CD/DVD players and hard disks are approaching obsolescence. Certainly these devices will continue to survive for some time since they have been in existence for years (HD’s for 25+ years and CD/DVD players for quite awhile, and just about everyone has CD and DVD disks), but now we have a functional and better replacement: SD cards.

The problem with CD’s, DVD’s, and HD’s is the fact they depend upon players (which, as a mechanical device, are prone to failure) that move the information from the disk to a RAM chip. The components in a Car Entertainment System (CES) must withstand a variety of abuse (e.g., vibration, potentially dusty or humid environments, extreme temperature ranges from -20F to over +100F, etc.), and we expect the CES to work flawlessly.

So… Where are we going?… Here is an example:

The above example (Clarion FB275B) has no moving parts, costs less because it doesn’t use expensive mechanical components, and is very reliable because it is totally “digital.” It has no moving parts

Another example of superior reliability based upon a digital platform is Kenwood’s new navigation product, Kenwood KNA-G510 Navigation Box. This device (the OEM supplier is Garmin) uses a SD card, is completely digital, and has no moving parts.

When you look at this, you have to wonder why the iPod has a miniature and fragile HD when it could have a SD card (or multiple SD cards in a jukebox arrangement for that matter, that would require less bulk and provide better reliability and potentially more memory).

--Spike

 

So how much is that thing since it is "cheaper"?

 

It's $199.00 SRP. It does everything (except handling CD's and DVD's), but costs less since it is totally digital with no moving parts.
--Spike

 

^ its available for $150 lots of places online.

 

^^ ^ ^ Yes... It is surprising how inexpensive a totally digital device is. Once you take away the requirement for a mechanical CD/DVD/HD player, the manufacturing cost drops significantly. And, the device using an SD card runs faster and more reliably. Programmers prefer this scenario as well since you can assume that the "RAM-Swap" is nearly instantaneous.
--Spike

 

So that thing is a...$150 MP3 player head unit. So there really is no diff if you already have an MP3 player. Cool idea but I think it needs a built in memory that you load the cards to.

 

The device has a ROM chip (for proprietary functions, device updates, etc.). The device will read information from a SD to update ("flash") its functions in case (and probably) when an operational improvement or necessary change to the device's operations is advantageous.

The device has RAM, but that structure isn't as significant as you may think when comparing this to a traditional CD/DVD/hard drive "info swap." Consider the fact that a SD card is fully digital (requiring no mechanical access).

You can expect SD replacing CD/DVD's very soon.
--Spike

 

I don't see CD/DVD being replaced anytime soon. CD/DVD's I can burn things to and give them away, I am not going to give SD away!

 

Nice!!!! I wish I had seen this a year ago!

 

thats right, the person would give it back, once they load it to their equipment... if your worried about notgettin it back, make ita .zip fileand email it

 

I prefer USB ports so I can attach different mass storage devices to it.
The Kenwood DNX7100 I picked up has SD but, I think it's for software updates only. It has a USB port so it should work well with my 200GB USB hard drive.

 

SD cards are much too slow for video files. Ipod nano's do have flash memory but it is much slower compared to the video ipods. SD's will work alright but I still see the Ipod as a #1 music playback device for the car. Everyone either has one or will get one. It's so useful and there's so much support for it.

 

Samsung has already created a solid state hard drive which is the latest emerging memory technology.
http://news.digitaltrends.com/article12556.html
Soon all home and car audio/video will be nothing more than digital pc's/carpc's.

 

You can't email files that are too large! Anyways, SDs have their place, I feel they just will not re-place the CD/DVDs!

 

So they can sell you a new one every couple of years when the HD packs up.

 

That's correct. iPods survive the 12 month warranty period. The failure rate is high after this, often within 24 months. The most vulnerable components are the LCD screen and the miniature hard drive. In defense of Apple's warranty, I would point out that the iPod is a small portable device that gets stuffed into pockets (and breaks when somebody sits down forgetting the device is in their pocket), dropped, or abused in all sorts of ways. It's very difficult to provide an extensive warranty on a product that is small and fragile.
--Spike

 

Are you suggesting that a digital card (ROM, RAM, or SD) provides slower performance/access times than a hard-disk-drive?
--Spike

 

I'm not saying that CD/DVD disks will go away in every environment, only that they will be replaced in portable systems such as Car Entertainment Systems.

In fact, DVD's are moving to the front in Home Entertainment Systems (Sony's new BlueRay (sp?) is an emerging technology based within a physical DVD solution). The big three entertainment companies (Sony, MGM, and the other one whose name escapes me now) all want to keep DVD as the standard since it is a media that they find easier to control (i.e., use copy protection) and distribute. For now, the DVD standard is a more profitable media in the Home Entertainment System.

Garmin placed pressure on NAVTEQ to bypass delivery of the map database on only DVD (a method still used and available from NAVTEQ) and allow a fully digital solution. When NAVTEQ agreed to this (downloading from Internet sites to update application software and the map database), Tele Atlas was forced into the same scenario to remain competative.

Where I see a huge advantage for Garmin and Kenwood (OEM supplier is Garmin) is application and map database updates. I have already done a download on Garmin's website to update the map database and application software for my new Garmin GVN 52 Black box navigation unit. The update was free, and I had it it in just a few minutes. The same thing is possible if I had a Kenwood device. The download on a DSL line took about two minutes, then another minute to write the update to a SD, and 15 seconds to offload the SD data to the Garmin's flash ROM. The cost was zero dollars. Compare that to buying a DVD to update Nissan's navigation device.

You can expect the cost of SD's to drop to pennies per gigabyte within the next year while the capacity grows tenfold. The same will happen with USB flash drives.

You won't see any new releases of navigation devices for cars using DVD's a year from now (except for really cheap units destined for a cheap and short life). Of course home and business computers will still have CD/DVD drives.

--Spike