All about CD, HDCD and SACD Audio Disc Formats - 2021

 

All about CD, HDCD and SACD Audio Disc Formats - 2021

It was the CD that started the digital music revolution, although pre-recorded CDs have certainly lost their luster to the convenience of streaming and downloading digital music. Many people still love CDs and buy and play them regularly. Here's what you need to know about Audio CDs and their related disc-based formats.

Audio CD format

CD stands for CD. Compact disc refers to a disc and digital audio playback format developed by Philips and Sony, in which audio is digitally encoded in a pit of the disc using a process called PCM, in a manner similar to how computer data is encoded (1's and 0's). . This is a mathematical expression of music.

 

The first CD recording was made in Germany on August 17, 1982. First full CD test recording titled: Richard Strauss' Alpine Symphony. Later that year, on October 1, 1982, CD players were released in the United States and Japan. The first sold CD (Japan's first) was Billy Joel's 52nd Street previously released on vinyl in 1978.

 

CD started the digital revolution in audio, PC gaming, PC storage applications, and also contributed to the development of DVD. Sony and Philips jointly hold patents for the development of CD and CD player technology.

 

The standard CD audio format is also called "Redbook CD".

 

For more on the history of audio CDs, check out CNN.com's report.

 

Also check out photos and a full review (written by Stereophile Magazine, 1983) of the first CD player sold to the public.

 

In addition to pre-recorded audio, CDs can be used in several other applications.

• CD-R - CD-R stands for CD-Recordable. These discs can be used to record or "burn" music or data using either a CD recorder (music only) or a PC (music or data). Some CD-Rs are dedicated to recording music while others can record both music or data. A CD-R can only be written once.
• CD-RW - Same function as CD-R, except that the CD can be erased and reused (the RW designation is rewritable).
• MP3-CD - An MP3 CD can be a CD-R or RW disc on which MP3 music files are written instead of standard CD audio files. This disc can be played on most CD, DVD and Blu-ray Disc players (you need to check the capabilities of your player).
• JPEG Photo CD - A JPEG Photo CD can be a CD-R or RW disc with photos recorded in the JPEG file format. JPEG photo CDs can be played on PC and compatible CD, DVD and Blu-ray Disc players.
• VideoCD - In addition to audio and photos, you can record video to CD. This is not the same as DVD, there is more quality between DVD and VHS formats. Video CDs cannot be played on CD players unless they have a video output connection. Although video CD players were popular in the Asian market. Video CD can be played on compatible DVD and Blu-ray Disc players.

HDCD

HDCD is a variant of the CD audio standard that extends the audio information stored in the CD signal from 4 bits (CD is based on 16-bit audio technology) to 20 bits. Encoded CDs can be played on non-HDCD CD players (non-HDCD players just ignore the extra "bits") without increasing the price of CD software. Also, as a by-product of the more fine-grained filtering circuitry of the HDCD chip, even "regular" CDs sound more complete and natural in an HDCD-equipped CD player.

HDCD was originally developed by Pacific Microsonics and later became a property of Microsoft. The first HDCD discs were released in 1995, and although they can't keep up with the Redbook CD format, more than 5,000 titles have been released (check the partial list).

When buying a music CD, look for the HDCD initials on the back or inside packaging. However, there are many releases that do not include an HDCD label, but it may be an HDCD disc. If you have a CD player with HDCD decoding, it will automatically detect your CD player and give you an added advantage.

HDCD is a high-definition compatible digital, high-definition compact digital, and high-definition compact disc.

SACD

SACD (Super Audio Compact Disc) is a high-resolution audio disc format developed by Sony and Philips (some also developed CDs). SACD uses the Direct Stream Digital (DSD) file format to reproduce sound more accurately than the Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) currently used as the CD format.

The standard CD format is tied to a 44.1 kHz sampling rate, whereas SACD is sampled at 2.8224 MHz. And with a storage capacity of 4.7 GB per disc (as much as a DVD), the SACD can accommodate 100 minutes of separate stereo and 6-channel mixes each. The SACD format also has the ability to display photographic and textual information, such as liner notes, but this feature is not integrated into most discs.

CD players cannot play SACDs, but SACD players are backwards compatible with regular CDs, and some SACD discs are dual-layer discs with PCM content that can be played on standard CD players. This means you can store both the CD version and the SACD version of the recorded content on the same disk. This means that you can invest in a dual-format SACD to play it on your current CD player and then later access the SACD content on the same disc on an SACD-compatible player.

Not all SACD discs have a standard CD layer. This means you need to check the disc label to make sure that certain SACD discs can also be played on standard CD players.

SACDs can also be played on select high-end DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD disc players.

SACDs are available in 2-channel or multi-channel versions. If an SACD has a CD version, the CD is always two-channel, but the SACD layer can be a two-channel or multi-channel version.

It should also be pointed out that the DSD file format coding used by SACD is being used as one of the available formats used for downloading Hi-Res audio. This provides music listeners with improved quality in a non-physical audio disc format.

SACD is also called Super Audio CD, Super Audio Compact Disc, SA-CD