Hi-sp For Connect Would Be Great.

[Syrius]

I was thinking about Ipod and stuff, and how Sony has failed miserably to compete with Apple due to their idiotic policies (If I want to get sound files that sound like crud off the internet, I'll leech them off, not pay 99 cents for one of them, thank you very much.)

According to some Ipod users, 132 Kbps AAC sounds surprisingly good. So, if I were running Connect.com, this is what I'd do in order to compete:

1. Revamp SonicStale. Or replace it with stuff that actually works.

2. Start offering downloads in Hi-SP format, so I can give people an excuse to buy Hi-MD units. If Hi-Sp sounds just as good as Atrac 3 SP (I can't tell the difference between that and a CD, and think it sounds great). Quality sells, too. That kills the "Chicken or the Egg" situation. Create content, and the means to play that content.

3. The chance to burn such songs up to three or five times to CD, like Itunes does.

4. Unlimited Checkouts for that purchased music.

5. A surefire way to authenticate those songs so music doesn't get lost in a crash => backup/restore situation, or system upgrade.

6. Get the meaning of "If a tree falls on the forest, and no one hears it, does it make a sound?" and start advertising the format, gosh dang it. Did Sony think that a blue little alien transferring music to a MD, broadcast only in cable channels was going to get people's audience? Two words for you, Sony: Sega Saturn. I don't recall seeing more than three ads for it in all of 1996. Get a clue from Coca Cola, and your own darn Playstation.

7. Get head of derriere.

Thanks, and sorry if I was ranting. Come on, Sony. Remember when you and I were young. Remember the first Walkman. The first Discman. The PSX. The MZ-1. Betamax. Your Laserdisc players. Trinitron TVs. The Wegas... remember the innocence. Remember....

[ROMBUSTERS]

you know wut would make a HUGE difference? Make Atrac non-propietary. Make freely available encoders and decoders. They could still make it heavily DRM for legal downloads or even for artists giving out their songs but the main reason Atrac is about as popular as the clap is because no one uses it. Think about open source projects with encoders that work better then sony's and faster to!

[bobthegoat2001]

Exactly. They should use Ogg instead. Free and open source... and better quality.

[aeriyn]

Best idea for Sony? Advertisement, as Syrius said. But not for listeners; it's really hard to beat hard drive players for portable listening, and Apple has too much of that market already. But there is another, as of yet untapped market...

Advertise to TAPERS. Garage bands, linguists, security folks, steath tapers, bird watchers, private investigators, everyone who wants to record high quality audio. Pimp the abilities of the MD for recording and the competition's CF recorders that are many times more expensive. Drag and drop file transferring with no software required. Unencrypted linear PCM recording. Bundle MD recorders with that sony M/S stereo mic. Stop trying to market MD in the portable audio market; the one market that has no use for its one major strength--the ability to record portably!

I can seriously see professionals using Hi-MD rather than CF recorders when the media holds just as much, is just as strong but is a hell of a lot cheaper.

Sony = Japanese for "shortsighted."

[zerodB]

A better idea would to use a DRM Encryption Key that could be stored and backed up on to removable media a la Windows Media Player. Rather than having to back up the whole bloody library onto 20 cds or so in one go, you could just back up the files you wanted or even keep them on a seperate drive. You could just save the key onto a floppy in the event of a system crash, and your music would be intact.

Rather than the longwinded and annoying backup of your entire media library. Also, I guess your music could be transfered from one PC to another (deregistering and registering of keys) without voiding DRM restrictions.