Michael Jackson Releases Uncopyable CD 452
Derek Jeter writes "NTK.net is reporting in their weekly newsletter that another copy restricted CD has surfaced, this time Michael Jackson's newest single, "Rock Your World". "When loaded into the CD drive, the disc spun continuously as though the drive was trying to access the TOC of a blank or corrupted CDR." Ughh, Doesn't this violoate the Red Book Standard?" I wonder how long before MP3s of this song exist despite the copy protection. So far its just free promotional copies of the single. I tell ya I'm gonna be pissed the first time I buy a CD and discover I can't listen to it in my computer.
Simple answer to theyre's, Move to new formats (Score:1)
We have a range of various formats, e.g., MP3, WMA, ogg vorbis etc.
Who needs a shiny disk? All it takes up is physical space.
Re:Simple answer to theyre's, Move to new formats (Score:2, Insightful)
If the only purchasble form of a new MJ song is in an 'unbreakable encrypted' version, than any mp3 versions of the song *must* be in violation of the DMCA. Then, they don't even have to prove you cracked it, guilty by induction.
Re:Simple answer to theyre's, Move to new formats (Score:2)
Even if the encryption is unbreakable, the DMCA doesn't apply, since its unproven if the mp3 is made from data decrypted by the user from the mp3, or if the mp3 is made by using the audio/digital out on the cd player.
Remember, we haven't degraded into automatically assuming everyone is guilty (yet).
Re:Simple answer to theyre's, Move to new formats (Score:2)
What would it take for them to understand (Score:1)
This will only make more people copy this song as MP3 so they can play it on their PCs, and will probably cause less people to but the CD. They're really mostly hurting themselves here.
Re:What would it take for them to understand (Score:1)
Circumvention Device (Score:1)
Ironic that a company that wants this legislation makes a device that could be considered illegal under it.
Re:actually... (Score:2)
Drug paraphernalia, on the other hand, has no purpose other than to facilitate the use of illegal drugs.
there doesn't need to be (Score:2)
Nowhere in the constitution is government given the right to regulate what chemicals enter my body.
Re:What would it take for them to understand (Score:1)
Or, as you say, a hax0r (bored 15-year-old) will probably find a way to do it. I just hope the said hax0r doesn't leave a trail back to him (DMCA, anyone?)
Re:What would it take for them to understand (Score:5, Insightful)
I think we need to ask ourselves if the record companies truly don't realize this. My guess is that they understand that copy protecting the CD in this manner won't stop the MP3 from being made Anyone can make an ok mp3 with their normal stereo and a microphone wired to their computer. So what we really need to ask is why the record companies are releasing CD's in this manner.
I believe it is to stop legitimate music owners from making MixCD's and from copying the CD directly. It's obvious that finding and downloading MP3 adds extra steps to the piracy (or backup) process - making redistributing a CD on a real medium (such as CDR) that much more difficult. In fact, if I bought a whole "protected" CD, I would never burn copies for my friends - because it would take fair amount or time and dedication to download *each* track from the CD in *good
So the record companies have likely succeeded in their task of making music piracy (or backups) slightly more complicated for the legitimate CD owner.
Of course, those people who don't buy the CD in the first place, i.e. the habitual music pirate, will not have a more difficult task than they already have with unprotected music, because the music will make it to MP3 format, and fault tolerant CDROM's already exist...
Re:What would it take for them to understand (Score:2)
Actually, for me it's easier to not buy the CD at all and just download it from the net.
I can download and burn a CD in less time and with less effort than it takes for me to take my bike to town and buy it in a shop. (and since I don't use real CD's very often, I have to rip that CD after buying it, adding more time)
and then I haven't even started about the costs...
So if record companies want me to buy a CD, they have to make it
Copy protection has always been about that. (Score:3, Insightful)
The same applies today with music. I was listening to one of my VNV Nation CD backups the other day, and it started skipping. This happened to be a limited edition- it would have been very hard to replace had that been the real CD I'd bought all scratched up and skipping like that. But I was able to go home and make another, then toss out the busted one. Good stuff!
I protect my investment. My CD investment is quite substantial- over 250 CDs last time I checked... and all the ones that get real use from me get burned to copies. I wouldn't shed a tear if my CD case fell off a boat or got lost or whatever while I travel these days, since it's all burned backups. I wonder how people will get by in the future?
Re:Copy protection has always been about that. (Score:2)
The same applies today with music. I was listening to one of my VNV Nation CD backups the other day, and it started skipping. This happened to be a limited edition- it would have been very hard to replace had that been the real CD I'd bought all scratched up and skipping like that. But I was able to go home and make another, then toss out the busted one. Good stuff!
Quite apart from damage to the original media, another point is security. Recently some friends of mine were burgled, and close to 500 CDs were stolen from their three collections. Quite a lot of rare, obscure or just damned-difficult-to-get-in-this-country was taken. One of those guys has recently bought a CD writer, so that he can make copies of CDs to listen to, and store the rest at a secure location in a better neighbourhood. Protecting an investment of thousands of dollars (CDs cost on average about $35, here), where the dollar value of your insurance still won't bring back what you've lost, is fair use if you ask me.
Another case I can think of is a DJ I know who had a large number of CDs stolen from the back of his car in a smash-and-grab a few months back. That music was his livelihood, not just a leisure item. He had to beg and borrow a lot of stuff just to keep working. This kind of thing can be avoided if you have the capability to make backups.
Oh, and VNV Nation are pretty damned nifty, aren't they? Having been sent a few MP3s by friends on the net, and downloading samples off their website, I'm considering tracking down a distributor and importing a few of their CDs. Even though it's likely to cost me about $50 a pop. How weird is that?
$50 a pop? (Score:2)
Re:What would it take for them to understand (Score:2)
Thanks for the post that this artist supports broken formats.
Re:What would it take for them to understand (Score:2)
I dont care what they do, as long as I can play it on my cd player I can and WILL make mp3's of it.
and if they make a move to the DVD format.. welll I can do it there too
If I can hear it with my ears I will be able to make Excellent copies. and with current stereo technologies I make Perfect copies.
What would it take? Money. (Score:2)
If they see a large percentage of their product coming right back at them as returns, they might get the message. Personally, if I ever find a CD I cannot play on my PC, I will return it, saying it's defective. Likely, the store clerk will give me another copy, which I will also return, ad infinitum, until I get my money back. The store will have lost a sale, and the time its clerk took to deal with the issue. The record company will have to accept its defective disks back. Of course, the crecord company won;t notice this until it becomes really bad, since we know the cost of actually creating the physical CD and packaging is their smallest cost overall.
Eventually, the record companies will likely have to label these things as not working on PC-CDROM drives, to avoid having so much of their product returned to them (and wasting the time of record stores). Which will make the average consumer ask why. Having to slap a label on your product informing your customer that you've just screwed them over is likely to make the consumer think. And that's not what the record company wants.
This, of course, assumes that a large number of people use CD-ROM drives to listen to music. I'm not sure what the percentage of the average CD buying public this is. The Record industry has to either be betting that the numbers of people who, say, listen to CD's in the CD-ROM drive of their PC at work are small enough not to make a difference, or they are hoping that the consumer is sheep-like enough to simply accept that they cannot listen to their music in CD-ROMs. I'm not sure on either point.
That's OK. (Score:2, Funny)
I don't have any big urge to copy Michael Jackson's CDs anyway.
Not the first CD like this (Score:1)
Still, I hope this stuff gets cracked soon. I actually believe that people buy more CDs when they get the MP3 first. That's certainly true for me.
Already available by MP3 (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Already available by MP3 (Score:1)
AG is infamous for having songs incorrectly named usually on purpose on it.
Also if it is the correct song is it a digital rip or an analogue transfer?
king of poop (Score:2)
Just how hard is it to run a set of patch cables? The performance loss is far less than what you get on MP3 as it is.
And besides, I can see some audio geek in a pro studio getting pissed off at the king of poop, and making a copy just to screw with him
Re:king of poop (Score:2)
Back in 86 I had by all rights one of the first cd players to come out, a Magnavox (IIRC) that had a "digital out" on the back (coaxil s/pdif). I used it until a belt broke in early 2000. I had no clue what the s/pdif was for most of the time I owned it, but I can't help thinking what an awesome tool that would be for making mp3s!
Re:Already available by MP3 (Score:2)
Getting heavy downloads though.
Re:Already available by MP3 - Exactly (Score:2)
Good one Rosen...
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Stupid, just stupid. (Score:5, Interesting)
Remember when businesses found out that ripping customers off was more profitable?
The blames lies at least partially with us, for acting like cattle and continuing to support these things. We still buy Nikes, we still use Microsoft, and (some of us, I would imagine) still listen to Michael Jackson.
Re:Stupid, just stupid. (Score:2)
Remember when businesses found out that ripping customers off was more profitable?
Remember when businesses didn't automatically assume their customers were criminals?
Re:Stupid, just stupid. (Score:2)
So bite me.
If it's audible, it can be copied... (Score:3, Informative)
These guys just don't get it. All it takes is one audiophile with a decent sound system, a couple RCA cables, and an MP3 encoder. Sure it'll be an D-A-D job and you'll lose a bit of fidelity on the initial copy, but once that's done, it'll be perfectly preserved, copy after copy after copy after copy.
Copy-protected music just doesn't work, because until we all start carrying around implants in our heads, the data *must* be converted to analog sound, and when that happens, the copy protection convieniently goes away.
Re:If it's audible, it can be copied... (Score:4, Interesting)
As others have mentioned, the other option for fighting this is tearing the plastic wrap off and then demanding a refund because the CD isn't Red Book compliant and won't play in your CD player. In other words, it's defective.
Re:If it's audible, it can be copied... (Score:2)
Re:If it's audible, it can be copied... (Score:2)
something akin to macrovision embeded in it called "SCMS" (serial copy management system).
So *that's* the other copy-protection that I can turn off in my Apex 600A "Loopholes" menu. It just occured to me that just about every $100 DVD player plays CDs and has digital audio out. How does this SCMS work? Anyone?
--
Evan
Re:If it's audible, it can be copied... (Score:2)
Re:If it's audible, it can be copied... (Score:2)
S/PDIF (Score:2)
-Paul Komarek
Re:If it's audible, it can be copied... (Score:2)
You mean like this switch in ALSA, on my $12 Zoltrix Nightingale sound card with SP/DIF IO:
switch("SPDIF Copyright", false)
Just a thought...
Re:If it's audible, it can be copied... (Score:2)
If a CD transport falls in the forest and there's nothing analog there to hear it, does it jitter?
Re:If it's audible, it can be copied... (Score:3, Insightful)
You can stand there and argue with them, and that will fail. Then you can demand to see their manager, and that will fail. Then you can demand to see THAT person's manager, and by this point you are very loudly and defiantly demanding that they refund your money for selling you a piece of crap CD, of which none are even CD's because they don't even play in CD drives, and then I guarantee you will get your money back.
No business can afford to lose the amount of face they lose when an extremely irate customer is standing there shouting things that make perfect sense to all the other customers listening. Only the highest managers at a store are authorized to override store policy when they realize how bad their store looks for doing something stupid that all their other customers will look at as "unfair" to the customer.
Capitalism has its faults, but the desire of a company to make a profit can always put power in the hands of the consumer when you use it properly.
Re:If it's audible, it can be copied... (Score:4, Funny)
Uh-oh. Someone probably read this and is going to get a raise for bringing it to his boss at the record company this morning.
you missed the most important part. (Score:1)
Re:you missed the most important part. (Score:1)
The audio in on your soundcard is typically analog, unless you have a high end card. Considering all of these damn 'copy-protected' CDs we're seeing, it might be a good idea to get one.
God spared you! (Score:1)
It's been said before, but: (Score:2)
2. Have high-quality inputs on your sound card.
3. Have high-quality audio cables.
Case closed.
Re:It's been said before, but: (Score:1)
Re:It's been said before, but: (Score:2)
You sir, obviously don't know what you are talking about. Audio cables are used for one (1) reason: to conduct an electrical current. As long as the cable kernel is made out of something that does this job (such as copper) then that is as good as it'll get.
Exactly my fucking point, dimwit. Was I not speaking english or something?
Re:It's been said before, but: (Score:3, Informative)
That is wrong. Gold conducts worse than copper. No matter what any idiot at Circuit City tells you, you cannot defeat physics. The only metal I know of that actually does conduct better than copper is silver.
If you want the _most_ ultimate cable, it will be made of silver. Too bad most audiophiles think $100 OFC cables are better, because they're wrong. Of course, because they are uninformed of the conductivity of metals, and because the people selling the cables are also mis-informed, you don't see Silver cables too often.
Anyways, the connectors are gold plated because gold doesn't corrode. They actually cause more sound degradation than you would get if you soldered some coax straight to the audio connectors on the device.
If the connectors are pure gold, you have a very crappy cable indeed.
>Quality ground braids are essential near a computer.
Yup. So make your own cable. You want the best?
Buy some bulk RG-6 satellilte TV cable. Get some RCA plugs (I suggest gold plated because you don't want corrosion!). Solder. The 75 Ohm impedance of RG-6 cable is perfectly compatible with audio cable.
Now you have the very best audio cable ever made.
Total cost: $0.20/ft for the cable, $6 total for the four connectors.
BTW: I use $2 el-cheapo cables because I don't have them near the computer, and because a 20 khz signal doesn't warrant anything better. YMMV.
Oh, and I use unsheilded cable for my computer's audio out (it's digital SPDIF out so it either works, works intermittently, or doesn't work at all. It sounds fine, but cuts out for a moment whenever the furnace turns on. Damn thing virtually outputs a mini EMP,).
I do, however, use RG-6 cable for the TV. When you start getting into Mhz, you must have better cable.
Re:It's been said before, but: (Score:2)
You could use a wire from a twisted pair if you want, but where the quality comes in is: (a) defeating or blocking interferance and (b) the connections between the wires. If you have a shitty connection, you'll also get some signal reflection which will give undesired results. So those $100 cables at Circuit City have most likely been tested to the nines and are, in fact, better than most $15 cables, provided that you live in an extremely noisy environment and have a $5000 stereo system. But for most people who have a 100ft lengths was pretty easy (not to mention inexpensive too). I did, however, have to make a ground noise inhibitor on the TV side (fscking cable co's), but after that all was good.
Well, it is a promo (Score:2)
Not that that justifies what they're doing, but it suggests they might be less likely to do it to end-user copies.
Re:Well, it is a promo (Score:2, Informative)
IMHO, if the record companies did this to the radio stations, they would shoot themselves in the foot big time.
Re:Well, it is a promo (Score:2)
That might be true. However, it ignores a simple fact.
Most radio stations these days have DAT decks, and industrial-quality ones at that. Press record on the DAT, take it home, and rip. Oh, so hard. (Lots of DJs tape their shows this way: and yes, lots of DJs have home DAT decks, precisely for this reason.)
Trying to use technological means to stop DJs from being pirates is like trying to use a vaccuum cleaner to stop the Pacific Ocean from being wet. You're going to need a really big one. ;)
Micheal Jackson... Like I care... (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:Micheal Jackson... Like I care... (Score:2)
That's funny, I lump NIN into the same "preteen rubbish" category that Michael Jackson goes into.
Listen to some real music someday.
Re:Micheal Jackson... Like I care... (Score:2)
The number one station on Live365 (which is a very large internet MP3 broadcasting company, for those that don't know - lost of "Shoutcast" stations are hosted on Live365) is Pop R&B, which would include Michael Jackson, so it's arguable that he's one of the most listened to artists on the net. I know that when I did a search on Napster in their glory days, there were ridiculous numbers of full albums.
I'm not a tremendous fan of MJ - I was compiling an 80's Pop CD for the setting background music for a RPG, but he has plenty of various fans, and listening to "Beat It" and "Billie Jean" threw me back to when those were on heavy FM rotation.
My point is - Michael Jackson is still a major artist, and his using copy protection on a CD is major news. Somewhat lessened by the fact that this is a promo CD (which, if for radio play, makes no sense whatsoever, since radio stations rip all CDs to a computerized digital jukebox).
As for NIN - I liked Reznor's early, more experimental stuff (broken/fixed were his best, IMHO), but much of it involved things like sterio effects being 90 degrees out of sync and other exteremely suble, easily lost sonic experiments. Some of it is lost when it goes to CD, let alone compressed into MP3. I've been meaning to dig out my nice headphones, rip to 320kbps, and see if those little nuances are even there post-rip.
--
Evan
Re:Micheal Jackson... Like I care... (Score:2)
Well, I appreciate the correction, but the tone of the correction was a bit rough.
I would consider myself an audiophile in the strict sense that I listen to music (i.e., sit down just to listen to an album), but considering I've used solid-core wire I scavenged from an dorm elevator for speaker wire for years (and currently use dirt cheap Radio Shack speaker wire), I wouldn't begin to consider myself an expert nor sonicly obsessed.
Actually, I knew the correct term was phase, as despite the wire itself, I *do* make an effort to make sure my speakers are wired correctly in phase. Regardless, a good set of headphones, a quiet room, and a good source is something that I derive pleasure from, but I don't think I've ever been accused of being pretentious about it; there's equal fun in blasting Lords of Acid or Violent Femmes out my factory installed Kia speakers (which start to sound like crap 2/3rds of the way up the volume scale) while singing along with a truck full of friends.
I have, however, been accused of being overly serious, but I ascribe that a lack of appreciation of dry humor on the part of the accuser.
--
Evan
Re:Micheal Jackson... Like I care... (Score:2)
"Ooooh, life's so hard, being 16, white, and upper-middle-class, only trent and marylin know how I feel."
Sorry, I don't listen to anything michael jackson produced after smooth criminal (i love that clip) but at least he has talent.
Re:Micheal Jackson... Like I care... (Score:2)
I'll be cracking the Michael Jackson CD later toda (Score:1)
My procedure will be:
1) Plug my regular CD player audio output into computer audio input.
2) Launch your favorite free audio recorder/editor. Hit record.
3) Press play on CD.
4) Enjoy (if possibble).
And I didn't even break a sweat.
A natural progression... (Score:3, Funny)
Bad CD.. (Score:1)
I hope that won't damage my CD drive. Someone better post some instruction on how to correct this, preferbly on a new clean CDR...
Oh heck. I'll just skip buying this CD(or listening to the song). Time to save some money.
That is why (Score:1)
Huh? (Score:1)
A 15 second search on Gnutella found hundreds of copies of this song. I don't know if they're "digitially pure" but they're available.
-Russ
This just in... (Score:1)
Already happened (Score:1)
News Update (Score:2, Funny)
It's all about content (Score:4, Funny)
Michael Jackson is such a prime example of someone who just needs to pack it in and stay at home.
Re:It's all about content (Score:2)
That's funny (and true). Wish I had mod points right now.
Michael Jackson? (Score:2, Funny)
I'll be more pissed the first time I buy a CD and discover I bought one by Michael Jackson. <shudder>
Possible marketing tactic? (Score:3, Funny)
Edit: KIng of FLOP Releases Unsellable CD (Score:2)
"Everyone who can still fill a stadium please step forward. Not so fast, Mr. Jackson."
"All non-pedophiles [ridiculopathy.com] please step forward. Not so fast, Mr. Jackson."
Re:Edit: KIng of FLOP Releases Unsellable CD (Score:2)
All the more reason (Score:2)
It probably does violate the Red Book standard... (Score:3, Interesting)
I used to wonder about the companies that broadcast scrambled pay-content over regular television broadcast channels. Weren't THEY violating FCC standards by transmitting a non-NTSC-compliant signal? Didn't seem to matter...
As for PC vendors, they've been playing fast and loose with standards for ages. I remember first getting into this with people that kept insisting (incorrectly) that the Apple ][ generated NTSC video. Apple in fact had a carefully worded but misleading statement that said something like "the video is designed to be viewed on monitors that comply with the NTSC standard." That is, the signal was (way) outside the NTSC standard, but the NTSC standard for MONITORS requires them to be very tolerant...
I keep hearing horror stories from DVD enthusiasts. Apparently, in this year of our Lord 2001, it's not at all rare to find DVD X that plays in player A but not player B... and DVD Y that plays in player B but not player A. Not because of copy-protection or anything like that. Just because of bad standards, lame engineering, and NO watchdogs.
You know the sort of thing... the standard may say you can do thus-and-such, but very few DVD's actually do it, so lots of DVD players can get away with not implementing it quite right...
Re:It probably does violate the Red Book standard. (Score:2)
Michael Jackson Releases Unplayable CD (Score:2, Funny)
What about Sony's own CD recorder? (Score:2)
TOC errors (Score:2)
Then this is something different than simply storing data with an invalid CRC. This is an error in the TOC.
I wonder if this disc will also fail to play in some of the fancier auto sound systems with changers, the ones that pre-read all the TOCs to build a playlist.
Opposite problem for me (Score:2, Interesting)
Get a better CD-ROM drive (Score:2)
um, what? (Score:5, Funny)
So far its just free promotional copies of the single.
Record Company: This new copy protection method will ensure that nobody is getting a "free ride" with the new Michael Jackson single.
Person with common sense: Aren't you giving away the single for free anyways?
Record Compnay: Ummmmmmm....
Re:um, what? (Score:2)
The silly part is that the cost of these promotional copies does NOT come out of the record companies share of the royalties, but out of Jackson's.
But it is mega-stupid. I attend the National Association of Broadcasters show every year, and a huge percentage of broadcasters are playing back from hard disk. Actually employing some talking monkey to put the new Jacko single in a CD player every 15 minutes would just cut into profits. Instead, they rip it to a Broadcast WAV file (although, given the amount of compression that is going to be applied at the transmitter, they might as well rip it to a 96k MP3)
This is going to snap back into their faces so hard...
Re:um, what? (Score:2)
It's the content stupid (Score:2)
Before and after photos of Michael Jackson's face (Score:2)
You know, PROPAGANDA has a nice photo of Michael Jackson's plastic surgery disaster [ibiblio.org]. Its no wonder he wears a mask wherever he goes.. his fucking nose is falling off.
Cheers,
Genius move, guys (Score:2)
SPDIF optical or rca outs on consumer cd players (Score:2)
As audio interfaces like the MOTU 828 [motu.com] and the Echo Layla24 [eachoaudio.com] become increasingly used in home studios, we all just might have a friend who can very well copy this "uncopyable" CD. My only question, to anyone who can answer this is, would some of the erroneous information be transmitted over the pipe? I would think not... but I don't know enough about it.
Conspiracy theory: promo (Score:2)
So you see, Jackson's team just wanted to stir a little bit of something, ANYTHING, to get attention. They know all too well that the protection won't work. They just hope that the new young techno savvy kids will download it out of curiosity... after all, all Jackson fans are, what, over 30?
Agreed?
Who are they kidding? (Score:2)
What is the marginal cost of this new CD protection scheme? People who can't play legitimate copies of CDs they have purchased, the loss of the ability of some people to backup their CD, and the extra expense of licencing this scheme from a company (like how Macrovision is licenced).
What is the marginal benefit of this scheme? Since we know that they can copy the data anyways (since any CD player plays music), we know that at least marignally degraded copies can still be made easily (and who'll notice at 128kbits MP3?). We also know that perfect digital copies can still be made with a little more effort (for those who like higher bitrates
The benefit is so small as to be non-existant, especially compared to the increased base cost of reproduction!
This is not a smart decision. And like the flawed logic that MP3s caused CD sales changes (who here has seen sales data of 10 years with all other factors accounted for so we can see if the responding variable and controlled variable are, in fact, related?), the way the market works should ensure that efforts like these don't last very long -- just make sure to educate people whom you know about this scheme, and hope the distribution method between of artists to art enjoyers changes soon.
* - RIAA here and here's the Point - * (Score:2)
Not that I care, I stopped buying music CDs about 9 months ago. Haven't even downloaded a MP3 from MP3.com since "We Must Destroy X10" was released. Hmm... might go do that now.
They will only launch it if ppl don't return it... (Score:2)
What is the big deal? (Score:2)
Re:MP#'s already being traded of it (Score:2, Funny)
"You put copy protection on the disc, so there can't be any copies."
;-)
Re:Do something about it (Score:2, Insightful)
Try to use the power of Microsoft to tell the record industry you're pissed off.
Re:Do something about it (Score:2)
come on - this is slashdot. what were you thinking?
Re:This really annoys me. (Score:2)
The really offensive thing, besides the MJ music, is they just changed the definition of "legal" on us. You have the right to rip your CDs, but under the DMCA the publisher also has the right to stop you from doing so, and his right trumps your right.
I'm waiting for DVDs that won't play in computers next. It's only a matter of time.
Re:The answer is simple - MINIDISC !!!! (Score:2)
audio quality:
MD uses lossy compression. Is there no MP3 quality setting that compares? There must be. And if you are storing files on a 650 or 700MB CD-R, there's got to be a way where you get as much music as you can on a (128MB?) MD.
simplicity:
Depends too much on the device to compare categories. However, if you already have a load of MP3s, copying them to a CD-R is pretty easy.
cheap media:
A CD-R is pretty cheap. How much is a MiniDisc? Aren't they about $3? I could be wrong.
battery life:
I do not have a CD-R based MP3 player so I can't comment, but my geek intuition tells me that since both kinds of devices have spinning media, decoding hardware and audio hardware they will probably have similar battery life. Likewise I assume cost of the player is about the same too.
There are links to CD-based MP3 players on this page [cdmediaworld.com].
Capacity of the MINIDISC system vs. MP3CD (Score:2)
MD uses lossy compression. Is there no MP3 quality setting that compares? There must be.
Early MD devices used ATRAC, with encoding algorithms as powerful as MP2's, at 256 kbps. Recent MD devices use newer ATRAC encoders that match MP3's quality at anywhere from 64 kbps to 256 kbps. But the ATRAC decoder apparently hasn't changed [everything2.com].
I do not have a CD-R based MP3 player so I can't comment, but my geek intuition tells me that since both kinds of devices have spinning media, decoding hardware and audio hardware they will probably have similar battery life.
MPEG audio layer 3 on ISO9660 uses larger discs than the MD system uses. Larger discs have more rotational inertia and require more power to spin. However, a 2 MB anti-skip buffer means that the double-speed CD mechanism needs to spin up the CD only about once a minute or so to pull 1.5 MB of 192 kbps[1] MP3 audio off the disc and keep the buffer at least a quarter full, saving battery power.
[1] 192 kbps average rate MPEG layer 3 audio encoded with LAME sounds transparent compared to stereo 16-bit linear PCM, i.e. most double-blind listeners can't tell which is the CD and which is the MP3. See R3mix [r3mix.net] for more info.
Not using the Live Drive you can't!! (Score:2)
If you don't believe me, here's how I proved it:
I used Sound Forge to create an audio clip consisting of a perfect square wave. Then I used a Turtle Beach FIJI soundcard, with true digital I/O, to record the square wave onto a DAT.
Then I used Sound Forge and the same FIJI soundcard to re-read the audio clip through the digital input.
The result was two identical files, consisting of perfect square waves.
Then I took the same DAT deck over and plugged it into the SPDIF input of a Live Drive, and used Sound Forge on that machine to read in the same square wave audio clip.
The result was not a perfect square wave. There was extensive ringing and noise all over the wave.
It turns out that the Creative hardware's SPDIF input doesn't actually make the uncorrupted digital data available. Instead, it converts the digital signal back to an analog signal, then feeds it into the analog mixer, which is then sampled back into the digital domain. The result is a relatively noisy, corrupted signal.
This is why anyone who really wants SPDIF capability should run screaming from the entire Creative line of soundcards. They simply don't perform as one would expect.
Enhanced CDs (Score:2)