[PJLux]

Call me a late bloomer but I've just come to appreciate the format just this year. Picked up some pre-recorded Discs (Oasis, Bjork, some synthwave album released in 2020), some blanks, and a Sony MZ-NE410 which doesn't record. Apparently there is a design flaw in the MZ-N* units to which the ribbon cable for the "top laser", not sure of the technical term, breaks and can no longer record. Anyone still using this format? I have the AUX port in my center console so I figure I can keep the player there. Also have and AUX port in the truck, but my head unit in there also has a USB port and usually have a flash drive in there.

[zx10guy]

I had the very first Sony portable mini disc player/recorder. I ended up returning it when it seemed the service life of the format would be in question. I'm glad I did. Ended up going the DAT route. It's unfortunate that Sony and Philips couldn't collaborate on this next generation media format with Philips going the DCC (digital compact cassette) route. From what I've read, Sony had the superior media format but Philips had the better compression algorithm used in DCC. Would have been pretty awesome to have the best of both together.

[TiMSport]

When I lived in Japan during the 90s I was all about the MD. I loved it because it was so compact and sounded good at the time. I had portable players as well as home audio systems with MD decks. Hell, I remember even seeing a BMW at a showroom in Tokyo that had an MD player rather than CD. Pretty sure that never happened here in the US.

[TiMSport]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

I had the very first Sony portable mini disc player/recorder. I ended up returning it when it seemed the service life of the format would be in question. I'm glad I did. Ended up going the DAT route. It's unfortunate that Sony and Philips couldn't collaborate on this next generation media format with Philips going the DCC (digital compact cassette) route. From what I've read, Sony had the superior media format but Philips had the better compression algorithm used in DCC. Would have been pretty awesome to have the best of both together.

Sony seems to have always had a better "format" but sometimes loses out. Remember Betamax? It was superior to the shitty quality VHS (JVC invented) tapes back in the day. They won the BluRay v. HD-DVD battle though. Lol.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by TiMSport

Sony seems to have always had a better "format" but sometimes loses out. Remember Betamax? It was superior to the shitty quality VHS (JVC invented) tapes back in the day. They won the BluRay v. HD-DVD battle though. Lol.

Yes. I do remember Betamax. But I think Betamax died out because of the mismatch in the hours one can record on a single VHS tape versus a Betamax. The other was the adoption of the Pr0n industry of VHS.

I feel that if Sony and Philips cooperated as they did with S/PDIF and the compact disc, things would have been very different with the combined media being a mini disc using Philip's encoding/compression algorithm.

[TiMSport]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

Yes. I do remember Betamax. But I think Betamax died out because of the mismatch in the hours one can record on a single VHS tape versus a Betamax. The other was the adoption of the Pr0n industry of VHS.

I feel that if Sony and Philips cooperated as they did with S/PDIF and the compact disc, things would have been very different with the combined media being a mini disc using Philip's encoding/compression algorithm.

Well another big reason Sony lost was because they didn't want to share the technology with other manufacturers so it was a proprietary thing whereas JVC allowed other manufacturers to adopt their VHS technology.

[KevinC]

I was back in the day. I actually had a Kenwood 6-disk MD changer in the trunk of my '93 Sentra SE-R. Dubbed my own discs from vinyl at home. Great format compared to monkeying around with cassettes. But came along a bit late and just never got much traction other than in Japan. Virtually none in the states.

[M5Rick]

I wouldn't have minded if MD's took over from CD's, my disc wallet now would have been smaller.

[PJLux]

It for sure never took off here. I watched a YT documentary regarding it and due to our low cost for CDs, relative to other parts of the world, we just stuck with that media until it all went digital. The eBay listings reflect this. 4 of the 5 pre recorded MDs I purchased came from the UK, and 1 (of 2) of the players I ordered from HK. All the other players/recorders/decks I've been considering were items sold out of Japan. I'd like to get a compact deck with NetMD capabilities to have in the office hooked up to one of the computers, like the Sony MDS-NT1.

[Maynard]

Didn't this also get snarled up in the early coyright wars around digital media? IIRC most of the DAT players had some funky copyright code you had to work around. I went from Chrome tapes to CDR's myself.

[zx10guy]

Yes. DAT was the start of it. The copy protection scheme was called SCMS (serial copy management system). The way the system worked is if you create a first gen copy of anything, the system would allow it. But if you make a copy of the digital copy after being processed through SCMS, then the system would prevent that copy from happening. The issue is that many musicians/artists/recording engineers used DAT to have a very good copy of their work. So they had no control over the material THEY produced after the first gen copy. You can thank the RIAA for this stupidity. On top of that, the RIAA managed to get a royalty built in to every blank DAT tape sold with the premise that the blank DAT tape could be used for piracy.

SCMS did trickle down to MD and DCC. I don't know the legalities, but I was able to purchase a Sony portable DAT recorder where SCMS was user defeatable. I don't know if the unit I bought was a Japanese only market product imported in to the US or if it was natively sold here. I bought the deck from a pro audio retailer.

[TiMSport]

Originally Posted by M5Rick

I wouldn't have minded if MD's took over from CD's, my disc wallet now would have been smaller.

For me it wasn't about buying pre-recorded MDs, but making my greatest hits sort of compilations burned from CDs. The MD portable players were tiny in comparison to the old CD players.

[sahajesh]

I miss MiniDisc and LaserDisc I loved those two systems.

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by TiMSport

For me it wasn't about buying pre-recorded MDs, but making my greatest hits sort of compilations burned from CDs. The MD portable players were tiny in comparison to the old CD players.

I would have liked those MD's to have taken over from CD's in pre recorded form though from my perspective as has been said for one reason or another the big players like Sony and JVC etc became aggressive towards each other and it flopped.

[TiMSport]

For those interested. This is a very in-depth video discussing the history of the MiniDisc and various format wars.

Man, I recognize a lot of those players in this video. I even had some.

[M-technik-3]

I was living in Japan from late 92 to late 95 and they were everywhere then, I was already a CD format person so I did not convert over.

[TiMSport]

Originally Posted by M-technik-3

I was living in Japan from late 92 to late 95 and they were everywhere then, I was already a CD format person so I did not convert over.

You didn't like the much smaller footprint of the MD players and media though?

[M-technik-3]

Originally Posted by TiMSport

You didn't like the much smaller footprint of the MD players and media though?

I did but already had well over 500 cd's by then. I bought into CD's about 86 so changing format didn't make sense.

[TiMSport]

Originally Posted by M-technik-3

I did but already had well over 500 cd's by then. I bought into CD's about 86 so changing format didn't make sense.

Ahh I see. Well like I stated earlier, I liked recording from CDs to MDs simply because they had a small footprint and much more convenient to carry on the go with portable players. You know, the "mixed tape" sort of thing.

[bosstones]

Originally Posted by TiMSport

Ahh I see. Well like I stated earlier, I liked recording from CDs to MDs simply because they had a small footprint and much more convenient to carry on the go with portable players. You know, the "mixed tape" sort of thing.

Same here. Used mine at the gym. It held its own during most heavy bag work.

The worst part about it all was Sony's clunky SW to convert from mp3.

[zx10guy]

As a purist with audio, MD isn't ideal. I've mentioned this a number of times in this thread. Both MD and DCC use psychoacoustic compression of the source material to reduce the amount of data stored on both formats. Both MD and DCC are lossy formats and are the predecessors to MP3s.

I only considered MD as an on the go system.

[TiMSport]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

As a purist with audio, MD isn't ideal. I've mentioned this a number of times in this thread. Both MD and DCC use psychoacoustic compression of the source material to reduce the amount of data stored on both formats. Both MD and DCC are lossy formats and are the predecessors to MP3s.

I only considered MD as an on the go system.

Yeah of course, it's all compressed. Back in the day, it sounded fine to me though. I will say though, and maybe it's because I have always been a Sony fan boy but I swore that proprietary Sony format ATRAC3 sounded better than MP3. Lol.

I only listen to FLAC files (24-bit if I can get it) nowadays as I enjoy listening to lossless audio, especially in my car and while traveling. Nice to have on long flights, especially my upcoming one that will be 14 hours (Tokyo).