It has been a long time waiting but it appears as if finally, DVD-Audio is taking shape. 5.1 Entertainment Group announced the company is about to release the first 17 titles, a series of classical discs recorded in the nascent DVD-Audio format.

Beginning next week, the first of these titles will hit the shelves of select retailers, according to Paul Newnham, Chief Financial Officer and President of Distribution Services at 5.1 Entertainment, giving the consumer market what is likely its first taste of DVD-Audio. True to the company’s name, all recordings will be made available in 5.1 channels of 24-bit/96kHz music.

Los Angeles-based 5.1 Entertainment engineers its recordings with the DPC-II, a digital console made by Soundtracs, headquartered in Surrey, England. The DPC-II was installed in September 1999. Prior to that, 5.1 Entertainment made use of a smaller model on loan from Soundtracs.

5.1 Entertainment is releasing its recordings on its Silverline and Immergent labels. Newnham said the company will release one original recording among the initial batch of classical titles, a jazz/big band set performed by The Big Fat Band.

The company announced some time earlier that it has licensed over 240 48-track masters of classical recordings by the London Symphony and London Philharmonic orchestras and will gradually release them on DVD-Audio. Additionally, 5.1 Entertainment is in talks with several major labels to bring to the DVD-Audio format popular recordings of various genres, Newnham said.

All we need now is players to playback these babies…