Are SM cards going to get any bigger than 128 Megs? If so, do you know when. Also, for devices to take advantage of the bigger card size, is it automatic, or do you have to upgrade the firmware or something. Thanks for your help!
Are SmartMedia Cards going to get any bigger?
- Thread starter hamburglar
- Start date
I don't know, but it sure seems like it has topped out, at least for a while. CF cards were on the same curve it seemed, and they are up to 256 and 384. Now my camera was built when there were only 64mb cards available, but it takes 128 with no problem. I don't know if there was a firmware upgrade, I didn't do it, might have been done at the factory between when the manual was written and the camera made.
last i checked they had 1GB cf mem. cf is kewl cuz it contains a memory controller, so ur device generally isn't the lmit. sm sucks, ur devices controller is the limit.
Adul
Elite Member
That's a lot of pics. I was gonna use my card for a mp3 player. I want to be sure i can upgrade to higher memory types if they do come out. I haven't found a good cf mp3 player. Unless anyone knows of one...?
I'd love a 256MB SmartMedia card for my Nomad IIc MP3 player. I need more than the 32MB onboard + 128MB card (yes, I'm one of those pedantic people who encodes at high bit rates), so a larger card would be great.
I know that the Nomad line of players from Creative definitely need a firmware update to support cards larger than 128MB.
I know that the Nomad line of players from Creative definitely need a firmware update to support cards larger than 128MB.
The main difference of smartmedia and compact flash is the control chip. For Smartmedia the device its used with has to have the control chip and therefor the chip can limit the size of the smartmedia card you can use. You can upgrade it with a firmware upgrade but as far as I know you have to send your hardware (camera, mp3 player) to its maker and they will upgrade it for you.
Compactflash is the same except it has the control chip built in so the hardware can use just about any compactflash card you can find.
Compactflash is the same except it has the control chip built in so the hardware can use just about any compactflash card you can find.
Firmware flashes are available for Creative's Nomad players. No need to send it back to Creative.
well CF is bigger than SM also. the flash chip in the SM card, can be stacked into a type 2 CF card, and makes for bigger capacities. i think SM is getting phased out for mmc / SD cards in small devices anyways.
Fritzo
Lifer
- Jan 3, 2001
- 41,920
- 2,161
- 126
Yeah...I heard they were developing a 256MB SM card, but there's not many devices that would support it. SM is fine for cameras (Olympus and Fuji are users of it), as 128 MB takes plenty of 3+ megapixel pics (like 160 or so), but it can be kind of limiting on MP3 players. What I do on my Nomad is encode everything as a 96 or 112 kbps WMA file. I think it sounds just as good as a 160 or a 192 kpbs MP3 file through the headphones. That way I get twice the music on one disk. If you need more, you should look at an Archos MP3 player (10-20GB of space, plus built in MP3 encoding). They run around $200.
I was considering this exact same thing awhile back, but backed off because I needed the money to get a new TV first. One I saw highly recommended at the time was an RCA Lyra. I think they have the second generation of this one out now. The original had CF support and a digital radio tuner (which I thought was a nice bonus.) I too think using CF would be a nice option since the capacity on CF is growing by leaps and bounds while the prices are still pretty decent. Plus, you can always interchange it between your camera and your MP3 player.
http://www.lyrazone.com/
Yes, but the battery life must be pretty weak, because the microdrive takes a lot of energy.
Anyone else know of any other small flash mp3 players?
SmartMedia is a technological dead end. I would expect it to be phased out in a few years.
Look for Multimedia Card to become the standard on mp3 players and small cameras, and compact flash to remain dominant on PDA's and large digital cameras. Sony's Memory Stick is proprietary, expensive and therefore, quite lame.
Look for Multimedia Card to become the standard on mp3 players and small cameras, and compact flash to remain dominant on PDA's and large digital cameras. Sony's Memory Stick is proprietary, expensive and therefore, quite lame.
Hmm. I didn't know that. But I guess I could take advantage of the few years that it's still on the market. Those few years could be worth my 200 bucks or so. There's not many players out with the Multimedia Card capabilities, and they are quite expensive. Not to mention the copy write protections.
I dont think theres any technological reason why they couldnt do it if they can cram 512MB on a SD card, but Smartmedia is pretty much a dead format...
I bought a 64MB RCA Lyra Kazoo at Best Buy about 6 months ago. I've been extremely pleased with it. It has a MMC slot for expansion; the 64MB is built in.
TRENDING THREADS
-
Discussion Zen 5 Speculation (EPYC Turin and Strix Point/Granite Ridge - Ryzen 9000)- Started by DisEnchantment
- Replies: 25K
-
Discussion Intel Meteor, Arrow, Lunar & Panther Lakes Discussion Threads
- Started by Tigerick
- Replies: 21K
-
Discussion Intel current and future Lakes & Rapids thread- Started by TheF34RChannel
- Replies: 23K
-
-
Facebook
Twitter