DataPlay
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| Company type | Incorporation |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1999 |
| Headquarters |  Longmont, Colorado, USA |
Key people | Bill Almon, Jr., CEO and President Jeff Roberts, CFO |
| Products | DataPlay Engine DataPlay 500MB Optical Media |
Number of employees | ~30 (2006) |
| Website | www.DataPlay.com (defunct) |
DataPlay was an optical disc system developed by DataPlay Inc. and released to the consumer market in 2002. Using very small (32mm diameter) disks enclosed in a protective cartridge storing 250MB per side, DataPlay was intended primarily for portable music playback, including both pre-recorded disks and user-recorded disks (and disks that combined pre-recorded information with a writable area).
DataPlay included an elaborate digital rights management system designed to allow consumers to "unlock" extra pre-recorded content on the disk at any time following the initial purchase.
The recorded music industry was initially generally supportive of DataPlay and a small number of a pre-recorded DataPlay disks were released, including the Britney Spears album Britney. However, as a pre-recorded format, DataPlay was a failure.
There were very few products seen on the market that could write data to these discs. Most notable[citation needed] was the Topy Mini Writer, which retailed for $130 (USD)[citation needed] and housed an optical pickup unit (image №4) with a USB interface board, allowing the use of DataPlay discs much like other end-user writable optical media (e.g., CD-Rs). Other noted[citation needed] products were the iriver IDP-100 and the MTV Video Device "MTV FLIP",[citation needed] which both housed the prototype-based model (image №2).[citation needed]
Other trademark names:[citation needed]
- DaTARIUS
- DPHI
- Dataplay
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1. Dataplay optical drive engine development photo of a development platform for testing and demo -
2. Dataplay optical drive engine internals viewed from above a unit produced sans any top cover -
3. Dataplay optical drive engine with its case (a never-used piece from a private collection) -
4. Dataplay optical drive engine top (same as №3) -
5. Dataplay optical drive engine bottom (same as №3)
External links
- Official Site (defunct)