Minidisc

[Delsabre]

You've probably seen them in stores before, a Sony Walkman MD maybe. Theyre small, can play for hours on a single AA battery, and have a capacity of 74 minutes of near CD quality sound.


MiniDiscs cost about $2 ( a pack of 10 for $20 here) which blows away all other portable media ( except CD), they have about 150 MB of space, and Hi-MD increases that to 305 MBs.

MiniDisc players can record in real-time, pushing the write speed far beyond a SMC, and they can be recorded 10,000,000 times over.


So, why hasn't this technology been used outside of music players? Does the hardware cost to much ( MiniDisc players are around $100)? Does Sony have some sort of hold on it ( I have a Memorex made MD so I think not...)?

 

[cozmic]

portable MD can record too can't they?

Wouldn't it be great if the gp32 could write and read to it, like a HD!!

Maybe using some c64 cassette sound data system.

 

[Steve-O]

Pack of ten 80 minute SHARP MD's cost £8 where I live (About $15 )

I usually record in LP4 mode so I can fit about 5 - 8 albums onto a disc (Depending on the lenght of the album)

I was woundering is ther was any software made for the NET MD players where you can burn other stuff to the MD's like games etc.. that would be cool

 

[Ringo]

I've actually been wondering this same thing for quite a while. Mainly for use as a storage for music-production...

Instead people had to come to terms with other storage-devices for this purpose, which didn't hold the same amount of space anyway.
I've given up on waiting for this long ago.

 

[EvilDragon]

Why they're not being used?

- Storage size too low for the size (most MP3 players are USB sticks or 2,5" harddisks, which have a LOT mor diskspace (20 - 80 Gig)

- You can't play MP3s on it. You have to record everything you want, pretty uncomfortable.

- It's NOT faster than other medias. One disc stores 74 minutes - I get about 90 minutes using OGG on my 128 MB SMC, same quality. Takes me 5 minutes to copy it over... a LOT faster than realtime.
Using harddisks is a lot faster...

- MiniDiscs are AMTRAC compressed, not as good as a good encoded MP3/OGG. If that's what's called "near-CD-Quality", all MP3 players can do this.

 

[Gruntfuggly]

I've got a minidisc player in my car - far more sensible than a CD player - the discs are smaller and you don't need to worry about getting them scratched, plus tracks and disc can have titles...

You can also join/split tracks very easily, which I don't know how to do with MP3s.

I would disagree about sound quality though - I prefer minidisc to MP3...

There is also no reason why MP3s couldn't be recorded onto minidisc and played back - its just that the players don't have the decoders built in...

The downside is simply the time it takes to record onto them. I'm surprised no manufacturer has come out with a high speed minidisc drive to allow you to record quickly from your PC onto MD...

 

[lizard808uk]

Recording on MD doesnt mess up as much as computers recording functionality. I've lost count of the number of times I've done a stormer of a mixing session after a night out for the computer to go and cut out, put blips in, run out of HD space, sound out of pitch etc..

MD is outstanding for hooking up to decks or to an 8-track to record live music.

I still use my MZR-90

 

[Gruntfuggly]

Storage size too low for the size (most MP3 players are USB sticks or 2,5" harddisks, which have a LOT mor diskspace (20 - 80 Gig)

​

USB sticks currently only have a maximum capacity of 1GB as far as I know, and 2.5" hard drives are very expensive compared to a minidisc player...

 

[Steve-O]

It's NOT faster than other medias. One disc stores 74 minutes - I get about 90 minutes using OGG on my 128 MB SMC, same quality. Takes me 5 minutes to copy it over... a LOT faster than realtime.

Well, Recording in LP4 mode you can get 320 minutes out of a 80minute disc and it only takes me 5 minutes (Or less) to copy 320minutes over on a NET MD

 

[meandu229]

ok some people are obviously confused,, a 80 min minidisc will hold aroudn 300 meg but the technology is not available to transfer anything but music onto it,, the net mds use usb but can only treansfer music across to the minidisc,, these 80 minute minidisc can be put into long play 2 or 4 lp4 giving a standard pretty much like a 1meg ogg file for a 3mins song.. the new(well new to UK dunno bout anywhere else) Hi-MD will hold 1GB of DATA which means they can be used for music,, so will hold something like 45cds(i think this is just from memory) or 1gb of data,, all controled by a usb,, hope this helps... i am gonna buy a Hi-MD soon cause the battery life run circles round the ipod and then kick it while its down,, i mean 27 hours on ,,, get this, a standard NiHM AA,,, Just wow,, i love minidiscs,, i got a newmd at mo

 

[Seraptin]

hi there
not long ago i read something about a new md-player from sony in a magazine called c`t.
They say that this md-player can record data-files on the md.

Seraptin

 

[c0ncept]

well, they may be more viable now that gigabyte MD's have been released, also I'm sure that I saw a PC with an MD drive once (will see if I can be arsed to google it in a bit...).

TBH though, even with gigabyte MD's MP3 players have come quite far down in price, personally I think as a music and a data storage solution harddrive jukeboxes are the way forward (weeee!!! I got an iRiver iH120 recently and it really is great and only £200 as well)

[edit] yup, look here for info on MD's that hold data.

 

[JRP]

Would be cool if they just made a new GP with a MD drive. More memory and faster CPU*

Nintendo DS and PSP are going to over take now. so gamepark have gotta do somethink :blink:

I still like my GP32 but it's a fact :unsure:

 

[Dozer]

well, they may be more viable now that gigabyte MD's have been released, also I'm sure that I saw a PC with an MD drive once (will see if I can be arsed to google it in a bit...).

TBH though, even with gigabyte MD's MP3 players have come quite far down in price, personally I think as a music and a data storage solution harddrive jukeboxes are the way forward (weeee!!! I got an iRiver iH120 recently and it really is great and only £200 as well)

[edit] yup, look here for info on MD's that hold data.

​

The slightly older generation sony laptops had md slots in to record music onto.

Also, in the matrix (the first film) he uses mini disks to give the guy whatever data he was after (the dude with the white rabbit girl for his gf). Obviously it's not got any real data on it, just thought it was interesting.

 

[carlgeorge]

The main reason that I am getting an iPod is the fact that I have had three MD players in the past (one seperates when they first came out, one in car and a portable recordable) is that these earlier ones were not actually that good by today's standards. Ok, so the new ones have improved a lot, but on the portable two AA batteries would last perhaps half an hour, it recorded at 1X speed etc. I don't think they are bad technology, don't get me wrong -- I agree with the comments about the car, no scratches, and you don't have to worry about cases just drop them in the door side pocket. Its just i think that MP3 players look much more promising (although I could be disappointed again I suppose!)

 

[meandu229]

well yeh i would like a rio karma but i am mainly going for battery life,, at the moment i am using a net-md which uses a AA and gives 56hours life,, so who really want 10,000 songs when you can only listen for 8 hours on a charge i would prefer bout 100 songs per MD and take 3 minidiscs and 2 batterys and not worry about not enough music or battery power for an entire weekend away and its not all that much bigger than a ipod,,, i love my MD