Hi Rob,
Thanks for the note. Hope you don't mind me passing along my response
to MD-L.
Rob writes:
>>Angel Dejesus points out Sony's second USB to Minidisc announcement
>>(the first was back in September). Congratulations Sony on getting
>>the MP3/Minidisc story right!
>
>Hi Eric... I don't get it. Getting the story right would be the
>ability to select native MP3 encoding on the MD h/w, or least having
>a USB digital connection on ATRAC MD units.
Well, I think that would be more like paradise. What I meant was only
that Sony is now putting the right "spin" on where Minidisc fits in
the MP3 revolution.
>>By bundling two of Sony s most popular, virtually unshockable MD
>>Walkman player/recorders with the Internet Audio Recording
>>Interface, consumers can record MP3 or other audio files from their
>>PC to a MiniDisc. The Plug & >Play interface easily connects
>>through the primary USB port of a PC, eliminating the need to open
>>the computer or connect to a sound card while delivering superior
>>audio performance with the high quality digital-to-analog converter
>>called the PCLink.
>But this seems like nothing more than a minor improvement in quality
>over PC analog output, since they're targeting (usually
>medium-quality) downloadable MP3s. It's just a cheap outboard USB
>audio->analog converter, which explains why these new bundles are so
>cheap. No improvement in recording time etc. And of course as usual
>there's no Mac story (though it might "just work" with MacOS9.)
Right, it's nothing really new, other than that it's an explicit USB
to MD interface from Sony, and they're releasing it in the US, which
is saying something.
>At least it's a sign that they see USB as having a future, so maybe
>we can hope for the real solutions...
Right, there's nothing in SDMI or SCMS that would prevent Sony from:
1) Making the interface to the MD unit digital (actually, why do they
make it analog? Is S/PDIF hard to generate? Every portable has a
digital input after all).
2) Adding titling capability through a connector to the portable's
remote jack (the MZ-R90/91 allows title passing from portable CD
players, surely they could also do it from a computer).
(and the biggie):
3) Make it run at a special 4X or 8x S/PDIF rate, so that a portable
MD player could compete in downloading convenience with an MP3
player.
Rick
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