Where can I learn more about the history of CD and CD-R?
Some information about “the goode olde days” can be found in Robert Starrett’s “The History of CD-R” article, currently available from http://www.roxio.com/en/support/cdr/historycdr.html. The first CD player was available in Japanese stores on October 1, 1982. CD-Recordable technology wasn’t introduced until 1988. For a timeline, see http://www.oneoffcd.com/info/historycd.cfm. Back in the late 1980s, CD recorders cost thousands of dollars, and were part of systems the size of a washing machine. Disks cost US$100.00 each. Things started to get better in 1995, when Yamaha released the CDR100 (the first 4x recorder) for a mere US$5000.00. In September of 1995, HP released the 4020i (a 2x recorder based on the Philips CDD2000) for just under US$1000.00. Media was down to about US$8.00, though 80-minute discs were extremely rare and expensive (US$40.00 each, if you could find them at all).
The CD-Information Center web site now has a small history section, http://www.cd-info.com/CDIC/History.html. Some of the items in the bibliography there might also be of interest. http://www.cdpage.com/ has a CD-Recordable museum on their web page. Some information about “the goode olde days” can be found on http://www.roxio.com/en/support/cdr/historycdr.html.
(2002/12/02) Some information about “the goode olde days” can be found in Robert Starrett’s “The History of CD-R” article, currently available from http://www.roxio.com/en/support/cdr/historycdr.html. The first CD player was available in Japanese stores on October 1, 1982. CD-Recordable technology wasn’t introduced until 1988. For a timeline, see http://www.oneoffcd.com/info/historycd.cfm. Back in the late 1980s, CD recorders cost thousands of dollars, and were part of systems the size of a washing machine. Disks cost US$100.00 each. Things started to get better in 1995, when Yamaha released the CDR100 (the first 4x recorder) for a mere US$5000.00. In September of 1995, HP released the 4020i (a 2x recorder based on the Philips CDD2000) for just under US$1000.00. Media was down to about US$8.00, though 80-minute discs were extremely rare and expensive (US$40.00 each, if you could find them at all).
