[digibod]

posted a thread asking where i could buy blank minidiscs, i know where to buy them now and sony have 2 players(yes 2) in their current range.

i swear by my minidisc deck for parties



how did the overpriced piece of tat that are ipods ever overtake the portable players, far better sound quality

[frasera]

minidiscs have the functionality of analog tape
in other words they were trash.
as for sound quality.. attrac is not superior to aac or mp3 really. esp at todays bitrates

[digibod]

Quote:

Originally Posted by frasera

minidiscs have the functionality of analog tape
in other words they were trash.
as for sound quality.. attrac is not superior to aac or mp3 really. esp at todays bitrates

er no, tapes snapped, had drop outs and the longer record time, the quality suffered

i can get 4 80 minute cds on one minidisc without any loss of quality

i think its a great format

[Praxidike]

<3 betamax.

[takeyourpick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by digibod

er no, tapes snapped, had drop outs and the longer record time, the quality suffered

i can get 4 80 minute cds on one minidisc without any loss of quality

i think its a great format

Hmm carry one tiny player that can hold 20gb of music, or 1000 minidiscs in a bag? Not a hard choice really.

Plus the only reason mp3 sound can be off sometimes is down to the headphone/speakers. I've heard some amazing Ipod-Docks in the past few months!

[digibod]

Quote:

Originally Posted by takeyourpick

Hmm carry one tiny player that can hold 20gb of music, or 1000 minidiscs in a bag? Not a hard choice really.

Plus the only reason mp3 sound can be off sometimes is down to the headphone/speakers. I've heard some amazing Ipod-Docks in the past few months!

i have a dedicated deck at home, i tend to put cds on them and use them if people come round

[TheDJ <3]

Quote:

Originally Posted by digibod

er no, tapes snapped, had drop outs and the longer record time, the quality suffered

i can get 4 80 minute cds on one minidisc without any loss of quality

i think its a great format

Wrong unfortunately. Minidiscs compress the audio similar to that of mp3s.

[njp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by frasera

minidiscs have the functionality of analog tape

You must be thinking of DCC...

Minidiscs are random access, non-contact storage media - so they were, for a short while, a superior alternative to tape. I don't know why anyone would now favour them over hard drive or flash based storage in a choice of file formats and bitrates.

[No-One]

I've still got a minidisc. I agree about the audio. I find the atrac compression on the minidisc about the same as mp3. But the audio circuitry in the minidisc is much more warm and refined.

[grassmarket]

Anyway, back on topic, you can still order them via Amazon.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-Neige-m...9687224&sr=8-1

And, getting back to the argument, the reason MDs failed was because they were always hedged about with stupid copying restrictions forced on them by record companies. The technology was always excellent - late model MD players had phenomenal battery life, and are still the best home recording devices around.

Quote:

Originally Posted by njp

You must be thinking of DCC...

Minidiscs are random access, non-contact storage media - so they were, for a short while, a superior alternative to tape. I don't know why anyone would now favour them over hard drive or flash based storage in a choice of file formats and bitrates.

Probably because the majority of MP3 players (iPods included) are badly made rubbish. The formats are fine, the implementations aren't.

In any case, you can't compare the formats. When was the last time you saw an MP3 player with editing features, or a digital output.

Entirely different market.

[Mr Giggles]

Quote:

Originally Posted by frasera

minidiscs have the functionality of analog tape
in other words they were trash.
as for sound quality.. attrac is not superior to aac or mp3 really. esp at todays bitrates

Sorry but that is cobblers, the only reason minidisc is redundant is because of the arrival of MP3 players. Sony still use the same Attrac files on their walkmans which is superior to MP3.

As for sound quality, Attrac is just as good as MP3, with the added bonus of gapless music with Attrac which you can't get with MP3.

[digibod]

anyway, i have a decent deck and i can still get discs for it

> the only reason minidisc is redundant is because of the arrival of MP3 players.

Grrrrrr....

[Orbitalzone]

Minidisc could so easily have been a much bigger success if Sony had only marketed it better and earlier.....

It should have been the replacement for floppy disks on PC's back in the mid 1990's and that might have ensured it's success, at least given it a much stronger foothold before MP3's came along.

And if Sony had made their NetMD more usable without their stupid software and given it easy drag and drop for various files, formats etc who knows?!

[Sid Law]

Quote:

Originally Posted by takeyourpick

Plus the only reason mp3 sound can be off sometimes is down to the headphone/speakers. I've heard some amazing Ipod-Docks in the past few months!

Amazing as in can go loud, or thundering bass or piercing midrange ?

Plug an i-pod, or any MP3 player in to a proper hi-fi and you will certainly be amazed at how crap they actually sound.

As a convenient way of listening to music they are unbeatable, but for sound quality, MD is (soon to be was)miles ahead.

[Nigel Goodwin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sid Law

Amazing as in can go loud, or thundering bass or piercing midrange ?

Plug an i-pod, or any MP3 player in to a proper hi-fi and you will certainly be amazed at how crap they actually sound.

As a convenient way of listening to music they are unbeatable, but for sound quality, MD is (soon to be was)miles ahead.

Not at all, it obviously depends how poor you make your MP3's - at a similar compression to MD they sound just the same. I often use MP3's for PA use, and my daughter's HiFi even has a socket on the front for an MP3 player to play through it.

[hardylane]

Quote:

Originally Posted by frasera

minidiscs have the functionality of analog tape
in other words they were trash.
as for sound quality.. attrac is not superior to aac or mp3 really. esp at todays bitrates

This is, unfortunately, garbage.

Minidiscs remain superb sound quality, and better than most MP3s.

I don't use them anymore, but they were groundbreaking.

I hate it when technosnobs try and diss great technology based on a lack of information.

[gkmac]

I still have a MiniDisc deck, the full-width JE-500 that was made about ten years ago.

Although I got my music off them onto CD-Rs, I still used it for a long time for instant radio recordings. Had a disc in and when something interesting came on, hit the record button and got it recorded instantly.

After all, how many MP3 players do you see with record buttons and 3.5mm or phono-jack stereo inputs? Even some of the portable MiniDisc recorders had some kind of digital in, so you could always record something without having to tether it to a computer.

[Mr Giggles]

I got rid of my JE510 years ago, I just use portable units now, I happen to have my original Portable from 1996, first generation unused for years.

Minidisc did have flaws when it hit NetMD, like not being able to copy a minidisc using the software instead to copy you have to do it in real time. The software was a let down in many ways down to poor design, it could of been better if it was developed properly.

[Cookie Jar]

I absolutely LOVED my Sony Mini Disc Walkman back in the day. Had it for about 4 years, took it to high school with me everyday, and had many a band practice session with it hooked up to the amp so we could listen to whichever song we were covering at that time!

But. It bugged me in several ways. 1. The AA batteries that I would go through about 10 of a week! 2. The Software (well, lack of it in any kind of decent way) 3. Carrying the 7+ plus discs around with me into school everyday, which quickly deteriorated.

All those things, is why iPod is now the king of the digital portable music device today. It made it so simple to carry around all your music library without a second thought.

Even though I swore by my trusty MD back in the day, and still have some MD's lying around somewhere, one small machine with my 3000+ tracks on compared to my clunky MD and a few MD's shoved in my pocket, wins everyday

MD's did have a decent sound though, I loved that about them, and the skip protection was a mile better than on my stinky old CD Walkman!

[R300]

I bought my first Hi-Fi sized MD separate back in the early '90s. It was a Sony MDS 520 player/recorder it cost me £899.99 and the blank 60min discs at the time cost me £10 each. I still have the discs somewhere and I bought a small walkman sized player from ebay the other year to play my discs on. I'll have to go and root through the drawers to see where it's gone.....

[JimRockford]

Minidiscs rock. iPods and Mp3 players are rubbish in comparison.

[Willith]

Haha Minidisc has a very small place in the market compared to solidstate-based players. it is a much more closed format with its own kind of compression and the netMD system. I very much enjoyed the sound quality as my MP3's were recompressed to ATRAC....

Sorry guys. Whilst i very much like the idea of having my music spread onto a bunch of disks, Sonys software was absolute garbage and the compression used is lossy...

[Ragnarok]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr Giggles

As for sound quality, Attrac is just as good as MP3, with the added bonus of gapless music with Attrac which you can't get with MP3.

Mp3's playback gaplessly on my player, but mp3 has been surpassed. AAC/mp4 and ogg are a very good new generation.

I also like being able to record in a lossless format like wavpak or wav flac from a digital source on my old Iriver IHP140.

Minidisc was very handy last decade but it's been long since surpassed.