Disklavier

It has now been one year since Yamaha released the Mark IV disklavier, 
and the last software update for the Mark IV was in March of this year.  
There are a number of critical software features missing from the Mark 
IV that I would very much like to see included in the next software 
upgrade for the Mark IV whenever that might be (hopefully sooner rather 
than an indefinite later).  These features are so important that I feel 
that anyone considering purchasing a Mark IV should be aware that they 
are not presently on the Mark IV.  So, here is my wish list (that I have 
made known 10 months ago to Yamaha). 

1. Enable the Mark IV to be added into my home wireless network.  This 
would allow the transfer of files directly to the HD of the Mark IV 
without having to crawl under the Media Center and plug  in a USB flash 
drive. 

2. Enable connection to the Internet via the tablet (TRC-100) remote.  
The advantages of this are enormous and would include allowing one to 
download midi files directly from the Internet to the Mark IV, allow one 
to participate in online instructional videos in which the video appears 
on the screen of the TRC-100 while the midi audio is played back via the 
Mark IV's acoustic piano, etc.  It is ironic that the Mark IV in the 
U.S. is supplied with a tablet remote that is a full-fledged tablet PC 
made by Hitachi and yet is so crippled by the software running the 
TRC-100 that the TRC-100 can do less than the supplied pocket remote the 
PRC-100.  Why did Yamaha even supply the TRC-100 is it is not going to 
be put to good use?

3.  Enable a  Search Function.  I have thousands of songs stored on my 
Mark IV.  Currently there is no way to find anything other than going 
through the contents of each album which can take hours.   Search 
functions have been a part of computer software as far back as I can 
remember and it is astounding that the Mark IV is missing such an 
essential feature. 

4.  Provide an indicator on the remote that shows the available free 
space on the 80 GB HD of the Mark IV.  Currently I have no way to 
determine how much free space I have on the 80 GB HD of the Mark IV.  
While it is true that the capacity of this drive is sufficient to store 
a huge number of midi files, 80 GB is not so large when it comes to 
storing the CD's (640 MB each) that are required for Yamaha 
PianosoftPlus Audio and Yamaha SmartPiano software.  I don't want to 
have to go find these CD's each time I access this type of software and 
so I store the CD on the Mark IV HD and allow it to synchronize with the 
floppy disk that is also stored on the HD.  An indicator of available 
free space can simply not be that hard to add to the Mark IV's operating 
system and again I am amazed that this has not been done. 

5. Provide a means of backing up the HD of the Mark IV.  I have spent 
many many hours placing the huge amount of software that I have on the 
Mark IV and creating play lists for this software.  All HD's crash.  It 
is not a matter of if the disk will crash, but a matter of when.  Should 
that happen now, I and every other Mark IV owner whose HD crashes would 
have to manually restore all of their data to their HD when it was 
replaced.  I realize that Yamaha is rightfully concerned about illegal 
distribution of copies of their software, but a backup could be created 
that would have a cpu  identifier key that would permit restoration only 
the Mark IV having that identifier key. 

6. Enable the USB ports on the Media Center and I/O centers to accept 
and utilize external USB 2.0 drives as a means of extending the capacity 
of the Mark IV.  Perhaps others have found some external USB 2.0 HD's 
that will work with the Mark IV.  If so, I would appreciate it if they 
would post that information.  I am not talking now about USB Flash Media 
drives which will work with the Media Center USB port on the Mark IV but 
are of relatively low capacity, but rather about USB 2.0 external drives 
that can be purchased in large capacity quite inexpensively and would 
provide a great means of expanding the storage capacity of the Mark IV.  
While the Windows operating system allows plug-in-play of USB 2.0 
external drives, the proprietary Linux OS of the Mark IV does not and 
hence as far as I know you cannot just hook up any external USB 2.0 
drive to the Mark IV.  If I am mistaken and Yamaha has successfully 
hooked up some external USB 2.0 drives to the Mark IV, I would like to 
know the make and model number of those USB 2.0 drives. 

I would be interested in hearing from other Mark IV owners as to whether 
they feel these items are important to them and also if they have 
additional software items that they would include on the list.  Maybe 
someone in Japan reads our postings and is listening.

The Mark IV is a wonderful musical instrument with a huge unrealized 
potential.  It is also a very very expensive piano and should not be 
without the essential features listed above.  Current Mark IV owners 
should not have to wait for the release of a Mark V at some future date 
to benefit from these features, which are software only and do not 
require Yamaha's engineers to develop new hardware for the Mark IV. 

Tom Wheeler
DC3M4t Owner