and doesn't do what it should (namely, the #1 thing it should do that it doesn't is play Plays For Sure(TM) files).
Much more important to me than the ability to play any DRM music is the ability to attach to any computer and drag and drop DRM free MP3's. The Zune is not only incompatible with older versions of Windows, it is also incompatible with any version of *NIX or Apple.
Let's face it. Apple's players work on Apple, Windows (most versions) and even Linux when using any one of the jukebox software that can sync with an I-pod.
My $40 Coby off brand player does better than the Zune in this regard. The only thing it doesn't do is play DRM'ed files. That is not a liability. It does attach as a flash drive and works by drag and drop. It has a built in tuner and mic and can record from both. Recorded files can be copied directly off the player as MP3's. The expensive Zune has a tuner, but it can't do this simple task at all. In a nutshell the Coby is compatible with any computer with a USB port and can record of the radio or mic. The Zune is dead on the compatiblilty issue.
Wirelessly sharing a limited use file is no competiton to dropping by a friends house and dragging and dropping a bunch of MP3's with no restrictions and no special software install.
If the other manufacturers standardized an external connector, they could have enough of an accessory market share that they could compete.
The standard you are looking for is called 1/8 inch stereo headphone jack. The other standard seems to be USB memory with either direct USB plug or mini-USB connection. Even off brands such as the Coby support this standard.
All your work goes away when you shut the computer down. Exactly what freedoms are available to you when you run a linux live
Ever wish that was the case when the RIAA lawyer sent you a letter?
Sure, here is an image of my hard drive. See it never had bittorrent installed or any other P-P client. Just don't let them know you have a USB external hard drive for your live CD sessions.
perhaps a usb keychain could be a better alternative.
Except that most USB keychains have no write protect. The idea of a Live CD is there is no way malware can get written and present at the next boot. A writable USB keychain removes this protection.
Besides, I thought the point of the "Internet Freedom Disk" was so that you could browse the web while being relatively carefree?
Using Ubuntu live CD once in a while has made it very clear they left out a few things. By the nature of the open source lisence, they can't include them. Things missing are FLASH and other Media codecs.
You are not going to use a live Linux CD to visit My-Space, Yahoo, Google, and others to view the videos and enjoy the music. Non free codecs are not included in the distribution.
The live CD is OK for slashdot and some of the articles, but not all.
Get with the times. It's going to be 2007, that'll make it 7 years old
Fine, Upgrade to XP an OS that is 6 years old. Yeah right...
The consumer version of Vista is due out Jan 30 2007. I just upgraded everything older than Windows 2000 to Ubuntu Dapper Drake. I still have a few Windows only apps and they run fine on Windows 2K. If I upgrade my Windows 2K machine, it won't be to Windows XP Home.
I started using Media Player 10 to stream to my XBOX360 and that's when the pain began. I had a MP3 refuse to play because, "this was ripped with a CD and the CD is not available".
Are you sure it was an MP3? I've heard of problems with DRM and wma files, but not with MP3. Was it ripped with Media Player, or a real MP3 ripper such as CDEX.
For example, a DRM'ed file may appear to "copy" when the user issues the command to do so. But after the operation is completed, the user will simply get a rude awakening in the form of a message on whatever device or program their using saying that the original file was copy protected
My kid with an RCA Lyra MP3 player just had that can of worms. He was over at a friends house and copied a directory of WMA files to his player. They were protected and wouldn't play. To add insult to injury, he tried to delete the broken files from his player at home to make room for real MP3's. The folder displayed a lock. It wouldn't delete due to lack of permission. Tried again from a Linux machine. Same result.. Unable to delete due to lack of permission. My kid had to go the the computer where the folder was installed to have the permission to remove the folder and it's WMA junk.
With a little friendly advice, he knows wma files are potential problems. Best stick with MP3's from now on. Not only does he know better, but his friend also knows to rip CD's in MP3 instead of wma to make sure they Play for Sure.
MS and the Zune player comes to mind. Gee what do people want in a portable music player?
Drag and drop. Cross platform compatibility. Compatibility with online music services (more than one). Simple easy sharing. Wi-Fi connectivity to eliminate cords and enable sharing would be nice. Small lightweight form.
They kinda hit on a couple features but overall missed the boat entirely.
Wi-Fi that won't connect to your home network? What a miss. No USB drive capability? Incompatible with even the MS format Plays for Sure? What a miss. Big and bulky?
Maybe they will work with a consumer group and get feedback next time.
Hm. With the HeNe lasers I always worked with, the symptom of a misaligned output coupler or high reflector was that you didn't have any significant laser output.
Due to the laser power and wavelength (invisable and starts fire) the laser unit is factory sealed. The alignment I was talking about is entirely downstream of the laser head. The alignment is completed with all interlocks in place and functional. The lid is opened, the mirror tweaked and tape replaced and then the covers are closed and the alignment is checked with burn marks on the tape. The chance of exposure to invisible laser radiation while performing alignment is none.
FYI the laser is not a gas flow laser. It's a sealed tube and is RF pumped. The laser unit is factory service only by exchange.
I guess it really doesn't matter if you're just blasting a CO2 laser in the vague shape of words or something. Sure, alignment is tricky, but I've aligned a low-power open-cavity HeNe on my own--and I imagine if a laser of that power and size gets misaligned, it's probably beyond help.
I've done some work on the laser etchers by Laser Systems. The CO2 laser is a sealed RF pumped unit from 15-50 watts. The alignment to get it to the target is no big deal. I have aligned one that was knocked out of alignment in shipping. On the X-Y table, the laser enters from the rear and hits a mirror on the Y axis. Removing the mirror and using a piece of masking tape, the first mirror is aligned so the burn marks on the tape are in the same place with the carrige near and far. You want one spot, not two. After replacing the first moving mirror, the second one is removed and the proceedure is repeated for left/right motion adjusting the first moving mirror to overlay the burn spots. To burn the spots, the laser is adjusted to about 2 watts and turned on for just a moment to mark the tape.
The symptom of a mirror alignment problem is the image fades towards the lower right corner as the beam starts to miss the next mirror in the optical path and the beam starts to miss the lens.
The laser unit itself is modular and is sent in for repairs if it's not up to par.
Now when you can get decent quality alternatives, interoperability is becoming a much bigger issue and DRM is like a doorstop not letting anyone in.
I just bought an inexpensive flash based MP3 player for under $40. It attaches like a USB flash drive and it is drag and drop. It has a tuner and mic. It can record from both. It will play MP3 and WMA files. It does not do DRM even plays for sure. Needless to say DRM files are simply incompatible. If I need more capacity, it has a SD card slot.
I am not an I-tunes consumer. My devices are unable to play the content.
This would be good for the companies that are currently seeing losses due to copyright infringement, just imagine if all your media was only available on-line - you could only rent it, it would be playable on your PC but only if the platform had sufficient technical measures in place to prevent you from copying it. You couldn't copy Office or Photoshop because its run directly from someone else's server. This would be a dream for software providers as they could charge you on a per use basis, and lock your data into their services. No more trying to sell upgrades as you wouldn't have a choice.
There is a sector of the market where this model simply does not work and as such there is a market for installed software. Much of the rural area is on dial-up. Many road warriers have to carry the programs and data with them due to long periods of time with no connection. My folks have been doing the RV explore America for the last 20 years when the weather at home isn't nice. For them power is solar while parked between 2 trees on the shore of some nice lake somewhere. Software as a service is not an option.
Once games creators switch, or rather, produce for linux too, hardware manufacturers will start working in linux more,
We are already seeing that. I stuck Ubuntu on a machine and dreaded the problems of windows only hardware. I was pleasently suprised. The PC found all hardware except a Win-Modem. Connecting to my network was very nice. I have a Simple Share net attached storage. It not only has SMB shares which Ubuntu found OK in the network neighborhood, but it supports Unix network shares. Nice! My printers are networked on my lan using some Hawking Tech printservers which has Windows Drivers.. Not a proplem. They support Internet Printing Protocol! Nice! I connected by IP address with no problems. Found Ubuntu supports my HP inkjet and Laser printers. Nice! Ubuntu found my USB memory card reader with no issues and no drivers needed. Nice!
Other than a Win-modem the only thing that didn't work was a USB HP flatbed scanner. I plugged in a Cannon scanner and it worked with no setup!. This sure beat Windows 98 which required drivers for the Motherboard, Video card, Printers, Scanner, USB memory card reader, Printservers, Sound card, Modem, Lan Card....
Overall, Not bad for a no drivers and no reboot install.
those older OSes haven't just ceased to exist, they are a threat to their business model.
Even worse, as the old Windows 95 and 98 machines become targets online, the OS gets replaced by a Linuz distro such as Ubuntu which is easy to install and set up. The hardware is not new enough to run smoothly with XP, but runs great with Ubuntu.
Lets face it, most Ubuntu installs are not put on new hardware but are installed on Windows 98 or ME machines. That's when people learn to like Linux. Instead of paying for a newer version of Windows and a version of Office, Ubuntu comes with Evolution E-mail and Open Office installed. The savings of $200 for an OS and $400 for an office suite start to look good. Add in WGA so you don't pirate XP and Office on older hardware only helps encourage more use of older hardware to new life with a non-MS OS.
(assuming their intentions are to reduce costs to the consumer)
Like CD's are cheaper to mass produce than Compact Cassettes.. You forgot who you are dealing with. Noting with them is to reduce the costs to the consumer. Seen the pressure on Apple to go to tiered prices?
The problem is that the public is very easily controlled by advertising and the media. So long as that is true, the RIAA will be able to create a few 'big acts', and to get the public to listen only to them.
The internet where everyone is a publisher is changing the landscape. There are a few acts everyone is familiar with even though they got no MTV or Clearchannel airtime. My Space, YouTube, Google Video, and others are starting to give the cartel a run for the money.
Are you still doubting? Ever heard of the Numa Numa guy? Has he ever been on MTV or a Clear Channel station? How about the dancing baby?, the Badger or Lama song?
As I watch the winter storm problems and electrical outages across the country,
Have you tested the ISP for service during an extended outage? Cable tends to die with a power outage. Most people don't notice simply because they have no power. Some DSL is hosted at the CO and is on the battery/generator backkup and will continue to work unless the line is down, but not always. Sometimes with DSL they locate some network stuff close to a population cluster and even though the loop for telephone is up, the network connection may be down as the satelite locations lose power. Phone service is a priority. Internet is not.
Some cable companies are selling bundles including VOIP telephone and have upgraded to provide service for a day or so into an outage on battery power. If your ISP is the cable company and they sell telephone service, check and see if they will tell you the battery run time in case of a power outage. How many hours and days will I have phone before the system dies. Internet should be the same. Be sure to ask about the phone service. They are trying to sell the service and they should have an idea on the system limitatations. The internet division may be clueless and tell you you won't have power so it doesn't matter.
Being against annoying and imposing DRM and copy protection doesn't mean you support piracy.
For me it's a compatibility issue. For the basement dwellers with only one PC and one portable player, DRM may be OK. For me it is not OK because DRM is a stamp of incompatibility. I finaly broke down and bought a flash based MP3 player. On the front of the package it clearly states it will play MP3 and WMA files. After using a knive to open the package I found my under $40 treasure mentions in the literature in the troubleshooting section that it will not play DRM WMA files. That is not a problem for me becasue I rejected the format outright for incompatibility. I love the player. It has an FM tuner, built in mic, does on the fly MP3 encoding from both. Requires no special software. Connects as a USB drive. It supports playlists and directories. You can export your own FM and microphone created MP3's. It has an SD card slot so it's built in 512 meg isn't a bad limit.
The only items on the wish list would have been a Mic and Line in jack. Other than that, it's perfect for my use. FYI, off obscure "Coby" on sale at Home Depot. Not bad for under $40.
Why would I even consider DRM files. I can't play them in most places.
Hey RIAA, Get a clue. The biggest installed base of music players and DVD players will play MP3's. Hint, Hint, Hint. Wanna sell some music to the masses instead of the eliete? Sell MP3's. The players are out there. The online content is not. Hint!
Slashdot Mirror
and doesn't do what it should (namely, the #1 thing it should do that it doesn't is play Plays For Sure(TM) files).
Much more important to me than the ability to play any DRM music is the ability to attach to any computer and drag and drop DRM free MP3's. The Zune is not only incompatible with older versions of Windows, it is also incompatible with any version of *NIX or Apple.
Let's face it. Apple's players work on Apple, Windows (most versions) and even Linux when using any one of the jukebox software that can sync with an I-pod.
My $40 Coby off brand player does better than the Zune in this regard. The only thing it doesn't do is play DRM'ed files. That is not a liability. It does attach as a flash drive and works by drag and drop. It has a built in tuner and mic and can record from both. Recorded files can be copied directly off the player as MP3's. The expensive Zune has a tuner, but it can't do this simple task at all. In a nutshell the Coby is compatible with any computer with a USB port and can record of the radio or mic. The Zune is dead on the compatiblilty issue.
Wirelessly sharing a limited use file is no competiton to dropping by a friends house and dragging and dropping a bunch of MP3's with no restrictions and no special software install.
If the other manufacturers standardized an external connector, they could have enough of an accessory market share that they could compete.
The standard you are looking for is called 1/8 inch stereo headphone jack. The other standard seems to be USB memory with either direct USB plug or mini-USB connection. Even off brands such as the Coby support this standard.
All your work goes away when you shut the computer down.
Exactly what freedoms are available to you when you run a linux live
Ever wish that was the case when the RIAA lawyer sent you a letter?
Sure, here is an image of my hard drive. See it never had bittorrent installed or any other P-P client. Just don't let them know you have a USB external hard drive for your live CD sessions.
perhaps a usb keychain could be a better alternative.
Except that most USB keychains have no write protect. The idea of a Live CD is there is no way malware can get written and present at the next boot. A writable USB keychain removes this protection.
Besides, I thought the point of the "Internet Freedom Disk" was so that you could browse the web while being relatively carefree?
Using Ubuntu live CD once in a while has made it very clear they left out a few things. By the nature of the open source lisence, they can't include them. Things missing are FLASH and other Media codecs.
You are not going to use a live Linux CD to visit My-Space, Yahoo, Google, and others to view the videos and enjoy the music. Non free codecs are not included in the distribution.
The live CD is OK for slashdot and some of the articles, but not all.
Get with the times. It's going to be 2007, that'll make it 7 years old
Fine, Upgrade to XP an OS that is 6 years old. Yeah right...
The consumer version of Vista is due out Jan 30 2007. I just upgraded everything older than Windows 2000 to Ubuntu Dapper Drake. I still have a few Windows only apps and they run fine on Windows 2K. If I upgrade my Windows 2K machine, it won't be to Windows XP Home.
I started using Media Player 10 to stream to my XBOX360 and that's when the pain began. I had a MP3 refuse to play because, "this was ripped with a CD and the CD is not available".
Are you sure it was an MP3? I've heard of problems with DRM and wma files, but not with MP3. Was it ripped with Media Player, or a real MP3 ripper such as CDEX.
For example, a DRM'ed file may appear to "copy" when the user issues the command to do so. But after the operation is completed, the user will simply get a rude awakening in the form of a message on whatever device or program their using saying that the original file was copy protected
My kid with an RCA Lyra MP3 player just had that can of worms. He was over at a friends house and copied a directory of WMA files to his player. They were protected and wouldn't play. To add insult to injury, he tried to delete the broken files from his player at home to make room for real MP3's. The folder displayed a lock. It wouldn't delete due to lack of permission. Tried again from a Linux machine. Same result.. Unable to delete due to lack of permission. My kid had to go the the computer where the folder was installed to have the permission to remove the folder and it's WMA junk.
With a little friendly advice, he knows wma files are potential problems. Best stick with MP3's from now on. Not only does he know better, but his friend also knows to rip CD's in MP3 instead of wma to make sure they Play for Sure.
Companies should be forbidden from selling such disks as CDs.
Do what I do. Look for the Philips "Compact Disc tm." Logo. Get the staff to help you find it. Without a logo, it might not be a compact disk.
Due to the lack of Compact Disks for sale in the local music shop, I gave up looking about 5 years ago. Good luck.
No wonder Yahoo is not relevant these days.
MS and the Zune player comes to mind. Gee what do people want in a portable music player?
Drag and drop. Cross platform compatibility. Compatibility with online music services (more than one). Simple easy sharing. Wi-Fi connectivity to eliminate cords and enable sharing would be nice. Small lightweight form.
They kinda hit on a couple features but overall missed the boat entirely.
Wi-Fi that won't connect to your home network? What a miss. No USB drive capability? Incompatible with even the MS format Plays for Sure? What a miss. Big and bulky?
Maybe they will work with a consumer group and get feedback next time.
You can't fold a dollar coin in half and stick it behind a G-string.
True, but have you ever seen one full of coins. Gravity starts to become interesting.
There are no .4 length characters!
;-)
Which is exactly why my password is so hard to guess.
Hm. With the HeNe lasers I always worked with, the symptom of a misaligned output coupler or high reflector was that you didn't have any significant laser output.
_ systems.html
Due to the laser power and wavelength (invisable and starts fire) the laser unit is factory sealed. The alignment I was talking about is entirely downstream of the laser head. The alignment is completed with all interlocks in place and functional. The lid is opened, the mirror tweaked and tape replaced and then the covers are closed and the alignment is checked with burn marks on the tape. The chance of exposure to invisible laser radiation while performing alignment is none.
FYI the laser is not a gas flow laser. It's a sealed tube and is RF pumped. The laser unit is factory service only by exchange.
http://www.ulsinc.com/english/laser_systems/laser
See the CO2 Laser Cartridges section for details of the laser head. They now have sizes from 10 watt to 120 watt in air cooled or water cooled units.
I guess it really doesn't matter if you're just blasting a CO2 laser in the vague shape of words or something. Sure, alignment is tricky, but I've aligned a low-power open-cavity HeNe on my own--and I imagine if a laser of that power and size gets misaligned, it's probably beyond help.
I've done some work on the laser etchers by Laser Systems. The CO2 laser is a sealed RF pumped unit from 15-50 watts. The alignment to get it to the target is no big deal. I have aligned one that was knocked out of alignment in shipping. On the X-Y table, the laser enters from the rear and hits a mirror on the Y axis. Removing the mirror and using a piece of masking tape, the first mirror is aligned so the burn marks on the tape are in the same place with the carrige near and far. You want one spot, not two. After replacing the first moving mirror, the second one is removed and the proceedure is repeated for left/right motion adjusting the first moving mirror to overlay the burn spots. To burn the spots, the laser is adjusted to about 2 watts and turned on for just a moment to mark the tape.
The symptom of a mirror alignment problem is the image fades towards the lower right corner as the beam starts to miss the next mirror in the optical path and the beam starts to miss the lens.
The laser unit itself is modular and is sent in for repairs if it's not up to par.
mass obsoletion of literal tons of cheap, mercury-laden TV tubes
New one on me.. Please enlighten me. LCD's have cold cathode tubes with Mecury, but I'm not aware of mecury in CRT's.
At least doing it all at once lets you run reasonably efficient "recycle your old TV" programs.
Naw, they are not going away. They will still be used for DVD's, VHS, Playstation, X-box, Gamecube, etc.
Now when you can get decent quality alternatives, interoperability is becoming a much bigger issue and DRM is like a doorstop not letting anyone in.
I just bought an inexpensive flash based MP3 player for under $40. It attaches like a USB flash drive and it is drag and drop. It has a tuner and mic. It can record from both. It will play MP3 and WMA files. It does not do DRM even plays for sure. Needless to say DRM files are simply incompatible. If I need more capacity, it has a SD card slot.
I am not an I-tunes consumer. My devices are unable to play the content.
This would be good for the companies that are currently seeing losses due to copyright infringement, just imagine if all your media was only available on-line - you could only rent it, it would be playable on your PC but only if the platform had sufficient technical measures in place to prevent you from copying it. You couldn't copy Office or Photoshop because its run directly from someone else's server. This would be a dream for software providers as they could charge you on a per use basis, and lock your data into their services. No more trying to sell upgrades as you wouldn't have a choice.
There is a sector of the market where this model simply does not work and as such there is a market for installed software. Much of the rural area is on dial-up. Many road warriers have to carry the programs and data with them due to long periods of time with no connection. My folks have been doing the RV explore America for the last 20 years when the weather at home isn't nice. For them power is solar while parked between 2 trees on the shore of some nice lake somewhere. Software as a service is not an option.
Once games creators switch, or rather, produce for linux too, hardware manufacturers will start working in linux more,
We are already seeing that. I stuck Ubuntu on a machine and dreaded the problems of windows only hardware. I was pleasently suprised. The PC found all hardware except a Win-Modem. Connecting to my network was very nice. I have a Simple Share net attached storage. It not only has SMB shares which Ubuntu found OK in the network neighborhood, but it supports Unix network shares. Nice! My printers are networked on my lan using some Hawking Tech printservers which has Windows Drivers.. Not a proplem. They support Internet Printing Protocol! Nice! I connected by IP address with no problems. Found Ubuntu supports my HP inkjet and Laser printers. Nice! Ubuntu found my USB memory card reader with no issues and no drivers needed. Nice!
Other than a Win-modem the only thing that didn't work was a USB HP flatbed scanner. I plugged in a Cannon scanner and it worked with no setup!. This sure beat Windows 98 which required drivers for the Motherboard, Video card, Printers, Scanner, USB memory card reader, Printservers, Sound card, Modem, Lan Card....
Overall, Not bad for a no drivers and no reboot install.
those older OSes haven't just ceased to exist, they are a threat to their business model.
Even worse, as the old Windows 95 and 98 machines become targets online, the OS gets replaced by a Linuz distro such as Ubuntu which is easy to install and set up. The hardware is not new enough to run smoothly with XP, but runs great with Ubuntu.
Lets face it, most Ubuntu installs are not put on new hardware but are installed on Windows 98 or ME machines. That's when people learn to like Linux. Instead of paying for a newer version of Windows and a version of Office, Ubuntu comes with Evolution E-mail and Open Office installed. The savings of $200 for an OS and $400 for an office suite start to look good. Add in WGA so you don't pirate XP and Office on older hardware only helps encourage more use of older hardware to new life with a non-MS OS.
Yet another reason to own a Mac.
:-)
Snob.. Own a Mac.
Sensible about security.. Own a non-Windows computer.
Smile
(assuming their intentions are to reduce costs to the consumer)
Like CD's are cheaper to mass produce than Compact Cassettes.. You forgot who you are dealing with. Noting with them is to reduce the costs to the consumer. Seen the pressure on Apple to go to tiered prices?
The problem is that the public is very easily controlled by advertising and the media. So long as that is true, the RIAA will be able to create a few 'big acts', and to get the public to listen only to them.
The internet where everyone is a publisher is changing the landscape. There are a few acts everyone is familiar with even though they got no MTV or Clearchannel airtime. My Space, YouTube, Google Video, and others are starting to give the cartel a run for the money.
Are you still doubting? Ever heard of the Numa Numa guy? Has he ever been on MTV or a Clear Channel station?
How about the dancing baby?, the Badger or Lama song?
As I watch the winter storm problems and electrical outages across the country,
Have you tested the ISP for service during an extended outage? Cable tends to die with a power outage. Most people don't notice simply because they have no power. Some DSL is hosted at the CO and is on the battery/generator backkup and will continue to work unless the line is down, but not always. Sometimes with DSL they locate some network stuff close to a population cluster and even though the loop for telephone is up, the network connection may be down as the satelite locations lose power. Phone service is a priority. Internet is not.
Some cable companies are selling bundles including VOIP telephone and have upgraded to provide service for a day or so into an outage on battery power. If your ISP is the cable company and they sell telephone service, check and see if they will tell you the battery run time in case of a power outage. How many hours and days will I have phone before the system dies. Internet should be the same. Be sure to ask about the phone service. They are trying to sell the service and they should have an idea on the system limitatations. The internet division may be clueless and tell you you won't have power so it doesn't matter.
Being against annoying and imposing DRM and copy protection doesn't mean you support piracy.
For me it's a compatibility issue. For the basement dwellers with only one PC and one portable player, DRM may be OK. For me it is not OK because DRM is a stamp of incompatibility. I finaly broke down and bought a flash based MP3 player. On the front of the package it clearly states it will play MP3 and WMA files. After using a knive to open the package I found my under $40 treasure mentions in the literature in the troubleshooting section that it will not play DRM WMA files. That is not a problem for me becasue I rejected the format outright for incompatibility. I love the player. It has an FM tuner, built in mic, does on the fly MP3 encoding from both. Requires no special software. Connects as a USB drive. It supports playlists and directories. You can export your own FM and microphone created MP3's. It has an SD card slot so it's built in 512 meg isn't a bad limit.
The only items on the wish list would have been a Mic and Line in jack. Other than that, it's perfect for my use. FYI, off obscure "Coby" on sale at Home Depot. Not bad for under $40.
Why would I even consider DRM files. I can't play them in most places.
Hey RIAA, Get a clue. The biggest installed base of music players and DVD players will play MP3's. Hint, Hint, Hint. Wanna sell some music to the masses instead of the eliete? Sell MP3's. The players are out there. The online content is not. Hint!