DOCSLIB.ORG

UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara the American

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara the American UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara The American Advanced Television Transition A Thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Media Arts and Technology by Kristoffer Fox Campanale Committee in charge: Professor George Legrady, Chair Professor Curtis Roads Professor JoAnn Kuchera-Morin March 2007 The thesis of Kristoffer Fox Campanale is approved. __________________________________________________ Curtis Roads __________________________________________________ JoAnn Kuchera-Morin __________________________________________________ George Legrady, Committee Chair March 2007 The American Advanced Television Transition Copyright © 2007 By Kristoffer Fox Campanale iii Dedicated to my parents and My aunt, Sonya Campanale For without whom, I would not have been able to attend graduate school. You will always be remembered. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The work I’ve done on this thesis and throughout graduate school would not have been possible without the support and friendship of a number of people. First and foremost, my family: my mom Amaji, my dad Charlie, my sister Kate, Grandma Joan, Aunt June-Ann, Felix, and Lyn. Your love and support throughout my life has helped tremendously. My advisor, Professor George Legrady, for the guidance, advice, inspiration, and patience to see me through this milestone in my life. Professors Curtis Roads, JoAnn Kuchera-Morin, and Stephen Travis Pope, for their knowledge, expertise and friendship while here at UCSB. Diane Harden for making the nuts and bolts of graduate school run smoothly, your hard work and support is truly appreciated. Also a very special thanks to doctors Alex Koper, Mukul Gupta, and Julie Chacko for their knowledge, precision, and steady hand. I certainly would not have been able to do this without the help or support of my friends. Colm Conn, for his design tips and being the best guy to get stranded in the outskirts of Paris with. Lucas Sweany, for always offering up a deathmatch when things got slow or stressful. One of my oldest friends, Chad Jarrett, for all the spirited debates and giving me a good excuse to work on my thesis in Maui. Chris Fowler, for offering living proof that life should be lived to the fullest. Kristoffer Bruvold and Iva Bozovic, who are two of the best academic role models one can have. Scott Miller, whose passion for trees almost rivals that of his taste in good music. Dave Reinbold for giving me my well deserved dose of karma. David Steffenson for proving that not all lawyers are scum. Josh Kling, Chris Sweeney, Will Kelly, Chris Dohnal, Arnaud Menut, and Craig Dorrough for all the good times over the years and the many more to come. Tony Mastres, for all the great Formula One races. Richard Corwin for always keeping my mind on the cutting edge. Barbara Federman for all the increased energy through Tai Chi. The Kelly’s for always making a great start to the week and especially Liz and Kathy for being my awesome proofreaders. Jim Gallagher, Ray Tracy, J.O. Davis, Art Battson, and all those at UCSB’s Instructional Development department that I am privileged to call my colleagues. And to the many others who have helped to make my days a little brighter: Anita & Frederick, Ann, Jesi, Ruth, Steve, Vebjorn, Jon, Ibukun, and Javi. Thank You. I am honored to be associated with such a fine group of people. Kristoffer Fox Campanale v ABSTRACT The American Advanced Television Transition By Kristoffer Fox Campanale As we pass the 50th anniversary of the American analog color-television standard, we find ourselves moving into the next generation of home entertainment technology. High-definition television is becoming an increasing reality, or that is what the electronics and entertainment industries would like the public to believe. The United States designated 2006 as the year to begin the early stages of switching off the analog broadcast spectrum. The reality is that in 2006 we see that less than a quarter of households are digital-ready and that the public is fully ill-prepared for the transition to digital broadcasting. This paper will address the future of American home entertainment, examining the driving forces behind the seemingly simple transition from analog to digital and high-definition broadcasting and why that shift is taking an inordinate amount of time. By looking at current and future high- definition technologies, as well as social and political issues I will address the American advanced television transition. vi In order to give the reader a proper overview, I summarize how advanced television was developed in America. Next, I will present the technologies behind HDTV itself, as well as its content delivery systems. Once the technology has been summarized I will examine the political and social concerns surrounding its development, and identify stumbling blocks in the digital television transition. Lastly, after interpreting the data collected, I will explore potential solutions to transition difficulties, and predict the future of advanced television in the United States over the next decades. The data for this paper has been collected from a variety of sources, including books, academic journals, trade publications, newspapers, and corporate web sites, as well as gathered from tradeshows and private industry. This research expands the current body of knowledge surrounding HDTV by establishing a relationship among consumers, hardware manufacturers, and content providers, and also explains the way in which the technology itself affects the perceptions and political attitudes toward consumer technologies. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 – INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 – Problem Statement 1 1.2 – Relevance of the Research 2 1.3 – Literature Review 3 1.4 – Methods 3 1.5 – Terminology 5 2 – BACKGROUND 6 2.1 – History 6 2.1.1 - Classical High Definition 6 2.1.2 - Rival Color Television Formats 7 2.1.3 - NTSC Color Standard 8 2.2 – Rise of In-Home Entertainment 9 2.2.1 - Birth of Cable TV 9 2.2.2 - Home Video 10 2.2.3 - Early High-End Home Video 11 2.3 – Developing Modern HDTV 12 2.3.1 – The Need for More Quality 12 2.3.2 – The Japanese Approach 13 2.3.3 – ATSC HDTV 13 2.3.4 – The Planned Transition 14 viii 2.4 – America’s Introduction to Digital Entertainment 16 2.4.1 – DVD 16 2.4.2 – Digital Television 17 2.4.3 – Computers 18 2.5 – End Remarks 19 3 – ADVANCED TELEVISION 20 3.1 – Finalizing the Format 20 3.1.1 – The FCC’s Prototype 20 3.2 – Digital Television 22 3.2.1 – Formats 22 3.2.2 – 1080i 23 3.2.3 – 720p 24 3.2.4 – 480p 25 3.2.5 – Network Support 26 3.3 – Digital Broadcasting 26 3.3.1 – Terrestrial Broadcasting 26 3.3.2 – Compression 27 3.4 – Transitions to High-Definition 28 3.4.1 – Current Status 28 3.4.2 – Timeframes 29 3.4.3 – Affiliate Costs 30 3.4.4 – Consumer Costs 30 ix 3.4.5 – Historical Perspective 31 3.5 – Attracting Consumers 31 3.5.1 – Increasing Content 31 3.5.2 – Appealing Hardware 32 3.5.3 – The Effect of the Internet 32 3.6 –End Remarks 33 4 – PREMIUM CONTENT DELIVERY SOURCES 34 4.1 – The Need for Supplemental Content 34 4.1.1 – Early Adopter Demographics 35 4.1.2 – Premium Content 36 4.2 – Electronic Media 37 4.2.1 – Unicasting versus Multicasting 37 4.2.2 – Digital Systems 37 4.2.3 – Cable Infrastructure 38 4.2.4 – IPTV 39 4.3 – Electronic Media Accessories 40 4.3.1 – Digital Video Recorders 40 4.3.2 – DVR Design 41 4.3.3 – Video on Demand 42 4.3.4 – Video on Demand Requirements 42 4.3.5 – Limitations 43 4.4 – Physical media 44 x 4.4.1 – Magnetic Tape 44 4.4.2 – Optical Disc 45 4.4.3 – Optic Advancements 46 4.4.4 – Compression Advancements 46 4.4.5 – MPEG-4 47 4.4.6 – The DVD Forum 48 4.4.7 – Blu-ray 49 4.4.8 – The High-Definition DVD 50 4.4.9 – Format War 52 4.5 – End Remarks 55 5 – POLITICS AND SOCIAL APPREHENSION 56 5.1 – Price 56 5.1.1 – Historical Trends 57 5.1.2 – Unknown Need 57 5.1.3 – Common Requirements 59 5.2 – Digital Usage Rights 60 5.2.1 – Rise of Piracy 60 5.2.2 – Copy Protection 60 5.2.3 – Analog Piracy 61 5.2.4 – Digital Piracy 62 5.2.5 – Fair Use 63 5.2.6 – Anti-Piracy Techniques 64 xi 5.2.7 – Provider Controlled Content 65 5.2.8 – Potential Solutions 66 5.3 – Media Ownership 67 5.3.1 – Content 67 5.3.2 – Effects on the Market 68 5.3.3 – Access 69 5.4 – End Remarks 70 6 – OUTLOOK 71 6.1 – Infrastructure 71 6.1.1 – Upgrades 71 6.1.2 – Broadcasters 72 6.1.3 – Premium Sources 73 6.1.4 – Cable 74 6.1.5 – Satellite 75 6.2 – Competitions 76 6.2.1 – Format Wars 76 6.2.2 – How HD Format Wars are Different 78 6.2.3 – Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD 78 6.2.4 – Benefits to a Swift Conclusion 79 6.2.5 – A Third Contender 80 6.3 – Costs to the Consumer 81 6.3.1 – Hardware Pricing 81 xii 6.3.2 – Content Pricing 82 6.3.3 – Public Spectrum 82 6.4 – Assisting the Transition 83 6.4.1 – Increasing Availability 83 6.4.2 – Transitioning by Default 83 6.4.3 – Other Avenues 85 6.5 – Longevity 86 6.5.1 – Will ATSC Last Fifty Years? 86 6.5.2 – Terrestrial Television 86 6.5.3 – Codecs 87 6.5.4 – Moore’s Law 89 6.5.5 – ATSC’s Room for Improvement 90 6.6 – End Remarks 90 7 – CONCLUSIONS 92 7.1 – Solving the Paradox 92 7.1.1 – Government Intervention 93 7.1.2 – The General Public 93 7.1.3 – Without Government Intervention 94 7.1.4 – The Effects of a Prolonged Transition 94 7.1.5 – Future of ATSC 96 7.1.6 – Consumer Flexibility 97 7.1.7 – Eventual Transition 97 xiii 7.2 – Predictions 98 7.2.1 – Three Years 98 7.2.2 – Five Years 99 7.2.3 – Ten Years 100 7.2.4 – Fifteen Years 101 7.2.5 – Thirty Years 101 7.3 – Future Research Directions 102 7.3.1 – Computer, Internet, and Television Convergence 102 7.3.2 – Predicting Future Home Entertainment by Looking at 103 Youth Viewing Habits 7.3.3 - Next-Next Generation Broadcast Mechanisms 104 REFERENCES 105 GLOSSARY 114 xiv LIST OF FIGURES 2 – BACKGROUND 2.1 – NHK vs.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • VHS and VCR (Edited from Wikipedia)
    VHS And VCR (Edited from Wikipedia) SUMMARY A videocassette recorder, VCR, or video recorder is an electromechanical device that records analog audio and analog video from broadcast television or other source on a removable, magnetic tape videocassette, and can play back the recording. Use of a VCR to record a television program to play back at a more convenient time is commonly referred to as timeshifting. VCRs can also play back prerecorded tapes. In the 1980s and 1990s, prerecorded videotapes were widely available for purchase and rental, and blank tapes were sold to make recordings. Most domestic VCRs are equipped with a television broadcast receiver (tuner) for TV reception, and a programmable clock (timer) for unattended recording of a television channel from a start time to an end time specified by the user. These features began as simple mechanical counter-based single-event timers, but were later replaced by more flexible multiple-event digital clock timers. In later models the multiple timer events could be programmed through a menu interface displayed on the playback TV screen ("on-screen display" or OSD). This feature allowed several programs to be recorded at different times without further user intervention, and became a major selling point. The Video Home System (VHS) is a standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes. Developed by Victor Company of Japan (JVC) in the early 1970s, it was released in Japan in late 1976 and in the United States in early 1977. From the 1950s, magnetic tape video recording became a major contributor to the television industry, via the first commercialized video tape recorders (VTRs).
    [Show full text]
  • Multichannel Music and DVD Audio
    Multichannel Music and DVD Audio Table of contents 1 Multichannel Music and DVD Audio.......................................................................... 2 Built with Apache Forrest http://forrest.apache.org/ Multichannel Music and DVD Audio 1. Multichannel Music and DVD Audio In the early years, fantastic sound meant fantastic music. With the advent of "surround sound", the emphasis shifted a bit, in the direction of film sound. Also, my present speakers (Bose Acoustimass 7) did not really make music sound "musically". Surround sound in the sense of matrix encoded "Dolby surround" also does not "promote" audiophile music. Already Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS offer more for multichannel music (five discrete full-range channels, although with some compression). DVD Audio, together with Super Audio CD (SACD), presently offers the ultimate in modern audiophile audio reproduction. DVD Audio offers a sampling depth up to 24 bits, sampling frequence up to 192 kHz, and up to 6 channels. Instead of lossy compression, the music date may be compressed losslessly using Meridian Lossless Packing. DVD-Audio can also contain multimedia content like pictures, lyrics, etc. It can also be combined with video content, although audio of highest quality/bandwidth and video cannot coexist (for bandwidth reasons). DVD Audio comes with digital copy protection that is part of the specification, and not based on deliberately specification-violations and production of deliberately defect discs (like "copy protected" CD's). SACD has similar properties, however, it cannot be combined with multimedia content. It is said, e.g. by Wikipedia, that there is a format war between SACD and DVD Audio. It appears to me that formats wars in the 2000's run differently than the format war between VHS, Betamax and Video 2000; also compare the "format war" DVD-R vs.
    [Show full text]
  • Case Analysis.1
    Management of Technology & Entrepreneurship (MTE) Technology Venturing & Entrepreneurship Sony Betamax Case Analysis GROUP 2 Patrick Hammer, Oliver Stampfli, Marcel Sutter, Thomas Thalmann, Donato Verardi [firstname.lastname]@epfl.ch Professor: Christopher L. Tucci Assistant: Farah Abdallah January 14, 2007 TSE - Sony Betamax - Case Analysis Group 2 Table of Content Summary of case report.................................................................... 2 Related topics and class sessions.................................................... 2 Format war (primary subject)............................................................................. 2 Customer needs............................................................................................... 2 Attacker’s advantage........................................................................................ 3 List of discussion questions.............................................................. 3 Brief answers..................................................................................... 3 Detailed answers............................................................................... 4 Recommendations.......................................................................... 10 Lessons learned.............................................................................. 10 Exhibits ............................................................................................11 Seven Key assets by Shapiro & Varian [6] [7] .................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Why Blu-Ray Vs. HD-DVD Is Not VHS Vs. Betamax: the Co-Evolution of Standard-Setting Consortia
    A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Christ, Julian P.; Slowak, André P. Working Paper Why Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD is not VHS vs. Betamax: The co-evolution of standard-setting consortia Schriftenreihe des Promotionsschwerpunkts Globalisierung und Beschäftigung, No. 29/2009 Provided in Cooperation with: PhD program "Globalization and Employment", University of Hohenheim, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Evangelisches Studienwerk Suggested Citation: Christ, Julian P.; Slowak, André P. (2009) : Why Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD is not VHS vs. Betamax: The co-evolution of standard-setting consortia, Schriftenreihe des Promotionsschwerpunkts Globalisierung und Beschäftigung, No. 29/2009, Universität Hohenheim, Stuttgart, http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:100-opus-4434 This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/30377 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte.
    [Show full text]
  • Platforms for Handling and Development of Audiovisual Data
    Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto Platforms for Handling and Development of Audiovisual Data José Pedro Sousa Horta Project/Dissertation concerning Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia Informática Advisor: Professor Eurico Carrapatoso July 2008 © José Pedro Sousa Horta, 2008 Platforms for Handling and Development of Audiovisual Data José Pedro Sousa Horta Project/Dissertation concerning Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia Informática Approved in public display by the jury: President: Prof. Doutor António Fernando Coelho _________________________________________________ Examiner: Prof. Doutor Nuno Magalhães Ribeiro Vowel: Prof. Doutor Eurico Manuel Carrapatoso July 17th 2008 Abstract Everywhere around us, digital is replacing analogue. Such is especially true in the audiovisual: be it in consumer or professional market, the advantages of computer-based media have quickly persuaded investors. To choose in which technologies, software should be based, proper understanding of the major aspects behind digital media is essential. An overview of the state of the art regarding the compression of digital video, the existing container formats and the multimedia frameworks (that enable easier playback and editing of audiovisual content) will be given, preceded by an introduction of the main topics. The professional video market is particularly focused on this document, due to the context of its elaboration, predominantly MPEG-2, MXF and DirectShow. In order to obtain more accurate results, fruit of the practical contact with the technology, a hands-on programming project was accomplished using DirectShow to playback both local and remote WMV files. Compression algorithms are continuously being improved and new ones invented, the designers of container formats are paying increased attention to metadata and some serious alternatives to DirectShow are emerging.
    [Show full text]
  • Evangelisches Studienwerk E.V. Villigst
    Evangelisches Studienwerk e.V. Villigst Schriftenreihe des Promotionsschwerpunkts Globalisierung und Beschäftigung Nr. 29/2009 Why Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD is not VHS vs. Betamax: The Co-evolution of Standard-setting Consortia by Julian P. Christ and André P. Slowak Stuttgart-Hohenheim ISSN 1618 -5358 WHY BLU-RAY VS. HD-DVD IS NOT VHS VS. BETAMAX: THE CO-EVOLUTION OF STANDARD-SETTING CONSORTIA Julian P. Christ ‡ and André P. Slowak § Extensive research has been conducted on the economics of standards in the last three decades. To date, standard-setting studies emphasize a superior role of demand-side-driven technology diffusion; these contributions assume the evolution of a user-driven momentum and network externalities. We find that consumers wait for a dominant standard if they are unable to evaluate technological supremacy. Thus, supply-side driven activities necessarily need to address an absence of demand-side technology adoption. Our paper focuses on Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD as an illustrative case of consortia standard wars. One central role of consortia is to coordinate strategic behavior between heterogeneous agents, e.g. incumbents, complementors (content providers) and others, but also to form a coalition against other standard candidates. More precisely, we argue for signalizing activities through consortia events. We depict the essential role of consortia structures for the recently determined standard war between the High-Definition disc specifications Blu-ray and HD-DVD. Therefore, the paper suggests that unique supply-side dynamics from consortia structures, consortia announcements and exclusive backing decisions of firms determined the standard-setting process in the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD standard war.
    [Show full text]
  • Simple Encoding Recipes 2009 Episode
    1 SIMPLE ENCODING RECIPES FOR THE WEB 2009 MPEG-4 H.264 MPEG-4 (Simple Profile) Windows Media Flash 8 or 9 (On2 VP6) YouTube FOR TELESTREAM EPISODE PRO 2 Forward These Recipes do not pretend to teach you about compression and encoding. Instead they are simple recipes that will get you great results with minimal effort when you use Episode Pro. I’ve also included a section on encoding for YouTube (or other video sharing sites that encodes whatever is uploaded) which is a common area of confusion. Intelligent Assistance, Inc. 519 S. Victory Blvd Burbank CA 91502 http://www.intelligentassistance.com Copyright ©2007-2009 Philip Hodgetts and Intelligent Assistance, Inc. All rights reserved. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 5 The encoding triangle 5 Choosing a Format 6 Flash 7 - .flv 7 Flash 8 or 9 - .flv 7 Flash 9 release 3 (Nov 2007) and Flash 10 - .f4v or .mp4 7 Real Video 8 Windows Media 9/10 8 MPEG-1 9 MPEG-2 9 MPEG-4 9 DivX 10 Format Recommendation 11 When not to use MPEG-4 H.264 11 The Best way to create MPEG-4 H.264 11 Change the Suffix! 11 Encoding Techniques 12 Work from the source 12 Preprocessing 12 De-interlace 12 Reverse Telecine/Remove Pulldown 13 Crush (Restore) the Blacks 15 Crop small videos 15 Encoding Recipes 17 H.264 MPEG-4 17 Gamma 18 The Recipe for MPEG-4 H.264 in Compressor 3 22 4 The Recipe for H.264 MPEG-4 in Episode Pro 19 The Recipe for H.264 MPEG-4 in Squeeze 23 Flash 8 or (early) 9 FLV 23 The Recipe for Flash 8/9 in Compressor 25 The Recipe for Flash 8/9 in Episode Pro 25 The Recipe for Flash 8/9 in Sorenson Squeeze
    [Show full text]
  • Lessons Learned from the Life and Death of Divx
    DISCUSSION PAPER SERIES No. 3935 SURVIVING A STANDARDS WAR: LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE LIFE AND DEATH OF DIVX David Dranove and Neil Gandal INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION ABCD www.cepr.org Available online at: www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP3935.asp www.ssrn.com/xxx/xxx/xxx ISSN 0265-8003 SURVIVING A STANDARDS WAR: LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE LIFE AND DEATH OF DIVX David Dranove, Northwestern University Neil Gandal, Tel Aviv University and CEPR Discussion Paper No. 3935 June 2003 Centre for Economic Policy Research 90–98 Goswell Rd, London EC1V 7RR, UK Tel: (44 20) 7878 2900, Fax: (44 20) 7878 2999 Email: [email protected], Website: www.cepr.org This Discussion Paper is issued under the auspices of the Centre’s research programme in INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION. Any opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and not those of the Centre for Economic Policy Research. Research disseminated by CEPR may include views on policy, but the Centre itself takes no institutional policy positions. The Centre for Economic Policy Research was established in 1983 as a private educational charity, to promote independent analysis and public discussion of open economies and the relations among them. It is pluralist and non-partisan, bringing economic research to bear on the analysis of medium- and long-run policy questions. Institutional (core) finance for the Centre has been provided through major grants from the Economic and Social Research Council, under which an ESRC Resource Centre operates within CEPR; the Esmée Fairbairn Charitable Trust; and the Bank of England. These organizations do not give prior review to the Centre’s publications, nor do they necessarily endorse the views expressed therein.
    [Show full text]
  • Types of Optical Disc
    OPTICAL DISC TYPES Types of optical disc CD-ROMs/DVD-ROMs (read-only-memory) are commercial grade discs and use a metallic data layer. This layer is created using a molding machine that stamps pits (depressions) and lands (flat surfaces) into a polycarbonate substrate base. The metal layer is then applied to the base, creating the data layer. While aluminium is most frequently used, it can potentially oxidize and lose data. This process of oxidization is sometimes referred to as “disk rot”. For archival discs, silver or gold layers are preferred because of longer life expectancies and better reflectivity. DVD-ROMs can also support a double layer of data, using two metal layers, one semi-reflective and the other of fully-reflective. Laser light beams can read each layer of data separately. If both sides of a DVD are used, this double layer can be doubled again, creating four data layers. CD-Rs/DVD-Rs (recordable) are recordable, write-once discs which use photosensitive organic dye just below of the reflective layer. This dye undergoes a chemical change when exposed to specific laser light beams; creating bits (marks) containing data. Some dyes used in DVD-Rs and CD-Rs include Phthalocyanine (greenish) Cyanine (blue) and Azo (dark blue). Silver, silver alloys and gold are used as reflective layers on recordable CDs and DVDs. Both gold and silver will outlast the organic dyes, which will decay over time. Aluminium is not used because it may cause reactions with the dyes. CD-RW/DVD-RWs (rewritable) are recordable, erasable and re-recordable discs that use a phase changing film data layer that reacts to heat.
    [Show full text]
  • Ayre CX-7 CD Player Value Check Time Review by Todd Warnke
    May 2003 Ayre CX-7 CD Player Value Check Time Review by Todd Warnke A couple of years ago I opened a review of a CD player with concern over the idea of buying an expensive CD player while at the start of a hi-rez format war. Looking back now, the odd thing about this format war is that it is beginning to look a whole lot like the low-rez format war of several years back, the Mini-Disc/DCC clash that briefly showed up on audiogeek radar as well as in a few niche markets and then quickly went the way of the Quadraphonic clash of the '70s. Sure, the current SACD/DVD-A conflict is being waged on higher bit-rate ground, but like its predecessor it has absolutely failed to capture any significant mindshare with the broad public and so remains an audiogeek and niche issue. While anecdotal evidence is hardly proof, in the last couple of months I've had conversations with half a dozen "normal" music lovers, folks with CD collections over 500 volumes each and not one had heard of SACD while only one had heard of DVD-A. My suspicion from this as well as other, more factual data, is that the high-rez battle will remain a niche issue, at least until the music labels finish hanging themselves over MP-3s and internet audio and then turn to high-bandwidth as a last ditch effort to save their bloated margins (BTW, they will fail in this as well, but, unfortunately, at the continued cost of both the consumer and the artist).
    [Show full text]
  • The Invention of Compact Discs
    The Invention of Compact Discs EIS Main Project Devon Shapiro, Merritt Patridge, Erin McCafferty, Hillary Herstin, Smita Gupta, Crystal Leveillee 11/9/2012 EIS Main Project – November 9, 2012 Devon Shapiro, Merritt Patridge, Erin McCafferty, Hillary Herstin, Smita Gupta, Crystal Leveillee EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In 1982 Sony and Philips introduced the world’s first CD system – a 12-cm compact audio disc and a CD player – which quickly displaced the vinyl record and launched the music industry into a new world of high tech music production. The music industry ecosystem the CD system entered into was centered on a few major Record Labels that dominated the industry. Although there were several other players in the ecosystem that needed to adopt CDs for them to be successful, the Record Labels were most important player to get on- board. While co-innovation was required for CD player development, the greatest co-innovation hurdle was the need for high-tech, capital-intensive CD production. CD Ecosystem at time of Introduction: Record Labels worried that consumers would not be willing to pay for the more expensive CDs, harbored piracy concerns and were hesitant to invest in a technology heavily dependent on unproven, capital-intensive production. In order to mitigate adoption chain and co-innovation risk, Sony and Philips created partnerships that aligned incentives for Record Labels and CD manufacturers to work together to promote the CD. Record Labels were also enticed by the value creation that higher-quality CDs offered through price premiums and consumers converting their back catalogs to CD format. While the invention of CDs was a massive technological disruption to the music industry, it reinforced the position of major Record Labels as the ecosystem power players.
    [Show full text]
  • Retro Media: Memory (And Memories) Lost -- University at Buffalo Libraries
    Retro Media: Memory (and Memories) Lost Introduction Audio Media Visual Images/Photography Audio-Visual Computer Data Questions for the Future Preservation and Migration Webliography (Bibliography) Exhibit Acknowledgements Take a Video Tour of the Exhibit Introduction The past 120 years saw some of the most rapid changes in how we record, collect, and use audio, visual, and now digital information. The pace creates in its wake, a long list of obsolete technologies, some of which, still exist, but for which equipment and storage technologies are not always available. This exhibit reflects this light-speed, developing technology world with a selection of media formats. Audio Media Music as a Family Activity I come from a musical family that had both a large 78 rpm and 33 rpm collection. Before headphones were common place and well before portable, individual music players, listening to records was a family activity. We sit down in front on the big console record player (about 6-7 feet long) and listen with an occasional comment. I learned a lot about music just be listening together and discussing what we had just heard.—A. Ben Wagner, Science & Engineering Library Timeline 1877 – Thomas Edison’s phonograph – first audio recording device with immediate playback. 1925 – 78 RPM Shellac Record 1930 – 33 RPM Vinyl Record 1947 – ¼” Reel-to-Reel Tape 1949 – 45 RPM Vinyl Record 1964 – Compact Cassette Tapes (possibly 1966) 1965 – Eight Track Tapes 1969 – Microcassette Tapes 1980 – Audio Compact Discs Disc Records (78, 33, 45 RPM) Microcassette tapes ¼” Reel-to-Reel Tape Audio Compact Discs Compact Cassette Tapes Minidisks Eight Track Tape Vinyl/Shellac Records The vinyl record is a type of gramophone record that was most commonly used for mass-produced music recordings.
    [Show full text]