Philips, SACD's co-backer with Sony, was a major sponsor of DVD Europe, making the DVD Forum uncomfortable since it does not recognize SACD as a format. He said Philips and Sony had fundamental disagreements with the WG-4 over four principle issues. Philips and Sony's insistence that the next format have full compatibility with CD created a major schism between the two camps, he noted. The SACD production process has a built-in verifier and emulator. In any case, there are 350 SACD titles now available.
Consumer awareness is low.
But he was still confident that titles would hit London shops by the end of the last week of April. He pointed out that the audio portion on a DVD-Video is unprotected. He commended Israeli customs for recently seizing 4,000 illegal DVDs at the Tel Aviv airport. Inc. All Rights Reserved.