Seriously . In todays terms , how big is it .
Is it explained anywhere in the books . (My brain is turning to mush .)

It isn't explained anywhere in the books; the MP does not relate to any real world computing measurement.

Nope. As far as I know, they were intentionally vague and never defined what it meant as a unit of measurement as compared to todays bits and bytes. Mainly because they didn't want it to be made completely redundent as the tech progressed. I mean, just look at the tech in some of the older sci-fi RPG's that probably have the same amount of power as a stereo system today. Yeah, I know I'm probably exagerating some, but not much.

Edit: Damn, and Jury beats me to it.

MP/Mega pulse is refered in the books am ambiguous as using a computers storage 60 years in the future should be on a different standard. As far back as SR1 there were some examples on what would best describe 1 MP or more. I think that in the beginning of the main book in the matrix section is the best definition your going to find though.

Big blue 1st edition , or first ed matrix ?


*Runs to book case *

Thanx .

a machine pistol is about the same size as a heavy pistol.

Shadowbeat has this to say:

High-resolution video imaging — 1 Mp per minute
Trideo imaging — 5 Mp/minute
High-resolution trideo imaging — 10 Mp/minute
Normal spectrum sound — 1 Mp/minute
Extended spectrum sound — 3 Mp/minute
Simsense — 1-3 Mp/second (varies by type and quality)

I don't know what it says about my mindset at the moment, but I was thinking "HK MP-5".

-Siege

[edit] Arcanum beat me to it. And it was Shadowbeat I was looking for...[/edit]

And I was thinking of Ares's MP Laser...

I think I figured up a VERY VERY loose conversion, and an MP is equal to about 2 gigs or something. I can't remember anymore, and it wasn't that accurate because it was based on the whole 1 minute of uncompressed video thing, which doesn't translate well because it doesn't say at what resolution or framerate the video is at.

Why did I bother posting this in the first place if I knew it was going to be useless information?

The Abstruse One

You know how, in spy movies, they're always able to "zoom into" a picture to get some obscure detail?

I betcha that the recordings in Shadowrun are WAY more zoomable. So, while it seems to us that they have an "equivalent" in nowadays conventions, there are probably more benefits to a Shadowrun recording than we imagine (thus, think of quirky ways to bully your GM into getting more benefit out of your recordings!).

So, that's my take on an MP

You know how hard it is to understand quantum computers? Now imagine even more out-there. Some people have said SR computers are probably protein based. Forget it, it can't be understood what a MP is. It's simply "storage space".

[90 min. * 2 MP]*0.5 = 90 for a DVD!

Would this be at least closer to sensible?

Video imaging = 0.5 Mp/minute
Trideo imaging = 3 Mp/minute
Sound = 0.5 Mp/minute
Simsense = 5-10 Mp/minute (varies by type and quality)

I'm with the 'extendeed zooming allowed in SR'-faction: There is no "hi-res"-media.

And I've long since houseruled chips to be MP*0.1 a pop, instead of *0.5.

Nope, it wouldn't. There was an article on http://www.slashdot.org/ a couple of days ago about a new UHDTV (Ultra High Definition TV) or something like that. 2 terrabytes an hour...or was it a minute? I can't remember, but it was crazy. 1000+ lines of resolution (to put that in perspective, a normal VHS tape has 220 lines of resolution while a DVD has 550). So the numbers are more or less right.

The Abstruse One

*snarf*

Oi I forgot how creative the gang is .
Thanx all for the help , and the laughs .

I've always had issues that "Normal" audio takes up as much as a video.

I have a 1:10 720 x 480 DivX file that is 8.6 MB (approx 7.37MB/minute)
I have a 3:59 MP3 file that is 9.3 MB (approx 2.3 MB/minute)

I realize that both these are compressed formats, however I would hardly call DivX files High Resolution, where you could zoom or the like. Yet the Audio, even in this case, is more than 1/3 the size of the Video.

In SR, they're the same size. Audio really can't be presented as High Resolution. I will admit in the situation where it applies, multi-channel audio could be as much as 1/2 the size of equivalent length video, and High/Low frequency recordings could be as much as twice as large as normal audio, but that would mean that to consume as much space as video, all audio would have to be:
-Multi-channel (5.1, 7.2, whatever. Portable media should not use this many channels, even in 6th world, Stereo is most logical for all but the most advanced walkman.)
-Extended audio range (High/Low channels. Most listeners in 6th world can't hear this, and wouldn't be interested in the expanded, probably more expensive, versions.)