Sony released the world's first CD Player called the CDP-101 in 1982 utilizing a slide-out tray design for the CD. As it was easy to use and manufacture, most CD player tray designs had followed this style of tray ever since. However there have been some notable exceptions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Disc_player
Evolution
Digital audio players (i.e., MP3) have surpassed the concept of CD changers. For example, the first generation iPod can hold an equivalent of 50 discs (1000 songs) with a 128k bit rate for each song; thereby, the iPod is 1/10 the size of a CD changer cartridge, and about 1/20 the size of a carousel changer. Solid state flash-based digital audio players have rendered compact discs and thus CD changers obsolete for some purposes. While digital audio players often use a lossy compression scheme, they usually can accept lossless formats such as WAV (PCM) as well, matching the quality of CD audio.
Walkmanis Sony's audio cassette player brand, now used to market its portable audio and video players. The original Walkman introduced a change in music listening habits, allowing people to carry their own choice of music with them.
The device was built in 1978 by audio division engineer Nobutoshi Kihara for Sony co-chairman Morita, who wanted to be able to listen to operas during his frequent transpacific plane trips.[1] The original Walkman was marketed in 1979 as the Walkman in Japan, the Soundabout in many other countries including the US, Freestyle in Sweden and the Stowaway in the UK. [2] Morita hated the name "Walkman" and asked it to be changed, but relented after being told by junior executives that a promotion campaign had already begun using the 'Walkman' name and would be too expensive to change.
Discman was the product name given to Sony's first portable CD player, the D-50, which was the first on the market in 1983, and adopted for Sony's entire portable CD player line. In Japan, all Discman products are referred to as "CD Walkman" and the name was adopted worldwide in 2000 along with a redesigned "Walkman" logo.
Developments in video conferencing techniques and standards such as H.261 in the late 1980s formed the basis of the MPEG-1 standard in the early 1990s. The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) investigated how to store compressed video on a CD-ROM, which led to the development of the MPEG-1 standard.
MPEG-2
MPEG-2 is used in Digital Video Broadcast and Digital Versatile Discs. The transport stream, TS, and program stream, PS, are container formats.
MPEG-2 is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audioinformation". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio compression (audio data compression) methods which permit storage and transmission of movies using currently available storage media and transmission bandwidth.
MP3
MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a digital audioencoding format using a form of lossy data compression.
It is a common audio format for consumer audio storage, as well as a de facto standard encoding for the transfer and playback of music on digital audio players.
MP3 (1989) - Motion Picture Experts Group Audio Level III
MP3 is actually a software compression/de-compression (codec) algorithm rather than a piece of hardware. MP3 stands for Motion Picture Experts Group, Audio Layer III which defines the codec.
Prior to MP3, audio wav and wma files were huge, and transferring a wav file over the net could be better described as more of an "endurance test" rather than that of a file transfer.
MP3 changed all that ! ....... It typically compresses these huge files down anywhere's from 1/6 to 1/12th their normal size, making file exchange of great sounding audio across the net, viable. MP3 has also effectively changed the way that people now listen to their music, and has cemented the marriage between the computer and the home entertainment center. A typical CD can store typically 74 minutes of audio in CD audio format. Compare that to approximately 14 hours of MP3 audio on a single CD !
The compression technique has led to a plethora of MP3 based products. Portable MP3/AAC players such as Apple's highly successful iPod ® have all but replaced the bulky portable standard CD players. http://www.videointerchange.com/audio_history.htm
MPEG-4
MPEG-4 is a collection of methods defining compression of audio and visual (AV)digital data. It was introduced in late 1998 and designated a standard for a group of audio and video coding formats and related technology agreed upon by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) under the formal standard ISO/IEC 14496. Uses of MPEG-4 include compression of AV data for web (streaming media) and CD distribution, voice (telephone, videophone) and broadcast television applications.
MPEG-4 absorbs many of the features of MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 and other related standards, adding new features such as (extended) VRML support for 3D rendering, object-oriented composite files (including audio, video and VRML objects), support for externally-specified Digital Rights Management and various types of interactivity. AAC (Advanced Audio Codec) was standardized as an adjunct to MPEG-2 (as Part 7) before MPEG-4 was issued.
MPEG-4 is still a developing standard and is divided into a number of parts. The companies promoting MPEG -4 compatibility do not always clearly state whi ch "part" level compatibility. The key parts to be aware of are MPEG-4 part 2 (MPEG-4 SP/ASP, used by codecs such as DivX , Xvid, Nero Digital and 3ivx and by Quicktim 6) and MPEG-4 part 10 (MPEG-4 A VC/H.264, used by the x264 codec, by Nero Digital AVC, by Quicktime 7, and by next -gen DVD formats like HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc).
Most of the features included in MPEG-4 are left to individual developers to decide whether to implement them. This means that there are probably no complete implementations of the entire MPEG-4 set of standards. To deal with this, the standard includes the concept of "profiles" and "levels", allowing a specific set of capabilities to be defined in a manner appropriate for a subset of applications.
Initially, MPEG-4 was aimed primarily at low bit-rate video communications; however, its scope was later expanded to be much more of a multimedia coding standa rd. MPEG-4 is efficient across a variety o f bit-rates ranging from a few kilobits per second to tens of megabits per second. MPEG -4 provides the following functionalities:
·Improved coding efficieency
·Ability to encode mixe d media data (video, audio, speech)
·Error resilience to enab le robust transmission
·Ability to interact with the audio-visual scene generated at the receiver
In November 1996, Toshiba launched its SD-3000 DVD player, the first of its kind in Japan. Matsushita, Sony, and other competitors released their first DVD players around t he same time. There's little merit in debating who was actually first, since the difference was a month or two at most.
The DVD development project began in 1994. The most common image medium in those days was the VHS video cassette. While the laser disks also available at that time offered superior image quality (and had a landmark impact on karaoke), they were large - up to 30 cm in diameter - and a single disk barely stored one movie, even when using both sides. Laser disks won limited consumer acceptance. Worst of all, the disks offered only analog image data. The DVD proposed by Toshiba (called "SD") stored both audio and video data in pure digital format. An entire movie fit onto a 12 cm disk, the same size as an audio CD, while offering high image and audio quality and a flexible array of functions.
Placing extended recordings on a 12 cm disk requires both a high density disk and MPEG2 technology for compressing video data. Fortunately, Toshiba had already developed an MPEG2 encoder. And thanks to its close ties with Time Warner in Hollywood, Toshiba had access to numerous movie titles. Working closely with Time Warner, the project team began MPEG2 compression tests using these titles, seeking to minimize data volumes while achieving a level of image quality that would satisfy even Hollywood professionals.
Hollywood had another requirement:: One disk containing a full title was to cost less than 20 dollars (the price of two movie tickets, popcorn, and soda). A single disk was to store data sufficient for 135 minutes on one side; a capacity that would be sufficient for 90% of the movies produced in Hollywood. In response, Toshiba devised a method whereby two 0.6 mm disks were assembled back to back to form a disk 1.2 mm thick. This configuration was easy to manufacture, and allowed for the possibility of increased density further down the line.
DVD Fact The first DVD player hit the market in March 1997.
A DVD is very similar to a CD, but it has a much larger data capacity. A standard DVD holds about seven times more data than a CD does. This huge capacity means that a DVD has enough room to store a full-length, MPEG-2-encoded movie, as well as a lot of other information. Here are the typical contents of a DVD movie:
• Up to 133 minutes of high-resolution video, in letterbox or pan-and-scan format, with 720 dots of horizontal resolution (The video compression ratio is typically 40:1 using MPEG-2 compression.) • Soundtrack presented in up to eight languages using 5.1 channel Dolby digital surround sound • Subtitles in up to 32 languages
DVD can also be used to store almost eight hours of CD-quality music per side. The format offers many advantages over VHS tapes:
• DVD picture quality is better, and many DVDs have Dolby Digital or DTS sound, which is much closer to the sound you experience in a movie theater. • Many DVD movies have an on-screen index, where the creator of the DVD has labeled many of the significant parts of the movie, sometimes with a picture. With your remote, if you select the part of the movie you want to view, the DVD player will take you right to that part, with no need to rewind or fast-forward. • DVD players are compatible with audio CDs. • Some DVD movies have both the letterbox format, which fits wide-screen TVs, and the standard TV size format, so you can choose which way you want to watch the movie. • DVD movies may have several soundtracks on them, and they may provide subtitles in different languages. Foreign movies may give you the choice between the version dubbed into your language, or the original soundtrack with subtitles in your language.
As of 2002[update] the largest producer of DVD players is China; in 2002 they produced 30 million players, more than 70% of the world output. These producers have to pay US$15-$20 per player in license fees, to the patent holders of the DVD technology (Sony, Philips, Toshiba and Time Warner) as well as for MPEG-2 licenses.[1] To avoid these fees, China has developed the Enhanced Versatile Disc standard as an intended successor of DVD; as of 2004[update], EVD players were only being sold in China.
History
The first DVD players were introduced in Japan in November 1996, and DVD players were first available in the United States in March 1997
Successors
There are successors to the DVD player: the HD DVD player and the Blu-ray Disc player. On February 19, 2008, Toshiba announced it would cease production on all HD DVD products ultimately naming Blu-ray players the successor to DVD players.
China is, in many places, a very tranquil and gentle land. Every now and then I discover some new and fascinating thing that takes my breath away.
This page is about those kinds of things ...
