Is the Phantom of the Opera Remastered CD an HDCD?

[captain_tinker]

Folks,
I was just wondering, I found the Phantom of the Opera Original London Cast Recording cd's at Walmart the other day, and the sticker on it says it is mastered with a 20 bit master or something like that. I was wondering, does that mean that the cd's are going to be HDCD's or if that is just the recording process and the cd is still going to be a regular 16 bit cd? Does anyone own this newer remastered version or know someone who does and can check for me? I'd rather not pay $40 just to find out. Thanks!

-capT

 

[MDS]

The master may have been 20 bit but the CD will always be 16 bit. The 20 bit master has to be converted to 16 bit for playback - a process that is essentially bit depth conversion and 'dithering'. Sony has a process they call Super Bit Mapping which takes 20 bit masters and converts them to 16 bit for the CD format. Note that any process like that is done before the CD pressed because it is done in the mastering stage.

HDCD is a slightly different animal. You can consider it a slightly different 'encoding' of the data and it is decoded on the fly for playback. If the player and/or receiver cannot decode HDCD, it still plays back normally although you don't get the supposed benefit of a 20 bit encoding in a 16 bit format.

Most HDCDs say so on the packaging. An easy way to check if it is an HDCD is to put it in your computer and launch Windows Media Player. If it is an HDCD, it will say HDCD in the status window.