Sony don't play DAT

Sony has laid to rest one of the many formats put out by the company in the late 80s: DAT, or "Digital Audio Tape." The first DAT deck was released in Japan in March of 1987, and the final product to be released was the TCD-D100 in July of 1997. Sony announced that the final shipments of the TCD-D100 (right) will be going out in December of this year. They will, however, continue to offer repairs to units and sell DAT tapes. DAT was somewhat attractive because it offered high sampling rates for the time. Nowadays, we have things like Hi-MD and the PCM-D1 that achieve similar tasks more efficiently, and the latter does so at higher sampling rates. Seeing as how Sony only ever shipped 660,000 recorders in Japan during this 18 year period, we won't be shedding any tears over this one.

[spencer hudson @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

the death of another media format ... the real worry is that as so many technologies die what will happen in the future when we want to pull information of long lost media.

reminds me of the a recent incident when nasa were going to thrown away orignal data collected from a space flight because it didn't think it needed to keep it (no hardware avaliable).

suppose this is just a sign of the times.

might be interesting to talk about the need to keep data avaliable/portable/open???

[Sheniferous @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

it should be noted that DAT is still used HEAVILY in the fields of film and music.

[Michael Wyszomierski @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

Sheniferous is right. I can't believe that the last DAT product was released in 1997, considering the number of times I've used the format in the past few years for music recording as well as audio recording for film.

I've never seen a recording studio without a DAT machine somewhere in the rack, although it's still hard to find a video lab without an analog BETA deck...

[William C Bonner @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

DAT could be the first example of a consumer Digital Audio Player being killed by DRM. When it was introduced, there were severe restrictions put on it so that people wouldn't be able to go out and record perfect copies of their CDs.

[Homey D. Clown @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

Excellent title.

[Jamie @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

I will shed a few tears over this. A group I sang with in college release a few live CDs, and all of them were recorded on to DAT.
It was always a bit strange as a medium, but sounded great.

[David Gurney @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

If any congressmen really represented their constituents, they would have thrown the DAT debacle in the face of every industry shill who came to curry favor and demand more legislative ripping-off of the consumers.

The record companies swore that DAT would cause an explosion of piracy because it could make "perfect" copies, and yet everybody in the nation knew that most "piracy" was taking place on double-cassette boom boxes in dorm rooms. People don't give a crap about quality, and today we have more proof than ever, as people happily trade degraded, compressed MP3s.

Yet these industry criminals are STILL perpetuating this lie, now to deprive citizens of the use of multi-thousand-dollar HDTVs and recording systems. Oh NO, we can't possibly have analog component outputs sending HD signals!

The story of DAT stands as a testament to the corruption that has now reached such intense levels that consumers who legally purchased these companies' products can't legally enjoy them when and where they want to.

More apalling than this is that people put up with it.

[Neil Walsh @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

DAT is an uncompressed format whereas MD is a compressed format. Until Hard Disk recording came along this was the only way to record uncompressed digital audio for CD. Nowdays Masters are often recorded back into HD systems (eg Pro Tools) and then burnt to CD for Mastering. Many engineers will mourn the loss of this format, I guess. It must be said that sony didn't make the best machines anyhow.

Also, the article makes a classic but acceptable mistake of calling the tapes - DAT Tapes - this would be Digital Audio Tape Tapes...

[Nick Crowther @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

best. headline. ever.

[Verbal @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

I don't understand why they'd be getting rid of it since it's highly used in music. What's the next best thing?

[Jon Choo @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

Another post highlighting the ignorance on engadget's part. DAT is still used heavily in my university's audio visual department.

[Mark @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

More concerts were bootlegged on DAT than any other format. And still are. Engadget's got it wrong that it won't be missed.

[Mark @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

More concerts were bootlegged on DAT than any other format. And still are. Engadget's got it wrong that it won't be missed.

[Steve @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

Does anybody actually read articles (even just the Engadget articles)? They haven't produced a new product since 1997, and this doesn't say anything about other companies that may use DAT technology.

At it's most recent, the technology is 8 years old. Whether or not it's still widely used, Sony isn't getting any additional revenue from the sale of decks. The article clearly says that they're still selling tapes and offering service, so what's the problem?

Any A/V department developed after 2000 is probably using digital media, so you support the holdouts and phase out the old stuff.

[south @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

Whatever happened to the Digital Compact Cassette (DCC)? I remember when people were predicting a format war between it and MiniDisc. But then, like the nuclear kind of war, no-one won in the end.

Damn, now I feel old.

[d3 @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

We ain't goin' out like DAT!

[ubiquitous @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

While they may have invented the format, Sony wasn't the only company to make DAT recorders. I have a Tascam DAT recorder. Many other companies, including Fostex and Panasonic, sold a lot of DAT recorders.

Post #3 is right on. DRM killed the consumer adoption of DAT. In this case it was called SCMS, or Serial Copy Management System. What it did was insert a copy bit in the first digital copy, which would prevent people from making digital copies of copies. DAT was relegated to the recording studio because of this. Pro DAT decks like the one I have do not have SCMS circuitry.

DAT is at best a backup or legacy format in today's pro recording environment. While there were a few 24 bit DAT recorders, the vast majority of them were 16 bit, 44.1/48kHz. With 24 bit recording taking over, DAT is quickly being consigned to the technology scrap heap. I hang on to my DAT deck because it's occasionally needed to transfer an old master recording to a newer format. Apart from that it never gets powered up.

So, what replaces DAT? Many studios mix music recordings straight to their computers' hard drives. For more portable, standalone usage, it's mainly hard disk and flash memory recorders.

[Josh Witkowski @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

Verbal: Recording to disk is far superior, as modern digital systems offer much higher sampling rates and greater bit depths than provided by DAT. Also, you don't have to worry about your tapes snapping (this has happened to me a few times with DAT, in the course of recording various projects). DAT decks that receive a good deal of use in a studio setting require regular mechanical maintenance, too. Fun, no? I can't say I'll mourn the passing of DAT -- though I doubt it'll go out of style with studio geeks anytime soon.

[Nobuyuki Idei @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

Neil Walsh, Mr. Smartypants, what would you then call "DAT tapes"? DA tapes? DUH tapes?

[Conjecture McSpeculate @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

I love my Sony 'DATman' portable. And as is mentioned up at the top of the comments list, it is still HEAVILY used in film and music. In fact I originally bought mine for taping off the soundboards at shows, and for field recording on video and film shoots. Things may eventually move exclusively to hard disk or flash, but DAT has been the standby for tapers for a long while now.

http://images.misupply.com/products/original/Sony/pcm1.jpg

[SR @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

I heard that the playback/record head needed to be replaced after every 1000 hours of use is that true?

[Michael Shada @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

I agree with #6 and his coments above.
The reason however that people put up with it is that generally people are STUPID MINDLESS SHEEP that follow the flock. (Why do you think AOL is so popular?)

[David Bowser @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

I have a Panasonic vs-3700 DAT deck behind me right now. It samples at both 44.1 and 48kHz. I have not hooked it up since I moved last year, so I guess I don't need it now, but I won't toss it for fear of needing it down the road.

[Chet @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

I still have a DAT deck hooked up to my stereo system. Very few modern recording devices are as convenient for recording a radio broadcast. Just drop in a tape, hit record, and voila. No device to boot, no menus to futz with, and it automatically stops recording when it reaches the end of the tape. DAT recorders are one of the few digital audio devices that are almost as easy to use as their analog equivalent. I like that.

[tekdroid @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

David Gurney:
Beautifully said.

Neil Walsh:
Latest enchancement to MiniDisc is Hi-MD. It records and plays back on 1GB Hi-MDs as well as regular MDs. Total play/record time on the 1GB discs is 1h:30min uncompressed linear PCM. On regular MDs it's about 30min uncompressed. There are options for regular Sony ATRAC compression, too (for far more record/playback time per disc). So MD is not just compressed anymore.

DAT = fantastic format.