Wikipedia
DataPlay is 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 generally supportive of DataPlay and a small number of a pre-recorded DataPlay disks were released, including a Britney Spears album. 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 was the Topy Mini Writer, which retailed for $130 (USD) 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 products were the iriver IDP-100 and the MTV Video Device "MTV FLIP", which both housed the prototype-based model (image №2).
As of 2012-01-14 it is extremely hard to obtain any DataPlay items, as they have not been produced in some time; they are quite rare, unless found on a surplus or auction website catering to collectors or aficionados looking to obtain them.
Other trademark names:
- DaTARIUS
- DPHI
- Dataplay
| 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 unit with its case as if it were sent to dataplay.jpg| 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)