The Reason 74 min. Disc became the standard

[dancoe]

I thought this was interesting. I searched VCD Help and didn't find anything like it in previous posts. I got this info from Andy McFadden's CD FAQ site. I don't know how true it is, I just thought I would share it.

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Why Is 74 minutes the standard?

The general belief is that it was chosen because the CD designers wanted to have a format that could hold Beethoven's ninth symphony. They were trying to figure out what diameter to use, and the length of certain performances settled it.

There are several different versions of the story. Some say a Polygram (then part of Philips) artist named Herbert von Karajan wanted his favorite piece to fit on one disc. Another claims the wife of the Sony chairman wanted it to hold her favorite symphony. An interview in the July 1992 issue of _CD-ROM Professional_ reports a Mr. Oga at Sony made the defining request.
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[hitechjunkie]

kinda like the story behind why a major design feature of the space shuttle's booster rockets were determined by the width of a horse's a**...

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: hitechjunkie on 2001-07-20 12:35:07 ]</font>

[dancoe]

Thanks Hitech,

That's a pretty funny story.

Now I heard the hole in the cd-rom is 9/16" (14mm) because that was the constricted size of of the Horsies A** Hole.

Just Kiddin'