Specifications

CD-i FAQ 2000 Edition Revised February 21, 2001
Latest version and more CD-i info: http://www.icdia.org
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producer's option, and is not required for any Super Audio-CD. Only discs with this CD-
compatible layer can be played on a CD-i player. Look for this information on the CDs case.
5.15 Will CD-i play HDCD, CD-Video, CD-MIDI or CD-Text?
HDCD (High Density Compatible Digital) is an extension to CD-Audio which raises the bit depth
of the sampes from 16 to 20 bits, allowing for a higher sound quality on players with a HDCD
decoder. Any HDCD-CD can be played on any CD-player, including CD-i players. To date, no
CD-i player makes use of this extra HDCD-information.
CD-Video (not to be confused with Video-CD, which is a totally different system) is a 12 cm CD
which contains 20 minutes of CD-Audio and up to 6 minutes of LaserDisc-format analogue video.
The video can only be played on LaserDisc players, the audio can be played on any CD-player,
including CD-i players.
CD-MIDI is a CD-Audio disc with MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) information in the
subcode channels. This allows for MIDI-devices like synthesizers to play along with the music on
the CD. The applications of CD-MIDI are very rare. The audio of a CD-MIDI disc can be played
on any CD-player, including CD-i players.
CD-Text is a CD-Audio disc with the names of songs and performers stored in the subcode
channels. This information can be made available on the displays of compatible CD-players. It is
very likely that all future CD-Audio discs will contain CD-Text information. To date, no CD-i player
will display CD-Text information. The audio of a CD-Text disc can be played on any CD-player,
including CD-i players.
5.16 Will CD-i play DVD discs?
No. A DVD is a different kind of disc, based on a high density format. It requires a new physical
laser unit to read the discs. A CD-i player can only read discs based on the normal infra-red laser
technique: compact discs or CDs. It is unlikely that a combination playback device for CD-i and
DVD will ever become available, nor will it be possible to upgrade a CD-i player to play DVD discs
since this should require the replacement of the entire disc read-out mechanism.
5.17 Will a DVD-player play CD-i discs?
A DVD-Video player cannot play CD-i discs, since it does not include all of the CD-i logics such
as the required operating system in ROM, the CPU and the appropriate audio and video decoding
ICs. Most DVD-Video players however can play Video-CDs, but they use an internal playback
application instead of the CD-i application that is stored on every Video-CD disc. Hence, CD-i
specific additions such as menu screens or subtitles will not be shown.
A DVD-ROM drive is physically able to read CD-i discs, but since a normal PC is unable to play
CD-i titles, you won't be able to run them. Refer to section 9 of this FAQ: CD-i on other platforms
for more information.
5.18 I'm having troubles playing a CD-Extra (CD-Plus, Enhanced CD). Why?
A CD-Audio disc may contain data tracks, for example containg CD-ROM programs with
additional info about the performing artist. However, when such a disc is played on an old CD-
Audio player, the data track would not be recognized as such, resulting in the playback of noise.
Playing this noise loud could eventualy result in the damaging of the speakers.
To avoid this problem, Philips, Sony and Microsoft established a standard which was initally
called CD-Plus but which was later renamed into CD-Extra due to trademark-related issues.