Apparantly Microsoft bought the HDCD code & patents from Reference Recordings & Keith Johnson 12 years ago. I hadn't heard this before. As MS isn't really into high end audio, I guess they really do want to rule the world!

neil young is/was? also involved in HDCD at one time if i'm not mistaken.

Yeah, many years back I spoke to Keith Johnson about HDCD. I was big fan of it initally. I was afraid that once MS bought they would bury it. I don't know why, I was concerned their licensing fees would be too high at the time I believe. If MS could have collaborated with more hardware vendors and incorporate the chip I think things would have worked out differently.

Rick A.

It's still being used. My Oppo BDP-95 has got the chip (as does my late 90's PS Audio SL3). It does appear the licensing has changed; HDCD is said to be 3db quieter than redbook cd. The licensing used tor require a 3db attenuation of redbook so they'd have the same subjective volume during playback. That is not the case with my new Oppo, HDCD is considerably quieter than cd.

Microsoft intended to do something with it for Windows Media, which ended up being an also-ran format, so ....