PianoDisc technology question

[Charles Neuman]

I got into a discussion with someone about whether you can take any
recording and retrieve enough data from it to make a good playback on a
player system, including dynamics. From PianoDisc's website, this is what
they offer:

   Our CD Music Library contains songs in every category of music. The
   highly acclaimed and ever-expanding Artist Series includes recordings
   by today's top performers. Our Masterpiece Collection contains
   classical selections performed by some of the legendary pianists of the
   20th century, including Vladimir Horowitz, Arthur Rubinstein and Sergei
   Rachmaninoff.

The question is, how did they get this data? Was it a painstaking process
of trial and error for each recording until they got it right? Or do they
have the technology to easily convert any recording into digital data that
would faithfully reproduce a piano performance on a PianoDisc system?
Anybody know?

Charles Neuman
PTG Assoc, Long Island - Nassau