Ouch, Apple hits Sony hard with this new ad that simply reads “Hello, iPod. Goodbye, MD”. And I must agree, iPod rules when it comes to portable digital audio. The iPod makes taking music with me so much easier than this whole “check-in/check-out” crap that Sony puts me through to make an MD. Sony better wake up to the reality that they maybe losing the portable audio market if they keep up their antics — I know it’s hard for Sony because they also sell content and they have to make hardware that protects the content. But how far can that go when others are making hardware that is first much better and second allows people to copy that content anyways?
Jun 30th, 2003 at June 30, 2003 5:17 am
then use nero/simpleburner… simple!
nothing beats MD for price, portability, battery life, convenience.
Jun 30th, 2003 at June 30, 2003 5:57 am
I used to be a huge MD fan, but after my Archos 30GB and my iPod 5GB, the MD machines that I have are just sitting around now. Is Nero/Simpleburner really more simple? Check it out:
- Make virtual CD with Nero.
- Launch Simpleburner.
- Wait until all songs are transfered to MD player (takes time because everytime you send to a new MD, it needs to do the compression again).
- Use Simpleburner to label songs by hand.
How about this with my iPod or Archos:
- Rip songs ONCE to MP3 format.
- Copy songs ONCE to Archos or iPod.
- Listen to music.
Then there’s the matter of media. With 30GB of storage on my Archos I have most of my CD collection ripped at high bitrate VBR store on it — high bitrate meaning > 192kbits/sec.
When I used my MD players I had to have a stack of MDs for when I wanted selection on the road. And even then the MDLP2 format is only 132kbits/sec. MDLP4 is a measily 64kbits/sec. If I want high bitrate stuff then I’d have to use SP to record and you can’t do that with NetMD.
I’ll have to admit that the 8 hours of playtime on my iPod and 12 hours of playtime on my Archos are nothing compared to the 24 plus hours of playtime on my MD players. That is truly one of the benefits of MD.
The other thing that MD has that HDD jukeboxes don’t have is the small size.
Oh, price. If you go to Wal-Mart (I know, don’t go, but this is an example) you can find the Creative Nomad Jukebox 2LX 20GB for $198. The lowend NetMD recorder/player is $149. At 128kbit/s (matching the NetMDs MDLP2 bitrate) the 20GB can hold over 4000 songs. At 3 minutes per song, that’s 12,000 minutes of music. Each MDLP2 disc can hold only 160 minutes of music. 75 MDs worth of music. MDs cost $2 a piece. That’s an extra $150 for the media to hold all the music that the Jukebox 2LX could hold. That makes the MD deal $300 compared to the $200 of the Jukekbox LX 20GB. Not too inexpensive now huh?
Jun 30th, 2003 at June 30, 2003 8:25 am
if you are ripping albums… simpleburner does CDDB. i rarely title my tracks anyways. transferring netMD isn’t that slow either.
MD is just portable. can fit in a pocket and it’s not as fragile.
as for media… nothing beats MD designs. gotta love my hello kitty blanks.
Jul 28th, 2004 at July 28, 2004 9:13 pm
Oh, I’m sorry, I wish I could use MiniDisc, like with faster than real-time transfers, but I’m on a Mac, and Sony doesn’t support the Mac platform. So they are assholes.
Jul 29th, 2004 at July 29, 2004 9:48 pm
I work for Sony, please don’t call us assholes
On a similar note though: I don’t understand what the whole “We hate Apple” deal is with Sony. I too wish that they would start supporting the Mac platform.