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68 Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About DVD<br />
analog video and digital audio in laserdisc format, playable only on a CDVcompatible<br />
laserdisc player. Pioneer’s combination DVD/laserdisc players<br />
are the only DVD players that can play CDVs. Of course, standard<br />
laserdisc/CDV players can’t play DVDs (see “Are Laserdiscs Compatible<br />
with DVD Players?” for more info.)<br />
Is MP3 Compatible with DVD?<br />
Not officially. MP3 is the MPEG Layer 3 audio compression format. (MP3 is<br />
not MPEG-3, which doesn’t exist.) The DVD-Video spec allows only Layer<br />
2 for MPEG audio (MP2). However, MP3 can be played by any computer<br />
with a DVD-ROM drive, and many DVD players (particularly those manufactured<br />
in Asia) can play MP3 CDs. However, oddly enough, most of the<br />
players that can play MP3s from a CD can’t play MP3s from a DVD.<br />
Is HDCD Compatible with DVDs?<br />
Yes. Pacific Microsonics’ (www.hdcd.com) high-definition compatible digital<br />
(HDCD) format is an encoding process that enhances audio CDs so that<br />
they play normally in standard CD and DVD players (and allegedly sound<br />
better than normal CDs). Yet they produce an extra 4 bits of precision (20<br />
bits instead of 16) when played on CD and DVD players equipped with<br />
HDCD decoders.<br />
Are Laserdiscs Compatible with DVD Players?<br />
Standard DVD players will not play laserdiscs, and you can’t play a DVD<br />
disc on any standard laserdisc player. (Laserdiscs use analog video,<br />
whereas DVDs use digital video; they are very different formats.) Pioneer<br />
makes combo players that play laserdiscs and DVDs (as well as CDVs and<br />
audio CDs).<br />
Will DVDs Replace Laserdiscs?<br />
When this question was first asked in 1996, before DVD was even available,<br />
people wondered if DVDs would replace laserdiscs. Some argued it never<br />
would, that DVD would fail and its adherents would come groveling back to<br />
laserdiscs. After DVDs were released, it soon became clear that they had<br />
doomed laserdiscs to quick obscurity. Pioneer Entertainment, the long-time<br />
champion of laserdiscs, abandoned them in June of 1999. This was sooner<br />
than even Pioneer thought possible (in September 1998, Pioneer’s presi-
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