Newsgroup: it.hobby.hi-fi
Titolo: Pillole di storia del CD

I remember tough discussions taking place between our two companies on the 
parameters for the quantization level of the audio samples. Philips' 
priority was a small disc, fittingnot only in Hifidecks, but also in mobile 
applications like the automobile and the so-called ghetto blasters. These 
markets were much larger than the stationary Hifimarket. With a small disc 
of about half an hour playing time in mind, Philips wanted to limit the 
number of bits per sample to 14 bits. Sony was adamant in achieving perfect 
Audio Quality. I remember that in one of our meetings Toshi Doi tried to 
convince us of the necessity to choose 16 bit quantization. He did so by 
recording soft triangle music at both 14 bit and at 16 bit resolution: we 
were supposed to hear the difference. Frankly speaking, none of us heard any 
difference at all, but Sony's message was loud and clear: the new format 
must not compromise on sound quality!We had settled on a 11.5 cm diameter 
disc, until Sony's president, Mr Ohga, -a former opera singer- put a new 
requirement on the table: the playing time had to be 74 minutes. This new 
requirement came out of the blue for all of us. In earlier meetings, we had 
worked on the basis of a maximum playing time requirement of one hour. What 
we did not know was that Ohga had promised his conductor friend Herbert van 
Karajan that his version of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony would fiton one CD 
only. No discussion was possible: at the highest level, a promise is a 
promise. One also has to bear in mind that, after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 
the 9th Symphony choral "Alle Menschen werden Brüder" had become an 
important musical symbol in Japan.
 
olygram, the music company of Philips, was shocked by this new requirement. 
Contrary to Ohga, Polygram wanted a rather limited playing time. The 
argument was that no music group would be able to regularly produce albums 
with playing time much in excess of existing LP's 40 minute playing time. 
Eventually, a political compromise was reached at an actual playing time of 
74 minutes on the disc, while the Red Book Standard defineda playing time of 
60 minutes only. Not often a new format formally denied its higher storage 
performance!An unfortunate consequence of the playing time requirement was 
the disc size: it grew from 11.5 cm to 12 cm diameter. This last-minute 
change caused real problems. With great difficult, I had convinced our media 
engineers to accept the critical specificationon disc flatnessbased on an 
11.5 cm disc size. I had no choice, so I told them they had no choice. In 
hindsight, I think we were too conservative, we could have maintained the 
11.5 cm disc size, whilst squeezing the data density on the disc a bit more. 
However, at the time, only one trial run of one thousand discs from one 
"stamper" was available, so we had no real information on mass production 
quality of discs.This history may sound as work only; in actual fact, we 
enjoyed the drinking parties in the evenings just as well. Yet, we worked 
very hard indeed: many times the target for next round of testing was felt 
as impossible to meet. And often, when proudly showing our hottest Philips 
data, it turned out that also Sony had met the impossible dead line, 
sometimes during the night before: it was a neck-and-neck race.
 
One of the last discussion points was the center-hole diameter. This time, 
we agreed within a few minutes. Our project leader, Joop Sinjou, put a tiny 
Dutch 10 cents coin on the table and said: why not? Indeed: why not, so we 
agreed on a center hole of a Dutch 10 cents coin, i.e., 15 mm diameter (Fig. 
4).In June 1980, the two development teams agreed on the specificatin of 
Compact Disc. Fig. 5 shows the two teams at that decisive meeting.The 
history of CD did not end by finalizingthe format: actually that is where 
its history started. Therefore, I want to share also some of my memories on 
the product introduction of the CD.
 
A highlight for me was the Tokyo Audio Fair of 1982. Suddenly all Consumer 
Electronics companies presented their firstCD players. During that Fair, I 
met many product engineers. They were all very proud to show the firstCD 
player of their company. Their enthusiasm created a great feeling in all of 
us being part of a major innovation. And certainly, as a Philips engineer, I 
could be proud of our firstCD player: the smallest one at the show! And with 
very simple and logical control and display. In one word: a beauty (Fig. 6).
 
When I saw the firstCD player in the shop at my own little home town I felt 
proud. I remember what I said, with some exaggeration, to my 11-year-old 
daughter: Look, this is what daddy invented! But she was not impressed, 
which taught me another lesson: There is more to life than the CD.
 
 
 
Acoustics in Practice, Vol. 2, No. 1, January 2014
 
 
 
 
 
The Autor
 
 
 
After earning his PhD in Physics from Leiden University in 1973, Jacques 
Heemskerk joined Philips Research in Eindhoven, where he worked on various 
optical problems. When, in 1979, a development laboratory was established 
for the Compact Disc, he joined as optical group leader. Later he became 
head of the laboratory, head of the optical predevelopment of Philips 
Consumer Electronics, and responsible for the physical part of the 
standardization of DVD and Blu-ray. He received the Japan Audio Society 
award for his contribution to CD development, the Nakajima award for CD-R, 
and he has been honored with a Knighthood in the 'Orde van de Nederlandse 
Leeuw' for his contributions to industry and optical disc technology. He 
holds more than 180 patents for over 50 inventions. 
 
 
 
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Dopo dura riflessione, Erg Frast (lab) ha scritto :

Quindi?

 Quindi?
 
Giulio Cesare passò il Rubicone, quindi?
Che cazzo di domande fai.
 
EF 


Erg Frast (lab) ha usato la sua tastiera per scrivere :

Ah beh per fortuna che c'è qualcuno che dispensa pillole di cultura.
Non hai proprio un cazzo da fare, giusto?

priority was a small disc, ...
 
uno dei tanti oggettini di tutti i giorni dietro cui c'e' tanta 
matematica,scienza,  tecnologia e vite di persone  :-) 
 
 

 Non hai proprio un cazzo da fare, giusto?
 
Esatto, in realtà vengo gua per mettere alla prova la mia pazienza: sono 
sempre curioso di vedere quanto riesco a resistere prima di mandare a...... 
i furboni come te.
 
cordialità
 
EF 
 
 

 only.
 
Mi ero sempre chiesto come mai 74 min...
Lettura interessante, grazie!
 
A.

Alessandro Soraruf ha detto questo mercoledì :

Peccato, Olga avrebbe potuto promettere la traccia audio di C'era una 
volta in America, versione integrale! :-PPP

 ha scritto nel 
messaggio news:m4hid2$7fh$1...@virtdiesel.mng.cu.mi.it...

In realtą, nella IX sinfonia Karajan se la sbrigava in 66' e qualche 
secondo, per cui il dischetto sarebbe potuto essere magari di 11.7 cm, si 
vede che hanno preferito fare cifra tonda!
 
EF 


Ma com'č che adesso ci stanno 79.8 minuti e forzandolo un po' anche piů di 
80?


 80?
 
Io ricordo di aver masterizzato anche dei cd da 90 minuti, con 
risultati penosi :/

Un'altra versione della storia (secondo Wikipedia)
 
The creators of the CD originally aimed at a playing time of 60 minutes with
a disc diameter of 100 mm (Sony) or 115 mm (Philips).[11] Sony
vice-president Norio Ohga suggested extending the capacity to 74 minutes to
accommodate Wilhelm Furtwängler's recording of Ludwig van Beethoven's
Symphony No. 9 from the 1951 Bayreuth Festival.[12][13] The additional
14-minute playing time subsequently required changing to a 120 mm disc. Kees
Immink, Philips' chief engineer, however, denies this, claiming that the
increase was motivated by technical considerations, and that even after the
increase in size, the Furtwängler recording would not have fit on one of the
earliest CDs.[11][14]
 
According to a Sunday Tribune interview,[15] the story is slightly more
involved. In 1979, Philips owned PolyGram, one of the world's largest
distributors of music. PolyGram had set up a large experimental CD plant in
Hannover, Germany, which could produce huge numbers of CDs having a diameter
of 115 mm. Sony did not yet have such a facility. If Sony had agreed on the
115-mm disc, Philips would have had a significant competitive edge in the
market. The long playing time of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony imposed by Ohga
was used to push Philips to accept 120 mm, so that Philips' PolyGram lost
its edge on disc fabrication.[15]
 
The 74-minute playing time of a CD, which was longer than the 22 minutes per
side[16][17] typical of long-playing (LP) vinyl albums, was often used to
the CD's advantage during the early years when CDs and LPs vied for
commercial sales. CDs would often be released with one or more bonus tracks,
enticing consumers to buy the CD for the extra material. However, attempts
to combine double LPs onto one CD occasionally resulted in the opposite
situation in which the CD would actually offer fewer tracks than the
equivalent LP[citation needed], though bonus tracks were also added to CD
re-releases of double LPs as well[citation needed].
 
EF


 penosi :/
 
 
Io massimo 81 minuti, con risultati buoni.


 piů di 80?
 
Da allora hanno migliorato la precisione di stampa, per cui si possono 
avvicinare di piů ai limiti del sistema, rimanendo comunque in specifiche.
 
Tanto per intenderci, se nelle specifiche iniziali la traccia doveva 
essere, sparo a caso, 1 um +- 0.1 um, ora, riuscendo a stampare com 
maggiore precisione, possono fare tracce da, per esempio, 0.95 um +- 0.05 
um. In questo modo riescono a fare tracce piů ravvicinate e ad allungare i 
tempi rientrando comunque nelle specifiche.
 
Se non ricordo male perň, anche cosě, piů in la di 80 minuti non si va e 
per andare oltre bisogna necessariamente andare fuori specifiche. Se stupri 
un po' Google trovi tutti i dettagli.
 
Saluti,
 
-- 
	Denis Sbragion
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