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Maybe you could do with a crash course on how to use search as well?

Well, what can I say, I did a search for all posts with HDCD authored by myself and immediately found my previous post - see below

There was a technical paper on HDCD available on the web that described the HDCD encoding and decoding process - unfortunately this no longer seems to be available but it was previously on http://www.hdcd.com/partners/proaudio/articles.html

Sorry - unfortunately I did not save a copy of this paper. Perhaps you can try and get a copy by contacting Microsoft directly.

For reference, this is what I posted in April, which is a summary of my conclusions from reading that paper:

my understanding is that an HDCD encoded CD differs from a "normal" CD in at least three different ways:
1. a proprietary dithering algorithm that supposedly gives a "perceived" extra 3 bits of resolution
2. plus a way of encoding an extra bit, or 6dB of dynamics
3. plus a way of encoding dynamic switching between multiple filters on playback (which is why HDCD players are equiped with a special digital filter chip)

if you play an HDCD on a player with no HDCD support, you still get the benefit of (1) but not the next two. You also get the music automatically "compressed" by a factor of 2:1 due to the "missing" 6dB of dynamics (that's why HDCD often sound louder than normal CDs when played back without HDCD decoding)

i think the Microsoft HDCD decodes (2), not sure if it properly decodes (3). Presumably (3) is done by requantizing into 24-bits, but an even better process is to upsample 2x or 4x at the same time (which the Microsoft HDCD decoder unfortunately does not do).

*** It's really swell that "TI and Cirrus Logic have DSPs that support HDCD decoding, along with higher sample rates for normal PCM" now. I can assure you that they did not in 1998 when we were developing the Ayre D-1 DVD player. ***

But we are living in 2005 (soon to be 2006), not 1998, so what's your point?

By the way, last I checked, nearly all the major manufacturers support HDCD on their flagship processors/receivers and/or players: Denon, Pioneer, Rotel, Harman Kardon, Panasonic, Sherwood, ...

Very few of these implementations are based on the Pacific Microsonics chip, so if you think the only way to implement HDCD today is to use Pacific Microsonics, you should look further.

Essentially HDCD these days is implemented as software on a DSP and no longer relies on hardware. Think of it as a proprietary upsampler based on hints (the HDCD command set) supplied by the encoder.

Given that it's just software, there is no "cost" or engineering constraint to implementing it, apart from paying the license fee. Your objections to HDCD are out of date, you should really catch up and live in 2006 rather than 1998.

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