Hdcd

Lowell_M

I may be a little confused here.... DKG999 brought over a CD that was an HDCD yesterday. In playing it in my DVD player, which is connected via tos-link, my H/K flashed "HDCD" on the screen when it began to play.

Is HDCD a different format, a more dense bit stream?...what exactly is it? I have a rather cheapo DVD player and am certain it wouldnt' "decode" HDCD, but I am not really using the DAC in the DVD player. Does the player just send a straight bitstream of whatever it reads to the HK and then the DAC in the HK recognizes it as an HDCD?

Again, a clarification of what exactly and HDCD is would probably help my understanding, but I would also be interested in any personal thoughts on HDCD.....

steveinaz

What a search found:

"HDCD (High Definition Compatible Digital) is a digital encoding and decoding process for compact disc and DVD audio recording. The HDCD process manages to encode 20 bits of audio information into a conventional CD 16-bit channel, yielding a greater dynamic range and a more true-to-life sound when decoded. HDCD was developed by Keith Johnson and Pflash Pflaumer between 1986 and 1991, and made publicly available in 1995. Johnson and Pflaumer went on to found Pacific Microsonics, which was later acquired by Microsoft. Since 1995, more than 5,000 HDCD recordings have been released and more than 175 of those have been nominated for GRAMMY awards. An article in Wired Magazine hailed HDCD technology as "the greatest single advance in digital reproduction to date."
Audio chip manufacturers including Motorola, Sanyo, and Zoran have developed HDCD chips for audio products, such as CD and DVD players and receivers. HDCD-encoded media will play on machines that don't have the chip, and HDCD-equipped machines can play traditionally recorded media. Because the decoder chips include a high-precision digital filter, HDCD-equipped players will improve audio quality for even traditionally recorded CDs and DVDs. Conversely, because of the recording process, HDCD-encoded media will also sound better than traditionally CDs and DVDs on players that don't have the HDCD chip. Nevertheless, the best audio quality is yielded by HDCD-encoded media on an HDCD-equipped player."

BlueMDPicker

"HDCD (High Definition Compatible Digital) is a digital encoding and decoding process for compact disc and DVD audio recording. The HDCD process manages to encode 20 bits of audio information into a conventional CD 16-bit channel, yielding a greater dynamic range and a more true-to-life sound when decoded.

Audio chip manufacturers including Motorola, Sanyo, and Zoran have developed HDCD chips for audio products, such as CD and DVD players and receivers. HDCD-encoded media will play on machines that don't have the chip, and HDCD-equipped machines can play traditionally recorded media. Because the decoder chips include a high-precision digital filter, HDCD-equipped players will improve audio quality for even traditionally recorded CDs and DVDs."

I have two, tube output CDPs with HDCD capability and HDCD media is very noticably (as noted above) of "a greater dynamic range and a more true-to-life sound."

danger boy

all an HDCD is a slightly higher resolution Redbook CD. it can be played in ANY cd player. but if the player can decode HDCD is will give you an extra 4 bits of info. LIke stated above.. all Redbook CD's are mastered at 16bits, HDCD's are mastered at 20 bits. DVD-audio at 24bits. so the more bits, the higher resoultion and should be much better sounding.

no special CD player is needed to play HDCD's. and they've been around for years.. just that often times CD's aren't labeled at HDCD's anymore.

Systems

The Guys at Spectral developed it back in the early to mid 90's.Interestingly I find a lot of Country music artists CD's are done with HDCD.

Refefer

A question: If compatibility with regular CD players is not affected, why not encode all new CDs in HDCD, especially if higher fidelity is acheived than a standard 16-bit CD?

Does it use a different media, or is it simply a different recorder that manages to squeeze more data onto a standard cd?

steveinaz

Refefer wrote:

A question: If compatibility with regular CD players is not affected, why not encode all new CDs in HDCD, especially if higher fidelity is acheived than a standard 16-bit CD?

Good question, I wish "they" would, I have yet to hear a poorly recorded HDCD.

Lowell_M

Ok....This is starting to make sense to me, but.... Does this mean that since my H/K flashes "HDCD" on the front when an HDCD is put in that the DAC is actually getting all 20 bits of information from my DVD player and therefore playing the full HDCD sound?

shack

Eveidently the H/K will decode HDCD when fed an optical signal from the source and you should be getting the higher resolution playback.

univera

HDCD is now owned by Microsoft.

Here's a link to a thread I started a while back. It has two links in the thread that provide info on HDCD titles, which I found useful since many HDCD's are not even labled as such. I initially discovered this when playing a John Lee Hooker disk which has no markings for HDCD anywhere on the disk or case. Why bother to make a higher quality product and not market it as such? I would definitely be more likely to grab an HDCD over standard Redbook when given the choice.

Danny Tse

Microsoft used to have a database with a partial list of HDCD-encoded CDs. However, MS has decided to delete the site. Over at head-fi.org, there's a ongoing thread that tries to identify all unmarked HDCD-encoded CDs (it was started before MS deleted its own HDCD site) and it should also have a link to a Swedish website that tries to replace the MS site.

F1nut

I wonder how HDCD compares to upsampled 24/192? Has anybody done a comparision?

Lowell_M

Ok. I'm confused and half frustrated....

I bought the Jewell Christmas CD tonight, which has the HDCD emblem on the back. When I played the only other HDCD I have seen, my AVR-635 flashed "HDCD" on the front to indicate an HDCD was being played and decoded (which I verified in the HK owners manual). Now, while this CD sounds fantastic, the receiver is not indicating that it is an HDCD.

???????????? Anybody have an H/K and know what I am talking about?

Lowell_M

F1nut wrote:

I wonder how HDCD compares to upsampled 24/192? Has anybody done a comparision?

What is upsampled 24/192? Right now I was goign down the road of finding some nice HDCD recordings. I did see a CD by "The Band" tonight that was "mastered in 24 bit". Is this what you are referring to?