HDCD - What does Microsoft have to do with it?

[Helevitia]

I was browsing www.hdcd.com and I noticed that Microsofts name is written above the site logo. Jesus! They touch everything. They are eeeevil! They are touching me now! Sick bastards! quit touching me! aaahhhh!!!!!

btw, Tool's new CD is an HDCD and it sounds amazing. You can't really tell the difference too much between CDs and HDCDs but every now and then you hear that extra high not or the subtle background noise of some obscure tool sound. It is really nice.

Dave

[Helevitia]

OK, I actually decided to stop being lazy and look at the "about" portion of the website, hear is what I was looking for....

"HDCD technology was originally developed by Keith Johnson and Pflash Pflaumer, two preeminent technologists in the audio arena. In 1996, they founded Pacific Microsonics, Inc. (PMI), a California-based audio technology licensing company, in order to improve the quality of digital audio recordings and playback while remaining compatible with established digital formats.

In September 2000, Microsoft Corporation acquired PMI. Microsoft will incorporate PMI's pioneering technology into future offerings for the PC, will make it available for a wide range of consumer devices, and will continue to support and develop the existing products. This technology brings to Microsoft unique strengths in digital audio signal processing that are increasingly important as digital media becomes a primary source of entertainment."

My CD player is gonna crash soon, damn!

Dave

[Liquid Snake]

Here's an explanation about the technology from http://www.hometheaterhifi.com :

"High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD) is a technology developed by Pacific Microsonics, now owned by Microsoft. The method attempts to take a recording made at high sampling rate (greater than 100 kHz) and with long word length (20 - 24 bits), and then transcribe it onto a 44.1 kHz, 16 bit CD. Additional information is stored on the CD so that when the HDCD recording is played back on a HDCD player, some of the benefit of the high sampling rate and longer word length comes through. HDCD discs are said to sound better even on a regular CD player, and regular CDs are claimed to sound better on a HDCD player. There are many HDCD CDs available, and numerous players have HDCD capability. High Definition Compatible Digital might be confused with High Density Compact Disc (also abbreviated HDCD), but which is now called Digital Video Disc, Digital Versatile Disc, or DVD (see below)."