Watermarking red-book cd's


Is it correct that Cd's released in North America will be watermarked in the near future?? Will they be marked as such so the buying public will know? Will this be audible on high-end playback? Should I worry? Thanks in advance, Bluenose
bluenose
See this months Absolute Sound. It appears they are already doing a form of this primarily designed to reduce copying on PCs. There are ticks in the bitstream that are exaggerated when the data is processed on the PC. Is it audible prior to copying--the manufacturer says no--but who knows. I'd like to see a list of CDs that has this encoding, maybe someone else knows some of these CDs.
Thanks Abstract7 for your reply. What also worries me is that they may not mention this protection on the cd. As a potential consumer I feel I have a right to know what I'm buying...if it can't be heard then they should not be afraid to list it on the cd....thanks again. Bluenose
I agree--I'd like to know too. I think the only way is if someone comes up with an independent list of CDs that use this protection scheme. I don't think they are going to come up with the "Audiophile Advisory" sticker on the cover of the CD any time soon.
There is a small article in this months (Nov.) Acoustic Guitar that claims BMG is begining to release some discs with an anti-piracy encryption. Don't have the mag here in front of me but I was very,very, surprised by this.