SONY introduces Hi-MD Walkman Digital Music Players

[bastula]

Hi-Capacity, Hi-Battery Life and Hi-Quality Combine to Create Ideal Digital Music Solution




LAS VEGAS (CES Booth #N109), Jan. 7, 2004 -Taking the MiniDisc? a big step forward, Sony today announced its new Hi-MD? Walkman® digital music players.


With Hi-MD technology, users can record up to 45 hours of music at up to 100 times transfer speed on one disc, while still enjoying the extensive battery life, compact design and robustness for which MD players are recognized. Removable, re-recordable Hi-MD media provides music lovers with unlimited storage capacity to build an infinite library of their favorite songs.


"Net MD Walkman recorders have been the top-selling digital music players for the past 18 months and with Hi-MD players, we're giving music lovers more choices," said Todd Schrader, vice president of marketing for Sony Electronics' portable audio products. "Nothing's been left out. We've created the best overall portable music solution that addresses digital music fans' needs for high capacity storage and long battery life in a small and extremely durable device."


Hi-MD Walkman recorders incorporate the ATRAC3plus? codec. The ATRAC3plus format is a high-quality audio compression technology that Sony developed to effectively reduce the size of audio files while preserving more of the sound quality.


With ATRAC3plus compression, more audio files can be burned to Hi-MD media or for that matter, to a standard MiniDisc. Music can be compressed to 132, 105, 66, 64 or 48 kbps (kilobits per second), so you can store more music or record at higher fidelity. By compressing at 48 kbps, users can enjoy 45 hours of music on one Hi-MD disc or 13 hours of music on one standard, 80-minute MiniDisc.

Links:

Press Release
Minidisc.org - more details about the release

Although the common opinion is that Minidisc is going the way of the dodo, this release might actually give Sony a shot at competing against the likes of the iPod mini and such. The players also feature the ability to upload recorded audio which is a boon to musicians and people like me who record med school class lectures. No more real-time upload of recordings! Woohoo! Time to finally replace my MZ-R700.

The players even support charging by USB and you can use them as file transfer devices. 1 GB blanks will only cost $7, and you can reformat old discs to the new standard or read them as is (i.e. backwards compatible). The only downside that I could see is the bloody OpenMG system that they are still using. I wonder if they will improve it with this revision.

I didn't see this in the search, so I am assuming this is NOT a repost.

 

[KokomoGST]

Old news... but first official announcement I guess.

I never liked the ATRAC format. It's too bad that Sony loves being so propreitary. I'll prolly still end up buying a Rio Karma like my friend did.

 

[StageLeft]

By compressing at 48 kbps, users can enjoy 45 hours of music on one Hi-MD disc or 13 hours of music on one standard, 80-minute MiniDisc.

I wouldn't call it "enjoyment" at 48kbps.

MD is so mid 90's. Japan has liked them, but North America, rightfully, doesn't give a sh*t.

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

I love my MD You simply can't beat small, interchangeable, inexpensive media.

 

[Lonyo]

They are actually pretty nice. I prefer the MD player in terms of size to a CD-mp3 player, but putting songs on the disk is a PITA, and takes ages too with the current stuff. The size, battery life etc of the player is nice, just getting things to it that sucks.

 

[CChaos]

I think the important innovation to note here is the increase in capacity of the minidisc media, rather than Sony's current application for it. Small, cheap media with a very large capacity is a good thing even if you love your iPod.

 

[Ameesh]

MDs are stupid

 

[dethman]

Originally posted by: Ameesh
MDs are stupid

mds are awesome. mp3 players are stupid.

 

[mAdD INDIAN]

I love MDs.

I still use my 5-year old Sony MZ-R91 all the time. I like the fact that its quite small, even compared to MDs of today.

 

[SONYFX]

mp3 player are cheap plastics for ppl who can't afford MD.

 

[iamme]

Originally posted by: SONYFX
mp3 player are cheap plastics for ppl who can't afford MD.

uh, ok.

while i like MD players, that wasn't the brightest statement.

 

[Imdmn04]

Nice, i've been waiting for something like this, my netmd will only hold about 35-40 songs at 105kbps.
According to my calculation derived from the numbers in report, you can fit about 300 songs on 1 disk at 105kbps on a hi-MD. Remember atrac is a very efficient compressor, 105kbps is very comparable to 192kbps in mp3.

Damn, infinite storage by swiching md disks, while each disk holds an incredible amount of music and only costs a couple of bucks, can you say i-pod killer? At least mini-ipod killer?

 

[kalster]

Originally posted by: Imdmn04
Nice, i've been waiting for something like this, my netmd will only hold about 35-40 songs at 105kbps. According to my calculation derived from the numbers in report, you can fit about 300 songs on 1 disk at 105kbps on a hi-MD. Remember atrac is a very efficient compressor, 105kbps is very comparable to 192kbps in mp3. Damn, infinite storage by swiching md disks, while each disk holds an incredible amount of music and only costs a couple of bucks, can you say i-pod killer? At least mini-ipod killer?

good luck carying then amd swapping disks when a song you want is on the other disc

 

[iamme]

Originally posted by: Imdmn04
Nice, i've been waiting for something like this, my netmd will only hold about 35-40 songs at 105kbps.
According to my calculation derived from the numbers in report, you can fit about 300 songs on 1 disk at 105kbps on a hi-MD. Remember atrac is a very efficient compressor, 105kbps is very comparable to 192kbps in mp3.

Damn, infinite storage by swiching md disks, while each disk holds an incredible amount of music and only costs a couple of bucks, can you say i-pod killer? At least mini-ipod killer?

no way MD's will be the "iPod killer", until they can play MP3's without converting them to ATRAC.

think about how long MD's have been out and you'll still get a blank stare if you ask an random person about MD's.

but ask anyone if know what an iPod is....

 

[Gunbuster]

So it only took Sony what? 10? 15? years to come out with an afordable mass produced Data MD drive

What about UMD? seems silly to push for two small next gen disk formats

 

[dethman]

i believe they can be used as data drives as well, which is a nice plus. not to mention long-awaited netmd upload from MD to PC.

 

[LongCoolMother]

i cant enjoy anything with that low of a bitrate. bare bare minimum is 192kbps. 320 preferable.

 

[brigden]

Originally posted by: DevilsAdvocate
I love my MD You simply can't beat small, interchangeable, inexpensive media.

You mean like flash cards?

 

[Imdmn04]

good luck carying then amd swapping disks when a song you want is on the other disc

Well compared to a mini-ipod, it only holds twice amount of songs than a single hi-md, given that 192kbps is roughly about the same quality as 105kbps atrac. So it only takes 2 disks thats only worth several bucks to replace the size of the hd in the mini-ipod, that is amazing, not to mention you can listen to many more songs by switching to more disks on the go, which is something you cant do without going home and deleting your songs on the ipod first.

no way MD's will be the "iPod killer", until they can play MP3's without converting them to ATRAC.

I admit that Sony should of allowed its md players to have the options to play mp3, but once you acutally try out the atrac format, its not that big of a deal. Although proprietary, it is more effiecient than mp3, and the software that comes with the MD will automatically convert mp3s to atrac in one step, which only adds about a couple of mins to the transferring process.

i cant enjoy anything with that low of a bitrate. bare bare minimum is 192kbps. 320 preferable.

Mp3 bitrate doesnt equal atrac bitrate, because atrac is more effiecient in the compression process. Roughly 105kbps in atrac is about the same quality as 192kbps mp3. I don't know why would anyone want 320kbps mp3 files in a portable player, the file size is a big tradeoff to amount of songs you can store, also when you are on the go, walking around street corners, or campuses, can you really tell the difference between 192 and 320 with all that background noise? I doubt it even with a very high end pair of headphones.

 

[LongCoolMother]

Originally posted by: Imdmn04

good luck carying then amd swapping disks when a song you want is on the other disc

Well compared to a mini-ipod, it only holds twice amount of songs than a single hi-md, given that 192kbps is roughly about the same quality as 105kbps atrac. So it only takes 2 disks thats only worth several bucks to replace the size of the hd in the mini-ipod, that is amazing, not to mention you can listen to many more songs by switching to more disks on the go, which is something you cant do without going home and deleting your songs on the ipod first.

no way MD's will be the "iPod killer", until they can play MP3's without converting them to ATRAC.

I admit that Sony should of allowed its md players to have the options to play mp3, but once you acutally try out the atrac format, its not that big of a deal. Although proprietary, it is more effiecient than mp3, and the software that comes with the MD will automatically convert mp3s to atrac in one step, which only adds about a couple of mins to the transferring process.

i cant enjoy anything with that low of a bitrate. bare bare minimum is 192kbps. 320 preferable.

Mp3 bitrate doesnt equal atrac bitrate, because atrac is more effiecient in the compression process. Roughly 105kbps in atrac is about the same quality as 192kbps mp3. I don't know why would anyone want 320kbps mp3 files in a portable player, the file size is a big tradeoff to amount of songs you can store, also when you are on the go, walking around street corners, or campuses, can you really tell the difference between 192 and 320 with all that background noise? I doubt it even with a very high end pair of headphones.

nope. between 192 and 320 are not that much difference. its noticable, but not severly so. (you cant notice anything bad about 192 unless you compare them side by side with 320) anything below 192 seems to be pretty bad though. reason why is because i own a sony n505 player using the atrac3 tech. the highest quality on it still doesnt sound nearly as good as they do on CDs or on my friend's ipod with line out. im guesing its because of my hifi headphone setup though. (DT880, audio alchemy DAC v3, meta42 amp). but thats wayyyy overkill for a portable player. so i guess lower bitrates are cool for ports. unless you use etys of course. heh

 

[iamme]

Originally posted by: Imdmn04

no way MD's will be the "iPod killer", until they can play MP3's without converting them to ATRAC.

I admit that Sony should of allowed its md players to have the options to play mp3, but once you acutally try out the atrac format, its not that big of a deal. Although proprietary, it is more effiecient than mp3, and the software that comes with the MD will automatically convert mp3s to atrac in one step, which only adds about a couple of mins to the transferring process.

sure it may be a small, intermediate step...but it's still an intermediate step. Even with this Hi-MD technology, I don't see MD's overtaking MP3 players.

i'm in the market for a portable music player right now. if MD players could play MP3's as well as ATRAC files, i would have bought one a while ago. I love MD players' amazing battery lives and tiny form factors.

 

[MustangSVT]

any idea on pricing?

if its over $200, there is no point

 

[bastula]

Originally posted by: MustangSVT
any idea on pricing?

if its over $200, there is no point

The lowest player is supposed go for around $200 street I read. Media is $7 bucks a pop for a 1 GB disk.

 

[dethman]

Originally posted by: brigden

Originally posted by: DevilsAdvocate
I love my MD You simply can't beat small, interchangeable, inexpensive media.

You mean like flash cards?

are you kidding me?

a 256MB CF card holding 55 songs costs $40. SD, MS cost much more.

A single MD holding 45 songs at LP2 costs $2.

a 1GB Hi-MD holding 125 songs in SP or 250 songs in LP2 will cost only $7.

gimme a break.


success of this new format will probably lie in the software available and ease of use. but as battery lives of hard drive recorders improve, it'll be difficult to beat them. md's are still great for battery life and portability.

 

[PCboy]

nice to know Sony is still updating their MD line. :beer: