"Raimo Korhonen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >L�hett�j�: Herb Chong <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >>the CD came out just before 1980. it was very expensive at first and just >>for show. i attended some of the Sony seminars when they were first coming >>out. you couldn't buy anything at a "record store" until about 1982 though. > >I have thought that it is a Philips patent.
Sony and Philips developed the format together. The electronic format of the data stream is still called SPDIF (Sony Philips Digital Interface Format). A few were on the market in late 1982, but it wasn't until 1983 that they really showed up in the stores. I worked in the audio business at the time. The first ones on the market sounded excruciatingly bad. It wasn't until the so-called "one-bit" digital-to-analog converters appeared in the late 80's that I got a CD player myself. The early discs were horrible, too. A lot of the classic analog recordings that were remastered for CD in the 80's were re-remastered in the 90's when analog-to-digital converters had improved significantly. What the transition from analog audio to digital audio has in common with the changeover from film to digital photography is that it has been based primarily on *convenience* and gee-whiz techo-appeal at first. Quality has come along as the technology has improved. -- Mark Roberts Photography and writing www.robertstech.com
