• What is CD-Text?
  Unfortunately, no information about e.g . the CD or track titles etc. are stored on a normal Audio-CD.
  There already have been several attempts to expand the "CD standard" this way that more information can be stored on a CD. All attempts this far had the disadvantage, that the CDs couldn't be played correctly by "old" CD-Players - usually the data was stored in an additional data track, which of course sounded strange when "played" by an "old one" player (that doesn't know this special track).
  With CD-Text CDs the CD artist and title as well as artists and titles of the single tracks are stored on the CD in a way, that doesn't influence "old" CD-Players.
  This way also the capacity of the CD is not reduced, the entire playing time of the CD can be used. With old CD-Players and CD-Text CD's it remains all the same; the CD will be read like a normal CD and the CD-Player reads the number of tracks etc. and shows them in the display. This CD perfectly "acts" like a normal CD.
  If the CD is inserted into a CD-Player capable of CD-Text, the CD-Player can read the CD-Text information and display the name of the CD as well as e. g. the name of the track that is currently played.
  This way a CD-ROM capable of CD-Text can also read the tracklist of a CD, so the artist, title or track information doesn't have to be entered manually.
  Also some "normal" Audio-CDs (you remember? long time ago... when you used to buy them in shops...), contain CD-Text information.
  Especially CDs lately released by SONY® are oftenly mastered with CD-Text information (CD-Text has been developed by SONY® and Phillips®). You can find further information about CD-Text on the Sony site: http://www.world.sony.com/Electronics/cd_text/index.html
  
  
• What do I need to use CD-Text?
  To read CD-Text information, you need a CD-ROM or CD-Writer capable of CD-Text. To write CD-Text information a suitable CD-Writer is of course required, too.
  You'll find a list of suitable CD-ROMs (http://www.feurio.com/English/cd_roms/) as well as a list of CD-Writers capable of CD-Text (http://www.feurio.com/English/Writerdb/) on the Feurio!® homepage (please note the column "CD-Text").
  Finally a CD-Player capable of CD-Text would be useful, so the information stored on the CD are displayed during playback. If you are planning on buying a new CD-Player, you should simply ask your favourite dealer about a model capable of CD-Text.
  Burning CDs with CD-Text information (if you already own a writer that can do this) would be useful anyway, because CD-Text information won't affect a "normal"CD-Player and you will be well prepared for future CD-Players!
  
  
• CD-Text and Feurio!®
  Feurio!® can read out the CD-Text information stored on a CD (i. e. if a CD-Text CD is inserted, the CD artist, CD title, track artists and track titles are displayed) (if the CD-ROM is able to read CD-Text). CD-Text CDs can be copied as well as own CD-Text CDs can be produced!
  You can even create a CD with CD-TEXT out of a CD without CD-Text! You just have to copy all tracks to your hard disk (of course the artists and titles have to be entered manually unless they are stored in the database) and burn the project with the appropriate flags.
  
  
• Technical informationen about CD-Text:
  An Audio-CD does not only contain the actual musica data but some additional information (so-called "subchannels"). Ther are 8 different subchannels (p,q,r,s,t,u,v and w). The Q subchannel e. g. contains information about the current position. The lead-in area has a special position. The lead-in area is the area BEFORE the normal music data. The lead-in area contains the "Table of Contents (TOC)" (the CD's directory) within the Q subchannels.
  The TOC stores the starting positions of the single tracks. The subchannels R-W of the lead-in are only used to store CD-Text information. To produce CD-Text CDs you "only" need a CD-Writer that is capable of computer-controlled writing the P and Q subchannels as well as the subchannels R-W (the subchannels are written by each writer, unfortunately most writers only write zeros). Theroretically EACH writer is able to write CD-Text CDs, unless coding the subchannels is performed by the hardware itself or hard-wired circuits.
  It's oftenly heard, that CD-Text would be property of SONY® and therefore may not be used by other manufacturers. But this is not the whole story: The complete coding of the CD-Text information is done by the computer. The CD-Writer does not have anything to do with it. As described above, the CD-Writer only has to offer the possibility to write the R-W subchannels - these subchannels are already described in the RED-BOOK (the standard for CDs). So the manufacturer only offers the feature to write the fields specified by the RED-BOOK - as such has not yet anything to do with CD-Text. CD-Text is ONLY "produced" by the software - so only this could cause problems!
  
  IMPORTANT: Recently I'm getting mails like: "According to the specifications my writer is able to write R-W subchannels, but I cannot write CD-Text CDs" or "Feurio!'s device test reports that my CD-ROM is able to read R-W subchannels, but I cannot read CD-Text CDs". The simple explanation for it is: These specification usually only apply to the DATA AREA. Many CD-Writers are able to write the R-W subchannels of the DATA AREA, but unfortunately the lead-in area! Just like CD-ROMs: The capability page of the device test contains a value "Read R-W subchannels"; unfortunately this information ONLY applies to reading R-W subchannels in the data area but unfortunately reading the subchannels in the lead-in area!

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