COMPACT DISCS ARE DEAD!!!

I still spin discs.. I'll never own an IPOD. Everyone I know that has owned one has had problems with them. I spin MP3 discs for my car stereo and I'll stay with them.

WHAT??!!! (cough, choke, sputter) Next, somebody will tell me that my tube home stereo and LP vinyl is obsolete!! When will the next planned obsolescence take place?

The subject was obviously posted by an industry-driven brainwashed youth who thinks hifi sounds best if it is stored in a memory chip........

Don't you just love "progress"?

I'm still spinning Magnetic Tape, CD's & Vinyl (in home).

harryface

A number of years back front auto in jacks were quite common. In the days of tape players most of the 'better' car stereos also had a front input so you could use a portable CD player in your car and pipe the CD audio right into the stereo.

Then CD decks became rather inexpensive, and the jacks went away.

More recently, the jacks have been showing up again, probably due to the prominence of portable MP3 players that you have alluded to. But the iPod is a piece of crap, non-serviceable and when the battery goes you need to know a bit about electronics and soldering to replace it yourself. I'd suggest something with an end-user replaceable battery, and you won't find that on -ANY- apple music player. Steve Jobs got this one wrong, but then again, this comes from the same company that thinks putting the power switch on the back of a computer is a good thing.

Really? Me, I've not made a coaster in years. You are making a broad statement with a stereotype brush, not a good idea.

Chris P.S. your iPod probably has a hard drive in it...see how well it works after you drop it....

In a car, the mechanical players are just not worth it. I put a stereo in my car with a USB port. Bought a 16GB USB memory stick. No more malfunctioning CD changers, no more screwing around with tapes, I can put all the CDs, LPs, and tapes worth of music I have on that one memory stick.

At home I still love the qualities of analong sound but in the car, not needing to mess around with the music media is great.

Same here. (Minus the CDs.) I use 8-track Stereosonic tape in the car every day, mostly vinyl at home.

I don't know, but I am doing a brisk business cutting LP masters. Haven't got a 7" for a while, but the vinyl business is definitely on the upswing right now.

You could stick a SOTA on your shotgun seat, run the platter hold-down off of engine vacuum....

--scott

If burning CD-Rs is a hit and miss proposition for you, you need to get a decent quality drive and decent quality blanks. There is a reason why the Taiyo Yuden low speed discs are more expensive than the ones from the drugstore.

________________ Huh? "made a coaster in years"? Dude you lost me there! ___________________

________________________________ I don't have an I-Pod or for that matter any mp3 player - YET. I'm coldly analyzing all facts: specs, prices, reliability, form-factor, what features I need vs features I don't, and then - I'll pounce - and score the mp3 player that best fits my needs.

Something around 8gB, plays video, FM radio, and NO....MOVING......Parts - besides the buttons on the interface.

That last part underscores my original post - MOVING PARTS are DEAD! MEMORY is the FUTURE. Have enough of it, and high enough bitrates, and you'll need the ears of a DOG to tell the difference between it and analog. Sure, I miss records - that little crackle at the beginning when the tone-arm hits the vinyl, and cassette tapes - Lord knows how much of my material is still contained on them. I've even got an Eight-Track player hooked up just in case I score a shoebox of those at a flea market!

But - just try mounting one of those on your HIP - or finding a suitable place in your car or on the plane for them. Those things I mentioned above - they've got a place: in a rack at HOME. But for going mobile - nothing beats good old MEMORY. It doesn't SKIP, doesn't wear out, doesn't break down or jam. and like I said, with bitrates above 300k/sec, it's the future. Need sound at a house party in a hurry - throw a good mp3 player into the line-ins. Tired of drop-outs and skips in the car/motorcycle? There's a jack for that.

-CC

___________________ Read my reply to Hal - it underscores everything you said here.

-CC (for once BP we actually agree on something!)

_________________________ I've tried all brands - cheap, midpriced, and expensive. The supposedly crappy Imation-CD-RWs I burned last year at my old job work in all CD players from 25 days up to 25 years old. The Sony CD-Rs I burned recently in my brand new HP home PC work only in "modern"(read: mfgd after 2000) players. I know, the CD/DVD-burner in my tower is definitely the problem, but I'm too lazy and too focused on future technologies to care - even it it's still under warranty.

Like I said, spinning discs - whether shiny or black, are SO 1980s! Not worth wasting the time. As long as this computer can read its own system restore DVDs, that's all that matters.

-CC

I still use and buy CDs. I have an mp3 player for its extreme portability. But then, I get my music for it by ripping my CDs. Also, while I call it an mp3 player, I keep my files in WMA- better quality than most mp3 files I can get ahold of. Most mp3s I see available are not recorded at high enough bit rate.

Some of us do not feel threatened by 1987. So many younger people today feel they just HAVE to be up to date with the latest, or people will laugh at them. If their friends do laugh at them, the solution is to find better friends.

There is an old saying in engineering, about not reinventing the wheel. Not everything is better JUST because it is newer.

BTW, I have not had much trouble burning CDs or DVDs. Get a better computer.

Check out the Sansa e200 (8G). FM, video, photos, music, voce recorder. Doesn't need any external proprietary software. Plug it into a USB port and it looks like a drive. Drag and drop and you're done. Extra space can be used to carry any files as a portable drive. Cheap, got mine at the local Target for US$130.

BTW compact disks are definitely not dead as the thread title suggests. After I rip them for my player, they make great backups...

__________________ Good point. The archival value of CDs(and even cassettes & vinyl) cannot be misunderestimated.

-CC

Gawd, ain't THAT the truth!

Sing the praises of the CD, brutha! Sing 'em! :)

(Handy for backup after being imaged and running from the image, too)

Don't blame the technology for a broken product. There is absolutely zero excuse for this. Send the drive back, because sooner or later you are going to need it.

If you are burning discs with such a high error rate that they will only work in a few player, they have too high an error rate to be trusted in ANY players.

What makes you think it'll be able to six months from now? If your drive is broken, fix it.

--scott

Yes. CD-Rs, however, are not archival media and should not be trusted as such.

Properly manufactured pressed CDs are pretty reliable, minus a few problems with Nimbus screwing up the labels or PDO screwing up the styrene mix.

--scott

If I want to listen to music when I am driving I tune in one of the local country music radio stations. cuhulin

Thus proving (as if it needed any further proof) that, like the vast majority of WebTVers, there is not the slightest trace of taste to be found in any part of your anatomy.