Whatever happened to HDCD?

I don't think that SACD will catch on. Don't hold me to it, But I just don't. The average Joe Shmo isn't buying into SACD. The audiophile already has a hi-rez format ( LP)
No need for SACD. I just don't believe there is a market for it. DVD-audio, well maybe. The avrage Joe Shmo does love DVD. Who doesn't? So the AVERAGE consumer will sit there and watch clips on his TV while listening to his Home Theatre in a box system. So DVDA does stand a chance.
I ahev several HDCD's, and they do sound very good. I would be very happy with more of those released and drop SACD.

Thanks folks - this at least let me know that my impression that the format was dead was inaccurate. I still find it puzzling that it isn't used more - given the no pain backwards compatability .

again thanks

We just came out with a HDCD Tube CD Player at Eastern Electric
www.eeaudio.com

We think it still sounds the best .

Interestingly the Dick's Picks series from the Dead are all HDCD. My player is not though, so I can't say if the HDCD sounds better or not...

It's difficult to ask "What Happened to HDCD" when it really never happened at all for much the same reason that SACD isn't happening. Good ol' Doc Johnson and friend came up with the idea, but wanted too much money for the encoding chip for the recording side and too much money for the decoding chip on the cd player side. They killed it themselves so they found the perfect suckers to buy it for too much money - Microsoft who didn't know the audio biz nearly as well as they did computers and there it lies pretty much dead and buried. If the recording industry made cd's in the same way that Audioquest did and didn't ask for half your paycheck as JVC XRCD does, we wouldn't be asking questions like "where is HDCD" or "does SACD or DVD really sound better than redbook."