From: David Katzmaier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, November 11, 1999 2:05 PM
Subject: Re: MD: E-towns 'Product of the year'
> I've also learned a lot in testing different MD recorders, and one of the
> main things I've learned is that they're dang expensive for the average
Joe
> (i.e. etown.com reader). That's obviously why I chose the 815 as product
of
> the year.
I have to agree - we need more cheaper MD recorders. I hope that now
retailers like Argos are selling MD, they will become more noticed. The
reaction I get a lot from people when they hear about MD is usually "That's
fantastic, but why has nobody heard of it?". I'll be brutally honest here,
it's because the advertising campaigns have been complete crap. If I were
advertising a product, I would be trying to tell people what it was! A few
guys wizzing around on skateboards with rock music balsting out of the TV
does not tell me anything. That type of advertising works for people like
Guinness because everybody )almost) knows what Guinness produce. With a
product like MD, which is still very esoteric to many people, you need to
produce an advert that says something about the product, other than it's
used by skateboarders.
> I think you all should be psyched about the choice. In fact, I think the
> 815 and "budget" players like it will do more for MD mass acceptence (and
> cheaper blank media, and product development, such as portable optical
out,
> better PC interface, < 74 minutes, etc.) in the brief time since it's been
> out than any other development the format's ever had. Sharp agrees; on a
> recent chat one of the Sharp honchos claimed they're capturing more of the
> market than ever.
They probably are at the moment - they seem to be more aware of what the
users want than Sony, which is odd when you consider Sony invented the
product. Sony are very much relying on the product brand idea that people
will keep buying Sony because of the name, and I still believe that
generally Sony products tend to be better than the Sharp equivelents, but
there are areas where I think Sony have clearly lost the plot! MD's biggest
advantage over other recording systems is it's size, so wouldn't it be more
sensible to put strong emphasis on the portable market? This is what Sharp
are doing, and it's paying off because they are stealing part of the market
from Sony, Sony are producing great Hi-Fi MD units with great features, we
now have units which copy CDs at 4x play speed, and can be titles using
computer keyboards. On the other hand, Sony portables are decidedly lacking
in features, the only development in the last 4 years it seems is a 40
second shock memory, minor refinements to ATRAC and a few pretty colours!
Sharp on the other hand have added computer links to their new unit,
duplication ability for titles, better record level adjustments, timed track
splitting, far more than Sony! It's a shame because Sony have more potential
to develope the technology than Sharp do, but instead of turning MD into
something great, Sony seem to be trying to "spread" the technology all over
the place. All that I can see happening then, is that you get lots of
variations of the same thing which are incompatible, and another company
comes along with better marketing and a more universally interchangable
system, and bye-bye MD.
MD may have had a lot developed with it over the "shotr time" it has been
out, but for an electronic system, is 7 years really such a short time? It's
all very well to compare it with CD, but it needs to compete with something
which currently looks to overtake it very quickly - MP3. MP3 may very well
be crap at the moment (I still think it sounds bad) but that has changed a
lot faster than MD, and I think give it about another 6 months and you'll be
looking at an audio compression system that leaves MD far behind. MD comes
from the computer industry, which is far faster paced than the audio
industry. The home audio/video systems are only just getting DVD to watch
films, but computer users have been storing full motion video sequences on
CDs for years now. You can also no longer really claim that people wont use
MP3 because they need a �1000 PC to read the CDs and convert them to MP3,
because a computer system capable of doing it can be had for under �300 now,
and most people have a PC. You could integrate MP3 playback technology with
MD, but if you do then it needs to have a "Flash upgrade" ability for when
new versions of MPEG technology become available. When MP4 becomes more
popular (and that maybe very quickly) all the MP3 playback equipment will be
out of date - but on a computer all you do is upgrade the software - an MD
would need to do the same, otherwise it will become outdated very quickly.
I think companies need to do some serious advertising for MD, because more
people know about MP3 technology than they do MD - primarily because they
get it free each month on a magazine! If MD doesn't start to compete with
that type of advertising very soon, I can see it becoming another Betamax -
the superior technology that failed because once again, Sony don't know how
to advertise.
> So what's your vote for best 1999 MD product? (sorry, the R50 doesn't
> count; it's 1998)
>
> R55
> R37
> AM-F70
> MT821
> MT815
> MS722
> XM-R70
Most of the MDs you list are before 1999........
My favourite MD so far : Aiwa AM-F70 portable, Sony JE930 Hi-Fi
My favourite MD of 1999 : Sharp MT 831 portable, Sony JE930 Hi-Fi
Magic
--
"Creativity is more a birthright than an acquisition, and the power of sound
is wisdom and understanding applied to the power of vibration."
Location : Portsmouth, England, UK
Homepage : http://www.mattnet.freeserve.co.uk
EMail : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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