Hi-MD, Bye-MD?

[mmp64]

I love the MD format, but I agree, Sony has never done a good job of promoting it. (Unfortunately, Apple beats them hands down on that count.)

[BJ]

Wow. Thanks for emailing me, Kurisu--I've been out of touch for a while.

I can completely see Sony abandoning the MD format for the same reason reality shows are still on TV and the iPod dominates the DAP market: people love to be told what to love, and on the whole, we're stupid. I include me as 'people', so no flame wars, folks (though I have never and will never watch reality TV). The masses want something they're used to seeing or are told by the media is cool (an iPod). They want something easy to use so they get instant gratification.

MD has always had a learning curve, and Hi-MD even more so. I had an RH10 for a whole month before I sold it to pay some bills, and I don't miss it because I wasn't that impressed with it. I still have my Sharp DR7 and Sony R900, as well as some older machines that I just like to hold. I still use my MD machines for recording because the quality and ease of use can't be beat. If Sharp ever comes out with a Hi-MD machine, I'll buy it.

But.

For playback, I've moved on to the Rio Karma 20GB HDD player (also now defunct with the dissolution of Rio--Sony discontinuing MD is the second part of my recent one-two punch). Did my homework; the Karma is easy to use, sounds the best and features phenomenal format support and gapless playback. The thing had two independent processors for MP3 decoding, which made it an absolute demon. But two things: the Karma had a reputation for breaking (bad Hitachi HDD firmware) that eclipsed the rave reviews, and Rio didn't advertise--the same road Sony took with MD. Great product; no support.

About petitioning Sony, a number of Rio engineers frequented the Karma forum, and Rio as a company did listen to users and implemented many user requested features in firmware updates, but they still went down. I doubt a petition will change Sony's stance.

I'm still going to use MD. Even with the Karma in my backpack, I find myself grabbing my DR7 just as often for playback and recording (which the Karma can't do). And I agree with a few folks here--by the time my MD gear finally all dies, there will probably be a comparable "new" technology I can pick up. As much as I love the MD format, I'm not surprised at this news (or speculation).

My girlfriend got home from work as I typed that--she just shook her head and said "It figures."

Eh--I have more to say, but I'm too long-winded. Sony may stop MD development, they may stop production altogether, or they might tweak it. It's not dead when all of us still use it.

[PJF220]

Been a while since I have visited here. The forum has been great in the fact I learn how to use my MD recoder in more ways. I plugged it into the PC and it was a great benefit.

However, I bought MD's because I saw them as a great replacement for the old cassette tape. CD quality and they don't get chewed up, losing rare music that you'd never get hold of again. However, that appeared not the case. I bought a MD headunit for the car and still have it. Some of the MD's are now skipping or getting stuck and again I am losing rare music that I will never get again. I've tried playing the MD's in the recorder, but same problem.

I fear that for me, MD's are of no real benefit to me anymore, and probably millions like me, hence why MD's are dying out. It was enevitable the way technology progresses. I was going to buy an MP3 head unit for the car but I see little point of even that now. I think the MD one will stay and I will add on an iPod connection as this is a perfect way for me to carry round more music than I could ever need. I can plug it into the car, plug it into the PC and when I am out or on holiday, I can use headphones. Minidisk simply doesn't offer this in the way iPod does. I currently have to pick a limited number of MD's I want to listen to when I go away so it's not taking up too much space, Not a problem with iPod.

I'm sure many will not find iPod as convenient as me, but for everyone on here, there are millions of others who have no use for MD and it's simply not financially viable for the big companies to persue an old media storage device. Face it, if these companies did stand up and listen to the fews of the devoted, cassette tapes would still be in full swing.

Just my views, but thats what I think.

Pete

[garcou]

yes, no place for racism and xenophobia!

[Dimitri]

Sure, Sony did a poor marketing job but you're dreaming if you think any amount of marketing would've put them in the top spot with MD. It's just not what the typical consumer wants. People don't care about removable media, they prefer convenience. People don't want to waste time with transcoding or piss poor slow downloads, they want their music now. The MD technology has its niche and portable jukebox is not it and never could be. NetMD and HiMD were just Sony's lame attempt at trying to make MD be a jukebox to be more competitive. It breathed some life into it, but just prolonged the inevitable.

Marketing goes hand in hand with other things. It alone cannot save a doomed product. The ipod became #1 because the marketing came along with a sleek product with a great interface, great integration, and all this dropped at the perfect time, when mp3 was becoming very popular.

[Langrath]

I have always been a fan of Minidisc. But it has to die. But not very fast I think. I mean you can still buy cassettes although that format is dead years ago.

The problem with minidisc is that it is too big for its capacity. Flash players will bee smaller and smaller and get more and more capacity. But minidisc can't be smaller than the discs themselves.

This is alike when people were sorry when vinyl format was gone. Many good memories of vinyl, but CD is better. An a flash player with much memory is better than minidisc. And so on.

Georg

[symphara]

This forum has been an excellent source of information, and it's one of the best I've seen so far in terms of friendly and helpul people. If Sony kills MD, I will be sad to see the community part.

Having said that, screw Sony - I'm not even on the Hi-MD trend, I have a regular MD portable player, a recorder in my Pioneer stereo, a Sony 980 deck and Kenwood MD car unit I've been very happy with. What I love about MDs is the casette-like usage model (insert disc, press "record", off it goes). So I'll stock up with loads of blanks and keep using them!

</symphara>

[Sparky191]

Personally I think they'll drop all the HiMD except the MZ-M100 and the Hi-MD MZ-M10. They'll leave these as high end units for musicans. Its a niche market and they can charge a premium to make a profit. These units will allows them to tap the Mac and PC music creatives, and move the product away from MP3 players.

[kenlui]

Just read the email from kurisu and decided to post. Have been visiting this forum actively but not posting only. I just accquired a RH10 a few months ago from japan. Before that I was hesitating whether to get a ipod mini, iriver H10 or the RH10 hi md player.

After going thru all the research and considering my needs, I chose the RH10. Any regrets? Well, there is no perfect thing in this world, especially electronic gadjets. The only let back for me is the crippled playback of mp3. I have tonnes of mp3 from my friends, and it took me sometime to convert all of them into high bitrate atrac format.

About discontinuation of the md players, im against it. I'm a malaysian but currently studying overseas, in my country, there is only a very small population using md player. Everybody knows that the RH10 is manufactured only in malaysia but do u all know that we can't get it in local sony stores? That's seriously crap. I agree with the others, sony should do some promotion on md players. Then maybe ppl will start paying attention to it rather than getting the usual crappy mp3 players

[kuba]

Damn!

My intention has been to buy RH10. Now I don't know. My girlfriend told me to better buy HDD or flash player, but what the hell! I want to do recording (in reasonable quality, so no crappy mp3) and playback with one device. Really, no other choice than Hi-MD. Creative JukeBox 3 is way too big for me, flash players don't have enough capacity or are just recorders not a real players (M-Audio MicroTrack, Edirol R1 - both pretty expensive btw.). Hi-MD = cheapest solution for me + removable media. Oh my....

[Breepee2]

But minidisc can't be smaller than the discs themselves.

Sony sure wasn't trying to get the units as small as possible.

[wildsound]

I won't be too surprised if Sony ditches the Hi-MD format. The latest players are poorly made, fragile, and difficult to use. My first MZ-RH10 came direct from the retailer with a non-functional mic port. I sent it back to Sony under warranty and they sent me an entirely new unit. I used it for a week, then put it aside for a couple of months. I tried to charge it a few days ago, and the gum stick battery appears to be completely dead. It won't take a charge. I can run the unit off of a AA, but I suppose I'll need a new gum stick battery to replace this non-functional new one that I can't charge.

All-in-all, I'm not impressed with MD technology. I'm thinking about going with a Nagra for my sound recordings. Totally different type of gear, I know. Much larger, much heavier than an MD unit, but very rugged, very reliable, and repairable.

[Embio]

F*** you Sony.

Hey Sharp!! Look at all the people angry at Sony - big market just opened up for you....

[Marcello]

Let's think positive, guys and dolls! Let Sony commit suicide by deleting this not (sufficiently) successful product line after having spent zillions of JPY in its development (not excluding the Hi-MD move).

What may hopefully happen is that they sell the whole technology and patents to some other manufacturer (Sharp managers, are you connected?) eager to transform this medium in a niche product. At that point, metal cases for portables (bye bye Sony with your SUICIDAL plasticky wave) and a slew of (relatively more expensive) bookshelves and separates could follow.

In this fortunate case, I will be happy to give some of my money to the survived technology.

[sonyslave]

Well it looks lke the MD is dead. Am I sad, angry disapointed... well for my own view please read on:

I got into minidiscs to replace the dreaded cassettes. Back then the MD unit was bigger than the cassette player, a good deal heavier and had a dreadful battery life. But it didn't chew up tapes. The other major problem was a shortage of recordable MDs. In the end only about 20 of my favourite tapes got transfered to MD, and I bit the bullet and replaced the others with CDs and a portable CD player, which I never really used as a portable unit because of its size. In the end I ended up recording the CDs to tape and using a portable cassette player, go figure!

Then came the NetMD and a quicker way of transfering CDs to MDs, along with a better supply of blank MDs (you could actually buy them in department stores!) So I used the MD as a portable device again!

Then the dreaded Mp3 players came on to the market, and as a gaget freak I had to try them. And I used them along side the MD as a portable player, even though they were not very practical back in the those days.

Now, was it only 2 years ago the HiMD came out. Great, the answer to my prayers. Now I could put my CDs on MD easily, the progress of technology. Of course at about the same time the Pocket Vaio came out, I had to have it (gagets again). I managed to hold off the HD1 and HD3 though!

So this year I got the HD5 and NW407 players and the HiMD has sat on the shelf most of the time. But here is my problem - I now have over 40gb of music (just under 400 albums) encoded at 256kbps ATRAC3, on my computer. I don't trust them, computers that is! Every time I upgraded I have ended up re-ripping my music, not a problem at the beginning it was small, but now!

So I hope you see why in a roundabout way I like the MD format! I don't have to use a computer or be dependent on it!

Oh and here is another reason, you remember I said I had just under 400 CDs on my computer, well I have another 400 odd that aren't. They are classical recordings so I don't want to listen to them on the move, but I want them on MD. I don't listen to CDs any more I rip them on to my ATRAC device or MD, then they go into storage or is it an archive! The HiMD is perfect for this!

So I am not a musician, I don't do live recording although I did get a mike (never used), but I do like the format, because it frees me from my computer!

So Sony please don't kill off the MD!!!

Pleeeeease!

I hope these ramblings make some sense,

David

[The Rule]

Still, Minidisc was around what, 15 years? Good run if you ask me.

I moved on from Minidisc last year, but I did still enjoy using it.

[Ascariss]

I understand why Sony is doing this, personally it is a good move on Sony's part. Why run a business when you are loosing money? I've been a fan of the car business for many years now and the same thing happened to GM, it had many products that even though good, lost money and didn't sell. It was no point in contineuing the line.

I've been a fan of MD's since I first saw someone bring one to school in 99. Even though my knowledge of MDs was limited back then, I still knew what it was. I couldn't afford one back then, grade 10, but I still wanted one. It wasn't until the last year of high school that I got one, the first MDLP ones.

I moved to a CD player but decided to go back to the MD 2 years ago, the NZ10, and haven't turned back.

I've never done recording on it, doubt I will ever. Reasons I bought it was that it was small, portable and could hold the same as a cd, or twice. but the beauty was I could change the songs on it on daily basis whenver I got bored of the tracks.

Whatever Sony decides to do, I'll support the decision, i've got my MD, and plenty of extra blanks, and can keep re-recording on them as much as I like. It was a good run for the MD, I doubt I will replace it with a memory based player, the sound on some is rather horrible I hear, and I am no fan of apple and its Ipod line. Reasons being, too many people have it. The minidisc is now a premium product, only a few people have it as far as I have seen around the campus, and rarely do people here buy the expensive ones.

Only problem I have with my unit is the internal batteries life, it seems to discharge rather easily, meaning i may have to replace it, but I am not sure how it will cost me, too lazy to go do it since I have the extra dry cell battery case, and I picked up a few Li-ion energizer AAs which I have yet to test out.

Hopefully sony will think of something that will satisfy both the investors, and consumers.

oh ya, now I know what i was going to add also. CDs and what will happen to them. Are they on the way out now with online stores selling ind songs or entire albums? will the cd die off eventually like the MD might? most likely not, but I do see it moving away from music and now more onto data. I still see plenty of people using CD players and many don't even have actual cds in them, but more likely burned complilations from their collection, cough cough. I see more memory based players now, since they are smaller and people can keep them in their pockets or bags and not have to carry a bulk of cds to switch whenever they need to. Ipods are hella popular here too, our bookstore is an Apple reseller so many people pick it up while buying books oddly.

Edited October 1, 2005 by Ascariss

[speedwithjj]

I think Sony has only got themselves to blame for putting themselves in this situation. The main problem is that an MD is too similar to a CD but why is CD still so popular but MD didn't seem to take off??? Only Sony themselves can answer but my opinion is that they could have made it as popular as CD when MD first came out but I put it down to them insisting on their proprietary Atrac format & also with the copyright issues!!! Then there's also the case of trying hard to maximize their profit out of this technology & it kind of brought the MD's downfall!!! Another interesting thing is that Sony was overly confident about this technology that they did not try to make changes to modify the MD format when MP3 players came out to combat them in market share & as a result, more people choose an MP3 player instead of a MD player because they seem to be smaller, lighter & also "grow" to have larger storage spaces for music!!! I also felt that part of the blame has got to go to the R&D team that first came out with the MD format because they did not set aside the issue of future modification/expandability because let's face it, unless Sony came out with a totally new MD format, they could never expand the storage capacity of an MD to say 40GB instead of the current 1GB Hi-MD disc. On the other hand, if they invent a new type of MD to hold 40GB or even 100GB of music, it will still infuriate the current MD users because those new discs will most probably not be compatible with the old MD units so they might as well just stop MD production once & for all & go with the popular MP3 standards.

I hate to see MDs coming to such an end but I guess it is just common sense & with a new CEO who's not Japanese, I just cannot see him going with the Sony invented MD. I can just hope that my remaining MDs & MD units will last me quite some time!!!

One more thing I would like to see happen is for Sony to sell/release their MD patents/technology so that maybe Sharp or whatever will take over & continue with it but I doubt so.... It will be the ultimate insult to Sony if Apple bought the copyrights & maybe successfully launch the MD with units called "i-MDs," that will really teach Sony what is the simple word called "MARKETING!!!"

[dA_frAme]

For some months now I sometimes (even often!! ) thought that (HI-)MD is a stepchild of Sony! USB 1.0 support for 1GB data-transmission, bad quality and bad support - Sony you can get way better than that!

A revolution is nearly dead!

Sleep well MD, rest in piece!

[RHAPSODY1]

Hi all!

I am very bummed to hear about all this. I bought my first MD about two years ago and got every last pennies worth out of it. Consequently, when it started to die on me, I purchased a new HI MD from ebay and am ecstatic to use it, simply cause it's digital and I am a pro musician who can record everything under the sun with it, not to mention save those files as WAV. These items have been godsends to me.

I guess I am going to have to stockpile the blank discs myself. I really don't wish to lose this product to progress.

As for Sony, I have always HATED them! My own direct experience has been shoddy craftsmanship on their audio products, with the MD players as my only exception. I can't say that I wish them well, because I used to work for them, but I must admit to my need for the MD program to continue. In that respect, I hope they are listening.

I don't post much here, cause I know about as much of all this as I do rocket scientry! But thanks to all of you for what I am learning...

Kat

Edited October 1, 2005 by RHAPSODY1

[alexo05]

Sorry to be uninformed...but can't we start a petition letter or something? Can't we alert the Biz Execs at Sony about the Forums?

We gotta do something!

[skyther]

This is evolution at work. Thou shalt not interfere.

It's not the end, there'll be something else that utilizes minature rewritable optical media soon enough. As long as there's demand and it's profitable enough for someone to make it, it will happen. Sure it won't be called Minidisc, but who cares?

MD is old technology, it'll be phased out sooner or later if not now. I bet none of you would buy a car with a design that dates back to 15 years, would you?

[RHAPSODY1]

This is evolution at work. Thou shalt not interfere.

MD is old technology, it'll be phased out sooner or later if not now. I bet none of you would buy a car with a design that dates back to 15 years, would you?

LOL! You are absolutely right...progress must progress.

My problem is the cost. I simply can't afford to keep upgrading things. This new player cost me a pretty penny and it has to last a while. Right now technology is seemingly progressing at the speed of light. My Mastercard can't handle that velocity!

[Jeff]

Even though it's a shame the MD is going to be extinct in a few years, it's understandable. MP3 is taking over the market in a deadly tempo. They're smaller, easier to record and cheaper to buy. MD's are cheaper after the purchache due to the relatevely cheap MiniDiscs, but MP3's don't need to change media-carriers all the time. I swapped my Sony R500 (with some hacks) for a Creative Zen Touch 20 gb, just because i need such an amount of space to put all my music and other data. The size is even bigger, so that's not it. Just how easy it is in use. No MiniDiscs to carry everywhere and no endless waiting for it to be ready recording.

How shamefull it might be, the truth is that MiniDisc are a dying product, like cassette-tapes and in the future even CD's. It's progress, and you can't stop it.

My MiniDisc it currently not even worth € 30 with all the stuff that goes with it...

Jeff

btw, sorry if my english wasn't that good, I'm from the Netherlands. ..

[Breepee2]

This is evolution at work. Thou shalt not interfere.

Sidenote: you have every right to interfere in evolution. Existing is interfering.

It's not the end, there'll be something else that utilizes minature rewritable optical media soon enough. As long as there's demand and it's profitable enough for someone to make it, it will happen. Sure it won't be called Minidisc, but who cares?

I suppose most of us here do.

MD is old technology, it'll be phased out sooner or later if not now. I bet none of you would buy a car with a design that dates back to 15 years, would you?

Then why are all other removable mass-market technologies even much older than that? The CD is 25, cassette over 40 if I'm not mistaken.

These things do not compare at all and 15 years sure is not a long time for a standard. And the latest update (HiMD) is not even 2 years old...

[chrisclark]

Sony are woeful at PR, and champions at abandoning customers and great technolgy. They also don't make it easy for consumers to contact them. I've been e-mailing Sony Australia asking about release here of the MD direct MP3 models, and no reply

Questions:

1 - how can we write to Sony begging them to keep MD?

2 - what medium do we transfer our existing MDs too?

3 - what do we use for recording now?

4 - should we stock-pile discs and recorders while they are available?

[garcou]

Yes HI-md is 2 years old , and with 2nd generation it is a real mp3 player.

But it is much more than this...

Edited October 1, 2005 by garcou

[MDman53]

So if Sony abandons the Hi-MD format? How about DAT? Will DAT continue to be sold in the US and Japan? I don't see how. Talk about a failed format; at least in the mainstream consumers mind. I know there are Pros that use DAT and some "Tapers" swear by it. Face it; DAT decks sell a small fraction of volume Minidisc sells. So if Sony finds a way to keep DAT around; it must be the golden stepchild of someone in upper Sony management. There is NO way DAT can be profitable for Sony to manufacture.

Can Sony keep at least a couple Hi-MD high end portables and release a new Hi-MD home unit for professional use? I think everyone on this board currently using Hi-MD would qualify as a Professional!

Don

[neoka]

Well one thing I notice is conspicuously absent here is any mention of 'UMD'

With Sony's PSP - this is a new disk format which I interpret as an evolution of Hi-MD.

Physically the disks are very similar. A UMD can hold up to 1.8Gb of data. Principally utilised for games disks or video there is no doubt the potential is there for much more than this.

Initially Sony have closed the UMD pressing so that only Sony and their affiliates could burn UMD's. This gave them the lead on the growth in pressing UMD titles. And UMD sales are rocketing. Now, however, at least one rogue disk manufacturer has somehow circumvented this and produced their own UMD disk without Sony's consent (for some Japanese porn or similar). Ergo there are 'UMD burners.

Extrapolate this a little more and we have the possibility of a portable UMD burner that becomes a partner to the PSP UMD drive.

In my imagination I would like to see a portable UMD recorder that I can put data, music & video on that I can then play via my PSP. Of course this would have all the facilities currently offered by Hi-MD and more.

This is/would be the next killer 'MD' derivative application. Sony can capitalise on all manufacturing plants geared for MD production by converting them to UMD.

What do you think?

[The Rule]

Speaking of Ipods...can someone educate me?

I thought they were only Apple compatable, yes?

No, they work with Windows also.

And you can't record live on them right, they only store tunes and nothing else?

You can't record with them right out of the box, but they're are some 3rd party devices that let you do just that.

[Fpena]

This is very sad news.

I always disliked sony's software. But the hardware is unbeatable. My NZ-510 net md has served me well for more than 3 years, recording live shows. I was seriously considering getting a Hi-MD unit, but now I'll wait and see.

Fp

[hhdezc]

fuck

[garcou]

Some years ago Sony made a 650MB MD view also called MDDATA2. IT use the same laser ray frequency than DVD. Himd use classic CD laser frequency with a specific magneto-optical reading (ddw I think) that allows 5 x cd DATA density.

With the combination of HI-Md technology and the laser of MDview/dvd superhimd could reach around 5GB! equal to miniipod! and with blue ray...

[mangizmo]

Apple will not hold on to the portable market, simply because the HD (and flash even more so)based players are so easily made by just about every back street far eastern knock off shop...same samsung memory chip, same mp3 decoder etc...infact I bet it would be possible to knock up a working device with the chips yourself....if you get what I mean

Sony have a unique device in Minidisc...one which some people are still prepared to pay a premium for...certainly if it was developed into a 3rd gen higher capacity version with no DRM and proper MP3 support

They will never get people to pay a premium price for their flash players cos they cant be much better than a decent cheapo off of E-Bay

Unless they have a killer replacement for Minidisc in the pipeline...I reckon they are out of the preium portable music device game......hard drive and flash portable devices are now good enough for 99% of users...and anyone can make them....So Sony.....keep minidisc alive...there is a market

[ZareliMan]

There's nothing que can do...

[vaar_pl]

Heh... I know it..

I think that sony wanna stops hi-md cos' most of hi-md players are crap...

Yeah, I know it's hard to say, but that's true!

Look at some old MD models, they are great!

Good sound, no voulme limiter, and small capacity of md..!!

small capacity means more md to buy to store more music,

so the md-disc producents had more $$

also FLAsh memory... yeah, flash is that knife in back himds

why? flash is lite, handy, and has got more space to store music, films etc.

And fu**ing hdd memory:/

lot of store... good sound, and high volume, long life battery

Bless God himd..

respect

[wildsound]

This is evolution at work. Thou shalt not interfere.

It's not the end, there'll be something else that utilizes minature rewritable optical media soon enough. As long as there's demand and it's profitable enough for someone to make it, it will happen. Sure it won't be called Minidisc, but who cares?

MD is old technology, it'll be phased out sooner or later if not now. I bet none of you would buy a car with a design that dates back to 15 years, would you?

I shoot large format sheet film cameras that are 100 years old. I use a WWII 35mm Leica that is a fabulous camera. I use 8mm, Super 8mm, and 16mm film cameras. Film. Not video. Other people still use reel to reel tape recorders, and I think that'll be my next step toward pro-audio. People also still use cassette and DAT recorders. Just because a technology is old doesn't mean it isn't useful. Radio is old, and we still use that too, don't we?

[MDGB2]

I do not want a world of cheap white ear-phones, and cr@ppy fragile HD portable audio devices that will inevitably die in two minutes, or the first time you sneeze on it. Taking with it your entire music collection.

I have a cheapo MP3, and I find it frustrating, cr@ppy sound quality, and expensive (in comparrison to removable media) even for 128mb memory - which holds - not a lot! I bought a NH600, the lowest Hi-MD unit, to replace it.

MP3 has awful sound quality compared to MD - and thats all I'm interested in - quality.

I don't give a s*** about 'street cred' or how cool I look with my 'toy' MP3 player while its garbage sound quality tortures my hearing.

I want to listen to MY songs that I have recorded without having to use a PC. I also want a hi-fi deck to play them on at home, and edit them.

Hi-MD is perfect for this.

Sony - in your native language - "Bacca!"

Edited October 1, 2005 by MDGB2

[mangizmo]

quote"MD is old technology, it'll be phased out sooner or later if not now. I bet none of you would buy a car with a design that dates back to 15 years, would you?"

actually...I have just bought a new land rover.....I think that design goes back about 40 years or more....or how about Harley Davidson...these like minidisc are unique designs, which have a place...as somebody said, just because something is an older technology...it doesnt follow that it is not a good design that has its place

I would guess that a Hi md device is actually technologically very advanced...after all...isnt an ipod just a laptop hard drive with an MP3 decoder chip and a display ...whats so much more advanced about that ??

[Alexx]

I think the general public like player that they do not need to change disks in.

what will save MD is an easy "drag drpop" system and BETTER ATRAC compression. (ie 64Kbps that compares to 92 MP3)

sony needs to lease the atrac thing too so that other developers can use MD- like philips.....

I will hate to see MD go.

I love its long battery life and the fact i can use it as a recorder.

Its better than CD anyday.

I am upset at the news, but feel MD just isn't innovitive enough.

However this "retro" MD we all love has proven to be much better than I-crap could ever offer.