Jens

That's right. You will not find PC CD/DVD/BD-ROM drives that can read SACDs.

Memorable indeed. I know it must have been broadcast in America, because the initial DVD Box Set I've got is a US edition (NTSC, Region 1). Only much later the BBC issued a PAL Region 2 version. (I've got both

Well, Francis Urquhart I know, but I couldn't see why his famous line would suddenly pop up after so many years, other than if his US counterpart uses these same words.

Does Francis Underwood say this too? I'm a huge fan of the original BBC series (viewed it on TV at the time it aired, bought the DVD box set as soon as it came out -- one of my first DVDs -- watched it numerous times since) and can't wait to see the US remake but Netlfix is still not available in my area :-(

Well, that and FireWire/i.LINK/IEEE1394 before it but that interface's got DTCP copy protection and doesn't get you any further than HDMI.

The bit rate is not the issue -- it's that the 1-bit format just doesn't lend itself to any processing. It's perfect for plain 'archiving' of analog streams (which is what it was originally invented for) but not for editing. That's why DXD was invented. Taxing in terms of bit rate but it's essentially PCM which lends itself excellently to processing.

If you want something cheap you'll have to do without but if you're willing to shell out $1-2k, by all means get a DSD-capable DAC.

I don't have the answers but this sounds to me like something you may want to ask in the forum at PS3SACD.com.

if the seller can testify the drive wasn't serviced/replaced (or the unit otherwise refursbished) you'll be fine too. No further hints for this question but just about any other question concerning SACD on PS3 you'll find answered in the PS3 SACD FAQ at http://www.ps3sacd.com/faq.html

> Is it a software or hardware issue with newer PS3s playing SACDs? It is a hardware issue: Dedicated circuitry is needed in the optical drive for dealing with SACD's special copy protection, PSP. The cost of this circuitry, the enormous price pressure in the console market and the apparent modest overlap between the gamer target group and audiophiles must have made Sony decide to drop the feature after the first two generations. > Just curious if in some models Sony disabled the feature via fw or if it still works on all the machines on which it was previously permitted. SACD still works on all the PS3 on which it was previously permitted. The only thing that was disabled in firmware is on-the-fly DSD-to-DTS transcoding -- an undocumented feature that was introduced in FW v2.00 -- in FW v2.01 See http://www.ps3sacd.com/faq.html#_Toc177216809

DLNA? You can get SACD's DSD via i.Link/FireWire/IEEE1394 with DTCP and via HDMI with HDCP but not via DLNA as far as I'm aware. Please enlighten me if I'm wrong.

Exactly, that's right. Those 4 models (the first two generations) account for about 8M units. Since then, over 32 M units of many other models have been shipped.

Well, of that early build there are some 8 million units out there so that shouldn't be too difficult. The OS and firmware will prove a tougher challenge but the idea seems to be that the other recent hacks of PS3 will enable firmware downgrading or installation of OtherOS regardless of the firmware version.