1970
At Philips, Compaan and Pete Kramer complete a glass disc prototype and determine that a laser will be needed to read the information.
1972
Compaan and Kramer produce color prototype of this new compact disc technology
1973
BBC and other broadcast companies start installing digital recorders for master recordings.
1977
Mitsubishi, Hitachi & Sony show digital audio disc prototypes at the Tokyo Audio Fair..JVC Develops Digital Audio Process
1978
Philips releases the video disc player.
Sony sells the PCM-1600 and PCM-1 (digital audio processors).
"Digital Audio Disc Convention" Held in Tokyo, Japan with 35 different manufacturers.
Philips proposes that a worldwide standard be set.
Polygram (division of Philips) determined that polycarbonate would be the best material for the CD.
Decision made for data on a CD to start on the inside and spiral towards the outer edge.
Disc diameter originally set at 115mm.
Type of laser selected for CD Players.
1979
Sony agrees to join in collaboration.
Sony & Philips compromise on the standard sampling rate of a CD -- 44.1 kHz (44,100 samples per second).
Philips accepts Sony's proposal for 16-bit audio.
Reed-Solomon code adopted after Sony's suggestion.
Maximum playing time decided to be slightly more that 74 minutes.
Disc diameter changed to 120mm to allow for 74 minutes of 16-bit stereo sound with a sample rate of 44.1 kHz
Prototype CD System demonstrated in Europe and Japan.
1980
Compact Disc standard proposed by Philips & Sony.
1981
Matsushita accepts Compact Disc Standard.
Digital Audio Disc Committee also accepts Compact Disc Standard.
Sharp achieves production of semiconductor laser.
Philips & Sony collaboration ends.
1982
Sony & Philips both have product ready to go.
Compact Disc Technology is introduced to Europe and Japan in the fall.
1983
Compact Disc Technology is introduced in the United States in the spring.
The Compact Disc Group formed to help market.
CD-ROM Prototypes shown to public.
30,000 Players sold in the U.S.
800,000 CD's sold in the U.S.
1984
Second Generation & Car CD players introduced.
First Mass Replication Plant in the United States built.
Portable (i.e., Sony DiscMan) CD Players sold.
1985
Third generation CD Players released.
CD-ROM drives hit the computer market.
1986
CD-I (Interactive CD) concept created.
3 Million Players sold in U.S.
53 Million CD's sold in U.S.
1987
Video CD format created.
Allen Adkins of Optical Media International joins with SonoPress in Amsterdam and demonstrates a desktop system for pre-mastering CD's (Adkins and SonoPress, produced a replicated CD in less than 24-hours).
1988
CD-Recordable Disc/Recorder Technology Introduced
1990
28% of all U.S. households have CD's.
9.2 million players sold annually in the United States.
288 million CD's sold annually in the United States.
World Sales close to 1 Billion
1991
CD-I format achieved.
CD-Recordable Introduced to the Market.
"QuickTopix" the first CD-R pre-mastering Software introduced by Allen Adkins.
1992
CD-R Sales reach 200,000
1996
DVD Technology Introduced.
Prices of Recorders and CD-R Media go down significantly.
High Demands cause World-Wide CD-R Media Shortage.
- Washington native, James T. Russell patented the original CD in 1965.
- During its refinement in the early 1970’s, James plotted the technology to burn holes, via laser, in pits into plastic coated disc and each “pit” or “hole” would characterize a sound or noise.
- Sony eventually purchased the license to create CD’s from James
- Sony in the mid-1985 began to churn out some of its popular artists on CD.
- Compact discs produced today are encoded with an anti-copying mechanism to prevent piracy.
- Only a small fraction of the money earned on a cd goes to the band itself.
- Most of the profits made by the record company are spent on advertising and manufacturing costs.
- The average cost to manufacture a CD is $2 to $4.
- Understanding CD
- A CD can store up to 74 minutes of music.
- The total amount of digital data that must be stored on a CD is:
44,100 samples/channel/second x 2 bytes/sample x 2 channels x 74 minutes x 60 seconds/minute = 783,216,000 bytes
- To fit more than 783 megabytes (MB) onto a disc only 4.8 inches (12 cm) in diameter requires that the individual bytes be very small.
- By examining the physical construction of a CD, you can begin to understand just how small these bytes are.
- Standards and specifications
- Red Book - 1980 standard document that contains specifications for CD-DA (CD-Digital Audio)
- Subsequent CD formats (as well as DVD formats) all follow the basic Red Book specification.
- Yellow Book - which, in conjunction with other standards, details the specifications for CD-ROM and CD-ROM XA
- Orange Book - which details the specifications for CD-R, CD-WO, CD-RW, and CD-MO
- White Book - which details the specifications for various multimedia disks, such as Video CD
- Green Book - which details the specifications for CD-i
- Blue Book - which details the specifications for enhanced CD
- Scarlet Book - which details the specifications for Super Audio CD
- Purple Book - which specifies the Double Density CD (DDCD)