Talk:CD-Text

can CD-Text be read by any drive?
is it a software thing, or does it require adequate hardware ? Jerome Potts 03:22, 29 May 2006 (UTC)


 * I would think it's a software thing, because there's nothing on a CD that a drive explicitly cannot read, so i'm guessing it's :just an extra metadata tag or something, and the right software will not ignore this piece of otherwise useless information. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.8.60.38 (talk • contribs)


 * Technically this is *not* something every drive can read, but nowadays many can. @ip: You might think about CD-ROMs where drives just read the data directly and this data is interpreted by the software. This is different for CD-AUDIO. There are special commands for everything and not all of them have to be implemented by the driver. See also the technical background below. --JonnyJD (talk) 17:03, 26 April 2013 (UTC)

Do you have to pay royalties to use CD-Text on commercial releases?
The linked FAQ states "According to Sony, about 400 companies are now licensed to use CD Text which adds 'almost no cost to production of a disc." Surely 400 companies is too many to just be the equipment manufacturers that have liceneced the format? And "almost no cost"? Surely the actual manufacturing cost would not change at all. Does anyone have any details on this? 81.77.179.24 19:30, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
 * It seems that Sony patented it with US patent 6519676 in 1999, so that one is now expired. This question was asked i 2006, before it expired. Gah4 (talk) 00:29, 1 June 2023 (UTC)
 * It seems that Sony patented it with US patent 6519676 in 1999, so that one is now expired. This question was asked i 2006, before it expired. Gah4 (talk) 00:29, 1 June 2023 (UTC)

And is it true that Sony developped CD Text? (quaoar10)

How widely is it used ?
The article doesn't specify how widely it is used on commercial CD releases ? 86.175.231.25 (talk) 12:27, 14 October 2017 (UTC)

Why do many ripping programs not support it
How come most ripping programs (i.e. Musicmatch, WIndows Media Player etc) dont support CD-Text ? 193.112.172.10 15:45, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Extent of use
How many commercial CD releases have CD-text and going back how many years ? Presumably a CD released in 2005 would be likely to have it but not one released in 1985 but what about one released in 1995 193.112.172.10 15:45, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

use in home players
According to this article, CD-Text is displayed only by car units. I have a home SACD player which displays it, and I suspect it's common in SACD players, which (I assume universally) display SACD text. Nothing is said about "home" CD players. WilliamSommerwerck (talk) 15:39, 17 December 2010 (UTC)
 * My home CD players, even much more recent CD/DVD/BD players don't do it, but our 2022 car player does. I don't have a SACD player to test. Gah4 (talk) 00:31, 1 June 2023 (UTC)
 * My home CD players, even much more recent CD/DVD/BD players don't do it, but our 2022 car player does. I don't have a SACD player to test. Gah4 (talk) 00:31, 1 June 2023 (UTC)

Delete hardware section
The CD-Text section was removed some time ago; it was just a list of products. JCP restored it, removed some items, and tagged it as unsourced. I removed the section again; listing specific products that support the format sounds like a product endorsement and does not help describe the format or its features. Who cares if "At least one Sony SACD player supports it"? Despite having tagged the section as unsourced, JCP reverted. JCP did not argue that the hardware section was relevant, but rather used a buddy argument - the hardware section should stay because the software section is there.

The hardware section should go. The software section is a separate issue; I don't like it either, but at least WP considers most of the applications on that list as notable.

It is JCP's burden to garner a consensus for adding his text to an article. WP:BRD.

Glrx (talk) 18:34, 2 January 2012 (UTC)


 * That's not my text, i didn't write any of it: in fact, i do not know of any hardware which displays the CD-Text data, and i deplore that, so i am happy that contributors list devices that they discover.
 * As for the consensus, well you have all the previous contributors that i just mentioned, the data of which you removed. --Jerome Potts (talk) 18:55, 3 May 2012 (UTC)

Are you interested in technical background information ?
I compiled what is known from ancient SCSI/MMC specs, from ancient documentation by Sony and from knowledge of the libcdio community. The combined specs have been used to implement writing and reading of CD-TEXT on CD media in libburn. The implementation passed tests with CD burners and readers in computers, but not yet with audio players that have text display.

http://libburnia-project.org/browser/libburn/trunk/doc/cdtext.txt

The document points to important sources which are not publicly available any more. One will have to make use of internet archives in order to access them.

I myself am too much of an original researcher in this case. So i offer the text as additional link and as source of technical details.

Some remarks or corrections about the existing Wikipedia text:

"The information is stored either in the lead-in area of the CD, where there is roughly five kilobytes of space available,"

I wonder where the number 5 KiB comes from. One language block can store about 3000 payload bytes. There are 8 such blocks possible. The MMC command for reading the lead-in area of a CD could retrieve about 40000 payload bytes.

"The character encoding is not specified, and there is no provision for indicating in the CD-Text data which encoding is in use."

Text pack type 0x8f ("SIZE_INFO") indicates the encoding by its first byte: Character code for pack types 0x80 to 0x85: 0x00 = ISO-8859-1, 0x01 = 7 bit ASCII, 0x80 = MS-JIS (japanese Kanji, double byte characters)

"Software"

The list is missing programs cdrecord (out of cdrtools) and cdrskin (by me, out of libburn).

"Hardware" and on talk page: "can CD-Text be read by any drive?"

Reading by computer drives depends on the willingness to perform SCSI command 43h READ TOC/PMA/ATIP with reply format 0101b. MMC-3 6.26.1 promises this read feature only "conditionally".

Writing depends on proper implementation of MMC write type SAO or raw write types.

I tested 1 CD burner and 4 DVD/BD burners. They all can write and read CD-Text.

One BD burner (Optiarc BD RW BD-5300S rev 1.04) goes mad after writing CD-TEXT. It then spoils BD media until it gets a power-off-power-on cycle.

Thomas Schmitt, current developer of libburn. 212.46.126.165 (talk) 09:26, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

composer and songwriter?
OK, what is the difference between composer and songwriter? Gah4 (talk) 10:41, 31 May 2023 (UTC)

character codes 0x81, and 0x82
This patent indicates, in addition to the more well known 0x00 for IS)8859-1, 0x01 for ISO646 ASCII, 0x80 for MS-JIS, 0x81 for Korean, and 0x82 for Mandarin. Gah4 (talk) 00:39, 1 June 2023 (UTC)