WSJ'S MOSSBERG GIVES DATAPLAY A THUMBS DOWN FOR NOW
April 18, 2002
PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY
By WALTER S. MOSSBERG
Complex Software, Copying Limits
Make DataPlay Too Much Trouble
The high-tech industry is always coming out with products that are smaller, yet have high capacity and cool features. But not every little marvel succeeds in the marketplace. The way it's deployed, the price, the marketing -- all of these can trip up even the teeniest technology. For instance, Sony's little MiniDiscs have gained only a small foothold in the U.S., while larger recordable CDs have surged.
I've been testing the latest little marvel that will try to take the world by storm but may have a tough time doing so. It's a new kind of disk that's smaller than a Saltine cracker yet holds 500 megabytes of data -- the equivalent of 357 floppy disks and 75% as much as a CD-ROM. Each of these tiny rewritable wafers, called DataPlay disks, can hold hours of music, hundreds of photos and other data.
DataPlay Disk
Not only that, but the company says that in early June, record labels are due to start releasing a few albums in the DataPlay format, including titles by David Gray, Britney Spears and 'N Sync. Each prerecorded disk contains not only the album itself, but also previews of a second album, which can be unlocked online for a bargain price. Each album will also contain videos, photos, lyrics and even, in some cases, games. And there will be room left over to add your own MP3 songs and nonmusic files.
That's the good news. The bad news is that you need special hardware and software to play DataPlay disks. Starting next month, DataPlay drives will be available for $300 and up. They are small, hand-held units that double as PC accessories and as portable music players. Cheaper drives that merely read and write to the disks, but don't play music, may show up eventually at around $200. Also, blank DataPlay disks cost much more than blank CDs -- between $5 and $12 each, depending on how many you buy at a time, compared with less than a dollar for blank recordable CDs.
But the biggest downside of the new DataPlay format is that it is the first format for prerecorded music that's designed from the ground up with a copy-protection system that will severely limit the way honest consumers can use the music they buy.
At least at first, you won't be able to copy any of the music to a PC, or burn it onto a CD for use in a CD player. And even copies to blank DataPlay disks will be limited by rules written onto the disks by the record labels. For instance, with a David Gray album I tested, each song can only be copied to another DataPlay disk five times, curbing the number of "mix" disks you can make. Copying of prerecorded songs to a PC is expected to be possible later this year but will be governed by the same limitations.
I tested the DataPlay disks with a $369 player that will carry the MTV brand and is made by Evolution Technologies. The player has a slot on the side for the disks and a small screen that shows song information and other data. In portable mode, unconnected from a PC, it played music fine, though the user interface was complex and technical. DataPlay says the interface will be cleaned up by the time the player is commercially available in late May.
When I hooked the MTV player up to a PC, using an included USB cable, it became a disk drive for the DataPlay disks. Using special software that came with the drive, I was able to copy all sorts of files to blank disks, and to the blank space on prerecorded disks. I then hooked the player up to a second PC and was able to transfer my own files -- though not any precorded music -- to the second PC.
Installation of the necessary software was a pain. Five sets of programs and drivers needed to be installed, including one that creates a file system for the disks. To copy files to the disk, you drag them to the disk's icon, though you have to "record" the files, using a special utility, before the disk can be ejected.
Music on the disks can be played through your PC's speakers, but only if you use a special music program called Future Player, which is designed to handle the encrypted files. This player allows you to add your own MP3 files to a DataPlay disk, but it encrypts them so they, too, can only be played using the Future Player.
In my view, the benefits of the small size and high capacity of the DataPlay format don't outweigh its downsides. The players and disks are expensive if you just want to store and transfer files. And anyone using it as a music medium is giving up most of his legal rights to copy music for convenient use. DataPlay may be a record label's dream format, but at least in its first iteration, it's not great for consumers
AI
