Why Some CD's Can Read CD-Text (Track Titles)

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

I have always wanted to know why some CD's have Text Titles encoded on the CD while others do not. Most of the Japan CD's don't have it.

I just bought the Limited Edition Olivia Newton-John 40th Anniv Box Set from Japan, this is the first time a box set has been released from Olivia and she has promoted it on her official website. It does not contain CD-Text. It contains 10 of her albums along with a bonus DVD of videos. It reminds me very much of the Carpenters 35th Anniv Box also put out in Japan a while back. The box set of Olivia's are replicated mini LP style Cd's, so much detail, they look exactly like the original albums, the artwork and photos on the albums inside and out are exact, I mean exact, even some of the large albums that originally came with posters inside back in the 80's are inside the mini LP CD's It's really incredible. The audio is amazing, they are SHM CD's and have such clarity it's breathtaking to hear. Some of the CD's have bonus tracks never before released. It's an Olivia's fan dream come true.

Anyway back to my question. It seems CD's are a hit and miss when it comes to this technology of reading CD titles. I am mostly taking about putting the CD into your car stereo and it being able to read the track titles, instead the CD's from Japan only read, track 1, track 2. I have a navi in my car that read CD's and its so cool to see the tracks.

Olivia re-released her Grace and Gratitude CD called "Renewed" and the CD contains CD-Text and it reads the tracks in my car. I also recently bought Michael W Smith CD called Wonder and it also reads CD titles.

I know you can put alot of CD's into your PC and it will pick them up from Gracenotes and give you the titles but I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about CD's that already have the encoding on them.

Is it the producer of the CD's or the place they are manufactured or who decides that some CD's will get it and some won't. Is it that expensive to include it?

I know alot of folks here work in radio stations and the like and have knowledge about this, I'd sure like to understand it better.

Thanks

 

[Harry]

Hi Chris,

From what I know of this technology, it was an invention of Sony (I think) as an add-on to the "Red book" compact disc standards. The "red book" refers to the specifications set up by Philips and Sony so that CDs would be standard all over the world.

Since CD-Text was an add-on, it wasn't technically necessary for any manufacturer to use it, and thus it became a hit or miss proposition as to whether it was used or not.

I once heard (and don't know how true it is) that if a manufacturer were to use CD-Text, that they had to pay Sony a small royalty for the privilege, and that's the reason that so many DON'T use it.

Sony bought Columbia Records way back when and from my experience, a lot of Sony/Columbia titles use the CD-Text technology.

If you have a CD-Burner in your computer, many CD burning programs include the option of adding in CD-Text. So what I usually do is burn a copy of my CDs for use in the car. This has two advantages: one, I don't risk damage to my purchased CDs by handling them in the car; and two, I can burn MP3 or WMA discs that use CD-Text technology to fully utilize the display on my car stereo.

Harry

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I never heard of Sony charging a royalty for using the CD Text technology, but it would be possible I guess. However I do think if the technology became part of the Redbook specs, then anyone should be able to use it without paying a royalty (as I understand it, at least).

My guess is, either other makers want to avoid the royalty (if it exists) and/or they simply don't think the technology is necessary since the vast majority of CD players don't use it anyway.

 

[Rudy]

From a technical standpoint, it makes use of a reserved/unused area, so nothing is being taken away from audio data.

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

So what I usually do is burn a copy of my CDs for use in the car. This has two advantages: one, I don't risk damage to my purchased CDs by handling them in the car; and two, I can burn MP3 or WMA discs that use CD-Text technology to fully utilize the display on my car stereo.
Harry

Thanks everyone, I understand little better now.

Thanks Harry. I actually did that process with some of the Japan CD from Olivia's new box set, using iTunes to import the CD into my ipod using apple lossless encoding which encodes the songs from a CD at anywhere from 500 kbps bit rate to 1000 kbps bit rate depending on the song. After that I can take those songs encoded and burn a CDR of course with CD Text, so now I can see them in my car and the quality mirrors the sound from the original CD.

My only problem with this process (and I will probably go this route with all my other CD's that don't have CD text) is that I already maxed out of space for all the CD I own and now creating more space for CDR's of the originals. LOL

Paying a premium price for Olivia's box set from Japan I had hoped the text would already be there. It's flusterating but a workaround will do.

 

[Harry]

Since CDR's are really easily re-made and replaced, I keep them in a CD wallet in my car's center console, rather than storing them on valuable shelf space in the house. That way they're semi-handy to find when I want to load one into the CD changer in the car.

The biggest problem is when you make "mix" discs and don't really recall what song or album is on which disc. Of course, you can be more methodical in the creation of your CD-R's to save you from having to guess.

Still, sometimes it's nice to have a disc or two or six of random songs that you can rotate through or set on shuffle. But when you then want to try and find a specific song - THAT's when you long for an index of some kind. I suppose you could print a directory of the files on the disc and stick them in the wallet, but with literally hundreds of songs fitting on a disc, the indexing is either a lot of paper, or VERY tiny print.

Harry