New Sony Minidisc Players

Andy_R writes "Sony's has announced it's new new range of Hi-MD players at the CES show. The range of players (which should hit the shops in April) will start below $200 for a device that can function as a USB hard drive as well as storing a claimed 45 hours of music. The twist is that the data is stored on a new type of removable 1Gb media, a development of the minidisk format, with blanks costing about $7 each. The BBC have some more details including backwards compatibility with old-style minidisks and an ominous mention of 'built-in copyright protection' but I can't find anything on Sony's official site yet." Another reader reader submitted some pictures and specifications (pdf).

But does it come in strawberry?

[Anonymous Coward]

I mean, who would buy one if it doesn't come in fruity colors?

In other news...

[ballpoint]

Intel announces 4004C CPU
Microsoft announces Windows 98TE
Apple announces Apple IV
etc. etc. etc.

Re:What's the point?

[IWorkForMorons]

I've recently seen an inexpensive MP3/CD player with 2 minutes of MP3 anti-skip. I personally had to continuously tap that thing for 5 minutes to get it to start skipping. Of course I was also defending myself from the young child who's MP3 player I was constantly hitting, so that could have given it the chance to recover once or twice.

Re:What's the point?

[Anonymous Coward]

exercise? go post somewhere else.

Re:But does it come in strawberry?

[Anonymous Coward]

fruity colors? I want them in fruity flavors!

Re:What's the point?

[hanssprudel]

The harddisk players have no issues with jogging, walking, running, etc. None. Plenty of people jog with there ipods, and I have never heard of anyone having a problem with it.

While the old CD player may have had a couple of seconds of cache for skip protection, the ipod has half an hours worth. I have dropped mine on hard floors several times, and it doesn't even stop playing.

This is just a common misconception, carried down from the eightees when you weren't allowed to breath while files loaded for fear of crashing the read head...

Re:What's the point?

[Anonymous Coward]

didn't this same thing occur when they had something that was better than VHS tapes a while back?

New Sony Minidisc Players

[vxone]

Well thats all great and dandy but sony still does see the need to post drivers for the mac. For their units... Asf!@ Whats the point..

Sony's new copy protection

[teamhasnoi]

After getting my hands on a prototype, I have found that due to US Treasury restrictions, the new Sony Minidisc Player will not allow any content containing the word, "money".

As it happens, this rejects the following songs:

ABBA - "Money, Money, Money"
COOL MO D - "Mo' Money"
PINK FLOYD - "Money"
PET SHOP BOYS - "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots Of Money)"
BEATLES - "Money"
PRIMITIVE RADIO GODS - "Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth (With Money In My Hand)"
SUPERGRASS - "In It For The Money"
PSYCHEDELIC FURS - "All That Money Wants"
RAGGA TWINS - "Money"
DIRE STRAITS - "Money For Nothing"
WONDERSTUFF - "It's Yer Money I'm After Baby"
PATTI SMITH - "Free Money"
LIVING COLOUR - "Money Talks"
LOU REED - "No Money Down"
BIG PIG - "Money God"
PRINCE - "Money Don't Matter"
PINK FLOYD - "Money"
STEVE VAI - "Dirty Cash"
STYLE COUNCIL - "Money Go Round"
TOM WAITS - "Til The Money Runs Out"
CYNDI LAUPER - "Money Changes Everything"
FLYING LIZARDS - "Money"
NEIL YOUNG - "Loose Change"
NENEH CHERRY - "Money Love"
SMASHING PUMPKINS - "Pennies"
AC/DC - "Money Talks"
DONNA SUMMER - "She Works Hard For The Money"
MORPHINE - "Murder For The Money"
THE CHURCH - "Blood Money"
MICHAEL JACKSON - "Money"
EVERCLEAR - "Heartspark Dollarsign"
SPINAL TAP - "Gimme Some Money"
PRETENDERS - "Brass In Pocket"
PUFF DADDY - 'It's All About the Benjamins'

Plus many, many more. I cannot recommend this product in its current form, as this is unresonable copy protection.

Strangely, REM's - "It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine) plays perfectly. Hmm. Nothing beats apathy.

Re:MD is still good for audio production

[Anonymous Coward]

So then basically what you're saying is that MD isn't good for pre-recorded music because there isn't any available. And it doesn't compete with an iPod because the media costs $7 and doesn't hold much. But it IS still useful, you are saying, for field recording except that Sony won't turn off the DRM that is digitally managing away your right to get at your own recordings of your own material. So it's really not good for that, either.

Wow, sounds great, I think I'd better go buy one right away.