CompuServe Thread

1. Yes -most- cdrom drives can play standard audio cd's. Those that can will have a set of audio output jacks (phono connectors or headphone). 2. Exactly how you control the CD-rom depends on the platform. For PC's the Microsoft extensions (MSCDEX 2.0+) support audio track playback. It is also possible to read the audio header information that gives the playing time for each audio track. 3. CD-XA is an extension to the CD-ROM standard that allows regular cd-audio selections to be interleaved with data tracks. I.E. you have a file on disk that has both audio and data. During playback the audio is sent out through the audio jacks while data comes to the computer. The CD-XA players also have internal data buffers that allow them to buffer up a bunch of audio so they can play continious audio even while reading data tracks. Generally, the data tracks will contain image data, the result being a synchronized animiation. It is even possible with cd-xa to read audio tracks into computer memory from the device buffers. For more info on CD-XA contact: Phillips Consumer Electronics B.V. Coordination Office Optical Media Systems Building SWA-8 PO Box 80002 5600 JB Eindhoven, Netherlands Tel: +31 40 736409 Fax: +31 40 732113 – Jerry Isdale (in the midst of my first XA project) There is 1 Reply.