so are CD Players dead?

[ElBoricua433]

just a curiosity question, are portable CD Players or regular cd players dead, since we see people out there with Ipods and other mp3 players more than I see people with cd players, is CD Players fading away and Ipods and MP3 Players taking over?

[RFBurns]

As the old saying goes...."Nothing Last's Forever".

However it would depend on what the market demands. Since CD's are still a viable media, it could be awhile before we see it vanish like the previous audio media. Cassette and other magnetic tape media along with the vinyl records had good reason to fade into history, since they are prone to wear and tear during use. That is the media would loose its stability and reliability over a short period of time compared to an optical disc. Plus the fact that even standard audio CD still has far more frequency response and signal to noise ratio that just stomps out tape and vinyl.

Also most players these days are capable of playing CD's that have mp3 audio files, making them capable of holding far more material than the standard book format.

When the memory sticks begin to hit the large size, around 80 or more Gb in capacity, we might see an introduction of an early version of isolinear optic chip that can effectivly replace all current optic and high rpm disc media, including hard drives. Access times and data thoroughput are the key. If the memory stick/isolinear chips can exceed the current specs, its very possible our movies, including HD, music, data and photo will be on the memory stick style media.

iPod's, iPhones, etc are a neat little gadget to tote around your music/photo/movie collection while on the go. In my own personal opinion, I would much rather listen to a good tune on a full range sound system than a pair of tiny earphones, and watch a good movie on a nice large widescreen than a small one.

Some things are best left as they are, some could use modernization.

When it can defy gravity and hit lightspeed......I will be impressed!

[dazuk1972]

just a curiosity question, are portable CD Players or regular cd players dead, since we see people out there with Ipods and other mp3 players more than I see people with cd players, is CD Players fading away and Ipods and MP3 Players taking over?

I haven't heard about CD's dying out but the so-called mini discs never kicked off. The blank discs were so expensive and so were the pre-recorded ones and not everything came out on mini disc pre-recorded. About seven years ago I did read the Japanese were making a mini disc burner and that sounded great but that idea must have been thrown out of the window like a sack of wet laundery.

Darren.

[drfsupercenter]

I have a "mp3 CD player", that way I can burn mp3s to a data CD and it will play them.

You can also play normal audio CDs obviously. Since I have a normal mp3 player, I only use the CD player if my mp3 player is broken (which has happened a few times now), so it's nice to have one as a backup.

Nice thing about CD players is they are way less expensive than mp3 players, mine was like $40 and this was 3 years ago.

[RFBurns]

I haven't heard about CD's dying out but the so-called mini discs never kicked off. The blank discs were so expensive and so were the pre-recorded ones and not everything came out on mini disc pre-recorded. About seven years ago I did read the Japanese were making a mini disc burner and that sounded great but that idea must have been thrown out of the window like a sack of wet laundery.

Darren.

Main problem with the mini-disc system was the compression algorithyms used. The specifications on the mini-disc recordings were comparable to hi-bias cassette (metal) with slightly better signal to noise ratio. Although pre-recorded discs did give near CD standard specs, it was the recording side of the system that did not fly very well.

The system to record to blanks also relied on a floating magnetic head which literally flies on the top side of the blank disc giving the optic side and the laser the capability to print to the disc. It generated a "bias" above the write block so the laser could pit the block in relation to the magnetic pulse from the flying mag head. Not quite the same way a hard drive and its heads work, but very similar. The mini-disc blanks were subject to erasure by strong magnetic fields as well, which did not give them any huge advantage over a normal anlog cassette tape.

There were a few exceptions to the usefullness of the mini-disc. Radio stations used them extensively for commercial/promo/station plugs playback. Since radio stations often cycle out on daily or weekly basis the commercials and promos, the mini-disc gave them a fast reliable way to work around the old carts once used exclusively.

Sony should have built this format as close as possible to the floppy drive, thus could have created a replacement for the old 1.44Mb floppy discs/drives.