Mini-Disc...the new format for our music?

dogbert

Mini-Disc products, like the MD digital videocam, MD walkman, MD car stereo and portable data drives, are coming out fast and many of them are currently availabe on the market. Could this be the new medium for music, video, and data recordings due its re-recordable nature and compact size? Could the MD phase out the CD? If ever, would you make the switch?

batang uliran

MD has been around for several years and just about the only company that's pushing it is sony. It hasn't caught on by now and I don't think it ever will especially with the advent of recordable CDs. Besides, it will never be as good as CD as it employs compression so in that sense, it will never have the fidelity of CD. The eventual replacement for CD will I think be DVD-Audio and/or the SACD format that sony is pushing.

nix

The Mini-Disc Format excels only in the music portable market. It may have been the heir to the discman and the walkman, but now that MP3 is starting to catch on, I would say that the Mini-Disc is an endangered species. It surely won't be able to compete in the home audio market as the DVD and the recordable cd allows much more audio quality.

dogbert

Actually, not only Sony is developing Md products. Aiwa has made their own version of the portable MD player and it is better than the Sony made one since it has a higher volume range, but the down side is that the Aiwa's extended battery pack is not like the Sony "piggy-back" style.

Swiftsure

Sharp's the other big company pushing MD. Aiwa uses a lot of Sony technology in its MD players and recorders. Other companies like Pioneer, Onkyo and Denon base (or based, since Denon's out of the MD portable market) their portable units on Sharp units.

MD's really caught on in Japan.. it seems like every 3 months or so there are new portables being produced and marketed, even if their predecessors are still out on the shelves. In the States, its popularity is increasing now that Sony's stopped trying to push it as a replacement for the CD (which was stupid considering that u could get very few prerecorded MDs) and is now marketing it as a replacement for the cassette. Blank MD discs r much cheaper there than they r here, so they might just b successful. Until they come up with portable CD recorders/players, maybe.

I got fed up with cassettes 2 few years back n bought myself a nice Sharp MD portable recorder/player off the web from a guy in Japan.. I'm happy to say it's been working fine, with no problems, and MDs I recorded 2 years ago are still as good now as they were back then. That's all that matters to me. (Even though MDs don't sound as good as CDs, my recordings sound good enough when I'm outside or when I'm jogging -- that's what's important, I think.)

Mikoid

Correct me if I'm wrong, but DAT seems to be the accepted standard in the music industry, while MD seems to have a stronger following for the everyday consumer.

batang uliran

Yes DAT is still the digital recording standard of the music industry.

MD is too little too late for the rest of the world specially the US. It will be supplanted by the recordable cd. Don't forget that there are probably 50 or more portable cd players for every one portable md player.

JDELEON

Just got myself a new SHARP MDMS 702. They are cheap on auction in the US. Still waiting for my shipment of blanks from the US.

Hey, cassette re-recording convencience, CD quality... sounds good to me.

So far though, I am happy. Invest in a STEREO MIC if you are going to do live recording.

Hope that helps.

Joe

Assassin_Mage

I have been using MDs for about two years now, and all I can say is that it will not replace the CD..

It will replace the Audio tape though as a recording medium but it will not replace the CD. It is great due to its portability. which is better than the CD.

Present market is only for blank MD, and
I cannot foresee a market in which there would be recorded MDs.. like what we have with CDs and audio tape..

[L]es

i think i'll stick to CDs, just shelled out 15gs for an in dash 1 car stereo

maxwell

frankly I don't think MDs will make it as big as walkmans or discmans. People will probably wait out for the influx of MP3 players.

neonique

nooooooooooo way MP3 will definitely kick the booty out of MD technology!

neonique

I think the MD isn't anything big... thats just my opnion though. For the aural future I'm betting on MP3 to make it big!

phreax

have you guys thought that you can record your mp3s into md? and now thats cool! you're not limited to 32/64mb that portable mp3 players offered today. and its much cheaper than mp3 players, sharp md recorder/player cost $200 only. 3-5 mds can fit in your pocket, right? and if you have cargo pants, then you could bring as many as you want!

tempura

If you wanna record MP3 to your MD, here is what you will do:

Buy an analog cable, connect it to your MDs LINE IN and the other to your PC soundcards LINE OUT. arrange you playlist in your Winamp, the equalizer, etc. Get a plugin called Wincue here: http://www.wincue.org. this plugin will put a few seconds of interval between each song, so that your recorder will automatically put in a new track for each song. 3 seconds of delay is good. Hit RECORD on your MD and PLAY winamp. You can even connect your earphone to the MD player and listen while it is recording. so far i do not notice any difference between the CD and the MD songs, make sure you downloaded a good quality song.

I have Sony MZ-R900 which i bought a week ago and it has a feature called MDLP, Mini Disc Long Play. One Disc can record over 350 minutes of songs! Way better than any mp3 or CD. i already have 20 tracks in my disc and it still has space for more. you can record anything, like lectures (buy a microphone), even live concerts! the MD has a very cool remote which has a backlight and you just tuck in your MD player in your bag and clip (has a clip) the recorder into your shirt. looks cool!

Look at this website for more MD info: http://www.minidisc.org

joeyboy76

hey guys,

have you already tried the netMD? I dunno if the minidisc format had already caught on in manila but here in singapore its very popular too.

well primarily, for those people who have a lot of music (eg mp3) files in their hard discs, you can now easily convert (atrac) and copy them to the netMD through the handy USB terminal. copying is fast too. for an lp4 format song, just a couple of seconds (provided the song has been pre-conveted to atrac) otherwise, its about 30 seconds per song including conversion!!

MD's are cheap in comparison to memory sticks for the mp3 players. An MD costs aroun SGD$3 (around 80 pesos) and you can put up to around 300 mins of songs (around 60+songs) .. ok diba? plus its re-recordable over and over and over and over again...

I'm glad i didn't just jumped on the mp3 player bandwagon.... the atrac format is so much better than the mp3 format in terms of sound quality, and storage wise, the minidisc is so much cheaper.....

NOKiE

MD has been an insignificant technology in the U.S.--would have been popular within maybe a couple of years from its premiere if most if not all recording companies adopted MDs as whole-heartedly as they did when Compact Disc technology came out. That alone would probably have greatly affected prices on MD units and media.

NOKiE

Originally posted by maxwell
frankly I don't think MDs will make it as big as walkmans or discmans. People will probably wait out for the influx of MP3 players.

The wait is almost over. They came out with several devices capable of decoding mp3--car decks, boom boxes, portables in three types, DVD players, PDAs, cellphones, wrist watches, what else?

hubes

IMHO, I feel that MiniDisc is just a medium for storing digital music in the same way that CD-R or CD-RW's store MP3's. It's really your preference whether you would like to store your digital music in MD's, CD's, Compact Flash cards, Memory Sticks, SD cards, etc.. To each his own I say. Nevertheless, if you are really into the recording scene then MD's are an excellent choice. There are so many things you could do with an MD recorder that you cannot do now with conventional MP3 players. If you are into concerts and have access to the producer's sound board you can tap your MD recorder directly to the board via XLR, stereo RCA, or phono plugs. If you can't do that you can even use a binaural (stereo omnidirectional) or cardioid microphone to capture the event and believe me if you've got a good mic & you're placement is ideal then you'll get a great recording.

Most MD's also are quite versatile when it comes to editing. You can surely edit CD-RW's by re-writing a new compilation but with MD's you can do it while you're out on the road. Shaving off a few seconds or even combining tracks is a cinch for MD's. Well, before I bore all of you with my insights let me just repeat my earlier statement...to each his own!

privatesinger

using md for 4 years now, i must say that it's really helpful for a singer like me. it can mark a track, like for example, mahirap yung chorus ng particular song. i can just make a track out of that particular chorus and set it to repeat1 mode pra mabugbog s tenga ko... in other words, madaling makasipra using MD.

but i do agree dat medyo di nga sya nagclick kc naglabasan ang mga recordable CD's and MP3 players. i also hav an mp3 player kya nga i don't use my MD anymore, unless n may mga mahirap ng part s song na kailangan ng intense practice.

just a share of my thought...

privatesinger

using md for 4 years now, i must say that it's really helpful for a singer like me. it can mark a track, like for example, mahirap yung chorus ng particular song. i can just make a track out of that particular chorus and set it to repeat1 mode pra mabugbog s tenga ko... in other words, madaling makasipra using MD.

but i do agree dat medyo di nga sya nagclick kc naglabasan ang mga recordable CD's and MP3 players. i also hav an mp3 player kya nga i don't use my MD anymore, unless n may mga mahirap ng part s song na kailangan ng intense practice.

just sharing...