CD+G: A nice surprise

[ProgRules]

My denon 2930's laser is dying; apparently luckier than most, I got 6 years out of it. I replaced it w/ a used oppo dv-981hd and upon listening to my 1st CD noticed CD text that displayed full track names on Yes' Progeny. Amused, I decided to investigate w/ an older disc and serendipitously chose Little Feat's Hoy-Hoy. I was greeted on the 1st track w/ the album title streaming across my screen in purple, then the next track showed graphics and lyrics! The rest of the tracks mostly showed graphics and lyrics, though w/ sometimes stuttering graphics and a few times where it appeared graphics were trying to come up but didn't. Youtube has some clips of these graphics that are smooth; I'm thinking that something in my player might be messing up the implementation, such as the farouda chip having trouble upscaling them to 1080p. I will investigate further, but whatever the cause, it isn't working very well, but enjoyable when it does.

I remember reading about CD+Graphics back in the day, but never heard much about it. I quickly perused the disc and liner notes: no mention anywhere of CD+G. There's also nothing on the oppo site or in my manual about this player having that capability either, other than a blurb on one setup menu item re: changing the tone setting up or down- only to be used for karaoke discs. A google search netted me little info, other than a lotta hits about karaoke discs.

I posted over at SHF about what I'd found and another member found a website that showed the very few titles ever released w/ this feature. Other than Hoy-Hoy, the only discs I had from that site were Talking Heads Naked and Holst The Planets; a quick check of those discs revealed I had the non-CD+G versions. CD+G versions have matrix #'s that end in CD+G.

There were a couple of other discs on that site I was interested in, so I searched them out. Bonnie Raitt's Green Light apparently was only ever issued as a cd+g disc, so I scored that off ebay for $4.65 shipped. But the one I was most interested in was Hendrix's smash hits, which the site described as having very psychedelic graphics. The version on that site had 2 extra tracks, so when I saw one of those on ebay for $3.99 shipped, I sent a question to the seller asking to check the matrix for cd+g. After thinking, I began to fear that someone might scarf it up before I got an answer, so I went ahead and pulled the trigger.

So- if you have a cd+g capable machine, likely known by ability to play karaoke discs, you might want to check your library and check out this site:
http://www.cdplusg.com/cdplusg/Main.html

I will report back once I've tried the 2 discs that are headed my way.

 

[S T Riddle]

I have a few of those CD+G titles and yes the Hendrix CD is interesting.

 

[ProgRules]

I have a few of those CD+G titles and yes the Hendrix CD is interesting.

What player are you using? And which discs do you have?

 

[S T Riddle]

What player are you using? And which discs do you have?

Haven't played them in a while but used a portable Karaoke machine with audio out back then.

I don't remember which titles right off hand, the Hendrix "Smash Hits" and Little Feat "Representing the Mambo" come to mind right now. I remember my brother has 2 Emmylou Harris disks and a Firesign Theatre "Eat or Be Eaten", maybe a few more.
The Firesign disk was to my knowledge the 1st to use the technology (that will send Jon hunting won't it?).

 

[Cheezmo]

I maintain www.cdplusg.com. I have collected all but 5 or 6 of the CD+G title released in that time period, I have a post in the marketplace listing the ones I'm still looking for.

The best software I've found for decoding and converting to Quicktime movies is kJams. You need a compatible CD/DVD drive. Most can read, if you want to burn your own that is much harder to track down.

 

[ProgRules]

I maintain www.cdplusg.com. I have collected all but 5 or 6 of the CD+G title released in that time period, I have a post in the marketplace listing the ones I'm still looking for.

The best software I've found for decoding and converting to Quicktime movies is kJams. You need a compatible CD/DVD drive. Most can read, if you want to burn your own that is much harder to track down.

wow- small world huh?

Thanks for the info. If these are converted to Quicktimes mov's, am I correct in assuming that they would play smoother and more consistently than in my oppo?

Do you have any suggestions as to what might be causing the problems I saw in Hoy-Hoy? The movement often stutters- nothing like the smoothness I saw on the youtube clips I checked out. And some songs would lose the graphics, while a couple of songs had no graphics at all, though some onscreen flashes made it appear that there might have been something trying to play.

I am planning on re-trying them at 480p thu my hdmi connection and even trying composite 480i, thinking the player may have trouble upscaling. Also, there is a setting for video 1 or 2 in the video setup page that seems to relate mostly to Pal discs (though I could be wrong about that). Video 1 is the default and works fine w/ the dvd's I've auditioned so far. But video 2 adds 2:2 cadence to the usual 3:2; I'm thinking that might improve matters and will try that 1st, given how easy it is.

 

[Cheezmo]

The problems you describe just sound like a scratched/damaged CD. Most of mine play cleanly, but there are occasional glitches. I convert to Quicktime so I can play them on my iPhone and AppleTV. There are some cases of badly mastered CD+G, I have a version of Anita Baker Rapture, where the graphics aren't lined up with the tracks properly, so the first track starts black and kind of draws half a screen, etc.

Hoy Hoy is pretty easy to find in the bins and I don't know if it was ever remastered so most if not all should have CD+G. Other very common ones are Fleetwood Mac Mirage, Lou Reed New York, Talking Heads Naked. Just check the matrix for CD+G or for JVC pressings, ending in "G[n]T" (where [n] is a number).

The two Pop/Rock titles I'm really looking hard for are Phoebe Snow - Something Real and Honeymoon Suite - Racing After Midnight. I know they exist (a friend has them) but they have been eluding me for 15 years.

 

[S T Riddle]

...The two Pop/Rock titles I'm really looking hard for are Phoebe Snow - Something Real and Honeymoon Suite - Racing After Midnight. I know they exist (a friend has them) but they have been eluding me for 15 years.

I looked for Honeymoon Suite for quite a while. I used to see it ALL the time in the bargain bins at used CD stores but they were always the ones with no CD+G.

 

[ProgRules]

The problems you describe just sound like a scratched/damaged CD. Most of mine play cleanly, but there are occasional glitches. I convert to Quicktime so I can play them on my iPhone and AppleTV. There are some cases of badly mastered CD+G, I have a version of Anita Baker Rapture, where the graphics aren't lined up with the tracks properly, so the first track starts black and kind of draws half a screen, etc.

Hoy Hoy is pretty easy to find in the bins and I don't know if it was ever remastered so most if not all should have CD+G. Other very common ones are Fleetwood Mac Mirage, Lou Reed New York, Talking Heads Naked. Just check the matrix for CD+G or for JVC pressings, ending in "G[n]T" (where [n] is a number).

The two Pop/Rock titles I'm really looking hard for are Phoebe Snow - Something Real and Honeymoon Suite - Racing After Midnight. I know they exist (a friend has them) but they have been eluding me for 15 years.

Thanks for the info. I'll give that CD a good cleaning and see if that helps.

I assume you mean FM's Behind the Mask? If not, you need to update your webpage. Great job on that btw. I'd never heard of BTM- I checked a few samples and was underwhelmed, so I haven't been looking for that. I have been looking for Rapture, though I'm planning to check out the 2 I've got coming before I look into any more. Any way to know which Rapture discs were not properly mastered?

What are the graphics like on the classical discs? I'm esp. interested in The Magic Flute. Any of those classical titles you would recommend?

 

[kap'n krunch]

Got my better half a copy of Sarah McLachlan "Surfacing"...was curious to see the "enhanced" part but it was made for Mac OS ....7.0(!!!!!)...popped it in and it gave ma n error..."Classic mode not supported anymore" (or something like that ...was amused...

 

[Cheezmo]

I assume you mean FM's Behind the Mask? If not, you need to update your webpage. Great job on that btw. I'd never heard of BTM- I checked a few samples and was underwhelmed, so I haven't been looking for that. I have been looking for Rapture, though I'm planning to check out the 2 I've got coming before I look into any more. Any way to know which Rapture discs were not properly mastered?

What are the graphics like on the classical discs? I'm esp. interested in The Magic Flute. Any of those classical titles you would recommend?

Yes, I did mean Behind the Mask.

Some of the classical ones are quite interesting, giving music notes that to an infrequent classical listener provide quite a bit of education (Diabelli Variations is one).. Others are just slide shows or lyrics (for opera).

If you want a good example of a classical title with program notes, someone has the Mendelssohn up on eBay for a good price... http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mendelssohn...-Orchestra-Leipzig-099171150133-/331577772096

 

[ProgRules]

Yes, I did mean Behind the Mask.

Some of the classical ones are quite interesting, giving music notes that to an infrequent classical listener provide quite a bit of education (Diabelli Variations is one).. Others are just slide shows or lyrics (for opera).

If you want a good example of a classical title with program notes, someone has the Mendelssohn up on eBay for a good price... http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mendelssohn...-Orchestra-Leipzig-099171150133-/331577772096

Thanks for the info, but program notes aren't what I'm looking for. I just like visuals that accompany the music- the wilder the better. IMO, someone should release a dvd player that had some good visualizers, like some of the ones in Windows Media player, that move in sync to the music. I'd love something like that, but I imagine I'm not very representative of the buying public...

 

[Cheezmo]

In that case, the most interesting titles to you would probably be the Jimi Hendrix Smash Hits (pretty easy to find) and the Donna Summer (extremely hard to find). They use color palette shifts to "flash" and quickly change the look. Most CD+G graphics are very slow changing/scrolling, etc. and would hardly qualify as "visualizers".

 

[ProgRules]

In that case, the most interesting titles to you would probably be the Jimi Hendrix Smash Hits (pretty easy to find) and the Donna Summer (extremely hard to find). They use color palette shifts to "flash" and quickly change the look. Most CD+G graphics are very slow changing/scrolling, etc. and would hardly qualify as "visualizers".

Well, thanks to your site, I have the Hendrix disc on its way to me- along w/ Bonnie's Green Light. I know cd+g won't be the same as visualizers, but something interesting to look at nonetheless- and I like being able to read lyrics w/ discs.

 

[Cheezmo]

For those interested in CD+G, I'm putting decodes of my entire CD+G collection on YouTube. The content rights holders are blocking audio for Jimi Hendrix and Fleetwood Mac, and a few other random tracks, those are offered with graphics only (you can sync with your own CD if you want).

Check it out and enjoy this lost art form.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx5TQ1l7w1N0_UQqumk5lNw

 

[Franklin]

Just had a quick look at Fleetwood Mac - Sky's The Limit. Nice! I've never seen CD-G (non karaoke) before.