dblue Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 Ok, here's the question. I recently purchased an HK AVR525, and was pleased to find out that it was capable of HDCD decoding. When you put in an HDCD, it displays it on the front of the receiver. I was surprised to find out that many of my newer discs displayed the HDCD light. None of these discs have the HDCD emblem on them. Is HDCD just a fancy license term for 20 bit encoding? I did some research and learned that Microsoft bought the rights to the HDCD name. Are companies simply encoding their newer releases in 20 bit and not paying for the HDCD name? What gives? Some examples are Kodo:Mondo Head, and TOOL:Lateralus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrot Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 Anything you play on a CD player is really 16-bit. HDCD encoded discs played on an HDCD player will give you a pseudo-20-bit quality. But it's not truly 20-bit. Lots of CDs are mastered using 20 bit or 24 bit processes, but they still have to ultimately change them to 16-bit for them to be playable on CD players. I believe you could record 24-bit if you had the right software and hardware in your computer, and play it back that way, on your computer. I have heard that some CDs have HDCD encoding without being marked as such. Like anything else, the end results are more important than the potential results. If you have a badly mastered anything, it'll sound worse than something excellently mastered even on a weaker format. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dblue Posted February 4, 2003 Author Share Posted February 4, 2003 I agree that good mastering is the key to a good recording. However, I was under the impression that HDCD's really were encoded in 20bits, but done so in such a way that they could be played on 16-bit CD players. Here's something I found on www.hdcd.com: "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. HDCD overcomes the limitation of the 16-bit CD format by using a sophisticated system to encode the additional 4 bits onto the CD while remaining completely compatible with the existing CD format. HDCD provides more dynamic range, a more focused 3-D soundstage, and extremely natural vocal and musical timbre. With HDCD, you get the body, depth, and emotion of the original performance not a flat, digital imitation." The DVD player I'm using to play the CD's is capable of reading and transfering up to 24-bit audio data(PCM). Is the above just a misleading statement? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2Bsmooth Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 I'm pretty sure Laturalus from tool is marked "hdcd", I personally haven't found a cd that displays the hdcd light without the disc or cover having it marked on it. I have downloaded songs and burned them onto a dics and had the hdcd light come on only for the one track though. . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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