allow me to get back up on my soapbox.
Of course! Only if you don't mind my trying to knock it out from under you.
like DATheads, MD fans - of which i am one - also have a strange, unhealthy obsession with these pretty, shiny little plastic discs
Unhealthy is right!
although they are extremely popular, i don't think CD-Rs have quite taken over from cassettes. this is partly because you don't see cheap, mainstream 'stereos' sold with CD-R burning drives, but they still all come with cassette decks.
the fact that blank cassettes are still being sold is also significant.
Cheap mainstream stereos with or without CDR burners isn't the issue. The physical device utilized for duplicating media has merely shifted from the cheap mainstream all-in-one-box stereo to computer. The fact that people are utilizing CDR en masse is what's important, not the physical device. All the dup'ing people do now is on CDRs, with very few exceptions (a few throwbacks still using cassette, a couple freaks using MD, and some geeks pushing new technology like HD and DVD).
1) self-interest - i've invested a lot of money, and interest, in Minidisc technology (being too young, i think, for the DAT generation) and want everyone to use minidiscs in everyday life, so the technology and the features improve, for me.
Selfish bastard!!
2) i don't think there is a huge difference, quality-wise, between SP mode MD, and CD-R.
Depends on the playback system, but I've easily identified the sources in blind tests. MD just doesn't cut it in this regard, but then again - most consumers don't give a damn. All this is irrelevant, though, because the real issue is MD v. HD, not MD v. CDR.
keep in mind also that Sony have developed a 650Mb capacity minidisc, so there is the potential of bringing this onto the market (whilst making current low capacity minidiscs compatible with the new technology).
Bah. Who needs a 650MB disc when you can have a massive HD?!?
3) DAT, though probably technically superior, is too expensive. minidiscs are cheap as chips. and again, the high capacity minidisc offers the possibiliy of UNcompressed minidisc music.
True, DAT is expensive. But the issue IMO is no longer MD v. DAT, but rather MD v. HD. HD will win. (Care to place a wager?) Again, high capacity MDs to support uncompressed music become meaningless relative to the massive storage available on HD devices.
4) i HATE mp3, wma, and vqf, and i don't want any of them to succeed, because they are absolute rubbish, quality-wise.
Hear hear!!
hopefully as internet connections and hard disk capacities improve the need for mp3 will disappear (we could be swapping WAV over the internet one day).
I don't think so. The reality is even if most folks had the capability to swap WAVs online, they generally don't give a rat's ass about quality, so why bother waiting 4x as long for a d/l when a crappy MP3 satisfies them just as well? Those of us with broadband who
care about quality are already swapping WAVs online in the form of SHN and FLAC.
i like the latest generation, SP mode ATRAC codec, i think it is the perfect compression ratio and has very minimal loss of quality.
Nah. The perfect compression is lossless compression. But with a massive HD device, why bother compressing at all during recording, or even for playback? Again, HD wins in my book.
5) minidiscs are easy. add a minidisc deck to a simple, cheap, mainstream stereo and it will be even easier for the average person to operate than a cassette deck (since its all digital and there's none of the tape-winding nonsense).
Cassettes are already a relic. MD is easy? Sure, if you don't mind schlepping around all those MDs. Just as easy, easier even, soon enough - today with certain devices - to hook up a portable HD device to a mainstream stereo. Who wants to mess with all those messy little discs? And no need to add an MD or HD unit to the mainstream stereo, simply provide an input for portable HD devices.
6) once minidiscs start becoming accepted in the mainstream consumer music world
Once...? I had to chuckle at this one. This is a key point and I agree with you completely: MD can
only succeed if it's accepted in the mainstream consumer music world. However, if MD was going to be accepted in the mainstream consumer music world, it would've happened already. No way are music labels going to start producing commercially available recordings on MD. CDR
owns the market, and will continue to do so. MD is niche, now, just like DAT. CDRs already have a
huge consumer base, and HD recorders are the next progression - not in place of but in addition to CDR - because it is IMO, in all ways superior to MD:
[1] Ability to carry much more data much more compactly
[2] Superior sound quality due to no lossy compression
[3] Easy integration with existing devices already dominant in the market place - primarily computer-based CD burners and output to mainstream stereos
[4] Ability to store multiple filetypes (pics, video, email, etc.) instead of just audio
they can be added as data drives on computers, in digital cameras, etc. etc. (go to www.minidisc.org for more information on this)
HD/memory devices beat 'em to the punch. Even if MD is superior in this regard, which I don't think it is (see 1-4 above), first-to-market often makes all the difference in the world. How many digital cameras and other consumer devices store data on CDR? Not many. Why? Too many options for much larger storage capacities, with HD beating a path to replace the memory devices.
don't get me wrong - CD-R is great, but when you can do the same thing with something drastically smaller (ie. high capacity minidiscs), and which can also be used for small portable music devices (lets face it, discmans are too big) - then why not?
Agreed! Only the replacement for - but more likely addition to - CDR will be HD, not MD. (see 1-4 above)
It may not happen as quickly as I want, or with the specific combinatino feature sets I want, but it will happen - HD devices will rule the marketplace.
(Can anyone tell I'm bored at work today?)
Topic: Minidisc Recorder with Optical Out (Read 16125 times)