Why Sony Should've Put Its Weight Behind Hi-MD 519
An anonymous reader writes "OSNews has an article making a case for Hi-MD: 'Currently, .mp3 players are all the hype. Everyone has one, and if you don't, you're old-fashioned. I do not have an .mp3 player. I tried to have one, but for various reasons it did not please me. I'm a MiniDisc guy. I've always been. MiniDisc has some serious advantages over .mp3 players, whether they be flash or HDD based.'"
Even niche markets are an issue (Score:5, Insightful)
Unfortunately, I couldn't find one in production that fit my needs. I could not find any assurance that I could do what I wanted with a MiniDisc player from specs I was seeing online. I eventually figured out that the people who had the MiniDisc recorders all got them overseas (Japan for sure, maybe Australia as well?). I see the article author does have a recorder; I wonder if that's new or something, or if he got it somewhere other than the U.S. as well.
I have no other reason to want one of these devices, and with Sony's reputation of late, I don't need one that badly anyway.
Surely most here can agree... (Score:2, Insightful)
Sony is killing itself (Score:3, Insightful)
The article forgets to mention the idiotic copy restrictions that MiniDisc players have along with the mentioned ATRAC/soundstage/can't drag 'n drop files limitations. They are basically shooting themselves in the foot because the record label is paranoid about copying. Nevermind MD, whatever happened to my cheap DAT device?
If Sony wants to survive as a consumer electronics company it should split from the music label.
Re:Only applies to ipods... (Score:5, Insightful)
I loved the hardware- for the time they came out they were the smallest thing out there. The removeable disks did provide an 'unlimited' amount of storage. The battery life was awesome.
But as the author of the article mentioned, the achilles heel of the whole operation was the software.
SONIC STAGE *is* a steaming pile of shit. There is no way around that- it is one of the worst pieces of software I have ever used. And because you are forced to use Sonic State to use a MiniDisc player you are completely screwed over.
At the time I bought them (3-4 years ago) the hardware was A++. But the software is so crappy I would give the whole thing a D+.
Sony can really manage to screw some stuff up. And that is one reason I am not excited about the PS3 with Blu-Ray.
(Why did I buy 4? Well, the first one was great, but I lost it after only 2 days. So when I bought another one, I also picked one up for my wife and daughter.)
Some people just don't get it.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Greed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Only applies to ipods... (Score:5, Insightful)
The reason i dumped it (besides the hardware which eventually died) was because the ONLY way to get software on it was through the buggy Windows-only Sony Software that came with it.
Sorry Sony, even if you do fix the problems with it, you're way too late. I got a taste of the high capacity iPod with the extremely easy to use iTunes software and i'm never going back. Good luck with the whole rootkit things though.
This is one of the problems with Sony, they're in too many businesses. Their Music division has longed forced them to cripple their electronics division, or be exclusive to their record label. When one arm of your company is installing rootkits on your computer to prevent you from ripping CDs to mp3, would you really trust that same company with your mp3 device? I don't.
thats not why minidisks failed. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Surely most here can agree... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, nothing says proprietary formats like the ISO standard MPEG-4 audio layer.
Quality of Sound (Score:2, Insightful)
The big failure is Sony's attempt to lock in their own lame software, restrict the functionality, and limit the use of MD. These would have been a great challenge to the Zip disks 10 years ago. Imagine being able to move data and music back and foward on a USB port.
Instead Sony tried to lock MD down, limited licenses to a few partners, and starved any reason to inovate. Sharp is dropping out of the MD business in the US. It's the same story as Betamax, another better quality standard killed by corporate lockdown. You can only buy a limited number of units.
I'll keep using MD until the next big thing comes along. After all, I still have cassette tapes and vinyl. Some of which I've archived on CD. As far as portable music goes Sony blew this big time.
Missed opportunity (Score:3, Insightful)
Sony, of course, kept the MD music-only (at least in the consumer market) and the niche that they could have OWNED instead went to Iomega and their shitty ZIP ("click-of-death") carts (which were $20 apiece and held 100MB, still a great deal back then).
Re:Some people just don't get it.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Which is much easier on an MP3 player. Instead of filling 5 separate discs, you just set up your software to autmoatically change the contents of the HDD or Flash memory as your mood dictates. Essentially, unless you are on a desert island and don't ever go near a computer, an MP3 player has "limitless" capacity - and it is much easier to manage.
second that, Sony is in a death spiral (Score:4, Insightful)
Sony needs to understand that they can either be a doomed content company or a electronics company, but not both. It simply amazes me to see how hard they have tried to kill their electronics sales in the name of content. I hope it's not lost on them that all this bad will surely has an impact on all Sony products. Somebody up there is clearly out of touch. If I were a Sony share holder, I would be pissed.
Other Downsides... (Score:4, Insightful)
B: Isn't as fast or durable as Flash-based MP3 players, for slightly less space.
C: Isn't as cheap as CD-based MP3 players.
D: Software is so bad it should be criminal. Used Sonic Stage to transfer MP3's to a Sony PDA. I now own a Treo.
E: Zero compatibility with anything but other Sony MD players.
F: Not all that small, really.
Basically, like the Memory Stick, the MiniDisk doesn't do anything better than any of the offerings out there. It tries to be middle-of-the-road, but manages to be nothing special.
Re:Sorry, but no... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Sorry, but no... (Score:2, Insightful)
Reasons why HDMD is not a good idea. (Score:1, Insightful)
>Nearly all Mp3 players (if they record at all) are limited to voice recordings.
>If you want to record music and lots of it, MiniDisc is the way to go.
Actually, no.
Buy one of the mp3 players that records in great quality.
For example the Iriver H320 models. Then install some open
source software on it and suddenly you have a unit that beats
any minidisc recorder at its own game.
Re:1 Gb is good enough for me... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:If you're a musician MiniDisc is better (Score:3, Insightful)
Works great - musicians, HiMd with Mic Input ! Great sound, on the cheap.
Lk4
I use an already owned laptop and a free copy of CDex. It supports line in recording at all your favorite bitrates. No need to buy a new piece of hardware (unless you need a RCA or 1/4 inch to 1/8th inch adaptor).
Capture to Wave or encode to MP3.
Scott Adam understood this.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:1 Gb is good enough for me... (Score:3, Insightful)
The UI is also, despite your apparent dismissal of aethetics, very nifty and easy to use. I've spent some time fighting the UI from Creative for a friend and yes, UIs are important to me. Oh, and I have the mini, not the nano, so scratching wasn't really an issue.
In summary: am I tool? probably not, though I do like small well-designed toys and yes; this is a toy.
TFA is way off base (Coming from a Mini-disc user) (Score:3, Insightful)
First off, durability. I dropped my minidisc player exactly once... and that was the end of it. There is something to be said about all of those mechanical parts, from the ejector mechanism to the laser head reader, etc etc. Thing never played again.
He quotes unlimited storage space... in case 60 gigs isn't enough for you. This same argument could be made for MP3 CDs, which hold almost as much as the 1 gig minidiscs, and are a whole hell of a lot cheaper and easier to find. Either case, nobody wants to carry the stupid things around all over the place.
He comments on how MD users expect high quality but that they put up with SonicStage (and ATRAC/MP3 only recordings)
The author obviously has an illogical bias towards this particular media. To be honest I think the whole thing reeks of fanboy-ism.
Re:1 Gb is good enough for me... (Score:2, Insightful)
Trying to prove one's point by dissing those that disagree does not a good article make.
Re:Surely most here can agree... (Score:3, Insightful)
By your definition, there is almost no non-proprietary format in the world, except maybe Vorbis, and even that is disputable. (Xiph has a trademark on it)