I have invested as much as a car just for stereo audio!

I have provided references to Bob Stuart's excellent paper on the non-sense around 24-bit audio. Bob is founder of Meridian who is in the business to convince you that you must spend $40K on audio equipment. Yet he doesn't want to sell you specs but reality. And the reality is that superb audio can be reproduced with much more conservative sounding specs. And that there is no difference in fidelity after that point.

Then we have Marc (Filmmixer) who creates audio tracks used for both BD and HD DVD. If you want to call his motives into question, the please go and do that in insider thread, not behind his back.

John is likewise, providing moral support. And we know the reputation of this company.

Everyone here speaks with one voice: that is, don't believe specs. Believe reality. And be pragmatic. Don't ask for 24-bit audio when the best recorded material is probably 16-bits. Don't insist on lossless if you haven't heard the comparison to high rate lossy, etc.

At end of the day, threads like this go on forever. So I won't post more but I hope people don't dismiss so many people asking to not fall for marketing claims....

And I'm telling you straight up that all of this^^ is a line you're being paid to feed to the unsuspecting, or unknowledgable consumer, because you're counting on the fact that most of them won't be able to tell the difference.

Given that HD-DVD's target demographic is Joe6pack with a small wallet who can only afford a $199 disc player, you may be completely correct in your assertion that most people who will buy into HD DVD won't be able to tell the difference between lossy and lossless.

But you do anyone with a background in semi-pro/pro-audio a complete disservice in pronouncing that NO ONE will.

I also have a feeling you do, in fact, know better, but your contractual obligations and payscale dictate that you must state otherwise.

You do realize of course that from the perspective of the educated consumer on the format War - you're the equivalent of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Transformers HD DVD release is being looked at as your Waterloo, right?