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Post by jons on Sept 4, 2006 16:28:15 GMT
You can discuss here anything related to the future of music. For instance will there be an end to Hip-Hop and will there be rise in classical music(Hayley's popularity is helping with that.)
I'm a bit of tech geek and a futurologist so heres some of my predictions for speaker technology:
Bluetooth signal powered speakers and headphones
Already Passive IFID(Radio Frequency Identification) tags are powered by the signal they recieve.
Bluetooth signal powered speakers and headpones would need no wires and only a small nano-battery inside recharged by the radio signal.
Middle speaker (Dolby HD 8.1)
The remote control that comes with your surround sound setup will incorporate a (Bluetooth powered) speaker with similar volume to the rear speakers to give an added dimension to the sound (don't drop it behind the sofa though.https://i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif)
Nano-hover speakers
In the future when your watching your favourite artists in full 3D, you will need a speaker system to go with it. No doubt they will have invented true 3D sound from one speaker or projector. But for the true audiophiles out there, is the Nano-Hover speakers.
So small you need a 'nano-viewer' to see them. They 'sync' with the singer and band members on the 3D stage producing life like sound.
....and thats just for starters.
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Post by jons on Jun 13, 2007 13:05:35 GMT
The future of the CD
So you like your CDs. They have been with us for years. They are shiny discs of un-complication. You pop one into a CD player and you listen. Simple as that. You do look after them don’t you? No messy fingerprints or scratches. I’m my case nada. I keep them in their cases, in a storage case. No worries about distortion from overworked error correction or laser tracking problems.
25 years it has been, I believe, since the indestructible marmalade defying discs came on the scene. They remain unchanged. Disc spec wise nothing as ever changed. OK, so they had films put on them for a while (Do you remember Phillips Video Disc?). But the discs play music like vinyl, only with noughts and ones don’t they? Err…maybe, but not quite.
The music on a CD is all over the place: part of a song here, part of song there. If it was all continuous it wouldn’t play. Why? Because you can’t trust people to look after them; some people leave the blooming things lying about, collecting dust. People host dinner parties on them. They even use them as Frisbees! That’s why it helps that the discs have blocks of audio each with a bit of extra data so the error-correction can get the information back that is hidden due to dirt on the disc. CDs are more complicated than you think.
Anyhow, while CDs remain the same. New discs have appeared which could mean that they are CDs but with the specs changed so the CD has changed after all, but they haven’t because we are talking about DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray.
Blu-ray doesn’t like fingerprints: the reading layer has to be close to the laser to work. The protective layer of ordinary DVD’s is too thick. So, a new type of layer called a Hard Coating was developed. Scratch proof and to a certain extent dust and fingerprint proof, it offers peace of mind, but it adds expense.
Of course Nano-Technology will put paid to that. Indestructible discs will arrive eventually at little extra cost so your music CDs will benefit. I SHAKE MY HAND AT YOU CAT! IN A VICTORIOUS WAY! WHILE I WATCH YOU ATTEMPT TO SCRATCH THAT UN-SCRATCHABLE DISC! WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO NOW, HEY? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
The DVD-Audio and the Super Audio Compact Disc(SACD) have not become popular. Expense is it? A lack of standalone players? DVD players often have the ability to play DVD-Audio and/or SACD, but people don’t notice. The CD remains - it’s what people know.
Hmmm, the DVD is popular too. Its something else that people have gotten used to. It wouldn’t surprise me though if some of you are watching your films (and most likely Hayley’s Live From New Zealand DVD) on a rubbish 14inch set.
Look, a 32inch Hi-Def LCD and even some Plasmas are coming down in price, and they are good quality. If you spend a little extra on DVD player with ‘Up-scaling’ you can get a picture close to watching Hi-Def for real, but of course not quite as good. Its better than watching it on a ‘Tube’ based telly anyhow.
Blu-ray and HD-DVD are pretty expensive however and as they are two formats, you have got a lot of film companies supporting Blu-ray and just a few supporting HD-DVD. Blu-ray will probably win but at the moment HD-DVD has Universal Studios supporting it and thats an important film company - you can’t watch Peter Jackson’s King Kong on Blu-ray - no High Def apes! Come to think of it: If Hayley released her DVD on Hi-Def you would have to have a HD-DVD player - but just imagine: you could see all of Hayley’s blemishes in close detail……Oh, wait a minute…… Hayley doesn’t have blemishes! Well you could see how perfect her skin is up close.
They have tried to solve the problem by making dual format discs; whichever player you have it will work. But that is complicated and expensive. The dual format players are an expensive and complicated idea too. In fact the early players will play both discs, but the special features of HD-DVD’s wont work.
The hope lies on the latest disc called Versatile Muti-layer Disc(VMD). All it is, is a DVD that makes use of the unused space. Up to 20 layers are possible, but the first disc will have 4 or 8. But its cheap! The disc is basically a DVD. The player just needs a few extra bits of circuitry, so they will only be a bit more expensive than an ordinary DVD player.
That would be the cost thing out of the way and the complications. But its convincing the movie studios and ultimately the consumers.
So the CD remains the same, music is stuck at 44kHz. The higher def audio formats are not having much success. DVD will eventually be replaced due to the demand for Hi-Def.
Mp3 is currently the leading music breakthrough, but CD is still popular, however I don’t think the CD will ever be replaced as the leading music storage format. It won’t change, apart from finally delivering on the promise of playing even after having marmalade spread on it, thank to that Nano-technology. I remember thinking when first seeing that demonstration of CDs supposed durability, “Why would anyone wont to spread marmalade on it? Why not Jam?
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Post by postscript on Jun 13, 2007 14:24:54 GMT
But then of course, Jon, there was vinyl LP--which was rarely used to its maximum capacity in terms of the data it could hold. It did have an extraordinary range of tonal qualities and because they could be easily scratched--you could spoil them by simply placing the playing head on the record carelessly to hear them--we consequently took care of them, as we used to do with things called books.
While one might turn down the corner of a paper-back because we weren't so bothered about always hving a leather book marker with us--or had no newspaper to hand to tear off a margin, one never dreamt of doing that with a hard-cased book, even if the casing was basic book-cloth instead of leather.
Sometimes the old way of doing things was infinitely simpler, much more enjoyable, so more relaxed and ... just better? Or am I simply feeling very old!
Peter S.
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Post by jons on Jun 13, 2007 14:48:19 GMT
Peter, if I see one speck of dust on a CD I go crazy and have to clean it!  LPs were worse, but I remember, despite looking after them as best I could some of them got scratched (Linoel Ritchie got stuck on 'Stuck On You' I'm not kidding! ) But Vinyl is still popular; some artists still record on them. If you check out the video of interactive paper on The Geek Thread(Thats a good way of getting people to read my posts  ) You will see a woman touching each album cover on the wall to activate the music, and then uses the volume buttons to increase the....volume! It looks like there are track search buttons as well. It will be here sooner than later. Just think: To play one of Hayley's albums, just tickle her under the chin! (Her photo on the album cover of course - Don't try doing that to the real thing!  ) |
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Post by grant on Jun 13, 2007 15:04:30 GMT
Just think: To play one of Hayley's albums, just tickle her under the chin! (Her photo on the album cover of course - Don't try doing that to the real thing! ) I don't know Jon, she might like it!! Best wishes Grant |
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Post by postscript on Jun 14, 2007 8:56:55 GMT
Peter, if I see one speck of dust on a CD I go crazy and have to clean it! LPs were worse, but I remember, despite looking after them as best I could some of them got scratched (Linoel Ritchie got stuck on 'Stuck On You' I'm not kidding! ) But Vinyl is still popular; some artists still record on them. If you check out the video of interactive paper on The Geek Thread(Thats a good way of getting people to read my posts ) You will see a woman touching each album cover on the wall to activate the music, and then uses the volume buttons to increase the....volume! It looks like there are track search buttons as well. It will be here sooner than later. Just think: To play one of Hayley's albums, just tickle her under the chin! (Her photo on the album cover of course - Don't try doing that to the real thing! ) Love it Jon, Love it! Peter S. |
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Post by mariannek on Jun 14, 2007 9:16:35 GMT
But then of course, Jon, there was vinyl LP--which was rarely used to its maximum capacity in terms of the data it could hold. It did have an extraordinary range of tonal qualities and because they could be easily scratched--you could spoil them by simply placing the playing head on the record carelessly to hear them--we consequently took care of them, as we used to do with things called books. While one might turn down the corner of a paper-back because we weren't so bothered about always hving a leather book marker with us--or had no newspaper to hand to tear off a margin, one never dreamt of doing that with a hard-cased book, even if the casing was basic book-cloth instead of leather. Sometimes the old way of doing things was infinitely simpler, much more enjoyable, so more relaxed and ... just better? Or am I simply feeling very old! Peter S. We are both getting old, Peter ! But I have never not used a bookmark to mark the page where I left off !!! I have quite a collection of them! You are right, Peter, the olden days and ways were so much better...you knew what you were doing !!! Love, Marianne  |
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Post by jons on Jun 14, 2007 14:10:38 GMT
Hi Peter and Marianne,
I would much sooner read a proper book than a digital one. I'm not sure if it was on that video about interactive paper but I recently saw a device where you have a screen and to turn the page you move your hand over it like you are turning a page which in turn is accompanied by a page turning animation. Its been done for ease of use and to supposedly make people feel more comfortable with technology, but thats not going to work is it?
Regarding vinyl; there is more proof that records are still popular from the existence of laser based players on the market.
But whats the point? The laser has to change the bumps it reads into digital data - one of reasons why people love vinyl is that is analogue, and the fact that the stylus reads those soundwaves, giving it the unique sound.
I am a neophile - but obviously not as extreme as its defined in the dictionary - It means love of the new. Thats the characteristic I take from it anyway: I like novelty. But I like the old values too. I still have some records in my home. I have plenty of tapes too. In fact it is the tape which seems to be dying off, with Curry's stopping selling hi-fi with tape players in them.
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Post by Dori on Jun 30, 2007 1:13:34 GMT
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Post by davemcc on Jul 6, 2007 19:37:53 GMT
Found this on 10.2 Surround sound which is intresting:
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Post by meldy on Jul 8, 2007 0:49:01 GMT
OOo  Interesting little tid bit there Dave  |
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Joe
Administrator
Supporting Hayley since 2003!
Posts: 6,715 
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Post by Joe on Jul 8, 2007 5:19:57 GMT
Hi everyone, Something at Wal-mart caught my attention. Inside the store was a display of CD's. The sign said "Less than 80 cents per song...fill your I-Pod..."  Joe |
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Post by davemcc on Jul 9, 2007 16:17:00 GMT
OK more news for surround sound:
truthfully, who would want that in their house unless it had huge rooms? Would be great for cinema places.
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Post by davemcc on Jul 14, 2007 23:51:01 GMT
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Interesting little tid bit there Dave 
