A HDCD (short for High Definition Compact Disc) is an extension of the compact disc audio standard in which a special encoding scheme is used to save the sampled audio with a theoretical resolution of 20 bits, while maintaining compatibility with the huge installed base of 16 bit CD players. HDCD disks are claimed to sound better on normal CD players, though a special HDCD compatible player is needed for full performance.
HDCD encoding was first developed by Keith Johnson and Pflash Pflaumer, who founded Pacific Microsonics Inc. in 1996 to market their creation; in 2000, the cooperation was acquired by Microsoft.
