On Fri, 12 May 2000 04:32:42 +0100, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Hi guys, [warning: inflamatory content]
>
> There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the End Search feature which
> is provided on Sony MD portables. The problem is that some people
> forget how their MD unit records and as a result overwrite existing
> material.
Whilst some of this may no doubt be true, I'd guess the real issue is (as
somebody else pointed out) that all the MD units I've come across / got,
give you a confirmation before deleting content (either when deleting
tracks, or the entire disk), I guess therefore catering for an erroneous
button press, or invalid menu option selected.
However with the units bearing the End Search functionality, you have the
potential to destroy content, whilst being oblivious to it at that point.
Yes I'm sure you can claim that if people use their Sony MD portable
recorders as per the manual, they probably won't have a problem, but it
would appear this rationale easily allows people to destroy audio, they
didn't want to destroy.
> These people always try to blame their own stupidity on Sony's End
> Search feature,
My take is people often make the point that this is poor design, and can
easily result in unwarned recordings being lost, due to an oversight. You
don't have that on other units - the potential to obliterate a recording,
simply because you forgot a step, you normally have to confirm a message or
prompt, or at least perform some overt action to do it.
> which is rather like me blaming my VCR for not winding
> to the end of the first film I recorded when I do a second without
> finding the correct position.
No it's not. You're not comparing like with like. Your comparing a
sequential medium with a random access medium. It's the equivalent of saying
when you copy files to a floppy disk, should you not press, or click on,
some end search type functionality, you'd potentially destroy existing data.
> So I come back to the original point, End Search. It has repeatedly
> been stated on this list that MD is not a replacement for CD, but a
> replacement for Tape. That being the case while home units will most
> likely be used to copy CDs etc, portable recorders are going to be
> treated more like portable tape machines by most people and the "End
> Search" that so many peeps here dislike may actually be an intuitive
> action to wind to the end of the recording.
But they're very different types of media. One being a serial / sequential
medium, the other being a random access medium.
> Indeed my own own portie the MZ-R3 has a nice 20-bar display running
> along the base of the LCD display which shows the used disc area, and
> current position. I dunno if this was dropped in later models but I
> can easily see where in (logical) position I am. It's probably a bit
> irrelevant to this discussion but it highlights how Sony wanted to
> keep the digital format as transparent as possible.
Perhaps they did, but many Sony users have testified to the End Search
"feature" being of poor design, as it quite easily allows for previous
recordings to be lost.
This is the point - the design.
Neil
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