Any MiniDisc people out there?

[superboyac]

Any of you use minidisc player/recorders?  I know they're not big in the US, but they are popular in other countries.  Anyway, the new HiMD format has been out for a while (which is cool...anyone who knows the advantages of the new format will understand).  A friend of a friend who is in Japan right now, just bought me the new orange HiMD unit that Sony released recently, the MZ-RH10.  You can only get the orange one in Japan.  It's so good looking.  Super sweet.

[f0dder]

I used to have a minidisc player, MZ-something. I took it apart a month ago, since it was (*literally*!) held together by gaffer tape. It's a real shame that sony stopped the MD data drives, and that the MD walkmen are so limited (recording md->pc is at 1x speed, only pc->md can be done fast... at least last time I looked, a couple years ago).

[brotherS]

I used to love MiniDiscs, I was the first one around here that bought one (got an additional mobile device later too), and back then (10 years ago?) it sure was great!

Now I'm only listening to the MDs I own, I don't record stuff to MD anymore. Since there are so many good (and cheap) mp3 players I doubt MDs will be able to attract lots of new users.

For those who never heard of this at all (you probably are out there): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiniDisc

[superboyac]

fodder...you should check out the new HiMD format, let me give you a brief overview:

--The new HiMD discs can hold 1GB instead of the 650MB or so that were the old MD discs.

--With the new HiMD units, you can transfer from MD->pc at usb speed, they removed the restrictions they had before, where you had to just record from the line-out in real time.  This is by far the coolest feature.

--You can record uncompressed PCM wav files now.  Sweet!

--The new mindisc units look so cool, especially the MZ-RH10 (or MZ-M100 in the US), and the coming-soon MZ-RH1.  They both sport the ultra sweet looking organic-LED displays.  There's even one unit out that can take pictures, but it can't record, so I don't care about it.

--I almost forgot, the new HiMD units can play mp3's natively.  You don't have to convert to ATRAC anymore.  You can just put mp3's on the disc and play it.  YES!!  This and the pc transfering was what always kept me from getting a minidisc before, but with these restrictions gone, I am now a full-fledged MD junkie.

I know that minidiscs aren't a practical format because there are these big hard drive mp3 players, that put the 1GB discs to shame, but if you're talking about ability to record and listen to mp3's, minidiscs are a great option.  There are a couple of flash-card based player/recorders out there, but when you consider that the new HiMD discs cost $7.00 for 1GB and a 1GB flash card is at least $50, it's much more practical to get the minidisc.  Besides, there's something to be said about being able to slide those cool cartridges in and out of the player.

[f0dder]

Hrm, the old MD's didn't have 650meg, more like 120 iirc? When talking about megabytes, people should mention the raw capacity; when mentioning recorded music length in minutes, compressed is fine. The recording feature sounds REALLY nice though, would make HiMD viable as a budget but decent quality recorder.

Hm, MP3 support... that rocks. I'll try to get the audio jack in my MuVo^2 fixed (possibly by switching it for one I salvaged from my old minidisc), and put off any media player purchase. I assume HiMD is still a magnetic media, which tends to be more stable than portable HDDs as in the large-capacity mp3 players...

[superboyac]

My bad, fodder, you are right!  The old MD discs had only 140-160 MB storage on it, depending on how you were using it.  That makes the new 1GB discs all the more amazing!  Yes, the HiMD's are still magnetic media.  I just love the novelty of these minidiscs.

On the minidisc forums, there have been some discussions of the mp3 players out there, like HDD and flash players, vs the new HiMD mindiscs.  Basically, we all know the pros of the HDD, which is massive storage capacity.  The benefit of the flash players is that they are extremely tiny.  The benefit of minidisc is somewhat weird:  it tends to have better battery life than the HDD.  The media is much cheaper per GB than flash players, and it is still probably cheaper overall per GB than the HDD players (although that's difficult to assume since the HDD players don't technically have "removable" storage, so the price of the player and hardware is united).  But what pushes you across the line is the ability to record in amazing quality for such a tiny unit.  I mean, we're talking uncompressed wav...that's just great!  I'm excited, this is my first new toy in years!  I've been very disciplined lately.

And, usually I don't care about looks, but the organic LED screen is just beautiful.  And, unlike the ipod, I'll probably be the only one around who has an orange HiMD player.  I'm special!

[f0dder]

My bad, fodder, you are right!  The old MD discs had only 140-160 MB storage on it, depending on how you were using it.  That makes the new 1GB discs all the more amazing!  Yes, the HiMD's are still magnetic media.  I just love the novelty of these minidiscs.

I looked it up on wikipedia, seems like there was a "MD2" format with more storage, but only really supported by a shortlived generation of camcorders.

What I don't like from the wiki site is that it says that if you put MP3s on the HiMD, it will be wrapped in DRM crap...

[superboyac]

I think there's a new HiMD for data storage, and it might do a couple of other things, but I'm not exactly sure.

As far as the DRM crap, I'm pretty sure Sony removed that restriction in the most recent version of its Sonic Stage software (v3.4).  I think a lot of people we're very relieved about that.  So, I think for the most part, the major headaches that used to be associated with minidiscs have been done away with.

[Carol Haynes]

As far as the DRM crap, I'm pretty sure Sony removed that restriction in the most recent version of its Sonic Stage software (v3.4).  I think a lot of people we're very relieved about that.

-superboyac (April 03, 2006, 05:52 PM)

Hmm ... given Sony's rootkit track record would anyone want to install any software that even 'might' contain any DRM stuff ???

[tinyvillager]

 
 Same feeling here,i actually look on the back of my tech purchases to see if they're Sony related.
I've never boycotted anything in my life,not for politics,not religion.You try to mess with my PC and
someone is gonna get hurt.

[superboyac]

As I said before, with Sony's Sonicstage v3.4 that just came out, there are no more DRM restrictions, so you can upload and download from pc to mindisc at will.  THey're really fixed a lot of the annoying things about these SOny discs, and many of these changes are still no more than a year old, or, as far as DRM goes, just a few weeks old.

For those of you that have been avoiding minidisc because of this, take another try at it, I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

[brotherS]

For those of you that have been avoiding minidisc because of this, take another try at it, I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

-superboyac (April 03, 2006, 11:35 PM)

Sony did the wrong for too long (again) - waiting until recently to make a great product more user-friendly was not a good idea...

[Fretter]

Yeah, I have had a MiniDisc for a while. Was frustrated with the recording quality until a SonoPak. MiniDisc recordings great now! Plus, it's really easy to carry anywhere and setup in any situation. I hope the MD format is around for a long time. And I'm definitely going to check out the HiMD! Thanks for the tip.

[superboyac]

Yeah, I have had a MiniDisc for a while. Was frustrated with the recording quality until a SonoPak. MiniDisc recordings great now! Plus, it's really easy to carry anywhere and setup in any situation. I hope the MD format is around for a long time. And I'm definitely going to check out the HiMD! Thanks for the tip.

-Fretter (May 06, 2009, 09:58 PM)

Do you work for SonoPak?