I don't know how I have stumbled upon this format, maybe I was flipping the pages of yet another service manual from Panasonic, where I saw it referred to. So, I googled a little. Turns out, Microsoft and Matsushita came with a CD-MP3 format sometime in 2002. Well, not CD-MP3, but a multimedia format that would allow either auto only (MP3 or WMA), audio and still images, or audio, still images and video. "MAT" in the name stands both for "Media Access Technology" and for "Matsushita". The codecs were predominantly Microsoft's, the bitrates and file sizes were low. It did not offer anything a simple data CD with a bunch of audio and video files could not offer. Probably, the only perk was an option to create custom user interface with HTML5, sort of like a DVD menu. The format died around 2008 if my dates are correct. It is surprising that I did not know about it. Here is my longer stream of thought on Medium. Main text sources: Geek.com — HighMAT: a new CD format (2002) - basically, a re-hash of an official press release CRN.com — Dennis Flanagan, Microsoft Windows eHome Division (2003) - a much longer and potentially more interesting piece, but full of softball questions. It is amazing that they mention home networking, yet the guy still defends CD-based sharing method. Just shows Microsoft backwardness once again. So, I thought a small comparison with DLNA was in order, see the video ;-) Panasonic SA-VK81DEE service manual - - -
