Digital Compact Cassette - History

History

DCC signalled the parting of ways of Philips and Sony, who had worked together successfully on the Compact Disc, CD-ROM and CD-i before. Based on the success of Digital Audio Tape in professional environments, both companies saw a market for a new consumer-oriented digital audio recording system that would be less expensive and perhaps less fragile. Sony decided to create the entirely new MiniDisc format (based on their experience with magneto-optical recording and Compact Disc) while Philips decided on a tape format that was compatible with their earlier analog Compact Cassette format.

This decision might appear remarkable since Philips had experimented with other recordable-disc media. At that point in time, no company (not even Sony) had been successful in creating a CD compatible read-only/read-write format (equivalent to today's CD-R and CD-RW). The only viable solution with then-current technology was magneto-optics, which Sony chose with the MiniDisc which in turn wasn't remotely compatible with CD media; so Philips' decision to go tape-based made sense, given the technical restraints of then-current technology. This was further compounded by the financial strains the company was experiencing around 1990 and 1991, making the company less enthusiastic about untested technology and preferring a more conservative approach. The hope was to minimize the risk of investing, something that would prove futile.

DCC was developed in cooperation with Matsushita, and the first DCC recorders were introduced at the Firato consumer electronics show in Amsterdam in 1992. At that time, not only Philips and Panasonic (brand of Matsushita) announced DCC-recorders but also other brands such as Grundig and Marantz (both related to Philips at the time).

More recorders and players were introduced by Philips and other manufacturers in the following years, including some portable players and recorders as well as in-dash DCC/radio-receiver combinations for automotive use.

In November 1995 at the "HCC dagen" computer fair in Utrecht, The Netherlands, Philips presented the DCC-175 portable recorder that could be connected to an IBM-compatible PC using the "PC-link" cable. This was the first (and only) DCC recorder that could be connected to, and controlled by, a computer, and it was only ever available in the Netherlands.

Philips marketed the DCC format in Europe, the United States and Japan. According to the newspaper article that announced the demise of DCC, DCC was more popular than MiniDisc in Europe (especially in the Netherlands), however this claim has yet to be verified. Sony claims that MiniDisc was vastly more popular than DCC in Japan, but very little evidence of this exists.

DCC was quietly discontinued in October 1996 after Philips admitted it had failed at achieving any significant market penetration with the format, and unofficially conceded victory to Sony.