In order to avoid a commercial death, MD needs the following

[Guest Anonymous]

In no particular order;

1) No copy protection.

2) USB upload to the computer.

3) Ability to play more than just ATRAC files (i.e., MP#3, WMA)

I love my MD, don't get me wrong....

Tom

(at least in North America)

[me]

Impatient America, aye?

ATRAC is probably the best lossy compression out there (therefore .wma and .mp3 native support is BAD!)..

Somehow MD has survived 10 years in the US, it won't die off suddenly without .mp3 support.

The copy protection isn't that bad without the NetMD part.

[Guest Anonymous]

<font face="century gothic">And, uh if I'm not mistaken the new N10 doesn't have TrProtect....</font>

[darK (aka Tharaka)]

And' date=' uh if I'm not mistaken the new N10 doesn't have TrProtect....quote']

whats TrProtect?

and why does MD need MP3/WMA support... ATRAC3 is what makes MD what it is; MD...

so why give in to all those cheapo pricks that turn up to school with tiny little mp3 players that hold 4 songs... when we can have ATRAC3; superior to MP3...

well thats my opinion

[Shorty]

whats TrProtect?

It stands for "Track Protect" and it allows the user to specify certain tracks to be write-protected, instead of only being able to write-protect the entire disc (ie. sliding the tab on the MD).

As for native MP3/WMA support, it's not that bad an idea. An MD holds about 140Mb of data, which is slightly better than CompactFlash cards and costs only a couple of dollars (compared to CompactFlash, which costs about twenty times as much). It would also solve the format conversion bottleneck (ie. MP3/WMA to ATRAC3 before transfer).

[me]

and kill any possible backwards compatibility with old units. MDLP was bad, but this would be a shocker..

[tmeg]

And, uh if I'm not mistaken the new N10 doesn't have TrProtect....

Can someone who owns that unit confirm this?? This would be a huge advantage but I doubt it a little as you could not checkin divided tracks. I mean that does not matter for the ones who use RealOne or generelly don't store everything as OMG, but it would be a sight that Sony goes in another direction, away from Checkin/Checkout.

[Guest Anonymous]

Can someone who owns that unit confirm this?? This would be a huge advantage but I doubt it a little as you could not checkin divided tracks. I mean that does not matter for the ones who use RealOne or generelly don't store everything as OMG, but it would be a sight that Sony goes in another direction, away from Checkin/Checkout.

TrProtect is still there...

[James]

i wish that there were minidiscs that you could record music off the computer and i wish that you can put more than 30 songs on 1 minidisc!!!!!

Lol

[Mystyler]

Well, you can put more than 30 tracks on MD, as it allows 254 tracks.

But I get ya.

I'm set with 15 or so.

[Guest Anonymous]

Personally, I don't so much care about MP3 and WMA compatibility. What I do care greatly about is the viability of MD as a portable, handheld recording device that can then be easily transfered to PC or Mac (and back).

MD has the *potential* to be a huge boon to reporters, doctors, lawyers, nature observers, photographers and any who do any combination of note taking, interviewing, or recording. However, in order to realize that potential file to file sharing is absolutely mandatory. With that in mind here are my ideas for what most MD players lack.

1) USB interface

2) on board preamp for use with multiple mics in various settings

3) on the fly recording level changes, (Sharp has this.)

4) easy to use recording controls that can be manipulated by feel alone

5) VOR (recording mode initiated by sound)

6) Mfr. instuctions and datasheets that are realistic and make sense, in English, that clearly state a units real world ability (maybe that should be #1)

(Don't market something as a "recorder" if it doesn't even have Mic input and can only be used for limited downloads. Uh-uh. That's not nice.)

If those things would be addressed, then I'd predict that legions of people who are currently "just putting up with" audio cassette recorders, microcassette recorders, DAT, MP3 and various other sub-optimal solutions will make the switch to minidisc. If those things aren't addressed, and addressed soon, then I wonder if MD will ever enjoy the marketshare that it could easily own.

[Guest Anonymous]

You mean that usb plug doesn't upload things? Goodness, that explains my technical difficulties. (Pardon my ignorance, the MD was a gift.)

Well, that's lame. It's like a data blackhole or the Hotel California of audio recording. You can checkout any time you want, but your data can never leave. There's no line out anywhere. :?

Too bad the person who gave me the gift spent the extra money on the usb. It's extra useless for mac users.

[Guest Anonymous]

you have netmd with a mac? jeez dude you are missing out on netmd. sooooo much faster than sitting there realtime recording

[Guest Anonymous]

I would like to say that if more MD Products were available it would make it a true contender in the lives of the consumers. I would like to see boomboxes like in the 80's. Getto Blasters that replace the cassettes and in place have a mini disk. That would be great for people looking for a medium, portable but able to have the options and sound quality of a more premeire component. Another suggestion would be to allow more options in the MD unit itself to help simplify our lives. Plug or drop in unit like panasonic has for home/travel use with speakers like a mini componet/ alarm clock, AM and FM Stereo or let it have the ability to integrate with all other produts out there.

[JayX]

ATRAC is probably the best lossy compression out there (therefore .wma and .mp3 native support is BAD!)..

the flaw is, if you're sticking mp3 files onto a MD, they have to be reencoded again. and reencoding from one lossy format to another is never fun. it handles it well enough, but considering i can just burn mp3s natively to a cd and pop em into my mp3cd player, i agree that native support WOULD be handy.

[Guest Anonymous]

if not mp3 support, than at least a better relationship with mp3 files. what i mean is this, right now when transfering mp3 files one has to keep a copy of the SAME dang file in ATRAC/3 format on ones comp. not a prob if you have 120GB HDD, but not cool if you have 10 or even 6GB HDD as i do.

sony needs to get over its DRM issues, i mean really. real pirates are not going to be trying to sell bootleg MDs discs in the street and if they do no one will buy it. indeed real pirates care not for MD format AT ALL, and instead focus on mp3's and CD. and saying "we, at sony, are going to do our part to stop piracy by making it a pain to use MP3 files with the MD" is none to smart. as it prevents the average person from buying and fully enjoying the MD format. its all very silly really.

its only a matter of making it easier to transfer mp3 on and yes off the player.

take a tip from apple, the more seemless the better. the more reasonable the DRM the better. the more quality music related features the better.

(NO ONE should ever under any situation support WMA as it is pure evil)

way the MD can do.

i agree with mp3 out, via usb this would be great for reporters, ect.

[ghersh]

In no particular order;

1) No copy protection.

2) USB upload to the computer.

3) Ability to play more than just ATRAC files (i.e., MP#3, WMA)

I love my MD, don't get me wrong....

Tom

(at least in North America)

I agree 100%.

As I've said in my recent posting, I don't care about ATRAC and don't consider it the best compression technique. Incidetnly, at 256KBps all encoders are pretty much the same. This is around 128-160 where differences start showing up, and this is where MP4/AAC is the best. It is also the only defined standard for multimedia. So - having MP4/AAC supported on Minidisk players will immediately attract fairly large group of users, including myself. Why? Simply because Hi-MD is absolutely superb media. It is removable, high capacity, and the player draws very little power, thus the regular batteries are fine. What is the current situation with non-MD players? Flash memory and other flavors of solid state (like CF or SD) are still too expensive. Hard drive based players are cost efficient in terms of price per MB, but they draw too much power, and another serious problem is that when hard drive crashes, everything you have is gone. That's why I consider Hi-MD format extrmely attractive. yet I'm not going to give up on MP3 or MP4/AAC.

Another important point: with MP3 and MP4/AAC, you have a large choice of encoders and decoders, supported on multiple platforms: Windows, Linux, Mac. Most are freeware. Pick and choose whatever you want, and the platform you want. Do you have this luxory with ATRAC? No. It is only windows-based, and it is only Sony. With MP3 and MP4/AAC, the specs are well documented - hence the available variety of encoders and decoders.

Note that those are official specs. Not something developed internally by Sony, something it can change willi-nilly, not particular caring about its users.

Of course, the abilty to move the files unrestricted between the player and PC (or MAC) is a must. This is what 'the rest of the world' does.

The most important feature of Hi-MD is its FAT structure. it's no longer limited to specific ATRAC format, but is capable of handling any arbitrary data format. It will be a shame not to take advantage of this feature and still limiting itself to ATRAC only.

Finally, you either open MD to allternatives encoding/decoding formats, or MD will be limited to the small group of afficionados who consider ATRAC the best and willing to live with whatever you get from sony, and with no hope of commercial success.

[Guest Anonymous]

With the falling price of flash memory player (256mb), one can wonder why MD would be a good choice for music PLAYBACK. I mean playback, not talking about recording here.

Most people use MP3 player only to listen to music, rarely to record stuff anyway.

With new MP3/WMA player comming out, some of them fully capable to record from line/optical in WAV 100% quality, even if HDD based (mabe a little bit more crash prone) seem to offer more, more than Hi-MD. Sync with your PC and you wont loose everything if the HDD goes bad. Can I add no DRM ?!! No SonicStage! No disc to buy....

So again, tell me why MD or Hi-MD are that good...?

[aethyrmaster]

(NO ONE should ever under any situation support WMA as it is pure evil)

Amen to that! I do use mp3 a LOT, but not as much as some people(I have about 4 gigs of mp3s, anywhere from 64kbps stereo to 322kbps VBR). MP3 is a beautiful thing, but WMA is the devil itself, just like mayonnaise.

Another interesting item to see would be mp3 DVD players. If they could play just mp3 DVD's, they shouldn't be too expensive compared to a high level CD player, and you could then put 4.7 gig of mp3's on a disc, instead of 700 meg. Do the math -

MP3 format @ 1 meg/minute of audio=700 min/cd=11 hr 40 min on a cd

MP3 format @ 1 meg/minute of audio=4700 min/DVD= 78 hr 20 min on a DVD

Now, I know that sounds kind of impractical, but if a DVD mp3 player was about $80 US, and a DVD-R drive about $100, that's still 70 bucks less than an iPod mini with slightly more storage.

Maybe I'm just crazy, who knows?