MD Issues contd.

["Stephen P. Goodman" <spgoodman@earthlight.net>]

I mis-sent this somehow to Jon Wagner, as a regular reply, though it came
through LD.  Sometimes, I've noticed, a reply pops up going to the
loopers-delight.com address, and sometimes the actual author.  I'm curious
as to what affects this from the sender end, the source or maillist?  It's
not a consistent thing from the maillist end as far as I can figure.

***********

Here's one that causes some questions to be asked of MD users on this list
who are outside the USA though.  Is the compression/"minimally lossy 
scheme"
also on the units sold in the rest of the world?

I remember how long it took the MD not only to reach market in the world,
but in the US, and can't help but suspect some market manipulation on the
part of our old "friends" the RIAA on this one.  After all it was some time
before artists were actually putting a full 70 minutes of material on 
retail
CDs; and it was well after this was general standard - as opposed to simply
transposing an old vinyl release onto CD - that the MD actually emerged.
Isn't it possible that the same old "they'll steal from us!" credo was put
into effect, such that perhaps if the unit was capable of only recording 68
minutes, but had CD-quality sound, it wouldn't be allowed into the US
(according to all-too-familiar RIAA scare tactics used in the past on every
other recording medium introduced since the Compact Cassette)?  Perhaps 
Sony
blanched and actually believed their paranoid rantings, not thinking that
anyone in the US would jump to their defence.  It wouldn't be the first 
time
such underestimation was done.

So, if anyone has one of the first MDs made, especially outside the US, 
this
might answer some questions, eh?  Is there a difference between the first
models made by Sony sold outside the US, and the later, "RIAA allowed"
revisions?

Stephen Goodman
http://www.earthlight.net/Gallery_Front.html - Cartoons & Illustrations
http://www.earthlight.net/Studios * The free Loop of the Week!
http://www.mp3.com/StephenGoodman * New MP3 Releases!