Will the HDCD format survive

It seems to a decent format in that these discs usually sound well mastered irrespective if you have a HDCD filter or not. It'll survive but probably fade over time. The other new formats(DVDA& SACD) are a joke since so little of it is actually available. I would guess normal CD's will dominate at least for the next couple years and you can bet SACD will die at birth due to the DVD formats becoming universal

Lgregory If you recall Sony also tried to push the BETA video format and lost even though it was better. The market will dictate where it goes as it ALWAYS does. Sony can push all they want but ultimately I think DVD will be the ultimate winner and why wouldn't it be? It only makes sense. DVD movies are the new wave for home entertainment. Audio will be incorporated in this format. Why have more than one? Who wants SACD? Home Entertainment is the future 2 channel audio is only for enthusiasts and as time goes on I'm afraid will shrink further.

This is a great forum, there is enough knowledge here that if you read trough a thread you will usually end up with enough knowledge to draw your own conclusions, especially on questions related to the future,which unless you own a crystal ball (an audiophile approved crystal ball!) you couldn't answer with certainty. I have HDCD in my DVD player and only own two albums that take advantage of it out of several hundreds. Will we see an upsurge of HDCD remastered CD's I personnaly doubt that.

Contrary to what most folks assume, DVD-A will never catch on because no retail space will be allocated to it. Retailers are not going to replace CDs with DVD-A since no consumers have DVD-A players and the discs won't play in current DVD players. Moreover, where are the discs? There aren't ANY, and there won't be ANY for some time. As a final nail in DVD-A's coffin, the watermarking to be used in DVD-A is audible. As such, no audiophiles will buy it, even if it ever becomes available. As to the original poster's question about HDCD. Forget it, HDCD isn't even a format.

There are 20 times the number of titles in HDCD as in SACD, and they aren't restricted to the Sony/Columbia/subsidiary catalog either. I'd call that dominant...SACD will never catch up to the number of titles mastered with HDCD. SACD will never catch on with the general public (they're priced too high), and HDCD already has. SACD's will never play their SACD layer on a CD player, and HDCD has always been compatible with all CD players (don't require the HDCD subcode to be decoded, in order to play). Wake up and smell the cauffin...