Don't forget about CODE promoted right now by many artists - it's 20bit/96kHz recorded on DVD.
As for HDCD - it cannot play better on regular non-HDCD player. It uses least significant bit to switch dynamic range of remaining 15 bits (in-band signaling technique) and if player doesn't decode this bit you'll get 15 bit music with weird dynamics + 1 bit garbage.
As for HDCD - it cannot play better on regular non-HDCD player. It uses least significant bit to switch dynamic range of remaining 15 bits (in-band signaling technique) and if player doesn't decode this bit you'll get 15 bit music with weird dynamics + 1 bit garbage.