First, a quick thanks to all who have taken part so far in this thread. Much of the discussion has centered aroung the obvious fact that an MD with a USB port starts to look similar to an MP3 player to the user. This is indeed true, but my original reason for proposing USB for MD was to eliminate the many problems of S/PDIF / TOSlink / Control-A1. So far as I know, the software for making automatic MD compilations from CD/WAV/MP3/RA is limited to non-existant. I feel this is mostly because there are too many competing "standards" for deck control and, to a lesser extent, because S/PDIF is somewhat problematic due to poor adherence to the EIAJ standards and due to its lack of flow control. Already, I use RealAudio and MP3 as a substitute for the radio. This gives me access to a much wider variety of programming than is available over-the-air. It would be great to have software that allowed me to do unattended "timer" recordings of streaming audio feeds. This would allow me to listen to some of what's available on the Internet when I'm away from the computer, for example driving in the car. It's my feeling that USB on MD is a small step in the direction of unification and standardization that would advance the development of hardware and software which would allow people to use MD in ways that we haven't even though of yet. A totally different solution on the horizon at this point is dedicated Internet audio appliances (http://www.kerbango.com & http://www.penguinradio.com), but we'll definitely be at the vendor's mercy when it comes support (or lack thereof) for interfacing with MD. In summary, I believe that USB on MD would be an simple, inexpensive and reliable method of connecting an MD to a PC that would greatly expand the usefulness of the MD audio medium. ----------------------------------------------------------------- To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
