*********************************** AM/FM ***********************************       VHS vs DCC / MINIDISK      I would like to add a new dimension to the DCC vs minidisk debate. This 'war' has been compared to the VHS v Betamax shootout back in the 80's. In my opinion, VHS deserves a shot in this new 90's techno-digital battle too. This standard has far greater striking force than both the DCC and minidisk put together. Some new video recorders like the Philips Vr522 comes with something called NICAM HiFi stereo. In other words you will be able to record and playback digital stereo sound! These new Philips videos also has a new thing called 'audio longplay'. In this mode the VCR runs at half the speed without any loss in sound quality. On a standard E-240 cassette you may record no less than 8 hours continous music! Compared to the 1,5 on DCC and 1,25 on the sony mini- disk. I managed to record 7 cd's on an E-180 cassette (6 hrs.). You probably think it must be hell finding a particular song on such a video- cassette. That's not the case. It's in fact quite easy. While you are recording you just press the 'write' button on you remote control between each song, and the VCR will create an index mark. These index-marks will be used in the future to track a particular song. With index marks + the turbo drive fast forward, it'll take you approx. 1 minute to find a song anywhere on the cassette. Fiddling through a cd-collection is hard work compared to this. The DCC shows album titles and song texts displayed on a small screen at the front panel. Incredible!! With VHS you can display the entire cd cover on your television set, using digitizers and/or a video camera. You can even force your little sister to sing along. The audio-dubbing function makes this possible. The VCR records one stereotrack, and one mono. You can chose which to listen to, or both at the same time. These videocassette recorders can also do much more than a DCC or minidisk. Like displaying a motion picture in Dolby-stereo surround, backup a hard-disk or play a music video (Stereo of course.). In my opinion it will also replace a laser disk. The new laser head technology can cope with any laser disk when it comes to picture quality. And you don't have to flip the disk after one hour... Laser disks are also quite expensive. Video's are not. Of course, if you need to listen to digital music when you're driving you car, burning off fat and things like that, a VHS obviously is not a very good solution. But for home use.. Excellent! Since a VCR is cheaper than a DCC or minidisk I seriously can't see that there's any competition at all. Forget the DCC, buy yourself a VHS! Vidar Engen *********************************** AM/FM ***********************************