Posted by Tyler Bradley on January 05, 1997 at 03:16:41:
In Reply to: CD stop-light green marker fraud? posted by Jonathan T. Schmidt on January 05, 1997 at 02:48:45:
I've read something about it, but I've pretty much chalked it up to marketing banter. As the laser, which is not always red ( may also be blue-green), penetrates the plastic laminate on the CD, there is a small amount of refraction off slightly to the side. This could set up a light piping effect along the plane of the plastic the same way fibre optics operate. When it reaches the periphery of the CD, most would refract into the surrounding air, but there would be reflection back toward the centre of the CD. I suppose that if this light were intense enough, it could interfere (both temporally and by being phase-shifted) with the original bean of light. But alas, I really do think that the returned light in of such minimal intensity, if it exists at all, will not cause a problem in playback. If it did I'd venture to guess that the music would sound MUCH worse rather than slightly worse because of the all-or-nothing code of digital signals.