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New Stuff:
I have been shopping recently. I had a few gifts that I wanted
to buy. The shopping sojourn took me into many stores and particularly
some appliance stores. I am beginning to be impresses by recent
developments.
The first thing I noticed was the developments in DVD players. I have avoided buying a DVD player for two reason. First, the technology was in it's infancy. One need only recall the eight track tape game to know how easy it is to get burned with ideas which don't quite make it. Another example of this kind of pain was the ascendancy of VCR over whatever that other one was. I forget.
My second reason is that there has not been much stuff on DVD. Everything was on VCR. Now that is changing. there are many more titles available and the players have really gotten versatile. I was so impressed that I bought one for my son.
I bought him a new JVC seven disk DVD changer player. The manual says it is compatible with DVD Video, DVD Audio, Video CDs, and Audio CDs including CD-R and CD-RW. It will also decode MP3 tracks recorded on a CD-R disk. This is a truly full range stereo component in that it replaces the old CD player and the old VCR. I suspect I will also get one of these for myself very soon.
While I was at the store, I noticed another new item. This is the Hewlett Packard digital entertainment center. At center it is an MP3 stereo component. I have seen other versions of this device hyped in some of the computer magazines. Then when I checked them out, they all fetched up a bit short. They were somewhat over hyped.
On this one, it looks like HP got it right. It's an MP3 stereo component with a 40 GB hard drive. Of course, it is really just a dedicated computer for MP3 storage and playback. It's a bit expensive at $1,000, but it has what I think an MP3 player must have. At least it has what I want. With a 40 GB hard drive it can store all of my CDs at 256k. That will give a playback which will pass my ear test.
For those not in the know, I can define a couple of terms. MP3 is simply a way of compressing digital information so that it takes less storage space. The MP3 format is specifically for compressing digitally mastered music tracks. The 256k I refer to is the storage or playback rate of the data. In this case, the data is compressed and played back at 256 thousand bits per second. At that compression, I cannot discern any loss of quality. That is really all that matters. Can I tell it from an uncompressed CD?
As I said, this compression allows me to store all of my 300 plus music CDs on the player's hard drive. Capacity is one area where the others came up short. They made some kind of assumption about the fidelity of, or the amount of data that I want to store. In my case, the assumptions were incorrect.
Being able to store the CDs on the unit is very useful. It allows me to select and play any track without having to shuffle disks into and out of a player. Even with a six disk player this gets tiresome and now my CDs will not get damaged with handling. They should last forever. Also, since this is a computer, It allows me to create play lists. Then, instead of selecting individual tracks, I can select a predefined play list of tracks. That allows me to sit back and enjoy the music for as long as I want.
This device can also display the play list and procedures on my TV screen. I suspect it will be much like programing a VCR. Hopefully, it will be a bit simpler. It also has a CD-R/CD-RW disk drive built in. That is in case I want to create MP3 CDs to play on another device. Finally, the device will also store CDs in their standard format; uncompressed.
Another nice thing is it's size. Unlike those bulky CD changers, it will fit in my stereo cabinet. It is only 13&1/2 inches deep. The unit also has one feature which I will never need. Other folks may. It has three USB ports for connecting to a computer or whatever. I'll be able to tell you more sometime next year. I expect to buy one of these after Christmas.
As a final good thing in technical development we have the new DVD+RW devices available. I did not see these in a store. I noticed a write up on them in PC Magazine. In case you want to read it, it is in Volume 20 Number 22, December 26, 2001.Hewlett Packard and Sony both have offerings according to this article. Both are priced around $600.00. That's a bit steep, but the prices will come down. It will also have the salutary effect of driving down the prices of CD-RW drives.
When I wrote The Anatomy of a PC, I addressed the issue of DVD. At that time, I advised against DVD on the grounds that there were too many competing standards. I thought waiting a few months would be aa good idea. It turned out to be a great deal longer than a few months before they got it right. Now I think they have.
With both HP and Sony behind this standard, I expect it to
become the defacto standard for the industry. The others will
go the way of eight track. These DVD+RW devices seem to have everything
which was originally promised. They can write DVD Video. They
can backup data files to DVD disks. They can also create CD-R
and CD-RW disks. The Magazine article says that these units can
store 4.7 GB on a DVD disk. That's a lot of data. I'll look into
these thing further next year.
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