
Format wars this past century - iamelgringo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Format_war
======
jwilliams
Kind of cool. The SACD vs DVD-A war is an interesting one, because effectively
they both lost (this article places them in the 1990's).

So now we don't really have a viable high-quality audio format - somehow lossy
formats have dominated so much the niche has just vanished. You can probably
find more new vinyl than high-quality digital nowadays.

~~~
iamelgringo
My wife and I went to a flea market a couple of weeks ago, and we purchased
about 20 vinyl albums to rip using her new USB turntable.

I was absolutely astounded at how much better the audio quality was than the
usual web streaming/CD quality stuff. It's really hard to beat good old
fashioned analog audio.

~~~
DarkShikari
It's not the analog that makes it sound better, it's the loudness war that
makes the digital sound worse:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war>

The most sickening thing about the "loudness war" is that it has become so
utterly pervasive that even completely amateur-produced and indie CDs are
overamplified and covered in clipping in the exact same way the latest Britney
Spears album is. While for older music (~80s and earlier) there usually exists
previous albums without too much clipping, newer music--even good music--is
usually only available in a single overamplified release.

~~~
jwilliams
This is true, but it also represents a market shift - CD's are now really for
listening in your car, or ripping to your PC.

LP's were for the days when you had a "hifi" and could be produced to actually
have a soundstage.

The interesting thing is that's generally the target for SACD, DVD-A (i.e.
someone with a high-end hifi). So they generally sound better irrespective of
the technical qualities.

Video DVDs that are about musical performances (e.g. a classical concert) also
tend to sound better for the same reasons. Although they generally tend to
have compression, DTS, multi-channel, etc, etc, which I've never been a fan
of.... All the same, the production is usually much better for a hifi
scenario.

------
ovi256

      Ultra-wideband networking technology — in early 2006, an IEEE standards working group disbanded because two factions could not agree on a single standard for a successor to Wi-Fi. (WiMedia Alliance, IEEE 802.15, WirelessHD)
    

Better is the enemy of good for sure. Classic prisoner's dilemma : they could
not compromise, they all stand to lose now.

