New Sony Hi-MD recorder in 2007

[zergon]

Hi,

I have a question: Will there be a new Hi-md recorder (sony) in 2007 ???

[Midnght]

Hi,

I have a question: Will there be a new Hi-md recorder (sony) in 2007 ???

Nothing heard of yet. But if and when they do. I'd be expecting BlueRay MD Or probably called Blue-Ray Ultra MD };>)

As BlueRay is sony's latest triumph it's not far fetched to watch 'em move MD's to blue ray as they hold so much more data on a standard dvd size disc. That or UMB.

N just so ya don't think i'm crazy here they are.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/05/tdk-unv...iscs-at-ceatec/

16.5 Gigs of data on one Mini BlueRay. Now stick that in an MD player oh yeah baby!!!

[mdmania]

Nothing heard of yet. But if and when they do. I'd be expecting BlueRay MD Or probably called Blue-Ray Ultra MD };>)

As BlueRay is sony's latest triumph it's not far fetched to watch 'em move MD's to blue ray as they hold so much more data on a standard dvd size disc. That or UMB.

N just so ya don't think i'm crazy here they are.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/05/tdk-unv...iscs-at-ceatec/

16.5 Gigs of data on one Mini BlueRay. Now stick that in an MD player oh yeah baby!!!

Wow! I thought there for a minute that you were wishful thinking but after seeing the mini blue ray it could be very well be a minidisc blue ray in the near future. I can think of a brand name "Sony MZ-BR1" with optical output of course.

[Midnght]

Wow! I thought there for a minute that you were wishful thinking but after seeing the mini blue ray it could be very well be a minidisc blue ray in the near future. I can think of a brand name "Sony MZ-BR1" with optical output of course.

Well it is still wishful thinking.

But with sonys legacy of backwards compatibility in their hardwares

HI-MD playing MD and all it's format compressions, ps2 playing ps1 and 2 games, ps3 playing ps2 and 1 games

I could see a blue ray mini player (if they keep doing MD's mind) that's back compatible with HI-MD and MD

Still wishful thinking, but not entirely without any logic based in reality. We can only drool and hope, or maybe write sony some letters, hmm... would it help, I wonder?

Edited December 28, 2006 by Midnght

[DATfan]

Hi,

I have a question: Will there be a new Hi-md recorder (sony) in 2007 ???

This would appear to be within the realm of possibility. Hopefully someone who knows more will post here.

But all evidence is that Sony is not developing MD technology any further.

16.5 Gigs of data on one Mini BlueRay. Now stick that in an MD player oh yeah baby!!!

Hello Sony Service department.

[tekdroid]

16.5 Gigs of data on one Mini BlueRay. Now stick that in an MD player oh yeah baby!!!

Nice.

If they do it, I hope they eventually put them in cartridges!

But...

MD (and 3x DVD-RAM in cartridges) is still far more robust than BD-RE when it comes to chemical stability (huge difference between rewrite claims). So on that level MD (and by extension, I guess Hi-MD, which they have claimed to be the same, IIRC) won't be matched, if it matters. But I think that counts for something, certainly when encountering harsh temps, long storage, and of course constant overwrites.

They still need to spend at least a few years trying to severely reduce Blu-Ray power consumption for portable MD-like devices. So I wouldn't count on anything like a Blu-Ray version of MD anytime soon (next 3 years+). But who wouldn't want (an affordable?) mass-market 16+ GB recorder (and HD-alternative) in a nice portable? Yes please. And of course the potential to record in higher sampling rates / bit depths...

[brian10161]

Wouldn't it be funny if you could get only get 80 minutes in some new recording format they may be working on? I bet that would sound amazing

[S_732]

Even if they make mini B'ray discs for portable audio, it wouldn't be a minidisc. Minidisc's are defined (at least for me) by their magneto-optical record/read technology. Making a small optical disc putting it inside a plastic case for use in a small portable audio device is going to result in something resembling a mini-cd walkman, etc. rather then a next gen minidisc player. If such a device were created it would undoubtedly be the death-toll for the minidisc format. Which would be a very sad day for all of us.

And as tekdroid mentioned the b'ray discs don't/won't have the same chemical stability as md discs as they just change the chemical properties of the ink with use of a laser as opposed to the heating(laser) writing(magnetic) cooling process for recording md's.

Although portable mini-blueray players would be nice they would have vastly different characteristics to what we know to me minidisc today.

[timonoj]

Well, this is a whole bunch of guessings (somebody that knows, please correct me!)

Well i guess we'll have to wait until the new BD-RW is released. That will be magneto-optical, and that would be applyable to the loved MD way

After all, the only thing that changes is the kind of laser beam, isn't it? As far as I know, i think the magneto-optical system works in this manner:

The laser beam heats a very precisse part of the disk, a pit (after, it can be read as a single bit), so it can be modified magnetically, then the magnetic head generates its magnetic field, that applyes to a long range of the disk (it is not precisse), but since only ONE pit has been touched by the laser beam, only that one will be affected by the magnetic field. I think that's the way magneto-optic system works. I think, if they can release a multi-layered magneto-optic disk (that would be, the BD-RW), it would be a matter of time to get that very same format in a smaller disk protected by a fashion case

[theblueraja]

Blue ray, shmoo ray, just give me another HiMD unit with some cool styles to get me drooling and we're back to normal.

[Midnght]

True with the way blue ray is now any hybrid would at best allow for single recording options as i don't think blue ray read writes are out just yet. I haven't followed that closely to if they got a rW format just haven't cared enough. But still a perm write of 16 gigs woudl be noce while using hi-md for RW

[jay209]

wow you guys dream big. i don't see why they would make a blu-ray md. what audience are they going to target? you're already seeing flash drive sitting at 8gb already.

[timonoj]

wow you guys dream big. i don't see why they would make a blu-ray md. what audience are they going to target? you're already seeing flash drive sitting at 8gb already.

Well...But are those 8GB replaceable? I mean...what do you do when you fill them full?

[RobA]

If they were to make a Blue-ray MD, that would probably be enough for me to go back to MD after my HD5 eventually dies out in a few years.

[exe]

You are missing that the 16.5GB mini disc are 8cm wide and NOT 6.3cm as MiniDisc's...

Then do they also make BluRay disc's that mix two metal layers when you burn them and that version is extremely stable, but not rewritable... So MD is still the most stable (safe) rewritable format ;-)

[King Ghidora]

I'm hoping that Sony takes the plunge into flash card recording and does it in a way that blows the Ipod out of the water. Why not put two SD card slots in a recorder or maybe even 3. It would instantly give us the ability to have 24 gig of removeable flash card memory and an infinite amount by swapping out the cards. It can't get much better than that IMO so why not shoot for the best instead of going with another moving parts design? As flash card capacities continue to increase we could have incredible amounts of storage with practically no down side. That's my dream machine for the next decade. I've loved MD since it's origin and I'm still using it frequently but I really believe the end has come for moving part storage devices. If I can fit my entire music collection in a pocketful of SD cards that's what I want.

I can't see the future going any other way including storage for high definition video. A block of flash cards that load into a reader like DRAM loads for example could contain plenty enough storage for a HD movie right now and capacity is growing all the time. This technology is already up and running and nothing else is going to be able to compete because it's cheaper to build cards and readers than it is to maintain a moving parts design machine and data storage soloution and durability is going to be incredible.

The one thing that might hold back flash card technology is that is too durable and companies that are used to consumers replacing their equipment after a certain time because of failures wil not neccessarily like the idea of equipment that rarely fails. Like light bulbs that are built to blow after a certain time and cars that are only meant to run a specific number of miles we could see some kind of failure problem built into the design so companies like Sony will be happy.

[DATfan]

You are missing that the 16.5GB mini disc are 8cm wide and NOT 6.3cm as MiniDisc's...

Then do they also make BluRay disc's that mix two metal layers when you burn them and that version is extremely stable, but not rewritable... So MD is still the most stable (safe) rewritable format ;-)

So, other than the fact that BluRay is not magneto optical, and uses different diameter discs . . .

It's all so diabolically clever.

[rich1068]

Good post King Ghidora. You summed up my thoughts exactly.

[1kyle]

We really need to distinguish between "Domestic" / home users and Professional users.

For Home users a removable SD / CF or other type of removable solid state card might be OK but professional users need to archive and store vast amounts of data (in this case recordings).

You can get all sorts of "Robot" type retrieval systems for Tapes, DVD's / CD's and even MD's but there is no such animal yet for solid state cards.

Imagine you are in charge of a Radio station and want to replay several broadcasts made over a period of time --say Elvis Presleys last live gigs (not sure if they exist but you should get the idea).

This stuff has to be retrieved from the archive library, copied to disk(s) and then transmitted at the appropriate time. Almost impossible to arrange this with solid state devices. Even if you had some on flash card devices you'd have to manually copy the data to some type of tape / disk device before you could broadcast this seamlessly. - Remember some of these Radio stations broadcast by Satellite / Internet / Cable and the programs are invariably pre-recorded in advance.

With a Deck a Robot archieval type system can retrieve the disks, insert them into the deck and away you go.

(Remember the old pro video cassettes --these had a "Hopper" like mechanism for playing several tapes one after the other).

Some digital pro deck will appear --but whether it's Sony MD or another as yet uninvented type of device time will tell --but I'm sure something for the PRO market will appear.

For the home / consumer market I'm not so sure as the emphasis on home entertainment is very much in the Cinema Surround type of area.

Sony is also engaged in a DVD Format war (again) with Blu-ray vs HD (High Definition) -- however in spite of millions of yen being spent here it's largely an irrelevance as decent Hard Disk dvd recorders are now appearing which can handle both types of format and can record around 200 hours of very high definition video. For once the consumer is being savvy here by playing the waiting game in not adopting either new DVD format and probably skipping it altogether by going straight for the Hard Disk system.

The data on the Hard Disk system can be copied as DATA (fast via a computer --you don't have to do it in real time) to backup on ORDINARY DVD's (cheap / easy) and if you want to replay the DVD again in High Definition you just restore it to your DVD Hard disk unit and play it. (If you prefer you can copy the video to "Bog standard" DVD video and play the DVD's on current standard DVD players or computers in current TV formats -- no need for Blu-Ray / HD video).

These Hard Disk DVD units are quite cheap and are very easy to use as well.

In the UK SKY HD boxes have most of this technology built in already as does the UK Terrestial digital system "Top up TV". (Sky HD boxes don't copy direct to a computer but they will copy to a "Bog standard" DVD recorder in non High Definition or Standard Format ).

I'd love to see a decent HI-MD deck -- CD decks are still out there as are loads of Car radios however I really feel it's not going to happen in the consumer market.

A HI-MD car radio however would make a huge amount of sense -- you just pop a Disk in with around 4 - 7 hours of music / speech or whatever. If you use an IPOD and want to change the tracks etc or find something it would be dangerous using the IPOD to search for your track while driving. It's quite simple to insert a new disk into a unit without your eyes leaving the road.

Cheers

-K

Edited January 2, 2007 by 1kyle

[rich1068]

A HI-MD car radio however would make a huge amount of sense -- you just pop a Disk in with around 4 - 7 hours of music / speech or whatever.

Tee hee! Already got one (sort of)

If you use an IPOD and want to change the tracks etc or find something it would be dangerous using the IPOD to search for your track while driving.

To be fair, adapters already exist for factory fit head units. For example http://www.dension.com/main.htm

[King Ghidora]

I would expect the future of radio station systems to be hard drives. We're already seeing terrabyte hard drives for consumer use. You can store a lot of uncompressed music with a few of those. Even with backups they will be cheap.

It's the mobile recording / playback unit that I think will be strictly flash based in the near future. I'm sure there will be room for lots of different types of technology but for mobile use a small storage card is just practically impossible to beat. The only thing better will be cards with more storage on them. For example if we had a series of SD cards put together in a unit the size of an MD we would have nearly 100 gig of storage with the technology we have today. Imagine what could be in 5 years. We could have terrabyte storage cards. New albums could be released on flash cards. New movies could be released in HD on flash cards. And this is all without moving parts. Moving parts aren't a big hassle if you are in a situation where your player is sitting in one spot forever. But when I want to go out and record video for one of my projects I'd love to be able to forget the hassles of tape. We are already seeing very good video cameras that use flash media. I just can't see the future of mobile digital storage going any other way.

[1kyle]

I would expect the future of radio station systems to be hard drives. We're already seeing terrabyte hard drives for consumer use. You can store a lot of uncompressed music with a few of those. Even with backups they will be cheap.

It's the mobile recording / playback unit that I think will be strictly flash based in the near future. ................. I just can't see the future of mobile digital storage going any other way.

It's a question of cost -- a 100 GB or even a 1TB flash card could certainly be a future winner but this is still quite a way off.

A 4GB SD card is still around 60 GBP / 110 USD. 4 X 1.0GB HI-MD's cost 16 GBP so we are talking about an over 4X difference in price. The difference in price is even more marked when comparing with 80 Min std disks (although of course you need more discs to equate to 4GB).

I think for example an SD card (been out a while) is still restricted to a maximum of 4GB whilst the old CF cards ("Microdrive" type but now Solid state) give a maximum of 8GB and these still yield problems from time to time --check any Pro Photographers Forum --shooters are oftening wanting help in rescuing corrupt image data from 8GB cards.

I can't really see this situation improving in the near future which is why I suspect there may well be one more portable MD unit before the chapter finally closes on MD.

Don't also forget the convenience factor of using something easy to handle like MD's.

If you want say a car player then using small flash based media will be awkward --the samll size will make it not very praticable for using in say a Car Radio --and as for changing a tiny Flash Card whilst driving -- well forget it.

For Portable recording out in the field you often need to make a recording and then send it away. Data transmission by mobile phone for recordings of over a few minutes is still too slow and expensive. You often actually need to physically SEND the recording via "Snail Mail" / Fedex etc. Meanwhile you still need to make more recordings so having a fixed non removable recording medium is a no-no. Small Flash cards apart from cost issues are likely to get lost in transmission once they get into the maw of The Post Office / Fedex / UPS due to the tiny size of the package.

As for archiving --Yes Hard Disks make a lot of sense but I think it will be a LONG LONG time before libraries, Banks, Universtities etc. stop archiving to removable optical media or even tape. If you lose a 100 TB disk you've lost a LOT of data.

Cheers

-K

Edited January 3, 2007 by 1kyle

[BobS]

Flash cards are also not archival. The data is NOT permanent. It is generally recommended that the data on a flash card be refreshed every 5 years (some manufactures will go 10). In the commerical computer arena, MO is used for archiving data because of its long life span.

Putting multiple gig of audio on a flash card is fine for listening, but my concern is long term storage. You can still get a turntable and listen to a recording made 80 years ago. Even cassettes will still be around a while longer due to the large number made. What about recordings today. Will someone even 20 years from now have something to play it on ? CF cards are on their way out. SD is "old" in flash terms. I am sure in a few years it will be replaced by something "newer and better".

[timonoj]

SD is "old" in flash terms. I am sure in a few years it will be replaced by something "newer and better".

Well, I agree that the SD technology isn't quite new...But i think it's a perfect size, though. I don't like XD cards for being too damn small. Although they're fast. But they're harder to handle. If you think about removable media, at least.

[lamewing]

It's a question of cost -- a 100 GB or even a 1TB flash card could certainly be a future winner but this is still quite a way off.

A 4GB SD card is still around 60 GBP / 110 USD. 4 X 1.0GB HI-MD's cost 16 GBP so we are talking about an over 4X difference in price. The difference in price is even more marked when comparing with 80 Min std disks (although of course you need more discs to equate to 4GB).

-K

I have seen (often) 4gb SD cards for $45.00 to $60.00 U.S. in my area (D/FW). Consider that 4 HiMD discs cost 4x$6.99 = $27.96 and I feel the HiMD discs really don't have much of an advantage anymore, especially if I could insert them into a very rugged (please please please) recorder with no moving parts. Wow, the idea of a flash recorder with 2 or 3 SD slots fills me with glee. I would have to carry around 8 - 12 HiMD discs to match that.

[THIS SUCKS]

how about a recorder that uses memory cards and 1gig disks? then it could record on either depending what you want to use it for. i have never seen a recorder like that.

[King Ghidora]

I didn't say that flash cards will replace hard drives or even optical storage. BTW anyone who thinks optical storage is permanent may be in for a big surprise when you go try to retrieve that photo from when your baby was still a baby 7 years ago. I've lost data on about 200 CDR's because they failed due to age. Optical is NOT permanent.

I still figure hard drives to be the main storage medium for anything that isn't mobile. But anything that is mobile can use flash media as it exists today. All the talk I hear about cards being too small is a red herring IMO. Cards can be combined to form larger devices that are easier to keep track of for anyone that needs that. They can be grouped to play movies too.

Anything that should be stored forever should be kept on a hard drive and backed up by another hard drive right now. You really can't count on optical. I lost that data after about 3 years on those CDR's. Hard drives fail but if you have backups then you don't have to worry about failures. I actually try to keep multiple types of backups for my important media. I actually trust tape more than optical or hard drive based systems but tape backups for data are way too expensive right now. I used to back up everything to tape when you could still get a decent reasonably priced tape drive for computers.

Again my prediction here is that flash media will replace all moving part based devices for mobile use in the near future. I love my minidisc equipment and it has served me well but in the long run flash based equipment will be better. It really already is but it just costs more.

[BobS]

Optical (as in CD-R and CD-RW) is NOT the same as MO. CD-R (and DVD-/+ R or RW) are dye based and do have and unpredictible lifetime. MO is a different technology and much more stable. Minidisc is MO based,

[1kyle]

I didn't say that flash cards will replace hard drives or even optical storage. BTW anyone who thinks optical storage is ....

DVD-RAM is another excellent media for long term storage --It's still used in some domestic DVD recorders - mainly PANASONIC as it has the ability for you to record whilst actually playing a different part of the Disc AT THE SAME TIME.

However its main use is in permanent archiving. DVD-RAM has an estimated lifetime of over 200 years and a read write cycle in excess of 100,000 times unlike DVD-RW or DVD+RW.

For domestic computers DVD-RAM isn't used so much any more (although you can still get multi-format DVD writers which handle DVD-RAM) as the write speed used to be as slow as molasses but with 3 and 5X write speeds now it's OK again and the double sided disks hold 9.4GB which is OK for home backups.

So "Optical Media" Can be OK -- especially as the previous poster said "MO" type .

Incidentally some DVD-RAM comes in Cartridges (removable if your player won't handle cartridges). For Archiving -- almost perfect as the cartridge protects the dust and the retrieval / robot systems can read the Disk whist it's in the cartridge too.

The main problem with current removable media for offline archive s that the capacity isn't big enough yet -- only tapes score here even though tapes belong to the world of "Dinosaur Technology".

External Hard Disk based systems are great for first line backup but definitely not for permanent archive.

For realistic archiving these days you need something with the durability of DVD-RAM whilst having a capacity of around 500GB to 1TB. This will of course appear -- I'm skipping the whole BLUE-RAY thingie --for HIGH definition TV I'm satisfied with the SKY HD box and if you have a decent DVD recorder with HDMI out you'll get excellent quality even on Normal TV.

For once I'll wait for the next generation as will lots of others --I'm sure SONY won't want to hear that.

Anybody over about 23 isn't going to watrch TV from an 'XBOX' or PS2/PS3 games console --and if SONY is basing it's BLU RAY hopes on that it will fail.

Meanwhile I really hope a Car HI-MD unit comes out and hope to see at least one more MD unit appear before the end.

I wouldn't mind either if a new type of MD say a 16 - 20 GB model came out even if it were incomaptable with current MD and was called something else. The size should be either the same as the current RH1 unit or could be a little smaller -- but certainly NO FATTER.

To all you guys suggesting everything will be HD based in future -- you've been lucky you've never experienced a Hard Disk failure--Hard Disks can and do fail -- and if you lose 1TB of data it's no fun recovering it.

Also in the Post 9-11 scenario Data can be destroyed by Sabotage etc etc. so relying on massive hard disks in one place is a no no now for Banks, Oils Companies, the Police etc.etc.

Cheers

-K

[Sparky191]

I think the future is subscription services. You'll have a subscription based flat fee on your usages and all your devices. All your devices, personal audio, car audio, home audio will be able to access this central store, either via wireless or wired broadband and have a local cache of a few GB to hold you most commonly used tracks based on your playlists and history.

[1kyle]

I think the future is subscription services. You'll have a subscription based flat fee on your usages and all your devices. All your devices, personal audio, car audio, home audio will be able to access this central store, either via wireless or wired broadband and have a local cache of a few GB to hold you most commonly used tracks based on your playlists and history.

This won't happen for a LONG LONG time if ever. For a start private data has to be secured by various Data Protection Acts around the globe --considering how leaky Windows and the Internet is in general I'm not sure people would even WANT to THINK about allowing 3rd parties / external corporations access to their private data. - If you think Phishing is a problem today then it would be HORRENDOUS under this type of service.

Next the Bandwidth would just be too collossal. Just saving a Print Format of a professionally produced photograph at A4 as a Photoshop (.PSD) file takes nearly 250 MB. Imagine several hundred photographers in the same area downloading and printing a few dozen pictures for their clients at the same time to say nothing of zillions of other users wanting to play decent multimedia (especially video) also at the same time. I'd hate to see the load on the Servers.

Finally many many places are out of range of wireless services. This is often due to the composition of buildings themselves or the geography of the area rather than the actual power of the transmitter.

If this type of service ever does become commonplace the entire world will be a totally differnt place to what it is now.

Forget this type of approach - it won't happen any time soon - if ever.

Cheers

-K

Edited January 4, 2007 by 1kyle

[Sparky191]

Theres elements of it there already in services like iTunes store, iPods, or for that matter Sky+ boxes.

[1kyle]

Theres elements of it there already in services like iTunes store, iPods, or for that matter Sky+ boxes.

Hi Sparky -- some things handled remotely are fine such as voice mail, texts etc etc, and content delivery via internet / SKY + box etc is not really a problem. It becomes a problem when the delivery goes BOTH ways. Ordering a film from SKY is quite different to transmitting several TB of your own office / business transactions to remote servers. To have true video on demand requires a MASSIVE investment in Hard disks even to supply a few movies to a small hotel chain so trying to get this service world wide as TRUE video on demand would probably require more disks than the age of the universe in years.

Remember Itunes etc only DOWNLOADS your music - it's not a 2-way service. Uploads via ADSL are also very much slower than the download speed as well often as slow as 512 kbs even if the download connection is as fast as 8 mbs.

So I still say it will be YEARS and YEARS away before a largely remote service like you suggest is implemented (if ever).

Cheers

-K

[Sparky191]

Every time you play something on your DAP you don't download it every time, most times its only something new you download/synch. I was mainly thinking of music but even with Video you don't watch it 24/7 and usually you plan your watching in advance so it doesn't have to be "on demand". I don't see why you have to constantly upload stuff you've already downloaded either. If you have album A on your iPod why would you need to upload it back up to a server? Why not just connect the iPod to Car system (for example) and synch them. Local syncs could be free and downloads charged to reduce bandwidth and contention issues. Theres ways and means IMO.

[King Ghidora]

I'm well aware of the differences in optical technology between what CDR's use and what DVD formats use and what MD uses. I would expect all of the technologies to exceed what CDR's have done. That doesn't mean I trust them to archive all of my data. Probably MD is the best of the bunch but the cost is still prohibitive to attempt to store large amounts of data on MD. I can buy a blank CDR for about 20 cents. It would take about 2 80 min MD discs to archive the same amount of data and the price for that is far above 20 cents.

At this point a person can archive much cheaper on hard drives than on MD. That's why I suggested that people should use hard drives. Plus I don't think we really know the future of MD disc data retention or hard drive retention either. Hard drives are much easier to deal with and the price per gig for hard drive space is much cheaper than MD. It costs roughly $7-8 for a gig of MD storage space (which doesn't even include the player you need to use these as storage) while you can get hard drive space for at most 50 cents per gig and it's dropping fast. And given the uncertain nature of optical media including magnetic optical I still say that hard drive storage with back ups is more likely to ensure that you still have your data 10 years down the road and it will cost less too. Yes you need to check your hard drives to make sure they are still working but if they aren't chances are the backup will be if you check often enough.

We can already download data for music pretty cheaply. It could happen that music stores just allow you to download music onto a memory cartridge similar to what game systems use or even a flash drive and you could then upload the data to your computer or your DVR at home. You could use hard drives as a backup for all of your data. I just think we're going to see fewer moving part based systems in the future.

[1kyle]

I don't see why you have to constantly upload stuff you've already downloaded either. If you have album A on your iPod why would you need to upload it back up to a server

What happens if your Ipod Breaks, gets lost, gets stolen or you just want a New one or a totally new very desirable device comes out that you want to copy your music to and isn't compatable with the music formats on the IPOD.

True if you own a physical copy of Album A you can re-load it to your IPod but if you originally copied the album from elsewhere or it becomes to damaged to use then you've still got the problem of re-creating it.

You need to be able presumeably to restore / re-create your music from some backup somewhere.

Don't also forget the original store you downloaded the music from might have gone out of business so re-downloading from that source won't be an option any more. (Itunes or similar will be around for a while of course but even they will have restrictions on the number of times you can download something without having to pay for it again).

I don't care whether it's data, pictures,. video or Music -- I always am very particular in taking backups --I've been around computers too long to know that components can and DO fail regularly -- apart from User Errors where people just make silly mistakes like deleting critical data.

If you don't backup locally then you'll need to upload this stuff to remote servers --and this considering the volume of data involved isn't yet even remotely feasable as as a cheap universal service.

Downloaded Music also is not the solution at the moment.

For Serious Listening (and I don't mean using Ipods in places like Trains / Tubes, / Buses) with those horrible Bud earphones) the compression most downloaded music gives you will sound pretty horrible on any self respecting Home Audio system with high quality speakers ( and I don't mean Computer Sound systems either).

Typical downladed compression is MP3 @ 128 KBS which is certainly not "Hi-FI" by any stretch of the imagination and often so stuffed with DRM to make it useless as well for transferring to other devices. (It's probably fine for using with Bud Earphone on the move in noisy places like Trains but certainly not for serious home listening).

I'm not trying to knock IPODS et. al -- just pointing out that just like MD has there are limitations with them too.

Cheers

-K

Edited January 6, 2007 by 1kyle

[Sparky191]

You make valid points 1kyle and I on the whole I agree with pretty all of that post. Which is why I reckon spending a few hours browsing 2nd hand stores for used DVD's and CD's make a lot more sense, and is financially more astute than iTunes and similar services. Its more fun too. I know people who have gone one step further and have put their DivX libraries and MP3 libraries on hosted servers so they can access them anywhere for private use. But for me thats just too much hassle.

That said many people would be happy with streamed low bitrate low fidelity media as I described earlier. I do think it will be an option eventually. Though you have limitation like in iTunes where many artists aren't on it. That a bigger issue than the technology problems IMO.