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Sony Stop Making Mini Disc Players.


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Old 03-02-2013, 21:39
Nigel Goodwin
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I don't know how long ELCaset lasted, but Sony did have an alternative format in 1985 in the form of Video 8 PCM audio mode.
I am now in possession of my uncle's Sony Video 8 VCR which he also used for audio, it could record 3 hours of PCM per track - six tracks per tape (five of those in the area normally used to store the analogue video) written/read by the rotating head helical scan hence the virtual increase in tape speed.
You missed out (perhaps never knew?) about Sony's audio recording to their portable Betamax machine? - long before Video 8 appeared
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Old 03-02-2013, 22:03
GamerGirl
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I still have a Sony MZ-R91 MD player-recorder, beautifully made in metal .
Apart from playing music it was also very good for unobtrusively recording family get-togethers etc . In fact I may now have to get it out of the drawer again to make sure it still works .....
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Old 03-02-2013, 22:12
DANCE OF DEATH
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I paid £200 for a Sony NetMD in 2002. It was a great little unit and it would copy a CD on to computer and then on to mini disc with in minutes. I wish I still had it as it was very good sound on it as well.
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Old 03-02-2013, 22:27
Kodaz
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Sony did have an alternative format in 1985 in the form of Video 8 PCM audio mode.
I am now in possession of my uncle's Sony Video 8 VCR which he also used for audio, it could record 3 hours of PCM per track - six tracks per tape.
That's pretty interesting, I hadn't heard about that before.

Did you know that apparently the sampling rate of CDs were dictated by the fact they originally used video cassette recorders (Betamax and VHS) with PCM adaptors as mass storage during the mastering process?
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Old 04-02-2013, 02:16
nvingo
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You missed out (perhaps never knew?) about Sony's audio recording to their portable Betamax machine? - long before Video 8 appeared
Some HiFi stereo VHS machines could record audio-only in LP mode (they bizarrely could only record video in SP) but in analogue, for upto 10 hours depending on tape length.
But no, I never encountered Betamax audio mode.

I bought a Sharp minidisc walkman recorder from a car boot for £1 a few months ago. I then had to source some blank MDs to try it out. Ebay was cheaper for two, than the per-disc rate for a pack from Maplin. The recorder is fine via a DC adapter, but it seems failure to work from a single AA battery of any chemistry is a common fault - I suspect it is in the voltage step-up circuit.
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Old 04-02-2013, 02:48
neo_wales
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And how would they read them?

Or is it just for the visual appeal?.

We've got a portable recording minidisc 'somewhere', that we bought for our daughter.
They would read them of the several MD recorders/players I have
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Old 04-02-2013, 08:45
Nigel Goodwin
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But no, I never encountered Betamax audio mode.
For quite a while it was probably the only truly high quality portable audio recording system, as I recall it used an add-on unit that connected to the portable Betamax VCR.

EDIT:

Betamax also had a significant part to play in the music recording industry, when Sony introduced its PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) digital recording system as an encoding box/PCM adaptor that connected to a Betamax recorder. The Sony PCM-F1 adaptor was sold with a companion Betamax VCR SL-2000 as a portable digital audio recording system. Many recording engineers used this system in the 1980s and 1990s to make their first digital master recordings.

Last edited by Nigel Goodwin : 04-02-2013 at 08:47. Reason: Quick google:
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