Sony has replied to the on-line petition sponsored by minidisc.org asking that their netMD recorders allow users to upload to computers audio recorded on their MD recorders in addition to being able to download audio to MD from their computers. It seems like this one-way transfer is in place to somehow discourage pirating, since the Sony software that enables computer to MD transfers has built-in rights management that limits how you can download your music to MD (at high speed). I guess Sony is worried that MDs could be used to help share music between computers if you could quickly upload an MD that a friend put music on. Of course, this logic is absurd when you realize how much easier and cheaper it is to do this with CD-Rs. Reasonably, the only thing MD to PC uploads are truly useful for is getting your own self-produced and self-recorded audio onto your PC easily and quickly.
Sony’s response to this request is expectedly vague and noncommittal:
“We are aware that many users are interested in having the audio uploading feature added to Sony Net MD Walkman recorders. We have and will continue to evaluate the inclusion of this particular feature into Net MD, though at present we have no immediate plans to do so. “
Thus, minidisc.org’s webmaster Eric Woudenberg gives his interpretation:
I suppose we can look on the bright side, he did not indicate that there would be no hope of having such a feature as long as Sony Entertainment was part of the equation…. I remain puzzled why a NetMD upload feature seems so uninteresting to Sony. Sony could easily charge extra for such a capability, introducing it in an elegant prosumer Minidisc recorder fashioned along the lines of their venerable TCD-5M cassette recorder…. My assessment is that adding NetMD uploading would have essentially no negative impact and I think the only reason such a feature has not appeared is due to Sony’s misunderstanding of their customer’s needs.
If anyone at Sony is reading this (since they do read the minidisc.org news and forums) — please enable NetMD to upload the interviews and other audio I record myself to my PC at high-speed. You see, I already have several MD recorders and really have no incentive to buy a new one without this very helpful feature. I promise not to use my MD for piracy… really. I have CD-Rs and file-sharing networks for that.
blogger’s note: normally a post about minidisc or other tech-geek stuff would go to the DIY files portion of the site. But I barely post there monthly, meaning most people would miss this post, so I’m questioning whether or not it makes sense to have a separate blog there. Instead I think I’ll use the section for equipment reviews, tips, tricks and major news, and move the occasional links about geeky tech stuff to the mediageek blog. I’m also readying a transition to different blog software that has categorization features that further render separate blogs unnecessary. Any comments or thoughts on this are welcome.
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