Jon Deusch mentioned something about Sony's Memory Stick Walkman. I
have the last issue of Stereo Review's Sound and Vision in front of me.
There is an article about the Sony Memory Stick and all of it's uses.
This is what it says about the NW-MS7 Memory Stick Walkman: "You might
be surprised to learn that the Memory Stick Walkman isn't an MP3
player. You can use it to play MP3 files - but only after they've been
converted to the Walkman's ATRAC3 format. (ATRAC3 is based on the
MiniDisc encoding format, but it's said to have twice the encoding
efficiency.) Transcoding software that will be supplied with the
Walkman will convert MP3 files to ATRAC3 for playback." The article
also says the the Walkman will support regular Memory Sticks and the
"MagicGate" Memory Stick that supports the Secure Digital Music
Initiative (SDMI). "SDMI is a forum that is developing specifications
for digital music distribution, its primary goal being to protect
copyrighted music from illegal copying." Maybe this is Sony's final
answer to MP3. They have to protect their own interests as a recording
label and a hybrid MD/MP3 unit wouldn't do that. But what if they
incorporated SDMI support into a new hybrid unit? I don't know, it
seems to me like Sony may be placing all it's bets on solid state
technology. I really don't have a problem with it as long as it's as
easy to use as MD and memory gets into the same price range as a blank
MD (not likely to happen any time soon). I guess I would also want the
ability to do real time live recording. What it really comes down to is
that I still think MD is the coolest, and most convenient and portable
medium out there. Just add the ability to store MP3's on the blank MD's
with players that will decode them!
Craig Bernard
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