Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT strips 4231-4235 (30th of March to 3rd April, 2020)
Tova:
I'll just throw in the complication that there are actually two contours to work out, not just one, for stereo albums.
Thrudd:
I had to look that up - stereo on a record - sheeesh - I don't remember any of the records or players I have ever owned being stereo capable.
- just checked my record accumulation and dang it, I do have some stereo LPs
- all of them are orchestral and operatic collections I picked up at various bazaars and yard sales over the years.
Fortunately that would only require a tad more work on the software side treating the left and right sides of the grove as separate data streams
pwhodges:
--- Quote from: Thrudd on 17 Apr 2020, 05:27 ---I had to look that up - stereo on a record - sheeesh - I don't remember any of the records or players I have ever owned being stereo capable.
--- End quote ---
Hardly new; the mono LP was only around for ten years before stereo ones became available, and separate mono pressings died out barely ten years after that. Nearly all LPs are stereo.
Funny story. In 1957 there was an international meeting to agree the means by which stereo would be put into a record groove. The preferred way was agreed, and then the Bell Labs representative told the meeting that they had patents on that method, so everyone would have to pay them royalties. The British representative then, without a word, put a copy of an expired patent on the table. It was Blumlein's 1931 patent for the exact same thing, which Bell Labs were not even aware of! (Blumlein was one of the true technical geniuses of that time, and worked for EMI just outside London; he did pioneering work in sound reproduction, television and radar.)
Tova:
--- Quote from: Thrudd on 17 Apr 2020, 05:27 ---I had to look that up - stereo on a record - sheeesh - I don't remember any of the records or players I have ever owned being stereo capable.
- just checked my record accumulation and dang it, I do have some stereo LPs
- all of them are orchestral and operatic collections I picked up at various bazaars and yard sales over the years.
Fortunately that would only require a tad more work on the software side treating the left and right sides of the grove as separate data streams
--- End quote ---
If I recall correctly, it's something more along the lines of left and right movement of the stylus being left + right, and vertical movement of the stylus being left - right. Maybe not exactly, but something along those lines.
The reason for that is that you want your albums to have mono compatibility. So if it's a mono player and only looks at the horizontal movement, then you get the sum of the two channels which is a basically mono-compatible mix. But stereo players can also calculate the left and right signals by adding half the difference channel to get the left and subtracting to get right.
The ability to play albums on mono and stereo equipment was a big deal.
I think my parents may have had a handful of mono albums, but the vast majority were in stereo. Some of them made a very big deal of being stereo and mono-compatible on the front of the cardboard sleeve.
Tova:
--- Quote from: pwhodges on 17 Apr 2020, 05:52 ---Funny story. In 1957 there was an international meeting to agree the means by which stereo would be put into a record groove. The preferred way was agreed, and then the Bell Labs representative told the meeting that they had patents on that method, so everyone would have to pay them royalties. The British representative then, without a word, put a copy of an expired patent on the table. It was Blumlein's 1931 patent for the exact same thing, which Bell Labs were not even aware of! (Blumlein was one of the true technical geniuses of that time, and worked for EMI just outside London; he did pioneering work in sound reproduction, television and radar.)
--- End quote ---
This is why you have to be so careful in searching for prior art before lodging a patent claim. The risk of being granted, and paying for, a worthless patent is very real.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version