MD - The future high speed choice for audio streaming?

[Sui]

Now that everyone's getting super duper high speed connections I can't help wondering if the argument over MP3 versus WMA is kind of a moot point. Why not adapt something that uses a compression ratio similar to minidisc or better yet, DCC (which is 4:1)? It seems standard MD contains 140mb of data, so I don't see how a high speed connection would have a problem of streaming a 4-minute tune, which would deliver roughly 12mb of data in those 4 minutes (just a rough estimate). Comments? Ideas? Am I nuts for even thinking about it? It sure would be nice to enjoy the level of audio quality MD offers over the internet- certainly would cream MP3.

[spokenward]

[quote]Originally posted by Sui: [b]Now that everyone's getting super duper high speed connections [/b][/quote] I think that you may be overstating the growth. It is steady, but consumer electronics gets excited when you have consecutive quarters of 100% growth. We don't have that. The high speed connection market has been split between Cable modem and DSL. DSL is faltering because it is not achieving the kinds of growth rates that it projected. regarding audio quality - The compression standard underlying MD is Sony's ATRAC. They licensed ATRAC3 to RealNetworks for delivery in the RealPlayer. If you are encoding for RealSystem 8 or later you can use the codecs. I agree that current ATRAC sounds pretty good. The minidisc that you are walking around with is ATRAC4 or ATRAC4.5. Both MS and the MP3 people (Thomson) have been focusing on the delivery of a stereo codec that delivers comparable quality at 64kbps instead of 128kbps. Both want to establish formats that will generate license royalties on portable players. Pat

[henrysb3]

One reason DSL is having a hard time getting started is the complex rules that the FCC laid out for the local phone companies to follow. In our area, there are several sites that would qualify for the service, but if Southwestern Bell offers it, it must install a DSLAM in the central office to interface with the internet. If it does that, it must also make space available for all other competitors to install their stuff in Bell's office. For many locations this would involve erecting new structures just to house the competition. Sorta like communism in reverse. The cable companies, on the other hand, have virtually no restrictions and do not have to give any other competitors space in their facilities or cable to run their programming and data. They also have little restriction on price gouging a captive audience. I use satellite TV for that reason and others. To return to topic, I fell in love with MD's some time ago, and think they have so many advantages over CD's that it's a shame they didn't catch on. I guess that in Japan, they still have a market share, so there's hope they will continue, although it seems that memory chip based media will become increasingly popular. We can hope that the quality will follow suit and get the best of all worlds. This message has been edited by henrysb3 on 10-21-2001 at 02:41 PM

[Sui]

[quote]Originally posted by spokenward: I think that you may be overstating the growth. It is steady, but consumer electronics gets excited when you have consecutive quarters of 100% growth. We don't have that. The high speed connection market has been split between Cable modem and DSL. DSL is faltering because it is not achieving the kinds of growth rates that it projected.[/quote] Didn't mean to insinuate anything about current growth but more about the future - I know the growth rate for cable/DSL is sporadic at the present time. These things do have a tendancy to start off slow and then take off a few years later though (save the ISDN debacle, which was a bad idea from the beginning). [quote]regarding audio quality - The compression standard underlying MD is Sony's ATRAC. They licensed ATRAC3 to RealNetworks for delivery in the RealPlayer. If you are encoding for RealSystem 8 or later you can use the codecs.[/quote] Really - then I wonder why it (RA) isn't a hit with people who have high speed already (Correct me if I'm wrong but I haven't seen anyone raving about it). ATRAC3 didn't sound that bad as I recall, at that stage it wasn't perfected, but it had eliminated a lot of the problems inherant in previous versions of ATRAC, so if it's really the equivilant of ATRAC3 it should beat the pants off MP3 already. [quote]I agree that current ATRAC sounds pretty good. The minidisc that you are walking around with is ATRAC4 or ATRAC4.5.[/quote] The MD deck I have in my stereo system is ATRAC4 and that would be perfectly acceptable to me as the future standard internet format - it still tends to cut tails a little but it's still much better than cassette ever was. [quote]Both MS and the MP3 people (Thomson) have been focusing on the delivery of a stereo codec that delivers comparable quality at 64kbps instead of 128kbps. Both want to establish formats that will generate license royalties on portable players.[/quote] This would certainly be a step in the right direction, not to mention they're actually thinking about paying artists. But if these new codecs still employ a 40:1 ratio I'd rather see ATRAC take over as the standard all the time simply because not as much audio information gets lost.