Super Audio CD Super Audio CD Super Audio CD (SACD) is a read-only optical disc for audio storage, introduced in 1999. It was developed jointly by Sony and Philips Electronics, and intended to be the successor to their Compact Disc (CD) format. While the SACD format can offer more channels (e.g. surround sound), and a longer playing time than CD, research published in 2007 found no significant difference in audio quality between SACD and standard CD at ordinary volume levels. Having made little impact in the consumer audio market, by 2007, SACD was deemed to be a failure by the press. A small
Philips CD-i best software required the MPEG upgrade card. By mid-1996 the U.S. market for CD-i software had dried up and Philips had given up on releasing titles there, but continued to publish CD-i games in Europe, where the console still held some popularity. With the home market exhausted, Philips tried with some success to position the technology as a solution for kiosk applications and industrial multimedia. In addition to consumer models, professional and development players were sold by Philips Interactive Media Systems and their VARs. Philips marketed several CD-i player models. There also exist a number of hard-to-categorize models, such as