Got a good marketing hook? Great, give it a nice thick slather across some related bits of your consumer electronics and prepare to rake in the cash. With MD and SACD formats not exactly dominating the audio masses, Sony's back with a new format by the name Blu-spec CD. It takes advantage of (you guessed it) Sony's Blu-ray Disc technology to press new high-quality discs while somehow maintaining compatibility with regular ol' red-laser CD players. How? No idea, really -- it's some kind of secret, proprietary Sony magic hidden deep inside of Google's Japanese-to-English language translator. Perhaps an English press release will be issued later in the day. It does seem that Sony will kick out about 60 Blu-spec CD classics (Miles Davis' Kind of Blue for example) in December ranging in prices from ¥2,500 (about $25) to ¥4,200 ($42). Ouch.
P.S. That weeping CD logo above is our Photoshoppery, not Sony's.
[Via
Impress]
posted Nov 5th 2008 at 1:54AM
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Sony @ Nov 5th 2008 2:05AM
Sony's adding more and more features to their products...
Chuck @ Nov 5th 2008 2:50AM
Cost, too.
DarkLight @ Nov 5th 2008 4:08AM
"Sony's adding more and more failures to their products..."
Fixed.
silverblackvoid @ Nov 5th 2008 4:13AM
engadget, its so lame. why do you have to bash sony everytime?
Marko @ Nov 5th 2008 5:45AM
Because engadget loves apple, and apple hates sony (tearful divorce, and all that)...
dennis @ Nov 5th 2008 7:16AM
@ silverblackvoid and Marko:
Come on, this obviously is not going to go anywhere. People in the movie industry are already saying BR will be dead in a few years. Do you honestly think making BR players "backwards compatible" with CDs is going to change anything?
JerkfacedFed @ Nov 5th 2008 8:55AM
I can see the Wiki entry already: In 2009, after Bluray and the PS3 failed and its stocks plunged to new lows, Sony thought the only way to revive its ailing company was re-releasing the CD with a blue (spelled "blu" for generation x acceptance) coating. This obviously failed too and the company was purchased by toshiba and quickly divided into its divisions and sold off to the Chinese. Ken Kutaragi was recently seen in the gutter.
kal326 @ Nov 5th 2008 9:14AM
Yeah but eventually they will need to cut costs on the product so they will remove some features like backwards compatibility.
"It takes advantage of (you guessed it) Sony's Blu-ray Disc technology to press new high-quality discs while somehow maintaining compatibility with regular ol' red-laser CD players."
Eventually the disc will only be able to be played on Blu-ray because Sony decided that nobody really wants to play them on old regular CD players.
UnixSystemsEngineer @ Nov 5th 2008 10:59AM
Does this make Blu-spec a small thimble of hurt?
OneLove @ Nov 5th 2008 11:47AM
Makes perfect sense, blu ray should be blue!
konshuss @ Nov 5th 2008 12:33PM
Cds have been working for me for about.. 21 years now? is there something beyond "cd quality" this is supposed to produce? will they last longer? get less scratches? does it even matter anymore?
sony wants to cash in on the colour Blue as much as they can before blu ray becomes even more marginalized in the marketplace.
Rob @ Jan 6th 2009 1:12PM
Blu-spec CD is a specification for an improved version of a conventional Audio CD, introduced by Sony Music Entertainment.
Instead of a traditional infra-red laser, a blue laser is used for recording the pits on the CD master that is needed for disc replication.
The blue laser creates more precise pits, causing less distortion in the optical read-out process and supposedly resulting in higher-quality audio...... However, and despite marketing claims, there is absolutely no published proof or evidence that this technology actually leads to any improvement in the final audio reproduced, since CIRC, the built-in redundancy and error correction system that is part of the CD standard, already takes care of occasional misread bits.
One of the fine ways to empty the customers wallets and buy that same music title for the 6th or more time! AVOID! This we don't need.
GoCarnivore @ Nov 5th 2008 2:05AM
Hmm, this has the potential to be huge... I think.
Mark @ Nov 5th 2008 6:30AM
@ GoCarnivore
GoCarnivore said: Hmm, this has the potential to be huge... I think.
YEAH a HUGE repetition of the Betamax fiaso. I do appreciate your carnivorous optimism none the less.
JerkfacedFed @ Nov 5th 2008 8:47AM
youre an idiot
corey @ Nov 5th 2008 2:06AM
No thanks . (the price i mean)
Santana @ Nov 5th 2008 2:10AM
I'm at a loss for words......you just can't make this sh*t up.
Pyk @ Nov 5th 2008 2:12AM
At least they got a good name this time, BS CD
Dave Chappelle @ Nov 5th 2008 7:24AM
@MastrCake
hay hay dude, you cant say damn the US anymore, not in this time at least arrogant U.S patriotism is back... for a few weeks at least.
MastrCake @ Nov 5th 2008 2:24AM
Seriously... last I checked, 100 yen did not equal 1 US dollar!
In January 2007, 100 yen equaled 80 cents.
Damn the American Dollar!!!
Michael LaFramboise @ Nov 5th 2008 2:50AM
Umm, I'm not sure if you're aware of this or not, but it changes every single day... So yeah... Don't know how to break it to you but last time > checked (30 seconds ago) 100 Yen = 1.002 USD...
Please check your facts before making a fool of yourself again :)
Michael LaFramboise @ Nov 5th 2008 2:51AM
I checked**** - commenting system cut out my 'I' for some reason
MastrCake @ Nov 5th 2008 3:02AM
$1.002=$1 when you are rounding
I know it changes every day, but you can't deny that the US dollar really sucks right now.
But that is not the topic. The topic is BullShit CD.
img eL @ Nov 5th 2008 2:31AM
MiniDisc needs to be updated to Blu-Ray
Atropos @ Nov 5th 2008 3:55AM
Blu-ray UMD FTW.*
*actually FTL
Jacob @ Nov 5th 2008 4:37AM
As cool as that would (being a former MD fan myself) it would go nowhere because no one likes moving parts, and flash chips are way cheaper.
No doubt it would have the same fate as the MD-HD
phanbouy @ Nov 5th 2008 12:52PM
Atro's jokes FTW*
*Actually, FTL
(good job, Gallagher)
J @ Nov 5th 2008 2:38AM
this is stupid , sony is milking the blu name ....... F*CK SONY!!
DWells55 @ Nov 5th 2008 3:05AM
Someone's still weeping over their HDDVD player.
Stereotype @ Nov 5th 2008 2:43PM
Milking the blu name? What about the 'I' ? Eh? :P
I like blue.....
Alex @ Nov 5th 2008 2:42AM
The drop looks like a twisted eye-ball...
Cunthor @ Nov 5th 2008 2:44AM
Pah, they own lots of music, technology etc. If it's backwards compatible, fully rippable into mp3 then I see no problem with the standard. But this being Sony, I somehow doubt it.
Mike @ Nov 5th 2008 5:21AM
It come with Blu-Root Kit and some Bluy-Monster Cables
feng @ Nov 5th 2008 2:50AM
In case anyone thinks the price is high because of the technology, regular CD albums in Japan start from 2900yen a piece.
Rob @ Nov 5th 2008 2:57AM
Well, if it comes with all the Blu-ray issues of DRM and playback problems, Sony has demonstrated its ability to crap all over their consumers face twice within the same year. Most people don't give a crap about music quality. Why? Because, unlike movies, we don't sit still to listen to our music. Listeners are usually doing other things that can distract you from the issues/benefits of ultra quality audio on cd. I'm not saying that the compression found on MP3 files is not noticeable. It is. But unless you have one really crappy encode you can usually tolerate the shortcomings of MP3 compression over its portability advantages.
Oh yeah, screw Sony. I'm not re-buying my CDs just because they come up with some bs to justify the new re-releases. SACD was a failure, and this Blu-spec CD will follow in the same steps.
jay.viz @ Nov 5th 2008 3:10AM
The reason you're right is the same reason why Sony will succeed. Nobody cares.
Dew @ Nov 5th 2008 3:02AM
Psst... its just a regular CD with a blue tint....
C.L. @ Nov 5th 2008 1:07PM
i.e., a PS2 disc at Blu-Ray prices...
wow, thanks Sony...
ErikTed @ Nov 5th 2008 3:17AM
The way it works probably has something to do with a blue ray Len's ability to refract light. If you ever look at a blu-ray lens you will notice that it has a small lcd on top of the lens. I'm thinking that there are probably 2 data layers: one which a regular CD player can read and another that blu-ray lenses can read also giving you higher bit rates to songs where available while still being compatible with standard old fashion CD players when necessary. Totally a guess though. I read paper on blu-ray refractive technology so it seems plausible.
Corey O @ Nov 5th 2008 3:17AM
CDs....I think we've past the point of using CDs. With MP3 and similar formats, CDs are better for Frisbee throwing.
http://www.worldgonemobile.com
Jeebus @ Nov 6th 2008 1:08PM
Yeah, because MP3s and CDs are indistinguishable.
asfda @ Nov 5th 2008 3:20AM
fasdfadfafaf
ethana2 @ Nov 5th 2008 3:32AM
tarstastatat
Jacob @ Nov 5th 2008 4:37AM
garfsabasbsasb
tekd @ Nov 5th 2008 3:19AM
Much as I would like newer higher fidelity formats to exist, the truth is that people are happy with higher bitrate mp3's even though they're technically not as good as CDs, because their much improved portability makes up for that.
Sony should really just work on a newer higher fidelity digital download format instead. Like, SACD quality but easily downloadable to be played back on a variety of portable players, high end home audio equipment (like, future SACD decks could have a USB port for portable hard drives/flash drives that contain these downloads), a software player, PS3, whatever. Would be a heck of a lot more successful than yet another attempt at a disc format. Nobody wants to go and buy discs, let alone at $25 each lol.
Mike @ Nov 5th 2008 5:18AM
They've been trying to foist ATRAC on the world long past the end of the MD era.
Mr_Ed @ Nov 5th 2008 3:22AM
Rather than waste time with CDs on high def CDs, they should come up with a higher def version of MP3. Because although pyshical media is great to own, the vast percentage of music is listened to digitally these days.
Heck, most sound systems dont do proper justice to CDs, let alone a new high def CD.
Skorpius @ Nov 5th 2008 11:26AM
Its called FLAC.
Valicore @ Nov 5th 2008 3:28AM
You know, Blu-Ray MiniDisc is a good idea... I liked them because they protected the disc and were rewritable. Could make a come back lol.
Reader @ Nov 5th 2008 3:28AM
25 to 42 dollars, really? Do these magically beat out dual-layered DVDs or something? When would these actually be useful? Sounds like they're taking a page out of Toshiba's book with their super hyper awesome DVD upscalers that look like BluRay.