-Digital Medium Phobia?-

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GlennFolkvord
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Re: -Digital Medium Phobia?-

 ·  Posted: 27.05.2008 - 20:49  ·  #25
There are those that suggest that culture, and especially music, can only survive in the long term if it can be copied digitally, because copying ensures unlimited instances of the same song(s) and conversion to new formats.

How many physical formats of the past are still being distributed and played by the man in the street? They are quickly going away. Wax cylinders, anyone? 8 track cassettes in 100 years? I think even DCC tapes are extinct now, and they were hot only 10 or 15 years ago.
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Re: -Digital Medium Phobia?-

 ·  Posted: 28.05.2008 - 15:45  ·  #26
Quote by GlennFolkvord
... I think even DCC tapes are extinct now, and they were hot only 10 or 15 years ago.


Just curious, were DCC ever hot technology? I don't think that they were all that hot here in the USA, since I think that they came on the scene right about the time that CD-Rs were starting to enter the market. Were these popular in Europe?

(My first job as a field engineer fixing computers in 1977 had me repairing intelligent remote entry terminals that used digital cassettes as the storage media. They had two drives, one to 'boot' the terminal and the other for data. Had a 'test' 😉 tape that would print pictures on the thermal paper; had some pretty good nude women (for the technology, that is...) A few years later, we came out with a similar device that used bubble memory (remember that technology? :) ) which was highly unreliable but it was fast!!! Ahhh, technology...)
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Re: -Digital Medium Phobia?-

 ·  Posted: 28.05.2008 - 16:02  ·  #27
Quote by Craig Shipley

Just curious, were DCC ever hot technology? I don't think that they were all that hot here in the USA, since I think that they came on the scene right about the time that CD-Rs were starting to enter the market. Were these popular in Europe?


Not really. "Hot" was the wrong word, I dont think they ever took off :-)

But they were better than analogue cassette tapes, and the players were compatible with old analogue cassette tapes, IIRC.

This still means that anything released only as DCC may now be lost, since widespread copying is not feasible (I dont know anyone with a DCC player, even MiniDiscs are not as popular as they were planned to be).
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Re: -Digital Medium Phobia?-

 ·  Posted: 28.05.2008 - 17:37  ·  #28
That's what I was thinking; I initially wanted a DCC at the time, but I saw the writing on the wall for tape technology even then and decided to stick with my high-end TEAC z6000 (RIP) until I jumped into CD-Rs. Heck, at home we are now using 8 & 16 GB thumb drives to move media about, so even CD/DVD technology is looking very, very vulnerable; I personally have not burned a CD for audio use since getting my iPod two years ago. I'm seeing new car stereos that only have either USB or SD slots, no CDs. With thumb drives and memory cards getting larger and cheaper (the 16GB cost US$60.00) why mess with "fragile" CD/DVD media?

Speaking of MD, oddly enough my 2004 Toyota van's stereo has the capability of supporting a remote MD changer (found this out when I was interfacing my iPod thru the changer port).
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Re: -Digital Medium Phobia?-

 ·  Posted: 01.06.2008 - 16:48  ·  #29
Quote by GlennFolkvord
But they were better than analogue cassette tapes,


Yowch!

Try telling that to a Nakamichi owner. 😉

DCC went head-to-head with MiniDisk. They both used compression and both sounded dire.

DCC crashed and burned because:

1 - Unlike MD, they were linear recording media (eg, you couldn't delete track 2 of 7 and add a new one, you had to do it the old fashioned way).

2 - Lots of mechanical parts = unreliable.

3 - Tapes stretch - even ones. MDs don't

4 - Although the players were retro-compatible with compact cassettes they were pretty poor sounding even compared to a budget player like a Yamaha KX480.

5 - Little continued software support - Sony got burned with Betamax and didn't let it happen this time 'round. You could get a lot of Sony / CBS / EMI / Virgin / Chrysalis releases on MD but stuff all on DCC.


A lot of DCCs like DATs ended up being sold as studio gear IIRC at massively discounted prices.
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Re: -Digital Medium Phobia?-

 ·  Posted: 01.06.2008 - 19:44  ·  #30
I never owned or used DCC so I cant speak of their faults or advantages, but I assume they were an improvement over the old cassette tapes. But I do see why they tanked.

The only place I hear about people using MD today is when musicians do field recordings or live recordings of small concerts, like a budget DAT or replacement for field HDD recordings.
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Re: -Digital Medium Phobia?-

 ·  Posted: 01.06.2008 - 20:14  ·  #31
Quote by GlennFolkvord
The only place I hear about people using MD today is when musicians do field recordings or live recordings of small concerts, like a budget DAT or replacement for field HDD recordings.


I have a Sony HiMD player for my personal audio. ATRAC 3 compression is by far (IMHO) the best compression codec - great sound for a lot more compression than mp3 but then quality is not always a guarantee of success (eg Betamax vs VHS) 😉

It's a great compact stereo recorder - 43 hrs of compressed recording on one 1Gb MD.

The only downside is that each 1Gb disk costs about
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Re: -Digital Medium Phobia?-

 ·  Posted: 02.06.2008 - 05:31  ·  #32
Quote by Seeker_UK
Quote by GlennFolkvord
But they were better than analogue cassette tapes,


Yowch!

Try telling that to a Nakamichi owner. 😉


Way back when I bought my TEAC, it was going head to head with the Nak, but at a significantly lower cost (delta of about US$400. I was single then and could afford a US$1200 tape deck. The one that I owned had the manual individual track bias & other adjustments, three or four pots for each channel (I forget), but you could get one that had a computer-controlled adjustment, but where is the fun in that? 😉 That one was a little more than the Nak Dragon, but IIRC the TEAC was a little better than the Nak and heavy to boot!

I've noticed where the Nakamichi name is reappearing in the States, but I think that what I have seen so far has been strictly middle of the road kit, nothing like the Nakamichi of legend. I could be wrong on this, but I haven't really bother to check if there is some top-of-the-line gear with the Nak name on it. Lazy, I guess... :D
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