Deep-digging pays off for MP3 file-copying to MD

I think you were a bit quick to disregard your reader Clement Cheng's quest to find a link between PC and MD for MP3 (see Tech Talk, in Technology Post, November 2).

If someone would market a portable MD player that could read and record MP3 files (as well as 'normal' MD music format - what is that anyway?) - the market would be huge.

Who (except for the manufacturers) needs more types of flash memory cards, sticks, cassettes, CDs and what have you - the MDs would be able to hold hours of songs; they are cheap; and consumers are comfortable with them and have invested in them already.

I have seen that a portable CD-player that can read MP3 is now available, and with more than 100 songs on a CD this is not bad, but when is the industry bringing the same or better for MDs? It would be appreciated if you could do more research into this consumer-friendly area. The idea is so obvious that something must be under way somewhere.

HENRIK HOLM Hong Kong You're right . . . it was a quick and dirty answer to a question that does warrant a bit more space.

You also are right about the new formats of storage devices possibly being more useful to their vendors than they are to end users, what with the obsolescence that appears to be built into all of them.

In discussing this issue with a friend who had just bought a Sharp MT831 mini-disc player/recorder, I realised solutions did exist for copying MP3 files on to minidisc. I just didn't look hard enough.