
HD Giants, the company founded to sell high definition music to the burgeoning Media Center PC market, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company known for its Airstream trailer demo and its often 96 kHz 24 bit resolution tracks was the only one to have "HD rights" to music from the majors such as Universal Music, Sony, EMI as well as other indie labels like Concord and Naxos.
HD Giants added HD movie downloads to its product offerings in early 2008 - a move clearly ahead of its time. Today, HD Giants compete with other giants like Apple Computer selling easy-to-use 720p movies and Microsoft's Xbox 360 which will soon have 1080p downloads offered to consumers.
The failure of HD Giants raises questions about the future of HD Music as HD Giants understood that high dollar systems feature HD sources, yet CD resolution music is not viewed by monied clients and audiophiles alike to be truly high definition. The remasters that HD Giants did were in fact high resolution. Going forward HD Giants needs to get DRM Free control over their collection so that they can compete with the likes of Apple and many others if HD Giants is to succeed. Many in the audiophile and custom installation market, including HomeTheaterReview.com wish them the best.
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A sad state of affairs right here.
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