25. What the heck does `Red Book', `Yellow Book', etc. mean?

"Red Book" is the common name of the "Compact Disc Digital Audio Standard". When a disc conforms to the red book standard, it will usually have "digital audio" printed below the "disc" logo. Most music CDs conform to this standard.

"Yellow Book" is the standard for CD-ROM. When a disc conforms to the yellow book, it will usually say "data storage" beneath the "disc" logo.

"Green Book" is the CD-I (compact disc interactive) standard.

"Orange Book" is the standard for write-once compact discs.

"Blue Book" is the standard for LaserDisc. **

You can get the Red Book and Yellow Book from

ANSI
Attn: Sales
1430 Broadway
New York, NY 10018
(212) 642-4900
Red Book: CEI IEC 908
Yellow Book: ISO 10149:1989
You can get the Green Book from

American CD-I Association
11111 Santa Monica, Suite 750
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(213) 444-6619
The Orange Book is still proprietary to Philips and Sony, and available only to their licensees.

[If anyone can tell me where the other standards are available, I will include that information here.]

** [ "Blue Book" may be apochryphal. Pioneer reportly has a pre-mastering guide that may or may not have a blue cover, but it is not a statement of the LD standard.

The only standards found so far are IEC-857 (NTSC) or IEC-856 (PAL). In the US, the only reliable source for these is Global Engr Documents. They aren't cheap.

'857 only covers the analog portions of LD. It does not include digital audio, TOC, LD-ROM, LD+G, CDV-5 or anything peculiar to Laser Karaoke. ]

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