CD Text - who uses it?

[michaelab]

I don't even know properly how to explain what it is but basically it's some data on a music CD which has the album/artist name and, optionally, the track names aswell (I think).

Well, since Arcam went to all the trouble of updating their CDPs to "T" (for Text) spec I thought someone might actually be using it - :newbie:

I'm presently adding all my CDs into my Music Collector database and aswell as searching CDDB etc it also looks for CD Text info. So far I've added 140 CDs and a grand total of 2 of them had CD Text (David Bowie "Heathen" and Vol.5 of the "Costes" collection). That puts it so far at less than 1.5% of CDs, so what's the point?

Very, very impressed with Music Collector btw - I've got the "Pro" version which does wicked HTML exports...expect to see my entire CD collection in gorgeously formatted HTML (with cover artwork of course) sometime in the next few days

Michael.

 

[amazingtrade]

Basicaly most modern Sony transports support it, and I think Philips do, as far as I remember Arcam use Sony transports (the displays are sony sourced anyway).

I have CD text on my CD Player, and the only CD I have that supports it is Travis the invisable band album. Personaly I think its just a gimmick, its nice to watch and see the titles moving accross but it dosn't nothing but disract from the music thats playing, some audiohpiles may also claim it affects sound quality, personaly I have no idea if it does or not, I can't tell any difference.

Another gimick is the display off feature, I've spent hours trying to find to see if sounds anything with the display off and there no difference whats so ever.

 

[michaelab]

I like "display off". Even if it doesn't do anything for sound quality, the display can be distracting sometimes.

So, CD text isn't generally used at all? I really wonder why anyone bothered

Michael.

 

[Hodgesaargh]

Marketing people like it.

 

[amazingtrade]

Yeah true I guess if you listen with speakers in the dark then the display can be quite annoying, I find the standy light on my TV very irating, my CDP is out of view at night when in bed so its not a problem

 

[sideshowbob]

Originally posted by michaelab
Very, very impressed with Music Collector btw - I've got the "Pro" version which does wicked HTML exports...expect to see my entire CD collection in gorgeously formatted HTML (with cover artwork of course) sometime in the next few days
[/B]

I've started. But I've got a long way to go... I have what I've done so far dumped on my PDA as well, extremely useful once it's complete to make sure I don't keep buying things I've already got!

http://www.iml.dircon.co.uk/music/

-- Ian

 

[PBirkett]

Originally posted by amazingtrade
Yeah true I guess if you listen with speakers in the dark then the display can be quite annoying, I find the standy light on my TV very irating, my CDP is out of view at night when in bed so its not a problem

Christ almighty, it doesnt take much to annoy some people does it. I have a bright blue LED on my Rotel, an LED on the sky box, an LED on the headphone amp, an LED on the TV, an LED on the monitor, and 6 extremely bright LED's on my PC. Doesnt bother me in the slightest...

 

[Hodgesaargh]

True darkness is something to be savoured.

 

[Rory]

i on the other hand think CD text is very funky- so easy to do on Easy CD Creator (which tbh is why I think so many companies now support it on both mini systems (Sony, Philips etc) as well as separates (Technics, Arcam, Exposure, Philips, Sony , Marantz etc etc))

get your cd, get the names off CDDB, record at Disc-At-Once, tick the CD Text box and its all done.

My car Alpine h/u supports Cd text and its very handy to see the track name if it starts quietly and you didn't want to listen to it etc...oh, and it looks very upmarket and great for impressing friends!!

Dual layer SACDs have CD text on the CD and SACD layer
and
all Sony Columbia releases since 1999 have CD text

so now you know!!

 

[michaelab]

Re: Re: CD Text - who uses it?

Originally posted by sideshowbob
I've started. But I've got a long way to go... I have what I've done so far dumped on my PDA as well, extremely useful once it's complete to make sure I don't keep buying things I've already got!

http://www.iml.dircon.co.uk/music/

Cool - I thought about putting what I had so far onto the web but I think I'll wait. Are you getting the cover artwork aswell and just not bothering with it in the HTML export?

Also, are you editing the "Genre" field yourself or is that what CDDB comes up with? On my music I've got almost a different genre for each CD btw, I like the genre for John Zorn: "Extreme noise terror"

Michael.

 

[sideshowbob]

I did most of it before the new version came out with the cover artwork option, so need to update the listings.

I'm setting the genre myself, it's the one bit of CDDB that doesn't seem very accurate, for jazz at least.

-- Ian

 

[michaelab]

I agree - it's not just for jazz that the genre field is not very accurate. Unfortunately everyone has different genre categories and when people to CDDB submissions they can probably put what they like.

I've so far added 176 CDs and I've got 77 different genres, of which 38 of them only have one CD in them . The only 2 with a large number against them (18 and 19 respectively) are "General Rock" and "Electronica".

The artwork feature is really cool though. If available it will get it from any one of the various amazon sites and also from www.allmusicguide.com, which I've found to be usually a more reliable source than amazon. Even where it doesn't find anything, if you can find the artwork somewhere on the net you can just drag it across from your browser into the edit dialog and it makes a copy and saves it (only works with IE )

Michael.

 

[domfjbrown]

How much does this music software cost?

Sony DVD players support DVD text as well - I have a couple of Columbia releases that used to show up on the display on my POS Sony 525 - hope my brother doesn't mind a gift horse of a free DVD with worse lipsync than a dubbed Hong Kong movie...

Titanic/Back to Titanic both have CD text for definite btw - the Sony DVD would also show CD text, so I tried them out for a laugh.

Display off is great - why Sony can't put this on their QS MDs is beyond me - waaaay too bright. Ditto Yamaha home cinema amps - the amber looks OK, but all that text is distracting when watching a movie...

I kind of dig that Naim Audio logo on the NAIT though - I think ALL brandnames should be illuminated, and all buttons backlit in pale blue, kind of like the Apollo moonships

 

[michaelab]

Dom - the pro version (which does all the HTML exporting etc) costs €40, the standard version (identical except has no reporting ability) costs €25. See here. You can download a free trial which is fully functioning except the database has a 100CD limit.

Michael.

 

[lhatkins]

Originally posted by domfjbrown
How much does this music software cost?

Sony DVD players support DVD text as well - I have a couple of Columbia releases that used to show up on the display on my POS Sony 525 - hope my brother doesn't mind a gift horse of a free DVD with worse lipsync than a dubbed Hong Kong movie...

Titanic/Back to Titanic both have CD text for definite btw - the Sony DVD would also show CD text, so I tried them out for a laugh.

Display off is great - why Sony can't put this on their QS MDs is beyond me - waaaay too bright. Ditto Yamaha home cinema amps - the amber looks OK, but all that text is distracting when watching a movie...

I kind of dig that Naim Audio logo on the NAIT though - I think ALL brandnames should be illuminated, and all buttons backlit in pale blue, kind of like the Apollo moonships

What is that about Yammy A/V amps Dom? Have you tried looking for the "display Dim" button, mine's got one, not that I use it because it doesn't bother me. you'd loose count if you tried to count the amount of lights, LED's in my setup, it would take you weeks to work out how to turn them off, and franky why bother trying? If you want it dark, just close your eyes, simple a?

As for CD-Text wonderful thing, not that I have any CDP's that support it :-( but a different version of this for the computer isthe CDDB which is pritty cool, put a cd into the draw and it'll tell you all info you need to know, spot on, really cool.

 

[Bill Phabb]

Originally posted by PBirkett
Christ almighty, it doesnt take much to annoy some people does it. I have a bright blue LED on my Rotel, an LED on the sky box, an LED on the headphone amp, an LED on the TV, an LED on the monitor, and 6 extremely bright LED's on my PC. Doesnt bother me in the slightest...

thats cos your always under the influence of something to help you sleep

 

[lhatkins]

Originally posted by michaelab
Dom - the pro version (which does all the HTML exporting etc) costs €40, the standard version (identical except has no reporting ability) costs €25. See here. You can download a free trial which is fully functioning except the database has a 100CD limit.

Michael.

Just what HenryT was looking for, he (was) manually typing this into a access database, I knew there was an eaier way of doing it, but I didn't know how to write the script to use the CDDB function, but now he doesn't have to, spend the £40 and job done, nicely!

 

[michaelab]

Even cheaper than £40 - it's €40 which is about £30 at current exchange rates

Michael.

 

[lhatkins]

Originally posted by michaelab
Even cheaper than £40 - it's €40 which is about £30 at current exchange rates

Michael.

Ops ya, sorry my eyesight strikes again I mistook the euro symbol for a pound sign, looks too similar to me, dam europe!

 

[HenryT]

Originally posted by lhatkins
Just what HenryT was looking for, he (was) manually typing this into a access database, I knew there was an eaier way of doing it, but I didn't know how to write the script to use the CDDB function, but now he doesn't have to, spend the £40 and job done, nicely!

Lee,

I already knew about this software some time ago, as there has been a thread discussing it and one our forum members here demonstrating the nice HTML export facility with pages on his homepage listing his music collection.

I was convinced then, but still haven't gotten around to placing an order. Will probably download and sign up tonight now that I've got a working PC at home!



CD Text, nothing more than a gimmick IMO. Then again, I'm not usually the sort of person who can't remember the title of a piece of music if I actually own a copy, but for those who need 30 seconds of intro and maybe still can't think of the title, I guess I can see the value! The only CDs I can think of in my collection are ones made by Sony Music (Columbia/Epic/etc) too. Jean-Michel Jarre's last album has CD text on it and a lot of the more recent Sony Classical discs also have CD text. I only know because I use to own a CDP with CD text before selling it on (that paricular CDP is currently having its innards tweaked the hell out of by its new owner ).

Now, I wonder which has more titles supporting it, HDCD or CD text? HDCD, another minority interest feature but something I'm losing any sleep over it being not more widespread. I did borrow a CDP with HDCD on it for trail from a dealer (Krell 300 - jack hammer treble but lovely deep and slammy bass) and yes the HDCD decoded version did sound better (more dynamic and better seperated), but seeing as I only have 2 CD in my collection with HDCD anyway it's hardly worth searching out a CDP with it on that I could live with.