DVD Audio's hi-fi advantage still a hard sell at mass - CE & Entertainment

DSN Retailing Today, April 7, 2003

While DVD has enjoyed unbridled success over the past six years, DVD Audio has struggled to find a wide audience. But some key industry players are working to move the music format out of obscurity and into the mainstream.

Best Buy is taking DVD Audio out of the video section and moving it into a new area in the music department where it will be sold with Super Audio CD. The retailer began the move last month and will have the new sections in all stores by May.

"We're going to give it higher visibility and put it in the music department, which is where it really belongs," said Best Buy spokeswoman Donna Beadle. "And we're going to educate our consumers on what DVD Audio is all about."

Getting consumers interested has been a problem for Best Buy and other retailers. DVD Audio discs can play on any DVD player and boast sound quality superior to CDs. But so far, only music purists and technophiles with surround-sound stereo systems have taken the plunge.

The DVD Entertainment Group is spreading the word by including a free DVD Audio sample disc in "home theater in a box" systems sold by manufacturers like Panasonic. "That's helped introduce the product to a lot of new people," said Jeff Dean, president of Los Angeles-based Silverline Records, which distributes DVD Audio. "Sales are still modest, but they're growing."

But some analysts question whether the format will ever move beyond its current niche. "I think the recording industry may have the music equivalent of the laser disc on their hands" said Ryan Jones, an analyst with The Yankee Group in Boston. "The utility of DVD Audio to consumers is really thin, and that creates a tough barrier to widespread adoption."