Neha Patil (Editor)

CD G

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Media type
  
Optical disc

Developed by
  
Philips & Sony

Encoding
  
Various

CD+G

Capacity
  
Typically up to 800 MB (up to 80 minutes audio)

Read mechanism
  
780 nm wavelength semiconductor laser

Usage
  
Audio, image, and data storage

CD+G (also known as CD-G, CD+Graphics and TV-Graphics) is an extension of the compact disc standard that can present low-resolution graphics alongside the audio data on the disc when played on a compatible device. CD+G discs are often used for karaoke machines, which use this functionality to present on-screen lyrics for the song contained on the disc. The CD+G specifications were published by Philips and Sony in an updated revision of the Red Book specifications.

Contents

The first CD to be released with CD+G graphics was Eat or Be Eaten by Firesign Theatre in 1985. The CD+EG is a similar format that allows for better graphics, but has been used very rarely.

Players

Along with dedicated Karaoke machines, other consumer devices that play CD+G format CDs include the NEC TurboGrafx-CD (a CD-ROM peripheral for the TurboGrafx-16) and Turbo Duo, the Philips CD-i, the Sega CD, Sega Saturn, the JVC X'Eye, the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, the Amiga CD32 and Commodore CDTV, and the Atari Jaguar CD (which was an attachment for the Atari Jaguar). Some CD-ROM drives can also read this data. Pioneer's LaserActive player can also play CD+G discs, as long as either the PAC-S1/S-10 or PAC-N1/N10 game modules are installed.

Since 2003, some standalone DVD players have supported the CD+G format.

Implementation

The CD+G format takes advantage of the subcode channels R through W, which are unused in standard audio CD formats. These six bits store graphics information.

In the CD+G system, 16-color (4-bit) graphics are displayed on a raster field which is 300×216 pixels in size, of which only the central 288×192 area is used with a flat-coloured border (6 pixels wide, 12 lines high) drawn around it.

References

CD+G Wikipedia