As far as I know, MDs were never really pricey. I was able to purchase high quality MDs at less than $2.00 US a piece, and that was several years ago. I expect that the new HDMDs will be about the same price. And yes, I agree about the transfer speeds...until NetMD was put in place (high-speed transfer, up to 32x, I believe) MD was definately a very odd format. No one liked recording in real time. It's been fun to see MiniDisc technology grow and evolve though. I have 3 different generations of portable recorders at the moment. Anyhow, I think MD is great.
Um, actually there are plenty of MiniDisc drives you can install on a PC. You should do more research -- MiniDisc is simply a format of disc. You can store anything on them -- audio OR data.
Why carry a stack of 20 discs? I didn't suggest this. I keep all of my music on a 120 GB hard drive dedicated to media storage. If I go out and want music, I'm not going to get through 20 discs before I return home. The solution? Simply grab 1-2 discs and head out. I guarantee you that a small MD player with a disc in it is MUCH smaller than any HD-based player (at the moment).
I don't see why MiniDisc hasn't been a bigger format than it is. Sony is pretty much jumping the competition by releasing High-Capacity MD recorders in the near future, with MDs that hold 1 GB as opposed to 180 MB on the current MDs (don't quote me on those specs). Why would you limit yourself to the size of a hard disk when you can carry around a few tiny discs that have hours upon hours of high-quality music on them (in ATRAC format).
Speaking of ATRAC format, I believe that it sounds pretty swell. If I'm correct, the current spec is ATRAC3. ATRAC is similar to the way MP3s are encoded -- simply shed the ultra-low and ultra-high end frequencies that the human ear supposedly can't hear and save space (obviously more goes into compression than just this). I think MP3 sounds really good when done in high-quality VBR, but ATRAC3 sounds pretty decent too when encoded at highger bit-rates.
Nothing will ever beat the warmth of vinyl or the superiority of DVD-Audio, however!
I had always wondered what Canada is up to...they seemed to be a very neutral and uneventful country to me for a long time. I later found out that they make a lot of modem hardware for one, but more importantly, it looks like Canada is good at preserving certain rights. Like the one in this article -- internet privacy, essentially...not to mention bud is basically legal there!
Go Canada!
I don't understand how these spyware/adware companies stay in business! I mean, who is going to buy stuff through pop-up ads...oh wait -- idiots.
All it ultimately end up doing is creating problems for people in IT because of end users who are too dumb to not click 'Yes' on dialogue boxes telling them to install software that they "need".
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As far as I know, MDs were never really pricey. I was able to purchase high quality MDs at less than $2.00 US a piece, and that was several years ago. I expect that the new HDMDs will be about the same price. And yes, I agree about the transfer speeds...until NetMD was put in place (high-speed transfer, up to 32x, I believe) MD was definately a very odd format. No one liked recording in real time. It's been fun to see MiniDisc technology grow and evolve though. I have 3 different generations of portable recorders at the moment. Anyhow, I think MD is great.
Um, actually there are plenty of MiniDisc drives you can install on a PC. You should do more research -- MiniDisc is simply a format of disc. You can store anything on them -- audio OR data. Why carry a stack of 20 discs? I didn't suggest this. I keep all of my music on a 120 GB hard drive dedicated to media storage. If I go out and want music, I'm not going to get through 20 discs before I return home. The solution? Simply grab 1-2 discs and head out. I guarantee you that a small MD player with a disc in it is MUCH smaller than any HD-based player (at the moment).
I don't see why MiniDisc hasn't been a bigger format than it is. Sony is pretty much jumping the competition by releasing High-Capacity MD recorders in the near future, with MDs that hold 1 GB as opposed to 180 MB on the current MDs (don't quote me on those specs). Why would you limit yourself to the size of a hard disk when you can carry around a few tiny discs that have hours upon hours of high-quality music on them (in ATRAC format). Speaking of ATRAC format, I believe that it sounds pretty swell. If I'm correct, the current spec is ATRAC3. ATRAC is similar to the way MP3s are encoded -- simply shed the ultra-low and ultra-high end frequencies that the human ear supposedly can't hear and save space (obviously more goes into compression than just this). I think MP3 sounds really good when done in high-quality VBR, but ATRAC3 sounds pretty decent too when encoded at highger bit-rates. Nothing will ever beat the warmth of vinyl or the superiority of DVD-Audio, however!
I had always wondered what Canada is up to...they seemed to be a very neutral and uneventful country to me for a long time. I later found out that they make a lot of modem hardware for one, but more importantly, it looks like Canada is good at preserving certain rights. Like the one in this article -- internet privacy, essentially...not to mention bud is basically legal there! Go Canada!
I don't understand how these spyware/adware companies stay in business! I mean, who is going to buy stuff through pop-up ads...oh wait -- idiots.
All it ultimately end up doing is creating problems for people in IT because of end users who are too dumb to not click 'Yes' on dialogue boxes telling them to install software that they "need".
Until the dog starts speaking the words it knows, I'm not impressed.
What about $0 for 44.3 GB? That's how much I've paid ;P!