Kobus

What is a "Red Book CD"?
Is it just a normal cd or what?

Thanks

Kobus

aphexist

Yes. If a CD conforms to the Redbook encoding and media standards then it should play as intended on any normal CD player.

Karma

HI Kobus,
There actually IS a Red Book. And, no surprise, it is bright red. I have one. In it you will find the complete specification for what we know as Compact Disk's which was developed jointly by Philips and, later, Sony.

Being highly technical it is not easy reading . But if you want to know more about CD's than you ever wanted to know, the Red Book is the place to go.

Sparky

Kobus

Thank you guys.

starshaped

The use of the word redbook is just a hightly irritating pretentious word that people use instead of just saying CD, if they were any confusion as to the meaning CD i could forgive it its use, and seeing as most of the time in the English language we usually shorten words anyway, they really is no use for this word, other then to make forum users looks very important

Kevin P

"Redbook" is often used in forums to distinguish standard (redbook) CD audio from other formats such as SACD, DVD-A, etc. In particular, on a hybrid SACD, the layer that plays in standard CD players is often called the "Redbook" layer. For example, "how does the redbook layer on the Norah Jones SACD sound?"

If you're just talking about "redbook" CDs by themselves, there's nothing wrong with just calling them CDs.

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Wife: "Are you on that site hanging out with your home theater nerd friends again?"
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bigburner

As well as referring to the audio CD standard Red Book has a whole lot of other meanings which is why it makes more sense just to call them CDs:

The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire.
The UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages.
The Red Book is an Australian table of new and used car values.
The Red Book was a nickname for the policy platform of the Liberal Party of Canada in the 1993 election.
The Red Book is also a name of the OpenGL Programming Guide.
It is also the first publication to describe the X.400 standard in 1984.
It is a nickname for the volume by Nemeth, Snyder, Seebass, Hein: "Unix System Administration Handbook, Second Edition". Note that though the third edition is purple, it is still called 'The Red Book'.
Red Book is part of the Rainbow Series of books from the National Computer Security Center (NCSC) which covers the definition of Trusted Networks.
The Bulgarian Red Book of endangered species.
In J. R. R. Tolkien's realm of Middle-earth, the Red Book of Westmarch supposedly contained the original versions of the stories Tolkien wrote.
The Little Red Book is the pocket-size edition of the book of Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong, with more than 1 billion copies in print.
The Little Red Schoolbook is a book published in the United Kingdom in the 1960s espousing the theory that all adults are paper Tigers.
Monty Python's Big Red Book of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
PostScript Language Reference.
NTIA Manual of Regulations and Procedures for Federal Radio Frequency Management.
Redbook, a women's magazine.
A Guide Book of United States Coins by R. S. Yeoman, an overview of and pricing guide for coins from the United States and the colonies before the U.S. was formed; the book is considered a handbook for American numismatics and is traditionally published in annual, updated editions with a red cover.
Red book is a name of the list of endangered and protected species, prohibited for hunting, in Russia and most CIS states.
The Red Book is a standard book for which Managers in the hospitality industry, use as a system for organizing, planning, and communication. It is also known as The Manager's Red Book.


Kobus, I know you wanted to read all that.

Alaric

I was under the impression that there are CDs that do not meet the standards set forth in the infamous Red Book. For example , CDs that are burned at the consumer level. I was led to believe CD-Rs do not have the ability to contain as much data as Red Book discs. Also , CDs that do not have the compact disc logo , much like the comparison between SACD and Red Book. As my header states , I may be all screwed up on the subject. Can anybody help a brother out and yea or nay this?

Kevin P

Technically, CD-R/CD-RW is Orange Book, not Red Book, but the standard is close enough for most CD players to play them successfully.

The "books" and their colors are (per Wikipedia):

* Red Book (CD Digital Audio)
* Yellow Book (CD-ROM and CD-ROM XA)
* Orange Book (CD-R and CD-RW)
* White Book (Video CD)
* Blue Book (Enhanced CD, CD+G and CD-Plus)
* Beige Book (Photo CD)
* Green Book (CD-i)
* Purple Book (DDCD)
* Scarlet Book (SACD)

Also, Philips stated at one point that "copy protected" CDs don't qualify for the Compact Disc logo since they violate the Red Book standard.

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Wife: "Are you on that site hanging out with your home theater nerd friends again?"
Me: "Yes dear".

Alaric

Do the different standards differentiate quality of reproduction (orange vs. red) based on data storage or just accomodate different mediums? Or did I ask the same question twice in one sentence? I ask because my SACDs (Dark Side Of the Moon , Madman Across The Water , etc...) sound different than my better Red Books ,( more vinyl like but not quite) but compared to , say , Heart's Dreamboat Annie , not necessarily better. Is all the extra data storage for the hybrid and 5 channel capability or is there more "music" per track than Red Book? I feel like such an idiot.
I could research this on line but this forum has provided me with commentary and opinions I've had the option to hear personally so I have much trust the info I get here isn't kissing advertiser butt .
Having said that , I'm going to throw a posterior smooch at CAT cables-without my Silvercats I wouldn't have known how clean and detailed my better CDs are.

Kevin P

The different standards are for different types of data to be stored on the disc. Red Book is for digital audio CDs. Yellow Book is CD-ROM, same physical medium, same raw format, but computer data instead of digital audio is stored on the disc. The only ones that vary from this is Orange Book (specifying a different physical medium that is recordable, but you can record data relevant to most of the other "books" onto CD-R, such as Red Book audio, Yellow Book data, White Book video, etc.), and Scarlet Book (SACD spec). SACD is higher resolution and a different encoding type (DSD instead of PCM), which is why your SACDs in general sound better than regular (redbook) CDs.

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Wife: "Are you on that site hanging out with your home theater nerd friends again?"
Me: "Yes dear".

Alaric

Then it is probably source material that makes some of my CD-Rs sound like and some sound pretty good relative to "Red Book" versions. I also suspect some CD-Rs are just inferior quality , which brings up another question-any opinions on which CD-Rs are generally better for music (Maxell , Verbatim , etc.....)? I'm somewhat budget limited at present and want to maximize what comes out of my speakers before upgradeitis blows up the Visa card again. It seems to make sense starting with the source and then going from there. My CD player seems to be decent for now (Marantz SA8260) so once I minimize flaws in source I can start looking at amps and speakers , but if the source is poo I'll never know what the heck I'm listening for.
Thanks for all the help!

Karma

HI Kevin,
I knew about the Red and Orange Books but the others are new to me. Thanks for the information.

Sparky

purplepeople

The general trend among CD-R sites on the web indicate that the brand is less important than the factory that actually produced the disc. And of all those, it seems that Taiyo Juden consistently rates the best, while Ritek (Taiwan) tends to rate middling to low.

Not coincidentally, the Taiyo factory is supposedly the only CD-R plant in Japan. Coincidentally, it appears that the more expensive discs are also labelled Made in Japan.

Anyway, based on these various opinions, I've chosen to buy Japanese. Compared to some Ritek CD-Rs at work, the Fuji's that I typically get seem well made, especially obvious at the edge where it seems the Japanese have very smooth and rounded edges vs Taiwanese discs that almost seem die-cut. Lately though, Fuji discs have started to come from Taiwan. The recent exceptions are the "Photo" CD-Rs from Fuji Japan, which we all know aren't really just for pictures.

:)ensen.

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Alaric

Thanks for the info , purplepeople. I'm creeping up on the decision (jones?) to upgrade , but need to convince myself that the equipment is the weak link. Biggest problem (after money!) will be convincing the wife I need to keep the stuff I have and start from scratch again......She isn't real sure we actually need a couple 70 lb. speakers in the bedroom , along with the integrated amp and CD player. She'll be more impressed if she can see the new stuff looks better. Maybe a Shanling CD-T300.....Yeah , right.

Adz

My wife likes to read Redbook.....
(nice cover too!)

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Adz