With respect to the 1X PC -> MD problem and why they havent come out with a recorder
with a decent built-in USB
interface, I think they're play "both sides of the fence" when it comes to issues of
whether MD classifies as a music
recorder or a computer peripheral. The real culprit in this battle is the RIAA, whose
silly rules create the problem in the first
place. If it weren't for the fact that, for legal reasons, every consumer device
capable of recording digital audio sold in the
US must be classified as either an audio recorder or a computer peripheral. Audio
recorders (MD and CDR audio) are
subject to SCMS and the RIAA's tax, whereas computer peripherals (CDR data and MP3)
are not. With the latest growth of
CDR and MP3, maybe the RIAA will realize that they've lost the battle anyway. I think
the reason that stricter standards
were put into place for MD has to do a lot with the era (10 years ago) when the MD
standards were put into place. For
those of you that remember, the precursor to SCMS (in the late 80s) was an ANALOG
system that placed a very narrow
notch in the frequency response of the copyrighted music which all audio recorders
(even analog cassette decks) were to
recognize and refuse to record (not even ONE copy, as SCMS allows). Luckily,
extensive NIST tests showed that the notch
was very annoying in many types of music, and so the RIAA backed down. But this was
the era in which MD was born, and I
think we're still bearing the legacy of that thinking to this day.
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