Woah. That's a long thread to read in one go. Bit too much to get a good idea what's speculation and what's real - until the official bad news gets delivered. As for many others on here, I can't see alternatives in the curent marketplace for some of my uses of MD. I've got a MDLP hi-fi deck that I use to record my vinyl onto - often 2+ hour long mixes, and radio shows of similar length. (And I only found out that Hi-MD could upload WAV to PC while reading this thread! Now I've gotta go buy one! ) Having the ability to have MD players in the car, and a walkman as well made it very convenient for me to use MD for nearly all of my non-prerecorded music needs. But if it disappears.....? Well, I guess a recordable IPod equivalent, and a paranoid backup strategy will be just as good in most respects, possibly even better in a few. That said, I'm not looking forward to the day I get pushed into replacing all of my MD kit when the last irreplaceable bit breaks..... so lets hope the rumours of MDs departure are a bit overblown. If Sony were to just give up on the impossible MD vs. Ipod battle, and just consolidate the range to a decent HiMD hifi separates deck, a decent HiMD car stereo, and a recordable HiMD portable with a radio... I'd be a very happy chap.
