The Demise of disc formats

[Sal1950]

I was never very careful handing them back then(in contrast my obsessive record cleaning habit these days), and I put them in one of those cheap zip albums where the sleeves half melted in the car.
I've never been too picky about perfect sound quality, I kept playing my worn out cassette tapes until finally got music downloadd on pc. Now, I am recording those downloads onto a format that I am still new to: 8-track cartridges. I melted quad notches in about 20 8-tracks the other day. Maybe one day I'll burn the downloads onto a compact optical disc format when that becomes nostalgic!

LOL

 

[Sal1950]

It has hit me like bolt of lightning one of the biggest store in NZ called the "Ware House" has virtually pulled all disc formats of the shelves with in a week 4k Blue-ray CD`s. and LP`s. GONE.....

The part that bothers me most is BluRay Video. None of the video streamers offers audio quality to match the BD's It's all lossy compressed crap that sucks in direct comparison.

 

[MidiMagic]

Why is that? The only reason I can think of is they banged around loose in your car and got scratched beyond reading.
Actual occurances of CD rot have been pretty rare.

I have had only one CD and one DVD quit working. In both cases I could actually see through the foil to the label on the other side. If I put a light behind the disc, I could see the label through the foil. The foil used was substandard.

I have had several CD-Rs fail. In fact, I had an entire box of them fail. This usually happened in shipment before the boxes are put on the shelves. I call it "hot truck treatment". A shipment is left in a hot semi for several days before it is unloaded. The heat generates the wavelength that burns the dye in the disc, and the dye disappears. And a CD-R can be damaged by leaving it in a hot vehicle.

I have had many tapes fail. In most of them the adhesive holding the oxide to the tape either disintegrates (making the oxide fall off the tape) or turns to goo (sticking the oxide to the next layer of tape or sticking layers together).

I have owned only ONE phonograph record that failed due to age. It was one of the World War II victims of rationing. Made of substandard materials, the surface of the record developed tiny cracks like the surface of a dried-up pond cracks.

 

[Sal1950]

I have owned only ONE phonograph record that failed due to age. It was one of the World War II victims of rationing. Made of substandard materials, the surface of the record developed tiny cracks like the surface of a dried-up pond cracks.

Yes but vinyl deteriorates a bit with each play and the S/N ratio goes up and up. Play them enough and there's no signal left, it's all surface noise. LOL

 

[Akaiquadster2]

Good grief. What's next? Are we going to see a LaserDisc resurgence?

I hope so only because I missed it last time and it’s like a hybrid LP and CD - surely the ultimate?

 

[Titch]

Why do folks insist on using vinyl as some sort of an analog to CDs? They are quite dissimilar.

The likelihood of hipsters freaking out over CD players is about as likely as hipsters freaking over DOS PCs with floppy disc drives and running WordPerfect.

Just you wait: one day the compact disc will suddenly become über-trendy

https://www.wsj.com/articles/cassette-tape-fashion-11616156603

 

[Sal1950]

Just you wait: one day the compact disc will suddenly become über-trendy

You never know. If you told me around 1995 that LP's would be all the rage and folks would be spending tens of thousands of dollars on tables and needles again, I'd have said you were nuts. Turned out it's some audiophiles that are nuts. LOL

 

[AYanguas]

The part that bothers me most is BluRay Video. None of the video streamers offers audio quality to match the BD's It's all lossy compressed crap that sucks in direct comparison.

Yes, neither Tidal Atmos.

The technical explanation that I usually read is that the much bigger bitrate of DTS-HD MA or Dolby TrueHD, compared with DD+ is too high enough to be streamed trough the 'average' internet home bandwith. Even not reliable using enough buffers.

I did not do the numbers to understand that assertion, but asuming that this is true we will have to wait for increased average internet bandwidth to have streamed MCH Hi-res sound. Or perhaps will never reach that if we are considered forever a small niche and the whole masses have enough with compressed video and audio.

 

[esimms86]

I hope so only because I missed it last time and it’s like a hybrid LP and CD - surely the ultimate?

I used to own a Sony laserdisc player and a small (less than 15) collection of discs. I always disliked the disc platter which,to me at least, was inherently unstable and ultimately doomed to fail.

 

[Sirspinbad]

Good grief. What's next? Are we going to see a LaserDisc resurgence?

LD has made a very strong comeback, .....well not HUGE numbers, yet noticeable.

it’s a great format with great titles, especially rare music

 

[Sirspinbad]

I hope so only because I missed it last time and it’s like a hybrid LP and CD - surely the ultimate?

Not to mention the coolest looking format ever. I bought my first one, just cause I thought it looked cool

 

[ProgRules]

Yes, neither Tidal Atmos.

The technical explanation that I usually read is that the much bigger bitrate of DTS-HD MA or Dolby TrueHD, compared with DD+ is too high enough to be streamed trough the 'average' internet home bandwith. Even not reliable using enough buffers.

I did not do the numbers to understand that assertion, but asuming that this is true we will have to wait for increased average internet bandwidth to have streamed MCH Hi-res sound. Or perhaps will never reach that if we are considered forever a small niche and the whole masses have enough with compressed video and audio.

That technical explanation is nonsense. We can stream 4k hdr movies with bit rates higher than 20 mgbs, so there's plenty of bandwidth for mch music. The companies not wanting to pay for the bandwidth is what creates the bottleneck.

 

[MidiMagic]

You never know. If you told me around 1995 that LP's would be all the rage and folks would be spending tens of thousands of dollars on tables and needles again, I'd have said you were nuts. Turned out it's some audiophiles that are nuts. LOL

Not me. I never gave up the phono record. I am still using my original equipment.

 

[4-earredwonder]

I used to own a Sony laserdisc player and a small (less than 15) collection of discs. I always disliked the disc platter which,to me at least, was inherently unstable and ultimately doomed to fail.

I was Laser Disc CRAZY and owned two top of the line Players .... The Pioneer Elite and the tank like Theta Digital and god knows how many hundreds of discs including those pricey Japanese Imports [like the elaborate Star Wars box set].

Between the disc rot and player failures, I'm glad the format was short lived. At the time it was THE BEST audio/video available but after living with my OPPO 205 for a few years and having garnered a pretty decent UHD4K collection ...... absolutely do NOT miss the Laser disc format. That little 5" UHD4K disc leaves all remnants of Pioneer's laser disc format ..... in the PROVERBIAL DUST!

 

[timbre4]

After the Denon LA 3100 LD player spindle motor went, I recycled it. Bought a Pioneer CLD 1030 cheap last year for the remaining 8" & 12" LDs and a few CDVs left. I put on the Criterion Blade Runner CAV edition (my first LD purchase in 1988) to see if the infamous 3M pressing would play. Not a sure thing as speckling and play failures were noted. It played pretty well, strong speckling at the very beginning and then pretty solid the rest of the way. Syd Mead gallery still looks cool.

But yeah, there's all the flaws that analog video offers while digital video viewing experience is vastly superior. My LD player is in the vintage quad system in the back room and that's where it remains as a past system memento like the cassette & DAT decks, VHS, Q8 & CD-4 demodulator that dwell there.

 

[4-earredwonder]

After the Denon LA 3100 LD player spindle motor went, I recycled it. Bought a Pioneer CLD 1030 cheap last year for the remaining 8" & 12" LDs and a few CDVs left. I put on the Criterion Blade Runner CAV edition (my first LD purchase in 1988) to see if the infamous 3M pressing would play. Not a sure thing as speckling and play failures were noted. It played pretty well, strong speckling at the very beginning and then pretty solid the rest of the way. Syd Mead gallery still looks cool.

But yeah, there's all the flaws that analog video offers while digital video viewing experience is vastly superior. My LD player is in the vintage quad system in the back room and that's where it remains as a past system memento like the cassette & DAT decks, VHS, Q8 & CD-4 demodulator that dwell there.

Speaking of DAT, Tim, I also went DAT~Shite Crazy! Even purchased some pre~recorded DATs [LOL 16/44.1]. But they did come in handy for parties where I recorded hours of compilations and they sure beat the pants off cassettes.

And to think that DTS Entertainment even utilized DATS from the majors to replicate some of their DTS CDs. Glad those days are OVER AND DONE!

 

[esimms86]

Speaking of DAT, Tim, I also went DAT~Shite Crazy! Even purchased some pre~recorded DATs [LOL 16/44.1]. But they did come in handy for parties where I recorded hours of compilations and they sure beat the pants off cassettes.

And to think that DTS Entertainment even utilized DATS from the majors to replicate some of their DTS CDs. Glad those days are OVER AND DONE!

In an interview with blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa (Google Nerdville Todd Rundgren), Todd recalls how recording to ADAT was such a PITA.

 

[Wathen1955]

Cost. Blue ray cost a lot more than just a standard DVD.

 

[4_everyman]

My LD player is in the vintage quad system in the back room and that's where it remains as a past system memento like the cassette & DAT decks, VHS, Q8 & CD-4 demodulator that dwell there.

What...no Elcaset deck?

 

[timbre4]

What...no Elcaset deck?

No because they were rare and expensive even in 1970s dollars.