DCC-FAQ - About the DCC-FAQ

About the DCC-FAQ

More information about the DCC-FAQ pages

Who makes the DCC-FAQ?

The FAQ was started by me, Jac Goudsmit in October 1996 when David Rogers, the list-manager of the DCC-L e-mail discussion list (see the DCC-L homepage) posted a remark that it was about time to make a FAQ list. I was stupid enough to volunteer for the DCC-FAQ, although I had no experience with making FAQ's or web pages. The draft version, based on some questions David had posted earlier on (see the DCC-L April 1996 archives) was put online October 13th, 1996 as dcc-faq version 0.

Unfortunately, only two weeks after the initial version of the FAQ, Philips decided that the DCC dream was over (while we thought the battle with MD was just beginning). The FAQ will survive as long as I'll be on the Internet, but it may go into hybernation now that I work for a new boss and have a little less spare time than I used to have, and no direct connection to the Net.

In November 1997, Philips decided to drop the web pages about DCC and DCC equipment from their website. A very special thanks goes out to Monique Verbeek of Philips Sound & Vision, who was kind enough to send me a copy of the original Philips DCC page including the graphics.

Where did I get the info?

Most info was gathered from the Philips DCC web pages but I also took a lot of information from what I remembered from publications in local newspapers (I live in Eindhoven, home town of Philips) and magazines such as Elektuur (internationally known as Elektor). And of course, a lot of info from the members of the DCC-L discussion list.

Some information came from Philips Service documentation. When I started the FAQ, this information was available to everyone if you contacted your local Philips Service Center (I lived near one at the time). I think later on, Philips made it more difficult for “mere mortals” to get their hands on service documentation, but I have to say I never tried, after I wrote the FAQ.

Especially because of this second-hand information, it may be possible that some noise and misinfo has creeped in. Please notify me if you come across something that "you thought was different" or that you know is wrong.

The original structure of the FAQ was inspired by Andy McFadden's CD-R FAQ. The one-page-many-bookmarks structure was abandoned in version 2.0, to improve readability and maintainability.

Changes since the previous version

(Version 1.0, 26 Oct 1996) The most important change since version 0 was the conversion from ASCII text to HTML. Additionally, this introduction was added.

(Version 1.5, 2 Nov 1996) I made this version especially because Philips announced (October 31st) that DCC will be discontinued.

(Version 1.6, 4 Jan 1997) Removed empty "live recording" section, added some info about the future availability of DCC.

(Version 2.0, 22 Nov 1997) Improved layout, more pictures, improved subject about tapes, improved subject comparing DCC to other systems, more recorders, more about cables, more about PC-link, changed links to Philips DCC page to local copy.

(Version 2.1, 25 Nov 2003) Back after 6 years! A lot of external links were broken and even a few internal ones didn’t work. I emigrated to the United States in 2000 and had to leave my cassettes behind, but this year my father finally sent them over. While in the process of using DCC-Studio to transfer my tapes to CD and MP3, I stumbled upon the problem that my original MPP2MPG program was nowhere to be found (neither in my CD collection, nor online), so I had to rewrite it. I modified the PASC page, the Connections page and the acknowledgements page to reflect this.

Legal stuff

I do my best to keep all information as accurate and objective as possible, but I will take no responsibility whatsoever about the correctness of the information on the DCC-FAQ page. Use at your own peril. Mail me if you find mistakes.

Although I worked for several branches of Philips during my career, Philips does not endorse any of the information in the FAQ. The FAQ was not written for or by any of the companies that are mentioned in it. All copyrights, trademarks and other legal rights of these companies are acknowledged. The persons that are mentioned on the DCC-FAQ may or may not know that the FAQ exists but don't necessarily have anything to do with it (except for the people on the acknowledgements list).

The DCC-FAQ pages should be regarded as freely distributable copyrighted material. You are allowed to copy all or part of the information and publish it in any way, but only if you mention me as the original source (e.g. "information taken from the DCC-FAQ web pages by Jac Goudsmit, http://www.xs4all.nl/~jacg/dcc-faq.html").

This section does not apply to the Philips DCC page.

Interesting other places to visit

This is a list of HTML links to DCC pages made by individuals and companies that may be interesting to the DCC user.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~jacg/philips/dcc.html the Philips DCC pages. Check them out.

http://www.lightlink.com/drogers/DCC-L/ the homepage of the DCC-L email discussion list by David Rogers.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~eijk65/dcc.html Maarten Eijkhout's DCC homepage including my program to convert PASC to MPEG and a tool to convert MPEG to WAV.

http://www.atd.ucar.edu/rdp/dat-heads/ The DAT-heads mailing list home page.

http://www.hip.atr.co.jp/~eaw/minidisc.html The MiniDisc homepage which has a LOT of links to other interesting sites; even if you're as biased towards DCC as we are, this might still be interesting!

http://www.cd-info.com/CDIC/Technology/CD-R/FAQ.html The CD-Recording FAQ on which the original DCC-FAQ's layout was based. It has a lot of interesting info on things like digital audio grabbing using a CD-ROM drive, digital sound cards etc.

http://www.mpeg.org/ The homepage of the MPEG group with information about the MPEG standard (on which PASC is based) and lots of links to other interesting sites.

Last updated: 25-Nov-2003.
Author: Jac Goudsmit (jacg a xs4all.nl)
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