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Sony Hard Drive Recorder for Cars
blues5150 writes "Sony has introduced the Sony MEX-1HD. This is an in-dash CD/Receiver with a 10 giagbyte hardrive built in to rip CD's at 8X speed. It also has an auxilliary input that allows connection of an MP3 player, tape, MD player, and/or an optional Sony plug-and-play XM Satellite Radio tuner. The price is a little steep at $1,499.99, but it's still nice to see a major car audio manufacturer delivering what the public wants."
Umm.. The public wants to rip CD's in their car?
Yeah, right.
And they thought it was bad for people to use cell phones...
No, this is for kids who drive the base model Civic, because the insurance would kill them if they (err, their parents) bought the Si. Now that they've added the coffee can exhaust, 300 pound wing (someone explain why you put a wing on the back of a FWD car that isn't set up in a way to break the rear loose) $800 worth of stickers, and $2000 worth of wheels/tires, the only thing left is some stereo.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Great, when the RIAA comes calling, I can engage in a high-speed-chase while continuing to commit crimes.
Thanks, I'll pass for now.
Objects in the blog are closer then they ap
Doesn't Sony have a music division which is part of the RIAA? And doesn't the RIAA make a concerted effort to stop people from ripping CDs? So how can Sony make a device to do just that? Is one division going to sue the other or something?
Kenwood has a similar product, the Music Keg. Their version works like a CD changer with a removable hard drive cartridge.
My other first post is car post.
Man.. at $1.5k I might as well PAY for my music!
Rats would be more funny if they could fart.
- Proprietary compression
The unit uses Sony's ATRAC compression which is proprietary and heavy on DRM. Even MP3's which you copy from a memory stick to the unit are converted to ATRAC, resulting in loss.
- No direct PC connectivity
You can't wire up, say, an ethernet jack to this unit as you could with the Empeg, etc... and copy files to it from your computer. No way. You must either sit in your car and rip (at a paltry 8x) every friggin CD you want into the unit, or use a Memory Stick back and forth from your PC to this unit. An utter waste of time, IMHO.
Pioneer Electronics came out with a unit that is extraordinarly similar yet has a larger, easier to navigate menu system... it still, however, suffers from the same shortcomings as the Sony unit. I am not sure what type of compression Pioneer uses, though.
Anyway, my two cents...
Keep in mind that Sony, the company that builds MP3 players, computers with CD-RW drives, CD players, DVD players, etc., is also the company that owns Columbia Records, which tries to prevent their music from working with those MP3 players, computers with CD-RW drives, CD players, and DVD players.
Are you going to go out and spend $1500 on a piece of equipment from a schizophrenic company that's trying to sabotage their own products?
These are becoming more mainstream.
For instance, Pioneer has one too.
However, I think cd players that play MP3's off CD-R/CD-RW's are a much better deal
They cost LOTS less, they hold "enough" music, and if the media dies, it costs 20 cents to replace it.
"...but it's still nice to see a major car audio manufacturer delivering what the public wants."
Since when did anyone have the burning need to write CDs in their car? You can't leave home for an hour without having to make a CD? Try leaving all the techno crap at home and try DRIVING for once.
What's next, wood working while driving?
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
It also has an auxilliary input that allows connection of an MP3 player, tape, MD player, (...) it's still nice to see a major car audio manufacturer delivering what the public wants."
Why do more car stereos NOT have an Auxilliary Input?
The only thing I really want in a car stereo is an Auxillary Input. I want to be able to take my portable CD player, iPod, whatever, and plug it into my car stereo with a minimum of sound quality loss.
I have used one of those Tape Deck inputs
(One end looks like a cassette tape, other end is a stereo jack. Plug the stereo jack into your device, insert the cassette into your tape deck, hit play), on & off for 15 years, but the sound for those things is horrible: all treble, no base. Sound is muffled (This is on 5 different stereos).
Is there some conspiracy against manufacturers putting a simple stereo input jack on the front of my stereo?
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
Notice I said "freeway".
I use my car audio system responsibly; grouping me in with the teens in riced out Acuras pumping crappy house music at all hours is about as fair as grouping the average American with those assholes on the 700 Club.
You *know* when you're being an asshole with your car system -- the difference with me and people like me is that we realize that we don't want to be assholes. Realizing that "Loud Music != Manhood", I'm capable of turning it down when I get to residential areas or other places where people might be rightly irritated by excessive noise.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
That's because there stupid.
I generally don't find a whole lot of traffic lights on the freeway. I also tend to notice that, while travelling in excess of 65 MPH, there's quite a bit of road and engine noise. Anyhow, if your kids are that tired, I recommend buying them a "bed" at "home".
You know what - I'm irritated by the excessive noise on the freeway as well. What makes you think that just because you're not driving down by someones house that a) it can't be heard where it is unwelcome and b) it doesn't irritate people
I guess you'll just have to learn not to be so sensative for the 10 seconds our cars might be in proximity.
If I were in the apartment next to yours, you'd have a right to expect me not to watch DVDs with my system jacked all the way up. In the car on a highway, however, you're in a naturally noisy and dynamic environment. Learn to deal.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
You might find this hard to believe but using this machine in New Zealand would be considered a breach of our copyright laws.
That's because under NZ law, the purchasers of copyrighted music have *no* right whatsoever to copy that music.
That's right -- you can't tape your CDs or vinyl, you can't tape music from the radio and you certainly can't rip CDs to MP3.
The head of Sony Music NZ is also at the front of a local campaign titled "Burn and get Burnt" which is trying to convince consumers not to burn CDs.
So on the one hand we have Sony selling its MD players/recorders that claim to be able to rip CDs to MD, and on the other hand you've got the head of Sony standing firm behind a law that says consumers are not allowed to rip CDs to MD or any other format.
Talk about two-faced!