On Tue, 15 Feb 2000, Timothy P. Stockman wrote:
Hi,
> I've seen the Sony MD commercial on MTV serveral time now selling MD as a
> way to record music from the Internet. While I think it's great that we're
> finally seeing MD ads, I wonder if this is really the right approach. I am
> a big supporter of MD, specifically Sony (I have a JE520, an MZ-EP11, an
> MDS-PC2 and 3 MDX-65s), but it seems to me that its *more* difficult to
> record MP3s to MD than it is to, for example, a Rio. It takes longer, since
> the MD has to be recorded at 1X; the titles don't transfer automatically,
> etc. I'm afraid these commercials might backfire if MD newbies are
> disappointed when they find out that MD is actually not the best format for
> this specific application.
I have another view: Rio and similar devices store about the half
minutes than a MD. Memory cards are several times more expensive than MDs,
aren't as rugged and MD have better offer regarding car audio and deck
systems. As somebody said in this list, nowadays CDRom storage MP3 based
systems doesn't have nor the appeal, or equal finishing/rugging than MD
units, not to mention price.
Maybe with the actual hardware/software for MP3 to MD handling
makes MD not the _best format regarding convenience_, but I'm sure is a
format ideally suited for this in terms of costs, quality, portability...
> Sony *could* have addressed some of these issues:
>
> 1) There are digital soundcards that will support 88.2KHz, so 2X transfers
> would be possible today if it was supported by the firmware in the MD
> recorder; the hardware already mostly supports it! Not much PC support for
> higher than 96KHz yet, but that may change with DVD-computer integration; I
> think AC-3 uses 192 or 384K, so theoretically 4X and 8X would be possible as
> newer soundcards become available.
Yes, that would be very nice. But I don't even think about a sound
card; better use a USB or FireWire port to do the transfer digitally...
If we add to the scene a affordable portable unit that has all of
this, car and deck users will definitely buy it as a complement of their
equipment, with the plus of a portable unit.
> 2) Some PC software to make things easier. Drag-and-drop hard disk to MD.
> Maybe somehow integrate a CD ripper into it, so that you could just do
> drag-and-drop beween the CDROM, MD, or HD.
Yes, this is an area where sony lacks a lot of functionality. It's
funny, they have a whole line of PCs (VAIO) that support s-link, firewire,
etc, but their MD editor software doens't support neither cd-index or CDDB
or some features that any newbie user will quickly find out
as interesting...
> 3) Right now, the digital audio goes via TOSlink and the control goes via
> control-A1 (which portable recorders don't have). Maybe they could figure
> out a clever way of embedding deck control into the user bits of the
> TOSlink. That would certainly make it a *lot* simpler to set up...
>
> Any thoughts about this?
mmm... for portables, what about a serial adapter with plugs on
the PC, then to the unit, and the original unit remote to that adapter? I
guess it will be a lot easier to implement...
Regarding S-link equipped units, Sony _should_ definitively open
the specs. But that's another issue...
greets,
*****---(*)---**********************************************---------->
Francisco J. Montilla System & Network administrator
[EMAIL PROTECTED] irc: pukka Seville Spain
INSFLUG (LiNUX) Coordinator: www.insflug.org - ftp.insflug.org
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