awatkins

We are the victims of some false advertising on the part of our friends at Lexus. The say that the Mark Levinson system plays DVD-Audio discs, and that it's a surround system. And it is.

Just never at the same time.

If you're not familiar with DVD-As, they are one two successors to the CD as the standard high-resolution audio distribution medium (the other being Sony's SA-CD). Both formats have as their primary benefit the ability to reproduce an extremely convincing surround sound listening experience. If you've never heard one of these in a good surround system, you're really missing out. And that's why I was so disappointed to discover that Lexus has been less than honest about this. Because an LS-460 or 600 would be a delightful environment for good surround sound, and providing good surround sound is the main benefit of DVD-Audio discs.

If you don't believe me, get a copy of the Chesky DVD-A "The Ultimate Surround Sampler and 5.1 Setup Disc", #CHDVD221. Play the channel identification tracks. You'll hear front left and front right, but the other channels will remain silent. Or play *any* DVD-A with distinct rear channel material. The Who's "Tommy" is a good example.

Don't be confused by some sound coming out of the forward pair of rear speakers. That's just fill the the system throws in. It's not the rear channels playing, it's just some bleed from the front channels.

And what really aggravates this situation is that most of these surround DVD-As also have Dolby Digital Surround tracks. But apparently the ML system won't play those either because they are not on a DVD-VIDEO disc. So when we put a DVD-Audio disc into our ML systems, we actually had two chances to play surround and Lexus blew both of them.

So if you think you're getting the full benefit of your DVD-As from your Mark Levinson system by playing surround, let me know what you're playing and how you did it. Who knows, maybe they'll fix this one of these days.

3alwi

actually i ried to play a DVD-A that i did, but id didn't work on my ML although in the manual it shows it should palay it, it tried a DVD-MP3 and then i tried DVD-WMA, but the original songs were MP3.

so im still using MP3 CDs lol

rominl

iTrader: (4)

dvd mp3/wma won't work... it's not supported at all. only mp3/wma cd

dvd-a is a totally different thing

sellshomes

Its says DVD Audio and DVD Video playback on the rear seat upgrade I got, Does that mean I can play DVDs movies?

rominl

iTrader: (4)

you don't need rear seats upgrades. all ls460 with ML can play dvd movies, but only when the parking brake is engaged (unless you have the override)