From: rjn@FC.HP.COM (Bob Niland)
Newsgroups: rec.video
Subject: Re: Video on standard CD's?
Date: 18 Nov 92 17:46:24 GMT
Article-I.D.: fc.BxxApC.B9x
Reply-To: rjn@FC.HP.COM
Organization: Hewlett-Packard/WSY Ft.Collins,CO,USA
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MARC A. HARLACHER (mah0@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu) wrote:

> While doing some research lately on digital audio encoding, I came across
> something I thought was quite interesting.  Standard audio CD's have the
> capability to store video images.  In fact, I have even gone to a local CD
> shop and found a Fleetwood Mac CD that has video stored on it.  These
> discoveries have led to a number of questions.  First: How does one decode
> this video so that it can be enjoyed?  Obviously we need a CD player with some
> sort of video output.  Will laserdisc players decode this video?  From my
> basic understanding, this technology was built-in to the CD coding scheme
> developed way back when.  It is different from CDV - is that right?

There are several ways to put "video" on a "CD".  Since your post was not
entirely clear, here's most of 'em...

 CDV (aka CDV-5) - Up to 6 minutes of NTSC (xor) PAL LaserDisc full-motion
         video, plus up to 20 minutes of normal CD-DA RedBook audio.
         Requires a CD/LD "combi" player.  Normal CD players can only play
         the RedBook portion.  No new CDV5's have been released in the US
         since 1989, and only a few dozen titles before that.  CDV5s are
         still available in Japan, some with only the video track.

 CD+G    Uses CD-DA RedBook subcodes to store low-res still-frame video
         images and/or text.  Requires a CD+G player (rare), Laser Karaoke,
         CD-I or PhotoCD player.  Not capable of slow-rate, much less
         full-motion video.

 CD-ROM  Video images can be stored in any number of open, partly-open and
         proprietary formats.  DVI is one, and requires hardware assist.
         Requires a CD-ROM player, and possibly add-on video hardware.  Most
         CD-ROMs are YellowBook Mode1 ISO 9660.

 CD-I    Based on CD-ROM/XA Mode 2 Form 1.  Uses compressed video and ADPCM
         audio, and requires a CD-I player (with processor and RTOS op sys).
         Currently can product low-rate low-res motion.  Higher rates and
         resolutions are promised when MPEG compression hardware is
         available in 1993, but even then it will barely be VHS-quality.

 PhotoCD CD-ROM/XA "bridge" format.  Uses proprietary Kodak compression to
         store still frames and various resolutions.  Requires a PhotoCD or
         CD-I player or CD-ROM/XA drive and host software.  Video output at
         player back panel is NTSC res regardless of stored res.  Actual
         PhotoCD media is ablative dye-polymer CD-WORM (incremental write-
         once).  No CD-ROM drives are currently available that can read more
         than the first "session" on the CD.

Confused?  Join the club.  Only a small minority of computer professionals
understand all these formats and their relation to one another.  I have to
believe that the general population will find it incomprehensible, and that
there will be a LARGE number of times when people pop an arbitrary 120mm
optical disc in their XYZplayer/drive, only to discover that the platter is
totally incompatible with their drive and host software.

I suspect this has already happened many times, as people take CD-I titles
home and try them in their LD combi players.  Bzzzt!  No LD players support
CD-I yet.

If you thought people were confused by LD vs CED videodiscs in 1982, you
ain't seen nothin' yet.

Regards,                                              Hewlett-Packard
Bob Niland      Internet: rjn@FC.HP.COM               3404 East Harmony Road
                CompuServe:  71044,2124               Ft Collins CO 80525-9599

This article represents only the opinion[s] of its author, and is not an
official or unofficial position of, or statement by, the Hewlett-Packard
Company.  The text is provided for informational purposes only.  It is
supplied without warranty of any kind.
From: jonp@hplvec.LVLD.HP.COM (Jon Pennington)
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 15:19:07 GMT
Subject: Battery Life
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Co., Loveland, CO