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TDK FINE 2006 Series


Christopher

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TDK Japan announced today that it will release a new update to the long running “FINE” blank Minidisc series on March 5th.+++

TDK FINE | 2006 Series

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Expected MSRP are as follows:

74min

1 MD = 190 yen (approx. USD$1.70), 5 MD pack = 680 yen (approx. USD$6) and 10 MD pack = 1,180 yen (approx. USD$10.30)

80min

1 MD = 220 yen (approx. USD$1.90), 5 MD pack = 780 yen (approx. USD$6.80) and 10 MD pack = 1,280 yen (approx. USD$11.20)

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Good to see some new blanks but why are they still persisting with 74minute ones ?

Probably for the simple reason that they still have the stamper lying around in their production facilities. Plus, not everyone needs an 80-minute blank every time they record - heck, I wish they still made 60-minute blanks and would price them cheaply at .50/each. For SQ purposes, I still use SP and hate wasting 1/3 of an 80-minute disc (not to mention the extra pennies) on an album that only needs 50 or 60 minutes.

Edited by ZosoIV
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Have we ever found out the reason for this? Does Sony refuse to let anyone else do it, or are they charging some prohibitive licensing fee?

I think it's more likely companies see it as a niche product with limited return on investment.

There's been a sharp dip in MD-related sales for Sony year-on-year (of over 40%). What manufacturer will go into the Hi-MD market, spend considerable sums to make their own Hi-MD media, only to compete with Sony in a niche market that doesn't seem to be offering any growth opportunities that would make their presence in the market pay off? I just don't see it happening.

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I think it's more likely companies see it as a niche product with limited return on investment.

There's been a sharp dip in MD-related sales for Sony year-on-year (of over 40%). What manufacturer will go into the Hi-MD market, spend considerable sums to make their own Hi-MD media, only to compete with Sony in a niche market that doesn't seem to be offering any growth opportunities that would make their presence in the market pay off? I just don't see it happening.

The thing is, that with Hi-MD and now the ability to handle MP3s natively, I just don't see why it isn't high time Sony finally gets other manufacturers in on it and kick some Apple ass! With sales of MP3 players being what they are, the market has possibly never been more primed for an all-out MD assault. I've long said one of the biggest reasons that MD never took off in the States is because Sony didn't market it correctly from Day 1. There's one reason alone that the iPod is friggin' everywhere, and that's Apple's hyper-aggressive marketing campaign with celebrities and the whole works. Now that there's a marketing model in place for this type of gear, Sony (and the rest of us) just have to convince the brain-dead public that Hi-MD is a valid competitor and that you don't need to be some audiophile techie geek to understand how to use MD in general. We all have stories of turning other people on to MD and if that cycle would just repeat over and over, along with some help from Sony's deep-pocketed marketing department, we'd be off and rollin'. It's just sad that 10 years now since I got my first MD rig, it's still a largely misunderstood, underappreciated format. I know it's extremely naive, but everybody tell a friend, and tell them to tell their friends, and then have them tell some big-wig Sony execs!!

Long live MD!!

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lol, as much as i like md, sony will never beat mp3 with himd, the write speed is too slow, when you compare it to transfer to a hard disk or flash memory. just my 2 cents. For a medium that you can reuse, and record from many sources, md does that for me. For a portable means of carrying around my music, its mp3/atrac player.

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