Editing Digital Audio Tape (section)

=== Digital Compact Cassette ===
The DAT recorder mechanism was considerably more complex and expensive than an analogue [[cassette deck]] mechanism due to the rotary helical scan head, therefore [[Philips]] and [[Panasonic Corporation]] developed a rival [[Digital data|digital]] [[tape recorder]] system with a stationary head based on the [[analog recording|analogue]] [[compact cassette]] known as S-DAT. The [[Digital Compact Cassette]] (DCC) was cheaper and simpler mechanically than DAT, but did not make perfect digital copies as it used a [[lossy compression]] technique called [[MPEG-1 Audio Layer I|PASC]]. (Lossy compression was necessary to reduce the data rate to a level that the DCC head could record successfully at the linear tape speed of 4.75&nbsp;cm/s that the compact cassette system uses.) DCC was never a competitor to DAT in recording studios, because DAT was already established, and studios favor lossless formats.  As DCC was launched at the same time as [[Sony]]'s [[Minidisc]] format (which has [[random access]] and editing features), it was not successful with consumers either. However, DCC proved that high quality digital recording could be achieved with a cheap simple mechanism using stationary heads.{{fact|date=July 2022}}