Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems CES 2008 Extended G series press release

Oh no here I go away and work a week what is happening ? are M dropping DVD-A support !!

The some off the reason's that I after 2 years off thinking, bougth in to the M stuff was that they could deliver high res audio DIGITALY to the processor.
And the stuff was uppgradeable and thus relativle future proof.

No DVD-A in G series.
No uppgrade path for G series (only sidegrade to something similar).

Oh well, back to bying cheap av hardware and throw into the dumpster very 2year ;-)

I have more than hundred DVD-A's dualdisc's and other strange DVD-V hybrids with 24bit audio.

I hope that they stock upp spare parts for the G98 i'm gona need them in the decades to come.

As you can see from my earlier posts, I also think that Meridian dropping support for DVD-A is INSANE.

However, I again want to stress that All DVD-A`s (at least 98%) will continue to play on ALL Meridian DVD Players, including the newer G92, G96, G95, F80 and 808.2 as well as the “older” DVD players. The only Tracks they won`t play is the MLP Encoded MULTI CHANNEL 5.1 mixes

Most importantly, they will continue to play the High Resolution 96/24 2-Channel Mixes available on the vast majority of DVD-A`s. AND they will output this Track DIGITALLY over a SINGLE Coax into your G68 as well as the newer, just released G92 and G61R (i.e. Smartlink or 3xSPDIF not required). These 96/24 Tracks are a VERY significant sonic improvement over their 48/16 equivalents and should be enjoyed long into the future

Likewise, ALL of the Meridian DVD Players will play the 2-Channel Music DVD-V`s out there with 96/24 tracks and will also output this track DIGITALLY on a single Coax to the G68 etc. So, again, these can be enjoyed well into the future.

In the Real World, the only Tracks that we will miss out on are the Multi Channel High Res mixes and IMHO, many of these were a little suspect anyway for music that had not been originally recorded and produced with a Multi Channel environment in mind. The net result was that “older” music usually sounded better on the 2-Channel High Res mixes than the MLP Multi Channel mixes (at least to my ears)

In any case, Trifield and other Meridian Soundfields usually do a better job of creating a “Surround” ambience than the Multi Channel mixes (again IMHO)

The Superb AIX and Teldec Catalogs (as well as some other people) who recorded specifically for Multi Channel would be the exceptions to the above

For what it`s worth, there are quite a few non-Meridian DVD-V Players out there that will

a) Play the 2-Channel 96/24 Mixes from both DVD-A`s and DVD-V`s
b) AND Output this DIGITALLY to the Meridian Processor

These include many of the Sony DVD-V players (7700DVD, 9000ES etc.) as well as some of the Pioneer DVD-V players.

Indeed, I successfully play many DVD-A`s and DVD-V`s in a Sony DVD player to a Meridian 568 (and get the expected 96/24 LPCM on display) The result is still very good and naturally on a higher plane than regular CD`s

So, while Meridian`s “news” is disappointing, all is not lost for High Resolution Music Replay


Cheers
Ronnie

I realy love the 5.1 MLP track's so that's the make it or brake it for me.
I agree that they are some dodgy remixes out there.

If M droops true DVD-A support (all digital) where is the competitive edge ?
this was unique.

Hopfully they don't reduce the DVD/processor combos to expensive acessories to make a movie/Trifield experience out of you digital speakers.

I have analog amps and speakers, some competing stuff may look intresting agian if M is going to have the same features as everybody else.

" If M droops true DVD-A support (all digital) where is the competitive edge ?
this was unique. "

I , too , have no intention of dropping my DVD-A collection , 5.1 mlp is my favourite way of listening . Maybe it's my time of life , or the world we live in , but I really like HAVING to sit and listen and these tracks force that on you . I don't think you can compare the Stereo DVD-A tracks to a good Discrete 5.1 and as for the lossy Dolby/dts tracks I never use them . The 'presence' or 'solidity' that Trifield brings is naturally there in a good 5.1 .

All of which is , of course ,is personal opinion . I don't believe Meridian should be dropping these functionalities anyway . Instead of standing out from the crowd they will end up just merging into it .

~M~

I wonder if DVD-A support is/was tied up with a planned HD-DVD player with smartlink/MHR (HD-DVD rather than Blu-Ray based on the collaboration between Meridian and Microsoft that leaked last year). This is entirely supposition on my part, but if DVD-A has been indeed dropped why do all the processors still have smartlink? If this is correct, the recent Warner decision of course will have thrown a reasonably sizable spanner into the works.

This scenario could also explain the complete lack of communication from Meridian regarding the apparent dropping of DVD-A.

Smartlink will be for the old players people still have., if M dropps it on never players.
Nice theory that is tied to A HD-DVD solution, not unlikely.
Wonder howlong it will take M do do a 180 turn ?

There is a big difference between supporting a legacy/failed format such as Ambisonic and DVD-A. Ambisonic decoding is purely a DSP affair, but DVD-A requires hardware support in the MPEG decoder.

Now there's a thought... I wonder if M has ditched the C-Cube Ziva (5) MPEG decoder for something better? Removing the need for DVD-A would give you a wider choice of MPEG chips, and would allow choice of a decoder without the CUE bug for instance (ahem!).

I was just reading the "Secrets" review on the Integra DTC9.8

Very disappointing that Meridian has let itself get so far behind.....

Certainly, the Integra looks interesting

However, and without wanting to absolve Meridian, when you go look for a Unit that has BOTH

a) HDMI
b) Internal Decoding of Dolby True HD and DTS MA (e.g. Lexicon don't according to their Website)

You may then say that the Decoding can be provided by the player, until you look at AVS and realise that many of the players that advertise it don't actually provide it. (Read the Secrets review of the recent Pioneer and Panasonic players for more info. Also look at AVS Threads for those players and you realise that very few if any, are doing what it says on the tin)

It's only when you go look that you realise how incredibly limited the Market is right now for a Player or Processor that does everything correctly. And at the prices that Meridian would charge , we would certainly expect them to do EVERYTHING correctly

Being honest, before I went to look critically, I thought that Meridian were further behind than they actually were.

I also think that if the Meridian HDMI unit were to only equal the Integra's performance, we would all be very unhappy given the prices Meridian would charge for the priviledge. Can you imagine paying �2.5k now to upgrade your G68 only to find that you would need to spend another �2k in 12 months to achieve the Superior performance you expect from a Meridian unit

I just wish that Meridian would communicate this and their Roadplan more effectively

Data sheets are now up for the new G and 808.2 players over at the Meridian media site http://media.meridian-audio.com/

~M~

G96. What a ridiculous waste of money.

A SCARY thought, Joel!

Removing DVD-A capability from future incarnations of 800/861 would be an upgrade deal killer for me. While it may be an essentially dead format for most, I have almost 40 discs that would be greatly missed.