Bruce asked several questions, of which I'll tackle three,
| 1. Now that there is technology for CD-players to play MP3s directly from
| CDs (in their compressed format), is there/will there be mini-disk units
| that can directly decode and play MP3's?
Not yet, and IMO not likely. If you have a song in MP3 format and want it on
MD, you need to decode it to uncompressed audio and reencode it under ATRAC
to record it as an MD track.
| 2. I enjoy an occasional audio book (like The Celestine Prophecy and related
| books), is there an easy way to get audio books that fit onto mini-disks
| without having to be there to start and stop things to record them?
Many MD recorders will pause during silences in the input, and they'll all
stop recording when the disc is full, but won't you have to be present anyway
to flip the cassette and to switch cassette channels? MD mono provides the
same double-capacity-in-mono that audiobooks do without as much handling;
just play a mono track in any except a few of the very earliest MD units and
you get full benefit of the double capacity.
| 5. I understand that "MiniDisc Long Play" aka MDLP requires a new mini-disk
| device, are they of the same sound quality, do they require special media,
| and are they readily available in the US?
Lesser sound quality (132 kbps bitrate in LP2, 66 kbps in LP4, compared to
292 kbps in SP); same media; decks are available in the US but AFAIK porta-
bles must be imported at present.
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