Pioneer to demo recording/playback 1-Bit audio contents on DVD-R/-RW discs
Pioneer Corp. demonstrated recording of 1-bit audio contents on DVD-R/-RW discs and playback on a remodeled version of an existing DVD player at the "1-Bit Forum 2002" organized by the 1-Bit Audio Consortium.
Applying the technology developed this time will realize software players that playback 1-bit system music contents on PCs, or playback equipment in both mobile and stationary types.
However, since the framework of copyright protection for 1-bit music contents has not been developed, Pioneer is making this trial production a technical verification.
There are mainly three technological/developmental items that Pioneer developed: (1) defining the file format for operating 1-bit music contents on PCs and others, (2) authoring software for PCs and (3) DVD players that can play back 1-bit music files recorded on DVD-R/-RW.
(1) The file format that Pioneer developed consists of the header and data layers. The header is not only equipped with a layer that stores the file capacity, sample frequency, channel number, etc., but also a layer that stores text data, such as song names, composers, date of recording, etc. The data layer stores uncompressed 1-bit stream data directly, adding no control information. The file extension is WSD, derived from wideband single bit data.
(2) The authoring software is used for creating music files compatible with the 1-bit file format. Stream data is produced by multiplexing 1-bit audio signals of each channel, and a music file is created by adding the header information. The created music file is recorded on a disc with DVD-R/-RW equipment built into PCs. (3) The DVD player that can play back 1-bit music files is one based on Pioneer's "DV-S747A." This product already was equipped with Super AudioCD (SACD), DVD-Video and DVD-Audio playback functions by default. From there, the direct stream digital (DSD) decoding circuit for SACD is removed and replaced with a circuit that decodes audio signals from 1-bit music files. This trial model plays music files in the sample frequencies of 2.8MHz and 1.4MHz, and the channel numbers are 2 and 4.
However, since the framework of copyright protection for 1-bit music contents has not been developed, Pioneer is making this trial production a technical verification.
There are mainly three technological/developmental items that Pioneer developed: (1) defining the file format for operating 1-bit music contents on PCs and others, (2) authoring software for PCs and (3) DVD players that can play back 1-bit music files recorded on DVD-R/-RW.
(1) The file format that Pioneer developed consists of the header and data layers. The header is not only equipped with a layer that stores the file capacity, sample frequency, channel number, etc., but also a layer that stores text data, such as song names, composers, date of recording, etc. The data layer stores uncompressed 1-bit stream data directly, adding no control information. The file extension is WSD, derived from wideband single bit data.
(2) The authoring software is used for creating music files compatible with the 1-bit file format. Stream data is produced by multiplexing 1-bit audio signals of each channel, and a music file is created by adding the header information. The created music file is recorded on a disc with DVD-R/-RW equipment built into PCs. (3) The DVD player that can play back 1-bit music files is one based on Pioneer's "DV-S747A." This product already was equipped with Super AudioCD (SACD), DVD-Video and DVD-Audio playback functions by default. From there, the direct stream digital (DSD) decoding circuit for SACD is removed and replaced with a circuit that decodes audio signals from 1-bit music files. This trial model plays music files in the sample frequencies of 2.8MHz and 1.4MHz, and the channel numbers are 2 and 4.
