rirsa

I haven't been here for a long time. Thought I'd check in. I owned two MDs in the past and learned a lot about recording on these forums. But I gave up on Sony a long time ago. I liked MD a lot but the transfer issue was just ridiculous. I moved to flash based recorders when the prices started to come down, initially the Marantz PMD670 which I bought when it first came out (around 2003 I think). It's a great recorder for interviews which is what i use it for. It set me back $700 but it was worth it. At the time I had a long discussion with someone at Marantz. They knew that there was a huge market for smaller, cheaper and less power hungry models. A couple of years later they came out with the PMD660 ( as well as a high-end version of the PMD670, the 671) and now we have the PMD620. They sold a truckload of PMD670s and PMD660s for professional recording applications because they had little or no competition. Now there are flash recorders recorders from Edirol, Zoom, M-Audio etc. but I suspect these don't have the same attention to design and reliability (Marantz has been in the field recording market for a long, long time). And Marantz now has a product line that hits the market at multiple points. The quality competiton in the sub $700 market is really the Fostex FR2-LE and would you believe Sony! It looks like Sony finally got their act together. They initially came up with a very expensive flash recorder but check out the new Sony PCM-D50. A small 4GB WAV recorder under $500 (can take up to 8GB, supports USB 2.0 Mass Storage Class Device standard, and no ATRAC--specs from Sony here). Maybe Sony just found their mojo. Nice comparison chart for all digital recorders over on BSW.

Dinosaurs in the act of dying.

The undertaker is measuring the Big Four record labels for a wooden overcoat http://blog.thedruid.co.uk/2006/02/16/the-...ooden-overcoat/ TuneCore is a music delivery and distribution service that gets music you created (even cover versions) up for sale on iTunes and Rhapsody without asking for your rights or taking any money from the sale or use of your music. http://www.tunecore.com/

Okay, I'll bite on that question. The simple answer is because the market is shrinking fast. Lots of people who would have bought MD for their recording needs a few years ago are now buying one of the ever-incresing number of affordable flash-based recorders (like those listed above) that are appearing. Throw in the following: they don't use proprietary formats, don't have any type of DRM, have removable memory or directly support fast transfers, and don't use moving media. This may not cut it for you and a few others but for a lot of people these facts coupled with support for a lot of high-end recording features are compelling. The fact remains there are a lot of previous MD users or potential MD users going elsewhere for their recording needs. I think it is not surprising that Sony's dip into the flash memory recording market is a $2000 machine. For most people this is out the question but don't you think that's why they dipped into the high-end part of the market? The intersting question is whether Sony will come out with a MD-like recorder at MD-like prices that uses solid state memory? They are technically more than capable of competing with M-Audio, Edirol, etc. in this market. The question is, is Sony willing to compete given their paranoia and deadly embrace with all things DRM? Note also that they are getting killed at the low-end of the market as well as the middle and the high-end. Olympus WS-320: 1GB of memory, unrestricted USB2 upload, records stereo 64kbps WMAs using a 44.1kHz sample rate. Has level meters for each channel and takes external plug-in powered mics. Runs for a long time on a single AAA. Not for music recording but for lectures, interviews and business meetings it works for a lot of people. And it costs as little as $165. When you think about it the WS-320 practically is a flash-based equivalent of a minidisc. If Olympus allowed it to record at higher sample rates, added removable memory, and added manual level control that's basically what we'd have. Maybe that's the next generation Olympus?

There are lots of different types of professional recording applications and an increasing variety of solid state recorders to meet the spectrum of professional needs. At the low end there are recorders from M-Audio, Edirol and Marantz that start at prices around $400. Most professional recording applications don't need anything like a Sound Devices 722 or the new Sony PCM-D1.

I have given up on them. I doubt I'll buy another Sony product.

So, why is the RIAA, an organization to which Sony belongs, suing parents when their kids illegally download copyright music without their parents' knowledge? My heart bleeds for him.

"Media conglomerates have put aside their wrangling over what Digital Rights Management technology to use, adopting a standard developed by Sony and its DRM experts that will provide copy protection for music, movies, TV shows, and computer programs. "The exciting thing about this technology is it employs DNA technology to make absolutely certain the user matches our records as having a valid license," a Sony spokesperson explained. "All the user has to do whenever he or she wishes to listen to a tune, play a DVD, watch a TV show, etc. is to provide just a few drops of blood for the built-in DNA testing device, which will then use the Internet to check the DNA profile match. In just a few hours, your right to enjoy the media you have licensed will be confirmed." Diabetics and others who might be constrained in how much blood they can supply will be given the alternative of providing hair roots, the spokesperson added. "It's not that anybody in the entertainment industry wants the blood of our customers -- it's just that we need it."" Okay, it's just amusing prognostication but when you think about it Sony is capable of taking this idea seriously. Original story from Ed Foster here: http://weblog.infoworld.com/foster/2006/01/03.html#a346

For additional reviews of M-Audio Microtrack and Marantz PMD660: http://www.transom.org/tools/

Unsettled by the Sony Settlement http://weblog.infoworld.com/foster/2005/12/30.html

See Mark's Premature Victory Declaration? http://www.sysinternals.com/Blog/ includes more intersting material on SonyBMG Saga: Turns out that F-Secure, SonyBMG and F4I were arguing over the issue some time before Russinovich went public: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/con...1129_938966.htm Also NY State's aggreesive AG is wondering why his people can still buy infected CDs at major store weeks after the recall: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/con...1128_573560.htm Also video of Texas AG filing suit against SonyBMG.

Much as we all love to bash Microsoft, I'm not sure Microsoft is the issue here. The issue here is that next generation DVD will require a protected content path and without the technology MS is building into Vista you basically won't be able to view nevermind copy a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. You'll also probably need a new TV and monitor to view this stuff as well so careful what you buy. For more read: http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/har.../hdcp-vista.ars

Maybe. There is a lot of ink being spilt on Vista and DRM. It is not very clear to me what's going on. I would say that Microsoft is in a very different position than Sony and other content providers. In some respects Microsoft is caught between the consumer and the content providers. They want to keep the conyent providers reasonably happy but the bottom line is that MS wants to sell lots of copies of Vista, which they won't do if Vista is perceived as limiting content-user rights.

"The music and film industries are demanding that the European parliament extends the scope of proposed anti-terror laws to help them prosecute illegal downloaders." From UK Guardian quoted on http://www.schneier.com/blog/

Running as non-admin, as suggested above by various members, makes a lot of sense. The SonyBMG rootkit needs admin privileges to install. EWeek just did some tests using indentical W2K and XP systems running different user privileges. After visiting lots of nasty web sites, here's what they found: "Using this software, Sunbelt Software Inc.'s CounterSpy 1.5, we scanned each system, totaling the number of threats found as well as the grand total of threat instances detected. We found a vast degree of difference among the three user memberships. On our Windows 2000 Professional client with User permissions only, none of the malware installed completely and two threats actually warned that the user had insufficient privileges. A third loaded a malicious process into memory, but the threat did not reappear after reboot. The Sunbelt scan performed after the reboot could find only a single threat, which consisted of one file in the browser cache. The systems managed by Administrators were not nearly as fortunate: On the Windows 2000-based system, CounterSpy found 19 threats consisting of three memory processes, 503 files and 2,500 registry keys—all of which had installed...." One of the innovations in Vista, supposely, is that privileges will be set to user by default and managing privileges will be much easier. At the moment running as non-admin can be problematic depending on what you do and the software you use (some legitimate software--including certain anti-virus products (doh!)--won't run properly without admin privileges). For details on running as non-admin and managing privileges see: http://nonadmin.editme.com/ Also see: http://blogs.msdn.com/aaron_margosis/archi...OfContents.aspx

Here's a pre-Mark Russinovich discussion of the Sony rootkit that goes back to August. Nice details on all the nasty stuff it can do to really screw up your system. http://castlecops.com/postx130470-0-0.html

Going back to the Schneier story referenced above. in which he states: "The story to pay attention to here is the collusion between big media companies who try to control what we do on our computers and computer-security companies who are supposed to be protecting us." Someone posted a response on his blog page asking what happend to the quote on a CNet story that goes like this in the original: "The creator of the copy-protection software, a British company called First 4 Internet, said the cloaking mechanism was not a risk, and that its team worked closely with big antivirus companies such as Symantec to ensure that was the case." If you go to the CNet site the story now reads: "The creator of the copy-protection software, a British company called First 4 Internet, said the cloaking mechanism was not a risk. The company's team has worked regularly with big antivirus companies to ensure the safety of its software, and to make sure it is not picked up as a virus, he said" Search for the story on Google and you can see the original version is still in the Google cache. They are all in bed with each other and guess who is getting #$%^*!?

I think anti-virus software from the big vendors is for the birds. I used to use Norton but I don't think Symantec updates signatures fast enough and have you noticed the yearly renewal fee keeps going through the roof? At my work they use McAfee which screws up my system so I exterminated it. At home I use one of the free anti-virus solutions. This episode just adds to the feeling that anti-virus software is a lot of cash for not very much protection. For people who have no idea about computer security and don't want to learn, I say, by all means throw your money at the them and pray.

Bruce Schneier: "That all the big security companies, with over a year's lead time, would fail to notice or do anything about this Sony rootkit demonstrates incompetence at best, and lousy ethics at worst." http://www.schneier.com/blog/ http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,69601,00.html

I thought the most interesting anomaly was South Korea. It is completely dark but there's hardly a shortage of music, computers, broadband, etc. in Seoul. Also, for entertainment some of this is hard to beat: http://www.xcp-aurora.com/press_related.aspx

Welcome To Planet Sony http://www.doxpara.com/?q=sony Nice maps of infection using cached DNS queries.

Yeah, "It just keeps getting worse": http://www.security.ithub.com/article/Sony...e/165201_1.aspx This story examines issues with Sony's other DRM software, SunnComm's MediaMax. "Though it displays a EULA, all the files the DRM needs are inserted on the hard drive ... before the EULA appears....The DRM files remain installed on the hard disk even if the EULA is declined....Like a virus, there is no meaningful uninstaller available." And it phones home. Also some bright person took a look at the XCP rootkit and found that parts appear to use the LAME mp3 encoder and do so in a way that violates the GPL. Sony may be guilty of -- wait for it -- copyright infringement. As the author writes this will "serve MBAs of the future as a textbook example of how not to do things."

There's a new post on Mark's Blog this morning including discussion of ant-virus software and the correct way to disable the rootkit. http://www.sysinternals.com/Blog/

Microsoft Zapping Sony DRM 'Rootkit' http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1886122,00.asp http://blogs.technet.com/antimalware/archi.../12/414299.aspx

Sony Blinks: http://www.securityfocus.com/brief/45 "Beleaguered Sony BMG will temporarily suspend the manufacture of CDs protected with technology from First 4 Internet and re-examine its copy-protection strategy..." Information on rootket CDs from EFF: http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004144.php