On 29/04/2014 17:45, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Mike Barnes wrote:
Max Demian wrote:
I used to have Beethoven's Ninth on LP, where they always have to
split the third movement, and got so used to it that I would jump if I
heard the whole thing without the split (on a radio broadcast). Then I
got it on Musicassette which split the movement in a different place,
so I would jump in two places.

This might be an urban legend but I heard that the inventor of the CD
was a big Beethoven fan, and one of the design criteria was that the
Ninth had to fit on one disc.

Urban myth. The max length was defined by the available tapes for the
U-Matic recorder. The rather odd time being down to the same tapes being
used for PAL and NTSC, but running for a longer time at 25 frames per
second. ie, a 60 minute tape at 30 fps becomes 72 at 25. 60 minute tapes
were just over 60 minutes long to allow for line up data - it was a pro
format. Hence the 74 minutes.

It's origin is more uncertain though there is a lot of association with
the 74 minutes and Beethoven's 9th.

Tapes were made of various lengths, not just 60/72 minutes. Where did
you get this inference?

http://www.snopes.com/music/media/cdlength.asp