Blu-ray High Fidelity Pure Audio discs target audio enthusiasts

Music studios claim that the Blu-ray High Fidelity Pure Audio format ensures audio quality as it was intended by the artist. The format uses up to 192 kHz audio at 24 bits instead of  the 44.1 kHz at 16 bits on regular audio CDs.  The Blu-ray Pure Audio discs play on any regular Blu-ray player and Warner Music, Sony and Universal have released or plan to release discs.

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Previously audio enthusiasts (or audiophiles) had to resort to formats such as Super Audio CD (SACD) and DVD-Audio, while both offer better quality audio than audio CDs, they never became really popular. Especially SACDs required an expensive player and was only supported by a part of the industry. With Blu-ray High Fidelity Pure Audio the studios claim the best possible audio that will playback on any regular $50 Blu-ray player, preferably hooked up to a Hifi set.

Like regular CDs the High Fidelity Pure Audio discs can be played without a screen. You can skip through tracks using  controls like play, stop, forward, backward and skip directly to a track using the numeric keys. Using the color buttons it's possible to switch between audio streams, if supported by the disc. This way you could potentially switch between 5.1 surround, stereo, 7.1 or 9.1 surround.

Pure Audio discs can also be equipped with mShuttle, which allows you to access the Blu-ray player from your computer. To use the feature, the Blu-ray player and the PC need to be connected to the same network. By using the browser of the PC it's possible to access the music in a portable format like MP3 which can be transferred to portable audio players.

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It could also be possible the tracks will be made available without the need of a physical discs. There are plans to make it possible to download 1 GB high quality four minute audio tracks. However the studios estimate it will take three to five years before that becomes available.

A list of currently available Blu-ray Pure Audio discs is available here.

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