[dylan604]

I always thought an interesting format would have been the plastic disc with a physical track similar to vinyl, but read optically so that it could be a disc that was compact like that other digital format. The loss in fidelity would naturally cause the format to have a charm of its own. Sort of like those old films with an optical audio track that have a distinctive sound.

[lmz]

Laserdisc is analog optical, but not so compact.

[happycube]

Analog audio was first, and video was always analog, but most of the time laserdisc audio playback is literally CD Audio (not merely 16bit/44.1khz but the same intermediate data/error correction/scrambling... even CD-G was recycled into LD-G)

That said, assuming a pilot signal was added one could probably put two to three hours of PAL-frequency analog audio (which completely went away with digital sound) onto a CD.

[userbinator]

Optical turntables exist.

[dylan604]

not compact as a disc. that's just someone retrofitting an optical reader for existing vinyl. that's not even close to what i'm suggesting