Close
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
Search
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Latest News
    • Storage

    Microsoft Media Players to Boast Bigger Drives

    By
    Mark Hachman
    -
    September 23, 2004
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      SANTA CLARA, Calif.—A hardware designer for Microsoft Corp.s Portable Media Player team said that by 2007 the players would be designed with at least 125GB of storage capacity.

      The recently introduced players will also be designed to record and download high-definition as well as standard-definition video, said David Proctor, hardware lead for the Microsoft Portable Media Center at Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft. Future Portable Media Players, or PMPs, may include the ability to directly record video and connect to a wireless network, Proctor told attendees at the Diskcon show here.

      However, while 125GB of storage would seem to be good news for the drive industry, ubiquitous wireless technology may actually work against the mobile disk-drive market, Proctor added.

      Designed for watching video on the go, the first PMP players began shipping in early September. Creative Technology Ltd.s Zen Portable Media Center, iRiver Inc.s PMC-100 series and Samsung Electronics America Inc.s YH-999 are priced at between $499 and $599 for capacities of up to 40GB. Critics say that the devices do not allow the freedom to multitask that audio players do, but Microsoft officials have said that the devices are also designed to allow users to time-shift video for commutes via train or airplane.

      /zimages/1/28571.gifClick here to read about Microsofts Media2Go platform.

      According to The Diffusion Group Inc. of Plano, Texas, more than 40 percent of surveyed homes were interested in buying the device; 9 percent said they would “definitely” buy a PMP.

      Microsofts software engineers are already working to increase the size of the PMP drives. Although todays music requires about 5MB using the MP3 file format, Microsoft hopes users will take advantage of the recently released Windows Media Audio 10 codec and its “lossless” ripping algorithm, which provides a 700K-bps data rate, compared to the 128K-bps rate thats common to MP3 files. The trade-off for the increased file size is purer-sounding audio, Proctor said.

      By 2007, Microsoft envisions its Portable Media Players will hold up to 124GB of data, including 1,000 purchased songs recorded in WMA Lossless; 10,000 subscription songs at 128 K bps; 40 hours of standard-definition video; and 1,000 digital photos. Power users would require more storage, he said.

      Although Microsoft is currently focusing on audio, Proctor pointed out that the rise of digital camcorders could skew the mix heavily in the other direction. “Theres not much self-authored audio out there, but I bet there will be a lot of self-authored video,” he said.

      If the PMP takes off, Microsoft will have a greater say in the design of the hard drives powering the device. Proctor said the software giant already has some design goals. For example, he said that a slideshow of digital still images with a five-second delay between images still requires 4.8 M bps of data throughput. Video playback of an 800K-bps stream currently requires less than 5 percent of the system bus; 2004 players will have to accommodate an 8M-bps data stream using the same bus load, he said. Finally, video players will have to maintain a low power threshold, although in this category the display consumes the bulk of the power, attendees pointed out.

      Microsofts usage model also assumes that users will sync their PMPs with music libraries owned by such companies as Napster LLC, requiring licenses and content for up to 10,000 songs to be updated once per month. Privately, drive vendors called this restriction ridiculous, but acknowledged that content providers and Microsoft will be calling the shots.

      Because of the assumption that users will sync content, future PMPs will likely have a wireless option, Proctor said. That also means that users may be able to stream content on the fly from a local source, connected to a users home server or content provider via the Internet. That means that a large local hard drive may not be needed, he said.

      Amy R. Dalphy, manager of hard disk drives at Toshiba Corp.s Storage Device Division, said that she still felt a storage device serving as a cache might be necessary.

      /zimages/1/28571.gifCheck out eWEEK.coms Storage Center at http://storage.eweek.com for the latest news, reviews and analysis on enterprise and business storage hardware and software.

      /zimages/1/77042.gif

      Be sure to add our eWEEK.com developer and Web services news feed to your RSS newsreader or My Yahoo page

      Avatar
      Mark Hachman

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 1, 2020 0
      Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

      eWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
      Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

      Zeus Kerravala - November 18, 2020 0
      There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
      Read more
      Apple

      Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

      Wayne Rash - November 26, 2020 0
      If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
      Read more
      eWeek


      Contact Us | About | Sitemap

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      Terms of Service | Privacy Notice | Advertise | California - Do Not Sell My Information

      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×