SACD discs

[the^wretched]

Hi

i did a search and found very little that was helpful to me regarding the SACD format discs.
i have a SACD which the DVD drive installed on this computer does not recognize.

the drive is a Sony DRU-710A.
and well if it helps in any way, the SACD is the 10th Anniversery SACD of The Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails.

its the only SACD i have and don't quite understand why the drive doesn't recognize it and therefore, won't read/access the contents of the disc.

any idea whats going on here?

[greymalkin]

a super audio cd is a completely different format. You can't just stick it in a cd/dvd player and expect it to play. You'll have to get a standalone sacd player or a dvd-audio/sacd combo player. I don't think they make them for pc, only to hook up to your home stereo.

[bobkart]

I know of no PC drives that can read SACD. Is there some reason you expect to be able to read them on PC? Or is it just because you can read CDs and DVDs.

[edDV]

Details here.

http://www.answers.com/topic/super-audio-compact-disc

[bobkart]

Details here.

http://www.answers.com/topic/super-audio-compact-disc

Excellent writeup.

The relevant paragraph to the original question being:

Copy protection

SA-CD has several copy prevention features at the physical level which, for the moment, appears to make this format nearly impossible to perfectly copy. These include physical pit modulation and 80 bit encryption of the audio data, with a key encoded on a special area of the disk that is only readable by a licensed SA-CD device. SA-CD can't be played on a computer, nor can SA-CDs be created except by a licensed disc replication facility. Copying the music may still be done via an analogue stage (for example, line-out of the SA-CD player to the line-in of a CD recorder), but doing so is imperfect since the conversion to and from analogue is lossy.

[the^wretched]

Is there some reason you expect to be able to read them on PC? Or is it just because you can read CDs and DVDs.

i didn't know most drives can't read SACD discs so i suppose that was part of the problem.
the other thing is, there are tracks on that particular SACD that i wanted to rip onto my mp3 player which are not available on the regular Downward Spiral album.

anyway, thanks for the help and for that link...now i have a solid answer.

[DRP]

Details here.

http://www.answers.com/topic/super-audio-compact-disc

Excellent writeup.

The relevant paragraph to the original question being:

Copy protection

SA-CD has several copy prevention features at the physical level.

Which is pretty much why the format died a quiet death almost the instant it was released. Firstly no-one but dogs with golden ears listening through Seinhesser headphones could hear the difference and secondly it cost > $1,000 to buy all the extra gear required to play the discs which looked and performed for all the world exactly like bog standard CDs whcih had been around for 20 years.

[SingSing]

Can you update your write-up to include blue ray and HD DVD too ?

[edDV]

Can you update your write-up to include blue ray and HD DVD too ?

What does blue ray and HD DVD have to do with SACD?

[DRP]

He is somewhat subtlely suggesting that the new DVD formats will ultimately have exactly the same market penetration and success as SACD had. ie. none at all.

[waheed]

DVD Audio (another format sharing the same fate with SACD) can be played on a PC with the right sound card/software combination.

[Wile_E]

See, if the industry never wanted people to copy music cd's and DVD's, they should've never allowed any manufacturers to make recordable CD/DVD drives with the same laser wavelength. Instead, for PC, create a different wavelength CD drive that wouldn't play regular CD's and DVD's. So people could only use it for data backup and games. Then people could only play CD/DVD on standalone decks.

Of course though, regular CD's are not encrypted to begin with, so someone would've found a way to get it into the computer, even if the drive could'nt read it. The same for Blu-Ray/HD-DVD. They are allowing recordable formats and PC drives. So the industry shouldn't complain when people start making copies of these discs too. The industry itself is to blame for allowing people easy access to copy discs.

[the^wretched]

See, if the industry never wanted people to copy music cd's and DVD's, they should've never allowed any manufacturers to make recordable CD/DVD drives with the same laser wavelength. Instead, for PC, create a different wavelength CD drive that wouldn't play regular CD's and DVD's. So people could only use it for data backup and games. Then people could only play CD/DVD on standalone decks.

please, do not give those bafoons any ideas.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

...there are tracks on that particular SACD that i wanted to rip onto my mp3 player which are not available on the regular Downward Spiral album...

this is why I bought the DVD version :P

[greymalkin]

Firstly no-one but dogs with golden ears listening through Seinhesser headphones could hear the difference and secondly it cost > $1,000 to buy all the extra gear required to play the discs which looked and performed for all the world exactly like bog standard CDs whcih had been around for 20 years.

???
If you think SACD's sound exactly the same as CD's may i suggest a couple things:

- q-tips
- perhaps some hydrogen peroxide to really fizzle out everything

You can buy universal players that play DVD/SACD/and DVD-Audio for about $100 (those on the other side of the audio-whacko spectrum will argue that the SACD is translated on these players so it sounds much worse than "true" SACD).

[ebenton]

There were/are some SACD disks that were/are "hybrid", meaning that they have a data layer that can be read by a regular CD player or PC drive. If your disk is not a "hybrid", then you won't be able to play it on a PC drive or a non-SACD-capable player.

Of course, playing a hybrid disk on a regular CD player will not sound any better than if you played the standard version of the same CD. The hybrid layer only contains regular 2-channel sound. You have to be able to read the SACD layer in order to get multi-channel sound.