The "Red Book" specifications apply to your run-of-the mill CD. They are standards that tell pressing plants how thick a CD should be, how much playing time (this is somewhat flexible), etc. so all CD's will play in all CD players. These standards were developed by Sony/Philips companies. Sony is nervous about the new DVD-A standard because they won't be able to collect royalties (as they do on regular CD's) because DVD-A doesn't use "Red Book" standards.
