Digital Audio Media

Digital Audio Media COMPACT DISC & PLAYER 1. The CD Message 1.1 The medium 1.2 The Pickup 1.3 FOCUSING MECHANISM 1.4 TRACKING 1.5 PICKUP CONTROL 2. SPARS CODE DIGITAL AUDIO TAPE 1. DAT Mechanism 2. DAT RECORDING SYSTEM 3. WHAT IS RECORDED ON A DAT 3.1 MAIN AREA 3.2 SUB AREA 3.3 ATF AREA 3.4 START ID and SKIP ID 3.5 Absolute Time 3.6 Skip Ids 4. Error Correction System 7. Other Features 7.1 Random Programming 7.2 Various Repeat Functions 7.3 Music Scan 1 7.4 End Search 7.5 Informative Display 7.6 Construction 7.7 Longer Recording Time 7.8 Material of Tape 7.9 Identification Holes MINI DISC 1. General Features 1.1 Quick Random Access 1.2 Recordable Disc 2. The Disc 2.1 PRE-REcorded MD 2.2 Recordable MD 3. The Laser Pickup 4. Playback On A Magneto Optical (Mo) Disc 5. Recording 6. Quick Random Access 7. Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding (Atrac) 8. Shock Proof Memory 9. Mini Disc Specifications 10. Manufacture and Mastering 10.1 K-1216 MD Format Converter 10.2 K-1217 Address generator DVD 1. DVD-Audio 2 1.1 Storage Capacity 2. Multi Channels 3. Meridian Lossless Packing 4. Various Audio Formats 5. Audio details of DVD-Video 5.1 Surround Sound Format 5.2 Linear PCM 5.3 Dolby Digital 5.4 MPEG Audio 5.5 Digital Theater Systems 5.6 Sony Dynamic Digital Sound Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD) 1. Watermark – Anti Piracy Feature 2. Hybrid Disc 3 DIGITAL AUDIO MEDIA Introduction CD, DAT, MD, SACD and DVD formats and their operations are explained. COMPACT DISC & PLAYER The CD is the audio standard for optical playback systems. In addition, some optical recorders are designed to conform to its standard and format so that the recorded information maybe reproduced on a conventional Compact Disc Player (CDP). 1. The CD Message A CD contains digitally encoded audio information in the form of pits impressed into its surface. The information on the disc is read by the player's optical pickup, decoded, processed and ultimately converted into acoustical energy. The disc is designed to allow easy access to the information by the optical system as well as provide protection for the encoded information. The medium The CD's dimensions are: Diameter 12cm Thickness approx. 1.2 mm The middle hole for the motor spindle shaft is 15 mm in diameter. The CDP's laser beam is guided across the disc from the inside to the outside, starting from at the lead-in area moving outward through the programme area and ending at the outer edge with the lead-out area. The lead-in and lead-out areas are designed to provide information to control the player. The lead-in area contains a Table of Content (TOC) which provides information to the CDP, such as the number of musical selections including starting points and duration of each selection. The lead-out area informs the player that the end of the disc has been reached. The CD spins at a fixed Constant Linear Velocity (CLV) of 1.2 m/s for CD with programme exceeding 60 minutes. A CD programme under 60 minutes has a CLV of 1.4 m/s. The angular velocity (rpm) decreases as the optical pickup moves toward the outer tracks of the disc. At linear velocity of 1.2 m/s the angular velocity varies between 486-196 rpm. At 1.4 m/s the angular velocity varies between 568-228 rpm. Data is stored in pit formation. 4 These pits vary in length from 0.833 -3.054 µm depending on the encoded data and the linear velocity of the disc. The information con tain in the pit structure on the disc surface is coded so that the edge of each pit represents 0 and all space between thethe edges represent 0. The width and depth of the pits are approximately 0.5 and 0.110.11 µm respectively. The track runs circumferentially f rom the inside to the outside. The total number of spiralspispiralral revolutions on a CD is 20 625. The Pickup The function of the pick up is to transfer the encodedencoded informationinformation from the optical disc to the CDP's decoding circuit (fig. 8). The pickup is rereqquireduired to t rack the information on the disc, focus a laser beam and read the information as the disc rotates. The entire lens assembly is able to move across the disc as directeddirected byby the tracking information taken from the disc and programming information proviproviddeded by the user. The pickup must respond accurately under adverse condconditionsconditioitionsns such as playing damaged and dirty disc or while experiencing vibrationsvibrations oror shocks. CDP uses either a three-beam pickup or a single -beam pickup. A laser diode functions as the optical sou rce for the pickup. The AIGaAs laser is commonly used in CDP. Its wavelength is 780 nm. The laser beam is split by a diffraction grating intointo multiple beams. Diffraction gratings are plates with slits placed only a wavelength apart (fig 9a). As the beam passes through the grating it diffracts in different directdirecdirectiontionsionss resulting in an intense main beam (primary beam) with successively less intense beams oonn eithereieiththerer side. Only the primary 5 and secondary beams are used in the optical system of a CDP. The primary beam is used for reading data and focusing the beam. The outer two beams (secondary beams) are used for tracking. The light is subjected to a collimator lens that converges the previously divergent light into a parallel path. The light is conditionally passed through a Polarization Beam Splitter (PBS). The PBS acts as a one-way mirror allowing only vertically polarized light to pass to the disc; it reflects all other light. The light is than directed to the toward a quarter-wave plate (QWP). The QWP is an anisotropic crystal material designed to rotate the plane of polarization of linearly polarized light by 45o (fig 9b). The laser light is then focus onto the disc by an objective lens. The objective lens converges the impinging light to the focal point at a distance (d) from the lens called the focal length (fig. 9c). 6 The objective lens of a CDP is mounted on a two-axis actuator that is controlled by focus and tracking servos. The spot size of the primary beam on the surface is 0.8 mm and is further reduced in size to 1.7 µm at the reflective surface of the disc. This is due to the converging effect of the objective lens. Accurate control of the focusing system causes dust, scratches or fingerprints on the surface of the disc to appear out of focus to the reading laser. The pits appear as bumps from underneath where the laser enters the medium. The wavelength of the laser in air is 780 nm. Upon entering the polycarbonate subtrate with a refractive index of 1.55, the wavelength is reduced to approximately 500 nm. The depth of the pits are between 110 and 130 nm and are designed to be approximately one quarter of the laser's wavelength. The pit depth of one quarter of the laser's wavelength will create a diffraction structure such that reflected light undergoes destructive interference. This interference thus decreases the intensity of light returned to the pickup lens. The presence of pits and land areas are detected in terms of changing light intensity by photodetectors. The light signal is converted to a corresponding electrical signal by the photodetectors. Thereafter the electrical signals are sent to the decoder for processing and eventually are converted into audio signal. As the light is reflected from the disc and it passes through the objective lens again. The light converges as it passes through the objective lens and is again phase-shifted o 45 by the QWP. The plane of polarization of the reflected light is now at right angle to its original state; its now horizontally polarized. Since the light is horizontally polarized it is reflected by the PBS toward a cylindrical lens. The cylindrical lens uses an astigmatic property to reveal focusing errors in the optical system (fig. 9d). Light passes through the cylindrical lens and is received by an array of photodetectors, typically a four-quadrant photodetector. 7 FOCUSING MECHANISM A perfectly focused beam places the focal point of the light on the photodectors where the shape of the image on the photodetectors is correspondingly circular. When the focal point is in front of the photodetectors an elliptical image is projected on the photodectors at an angle. If the focal point moves behind the photodetectors, the o elliptical image is rotated 90 . The photodetectors act as transducers converting the impinging light signals into corresponding electrical signals. The electrical signals thus contain information for both focusing and tracking the laser beam, as well as audio information. The four-quadrant photodetectors (labeled A, B, C, D) [Fig 10] used to control the focus servo and to transfer the audio signal to the decoding circuit. The focus circuit provides control for the vertical positioning of the two-axis objective lens. The focus correction signal (A+C) - (B+D) is equal to zero when the laser is focused correctly on the disc, and the shape of the photodetector is correspondingly circular. When the optical correction system is out of focus the focus correction signal is a non-zero value. The focus correction signal provides feedback to the focus servo circuit, which moves the objective lens up or down according until the laser is focused and the shape of the image on the photodetectors becomes circular 8 The audio information is collected by summing the signals from the four photodiodes (A+B+C+D).

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