News

Recently, the Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA) announced the release of a new CD compatibility specification called "MultiPlay" for the computer and consumer electronics industries. OSTA says that the new specification is intended to ensure that Compact Disc Recordable (CD-R) and Compact Disc ReWritable (CD-RW) discs created on personal computers can also be played in consumer CD and DVD players.

In a statement, OSTA says that "all CD and DVD players available to consumers clearly state that they are designed to play audio CDs, and consumers generally expect that, regardless of the type of CD/DVD player they have (home, handheld, car), it should in fact play all types of audio discs. It is a great disappointment to consumers to discover that they cannot play a CD-R– or CD-RW–written audio disc in some CD or DVD players."

The new MultiPlay specification includes Red Book Audio (standard uncompressed digital audio), CD-Text, and VideoCD as the initial formats covered by the compatibility specification. However, OSTA points out that some CD and DVD players are also capable of playing compressed digital audio file formats such as MP3 or WMA written to CD-R or CD-RW discs. To address these compressed audio formats, OSTA says that it has defined a new logical disc format called CDA (Compressed Digital Audio) to enable quick play compatibility and navigation of MP3, WMA, and other compressed audio files.

According to OSTA, it reviewed the first proposed draft of the CDA disc format specification in early December and intends to complete development of this disc specification by working together with industry software and player manufacturers. The first display of the new disc format is planned at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, January 5–10, 2001, with completion of the specification targeted for March 2001, when it will be available for licensing and inclusion in the MultiPlay logo program.

OSTA says that it intends to license the MultiPlay logo to consumer electronic device manufacturers, CD media manufacturers and CD recording software manufacturers on a royalty-free basis. "The logo license will grant the right to apply the MultiPlay logo upon successful self-certification of products with MultiPlay test discs provided by OSTA. The licensee will pay a one-time fee for the test discs and logo license and must comply with the licensing rules," says the organization.

OSTA's Felix Nemirovsky says that "the MultiPlay effort builds on OSTA's successful MultiRead compatibility specification, which in the past three years has resulted in full compatibility of CD-R and CD-RW discs in essentially all computer-based CD or DVD devices. MultiPlay will, in a similar way, [ensure] much needed CD-R and CD-RW disc compatibility in consumer CD and DVD players." OSTA says that the concept was proposed by Oak Technology and completed and adopted by the organization at its December 2000 meeting.