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The CD Turns 25 Today
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Fri Aug 17, 2007 10:33 AM
from the getting-old dept.
from the getting-old dept.
netbuzz writes "Seems like only yesterday to those of us of a certain age, but the CD turns 25 today. Philips, maker of the first CD on Aug. 17, 1982, estimates that more than 200 billion have been sold since. The younger set might have trouble appreciating the difference in auditory quality that the compact disc represented over vinyl or cassette tapes (some have probably never even seen a record). And all but true trivia buffs will have trouble coming up with the name of the artist on that first disc."
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Happy Birthday! (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.joshfink.net/)
Re:Happy Birthday! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Happy Birthday! (Score:4, Informative)
(http://slashdot.org/)
The power comes from an Matter/Antimatter annihilation. The crystals just regulate the reaction.
Re:Happy Birthday! (Score:4, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Saturday October 01 2005, @07:08PM)
Sound Quality was improved at both ends (Score:5, Interesting)
I still remember the favorite album of my childhood -- the Star Wars Christmas Album ("Christmas in the Stars", which, ironically, had Jon Bon Jovi (still a teenager) as its lead singer). At the time, I had no idea why it sounded so incredibly good with headphones on my Dad's stereo, but it did. Unlike the rest of my records, it almost felt like you could reach out and touch the music. It was a feeling I never experienced again until almost a decade later, when CDs were a few years old, and DDD mastering became the high-end norm. For Christmas in 1999, my parents bought me a copy of the newly-(re-)released "Christmas in the Stars" CD (my original record was destroyed by Hurricane Andrew... or more precisely, my parents' disinterest in trying to salvage what to them was just an old record that got wet and moldy along with everything else in the living room). Anyway, it was from reading the cover notes that I finally realized *why* the original album sounded so incredibly great: it was digitally-mastered almost a *decade* before most professionals had even *heard* of "digital mastering".
The First Discs Were Not ABBA (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://slashdot.org/~eldavojohn/ | Last Journal: Tuesday October 16, @03:26PM)
He also forgot the part where they re-released a few new or live tracks on a disc just to make the die hard fans buy into another medium. That kind of practice really makes me sick. Of course, we're doomed to see it repeated until the end of time in the name of making another buck.
Re:The First Discs Were Not ABBA (Score:4, Informative)
(http://www.gregsmith.com/)
Nope, that was "52nd Street" by Billy Joel. [sony.net]
Re:The First Discs Were Not ABBA (Score:4, Informative)
Re:The First Discs Were Not ABBA (Score:5, Informative)
(http://photo.net/photos/swillden | Last Journal: Wednesday July 19 2006, @01:42PM)
According to Philips [philips.com] the first discs from the assembly line in Langenhangen were ABBA's "The Visitor".
Re:The First Discs Were Not ABBA (Score:5, Informative)
1st cd pressed ever: Herbert von Karajan conducting the Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauß (one-off type production)
1st cd manufactured: ABBA - The Visitor
1st cd released in the USA: Billy Joel - 52nd Street
1st cd manufactured in the USA: Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA
1st cd single: Dire Straits
Re:The First Discs Were Not ABBA (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Wednesday February 15 2006, @01:31PM)
The 74-minute story (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://kadin.sdf-us.org/ | Last Journal: Tuesday October 16, @01:46PM)
Apparently (so the story goes), the discs were originally designed to hold 60 minutes of music. But the VP of Sony decided this was unacceptable, since it would not be long enough to allow uninterrupted playing of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony without a disc change -- the piece as usually performed is a little less than 1:15, or about 74 minutes.
According to Wikipedia, there was probably more than just a love for classical music in here; the demand for 74 minutes as opposed to 60 (which necessitated 120mm discs instead of 115) was strategic. Polygram (one of Sony's major competitors) already had an experimental facility set up to make 115mm discs, Sony didn't, and therefore it was advantageous to force 120mm in order to start the playing field off level.
Still, I've always gotten a kick out of the idea that the now-standard size of the CD (and DVD, and BluRay/HDDVD) could have been influenced by a piece of music written in 1824.
Re:The First Discs Were Not ABBA (Score:4, Funny)
(Last Journal: Sunday July 13 2003, @10:38AM)
the name of the artist on that first disc (Score:2)
heheh (Score:2, Insightful)
(http://www.grub.net/blog/index.html | Last Journal: Wednesday June 27, @08:48AM)
I remember when they released. I commented something to the effect of "Bah, perhaps for classical music they'll be great but for stuff like Motorhead or Slayer? Why? So I can say 'this is the cleanest distortion around?'
Boy was I ever wrong. I still miss the large album covers and inserts from the LP days. Other than that vinyl is dead to me.
Re:heheh (Score:5, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Sunday November 06 2005, @11:51PM)
RIP (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Saturday October 27, @04:36PM)
What a sad begining... (Score:4, Funny)
how many of them work after that time (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:how many of them work after that time (Score:4, Informative)
Happy B-Day (Score:1)
(http://www.comicalcomics.com/)
Re:Happy B-Day (Score:5, Interesting)
Interestingly, there was a kind of golden-era of CD sound in the late 90s when we had high dynamic range mastering equipment, before the loudness war pissed it all away in a hail of clipping.
Re:Happy B-Day (Score:4, Interesting)
Once masters were re-mixed for true fideltiy there is no LP in the world that can compete with CD's. Even a 16 bit transfer of a master properly re-eq'd blows away the earlier vinyl based master.
coming through loud and clear (Score:2)
(Last Journal: Friday February 21 2003, @05:17AM)
Man, it never made any sense that people could get off on shoving CDs up their nose. I've been doing it wrong all these years!
cue the... (Score:1)
(http://www.alexhard.com/)
Re:cue the... (Score:5, Funny)
Cue the vinyl fanatics who will whine about how "warm" their vinyls sound
Don't worry. I think I've managed to kill tham all.
The CD is as old as I am (Score:2, Interesting)
"...that the compact disc represented over vinyl" (Score:1)
False for freshly pressed vinyl. True after a few dozen plays.
5..4..3..2..1.. discuss!
Everyone's seen a record (Score:2)
As cool as you may like to think you are because you were born when records came out. Nobody else cares. Nearly everyone has seen a record.
Stupid CDs (Score:4, Informative)
Maybe CDs are more scratch resistant than LPs (which isn't saying much), but they're still ridiculously fragile. Maybe music piracy wouldn't be so prevalent if CDs were more durable. I know that I hesitate to buy CDs because I don't want to spend 15-20 bucks on something that could end up being worthless in 6 months if I don't treat it with extreme care.
Re:Stupid CDs (Score:4, Informative)
(http://iki.fi/teknohog/ | Last Journal: Tuesday August 14, @06:49PM)
IMHO, the worst problem with scratches is that the data surface is just below the label side, with the bulk of the plastic in CDs being part of the optical path. You can usually polish off scratches on the optical side, but any significant scratches on the label side will destroy the data. DVDs are much better in this sense, as the data layer is exactly in the middle of the disc.
Another stupidity about the audio CD standard is that you've got this nice digital storage space, yet all the metadata is stored on liner notes only. Surely it wouldn't have hurt to add some kind of metadata into the spec, even if most early players hadn't been able to use it.
Re:Stupid CDs (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.evolt.org/)
Who are you, The Hulk? CDs aren't indestuctible, but I would say they are far from "ridiculously fragile." I often pile nekkid CDs or transport them stacked in spindles and have never had an issue with scratches.
But what I really want to respond to is:
That's just stupid. You can justify breaking DRM to rip and copy CDs because of concerns from handling disks, but piracy? I don't want to be troll-ish, but that is just stupid. Do you justify kidnapping? Would you want to carry in your body for nine months something which will end up being worthless if you don't treat it with extreme care?
Of course, this post misses an actual good point--not that a CD might be worthless in six months because Hulk smash, but that a CD will be worthless years later because they just aren't stable for long term storage. Again, not to justify piracy, but certainly to justify breaking DRM to make back-ups.
It will Never Fly! (Score:2)
(http://www.perfectreign.com/)
I love you CD (Score:1)
What do you know... (Score:2)
(http://onetwentyone.org/)
Hazy Memory (Score:3, Informative)
War on standards (Score:3, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Wednesday October 31, @08:33AM)
Now a days people are so confused by so many warring, deliberately incompatible media. CD-R, CD-RW was one schism, that looks trivially comprehensible compared to the acronym soup of DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-ROM, etc. Then the HD/Bluray war.
People eschewed Betamax, the memory stick, the mini-DVD all Sony offerings. One would think people really understand the need for open standards, supported by multiple vendors, all fighting to get your business and thus delivering all the glorious things free markets and competition are supposed to deliver. But when Microsoft deliberately muddies the waters by confusing the "choice among vendors and products" with "choice in standards" people don't reject it summarily.
May be because hardware is tangible and people get a feel and they have demanded and obtained complete interoperability in brake fluids, car tires, radios and garden hoses, they expect the same in electronics. It would take a while before the consumer understands the similar need for fully open standards for software too. Till then MSFT will continue to rake in , wait a minute. When did I go so off topic?
Re:War on standards (Score:4, Informative)
DVD-R[W] vs. DVD+R[W] vs. DVD-RAM was a true format war, but it has been completely resolved. (ie. -RAM is completely dead and almost all burners on the market support +/-R.) The only active format war right now is HD vs. Blu-ray, and while it far from over, there are drives that support both.
Re:War on standards (Score:4, Insightful)
> the acronym soup of DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-ROM, etc. Then the HD/Bluray war.
You said, it brother.
I once witnessed the following discussion between a sales droid and a customer in a major department store:
C: (looking at blank media) What's the difference between the DVD minus R and the DVD plus R?
SD: The DVD plus R, you can read and write to it. The minus R is, well, you can only write to it, you can't read from it
*jesus fucking christ*
sad (Score:3, Interesting)
(http://127.31.33.7/)
Technology progresses quickly, but humans aren't quite as fast, it seems
Re:sad (Score:4, Informative)
Technology progresses quickly, but humans aren't quite as fast, it seems
No, people just don't really care about the original meaning of words, nor should they. Do you get bent out of shape every time someone talking about "dialing" a telephone, even though 99% of telephones no longer have a dial? There's hundreds of examples like this where the original etymology of the word was forgotten and the words takes on a modified meaning of the original. That's just how language works.
Maybe it's just me (Score:2)
But CDs didn't sound any better than records... at least the first time you played an LP.
I got into CDs because they still sounded as good on subsequent listenings without going through a High Holy Ritual of cleansing and handling whenever you wanted to hear something. Even then, the LPs eventually degraded. You also couldn't play records in the car, though I have a half-memory of some harebrained device that let you do that. Good luck leaving LPs in a hot car, though.
Compact Disc, dead at 25 (Score:1)
First CD's (Score:4, Interesting)
It was included in a new Fisher 100watt component stereo system right across the aisle from me. I remember the only CD's the salesman had to sell, or demo, were classical music.
I also remember watching the salesman carefully take one our of the jewel case, by the edges, show it to all of us carefully - then drop it on the floor and STOMP on it.
My boss nearly Shat himself. It played fine.
OT: That same Fisher 100watt system - we took the audio output line off the back of an Atari 800 (we sold 'em then for $699, I believe) and ran it into the stereo in an AUX input.
Fire up Star Raiders, and crank up the bass. Kids would come running in from the mall *downstairs* to watch and play.
I sold a *lot* of Atari computers that winter...
Cheap "Old Bastard" Engineer
Auditory Quality? (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://www.thefirsthourblog.com/ | Last Journal: Monday September 10, @04:43PM)
Bill Joel appears to have been first (Score:1)
OK, not the first artist to record on CD, but... (Score:2, Informative)
That surprises me (Score:1)
In 1982, I had an idea that I described to a few people about using a CD to store aviation charts. The idea was to put a small display in an aircraft cockpit along with a small computer and using Loran radios to provide the current position to the computer so that it could display the location of the aircraft on the display for the pilot. Unfortunately, I didn't have any idea how to get the financial backing to try to produce the device. Now, of course, they have just that, but using GPS instead of Loran, and for far more than just aircraft. It would have never occurred to me to use them for cars.
In 1983, I wanted to store images of title records on CDs and had a customer of mine who was very interested in doing that. The customer was ready to foot the bill to send people to the local county courthouses where he did business to photograph the title records, page by page, for this purpose. But it never came around.
Later, in the early 1990's, my brother's company was publishing data on CDs and it cost quite a bit to write the data out every two weeks. He was going to buy a CD-writer so he could avoid sending them out to be done by an outside company. I think the cost to create the master at the time was $1,000. After that, pressing a few hundred CDs was not too bad. I advised him to wait a little while for the cost of the CD writer to decline in price from about $50,000 each. He bought his first CD writer for about $4,000 a year or so later.
Early on, I figured the audio CD players would never catch on unless they could bring them under $200 each. So I watched the newspapers and when one sold for $199.50 or so, I went to the store and bought one. At the time, everyone was fascinated by the idea that you could scratch them without affecting the sound. So every demo CD in the store had scratches across the bottom as people would test that out for themselves.
At that time, I lived near a large record shop. Their entire selection of CDs were on a table in the store that was about 3 ft by 3 ft and had plenty of empty space on top. Sure enough, they caught on and CDs really began to replace records in the store about a year or two later.