Hdcd

[daphy]

Hi,

some questions concering disc formats:

What exactly is HDCD, or better what kind of audio stream is behind this format?
AFAIK it should be a 24bit 44.1KHz stereo track, a friend comes along and tells me it must be something like a DTS stream multichannel because at work they use a DTS encoder which offers HDCD support.
I am a little clueless about this - if a HDCD is a PCM track one should be able to replay it on a simple digitally connected CD player/the same should happen if the source has something to do with DTS but the diffrence is shown on the receiver in the source input menue from Yamaha f.e.
(I don´t own such disc so) pls can you give a clue who´s right!

Thank you

 

[Rob Babcock]

HDCD is a coding system developed my Pacific Microsonics ( and later bought by Microsoft). It purports to perceptually "squeeze" more info into 16 bits, but it truly is still 16 bits. It's not a new format, per se, like DTS is, and it's strictly 2 CH. To realize the "benefits" of HDCD you need a player that can decode it. But an HDCD-encoded disc will play back very nicely on any regular CD player.

FWIW, some while some claim they sound better, others claim that non-HDCD encoded discs will sound audibly worse on an HDCD-equipped deck. Supposedly it adds distortions to the sound, and possibly noise. Myself, I can't say I can percieve any improvements from HDCD, but then it's usually not possible to A/B the same material encoded vs standard.

My advice in summary: don't sweat HDCD. Any improvements are likely to be extremely subtle at best, but it doesn't do any harm to play them on a regular player.

 

[corysmith01]

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/hdcd/hdcdabout.aspx

 

[mtrycrafts]

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/hdcd/hdcdabout.aspx

"HDCD-encoded CDs sound better because they are encoded with 20 bits of real musical information, as compared with 16 bits for all other CDs."


Perhaps it is mastered in 20 bits as other CDs have been for a long time.
A CD is Red Book standard, 16 bits, period.

There is also a level issue with HDCD discs that may bias the listener.