MiniDiscs: The Future Is Now!

[Octopod]

We had a CED player when I was a kid. Back then I didn't think anything of it but it is pretty wierd having to flip a movie over in the middle.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

We had a CED player when I was a kid. Back then I didn't think anything of it but it is pretty wierd having to flip a movie over in the middle.

Same deal with LaserDisc, while I still find LD's to be cool flipping them is a pain in the ass.

[Weekend_Warrior]

-Actuallly, Minidiscs are opto-magnetic discs and can be written to 100,000 times before any degradation to the sound quality occurs.

Maybe in theory, but not in actual practice.

-All MD players since the Net-MD series which launched in 1998-1999 have the ability to record/playback 74-80 minutes of Linear PCM audio or WAV, and are fully compatible with the MP3 format.

I was comparing standard minidisc (and recorders) to standard compact disc (red book).

Standard Minidisc was introduced in 1992. You're talking 6 years later, when the Minidisc format had more or less already failed

[Limewater]

-Actuallly, Minidiscs are opto-magnetic discs and can be written to 100,000 times before any degradation to the sound quality occurs.

Maybe in theory, but not in actual practice.

I'm still confused by this. Are you copying from ATRAC audio as source and reencoding in ATRAC for each copy? If so, then yes, the audio will degrade with each copy. However, if you're copying from CD source and ATRAC encoding it, it should be the same or approximately the same each time. The compression algorithm used should be independent of the storage medium. They're two different things.

[Weekend_Warrior]

-Actuallly, Minidiscs are opto-magnetic discs and can be written to 100,000 times before any degradation to the sound quality occurs.

Maybe in theory, but not in actual practice.

I'm still confused by this. Are you copying from ATRAC audio as source and reencoding in ATRAC for each copy? If so, then yes, the audio will degrade with each copy. However, if you're copying from CD source and ATRAC encoding it, it should be the same or approximately the same each time. The compression algorithm used should be independent of the storage medium. They're two different things.

No, I'm implying that when you set to erase on a Minidisc (or many other formats) it may not exactly erase all the data, and unfortunately it can leave digital artifacts like audible pops and clicks (fragmented audio) and/or corrupted digital data due to compression errors. This has been an ongoing problem with some MP3 convertors and transfers as well. It also used to be an issue with older formats like DAT and ADAT

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

-Actuallly, Minidiscs are opto-magnetic discs and can be written to 100,000 times before any degradation to the sound quality occurs.

Maybe in theory, but not in actual practice.

-All MD players since the Net-MD series which launched in 1998-1999 have the ability to record/playback 74-80 minutes of Linear PCM audio or WAV, and are fully compatible with the MP3 format.

I was comparing standard minidisc (and recorders) to standard compact disc (red book).

Standard Minidisc was introduced in 1992. You're talking 6 years later, when the Minidisc format had more or less already failed

Buddy I just bought a deck for the first time two weeks ago and was born in 1992. I could care less what MD's sounded like 17 years ago compared to today's MD's and plan on listening to MD's using modern software and modern MD hardware.

Also remember how MD's operate, the structure and operation of an MD is exactly the same as a hard disk except for the disks are read. A laser finds and pinpoints the data on the disc while the magnetic head next to it reads the data as the laser finds and instructs it on where to go and what to do. Also if there are ever any issues wit older junk data being left behind (which is honestly impossible given the nature of the format and how it handles the data, remember DAT Tapes and MD DISC'S are different technologies by a very VERY wide margin.) I could just run a format with my deck or the software on my PC and permanently wipe my disc to 100% clean status.

Another thing to remember is that MD's unlike DAT's never actually make contact with the laser or magnetic head on the player compared to DAT's which rub the tape along a spinning head like VHS tapes causing physical wear and thus errors to the tape inside of a DAT.

Different formats, different rules.

[nate]

hey, this is where you want to take your MD questions
http://www.minidisc.org/index.php

and Sony Insider Fourms...the link seems to be a little wonky now but the forums are good. they used to be just MD forums but have recently opened up to include all Sony gear.

they do have a swap and sell there...and if you've herd of a site called ebay, they have lots of MD stuff there...discs, machines portable and home units.

I was big into minidiscs for a while. I still have a bunch of them. my co worker got an ipod and I wanted a player too...but I was still on an NT workstation at home with NO USB !! I mean this was just a year and a half ago. my NT workstation lasted me ten years.

so my solution was to record analogue style from my computer. I'd record peoples my space, uTube vids or just mp3's I have on my comp.

I work in a metal shop and it took about a year for the metal dust to screw up the player. so I moved on to a sony flash player and a new Dell XPS

but yeah, I dig minidisc. they are really cool. I have had a few HiMD units I have just one now. and 2 other standard MD players.

I thought this would be THE awesome format to use for the PSP...I still think it'd be way cooler than the UMD. someone need to mod a PSP and convert the UMD slot to HiMD
I have one of these


had one of these
http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MZ-NH1.html
have one of these

and I have one of these...super cool and thin, but fragile too.

http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MZ-E10.html

I had more but I sold a couple of them. I kept these cause they just look cool. the first one (black one) is the same unit as the MZ-M200 which is what I actually have. I think you need this one to upload standard MD's to your comp (say if you had done live recordings) the MZ-M200 came w/ a mic. I felt like I needed to keep it for uploading my MD's...

anyway, here's where you can find a ton of stuff to hunt for on ebay
http://www.minidisc.org/equipment_browser.html
people do collect it so there will be competition for the coolest ones. I haven't looked for them in a while, but I can't say I won't buy another one...they are pretty cool little things

[Hobie-wan]

Same deal with LaserDisc, while I still find LD's to be cool flipping them is a pain in the ass.

You have a player that's old enough that you have to manually flip discs that still works? Cool. The one I have, and all the ones I've seen/used handled it themselves. Mine has a track and the head flips over to play the other side while the disc stops and then starts spinning in the other direction.

[t0yrobo]

Anyhow, now I need some help from you guys here on RacketBoy, do any of you guys own or have previously had any any MD decks or portables and what are some good tips for handling, storage etc... that I should know?

I've found that some holders for 3.5in floppies work pretty well for MDs. Kinda like this one

They aren't nearly as cool as some of the stuff just for md, but you can get them for dirt cheap.

[Niode]

I had a Sony MD player/recorder several years ago. It was one of those Net-MD ones and I had no problems whatsoever with 'artefacts' when re-recording, even when recording over optical or analogue on the same discs many times.

Using Sonicstage is easily the worst thing about MD players, especially net-md players. Since it's the only way to transfer music in non-realtime.

I always found that if I had more than 1 album on the disc (using the attrac format) it just sounded rubbish, like 96k CBR MP3s. I could just tell, anything less than 1:1 just sounded aweful to me.

I always liked the fact that I could have lots of albums with me without taking up much space, it went everywhere with me, until the buttons stopped working. I don't know where it is now. Probably somewhere in my Mum's house. I know I have a lot of sealed blank MDs somewhere as well. As well as used ones with music on them.