Is Minidisc dead?
 

Well is it?

Basically I'm restricted as to what I can add to my setup - at the moment -
as my CD player/preamp is the Quad 99 CD-P. Anything I add has to be
digital. I was thinking of a minidisc seperate as I own a oprtable minidisc
player and it's not particularly reliable when it omes to recording entire
albums, quite often completely missing information. So I'm looking for
something a little more sturdy.

Would I be better to perhaps go for a CD burner and a Discman portable
player? Or perhaps one of those Yamaha things with the built in hard drive?

Suggestions please
The EggKing

Is Minidisc dead?
 

In article , The EggKing wrote:
Well is it?

It's hardly going to spontaneously stop working for no apparent reason,
and I expect the media to be cheaply available for a very long time;
I think it's niche, but fairly safe niche, as a portable recording
format in particular.

If removable media, random access, and rewritability matter to you
(which they do for me), it's still one of the digital formats of choice
I think.

- Andrew (very happy with his Sony MZ-N1, thanks :) )

Is Minidisc dead?
 

In message , Andrew
Walkingshaw writes
In article , The EggKing wrote:
Well is it?

It's hardly going to spontaneously stop working for no apparent reason,
and I expect the media to be cheaply available for a very long time;
I think it's niche, but fairly safe niche, as a portable recording
format in particular.

If removable media, random access, and rewritability matter to you
(which they do for me), it's still one of the digital formats of choice
I think.

- Andrew (very happy with his Sony MZ-N1, thanks :) )

And Minidisc is the obvious format for car use. (Works well for me)

(I really can't understand why people put up with huge clunky CDs in the
car, they are a nightmare just to put in the player!)
--
Chris Morriss

Is Minidisc dead?
 

A certain The EggKing, of uk.rec.audio "fame", writes :

Would I be better to perhaps go for a CD burner and a Discman portable
player? Or perhaps one of those Yamaha things with the built in hard drive?

I love Minidisc but it's only strength is portability (and for that
reason it is by no means "dead"!). If you need to record works, keep
them on CDs.

--

"Jokes mentioning ducks were considered particularly funny." - cnn.com

Is Minidisc dead?
 

As Sony are still a main player in this market it will be around for a very
long
time.

I wouldn't bet on that. I beleive Sony have already stopped further design
improvements to the medium.
From it's concept it never did make a huge stamping ground on the UK market
and since it's a Sony patented design no other bugger can join in!

I personaly think it wont be long before it vanishes into the background
just like analogue cassette.


Steve

Is Minidisc dead?
 

A certain Stevie Boy, of uk.rec.audio "fame", writes :

I wouldn't bet on that. I beleive Sony have already stopped further design
improvements to the medium.

I haven't seen that substantiated, they have invested a great deal in
improvements to the medium lately, although it is getting to the point
where they really have nowhere else to go.

From it's concept it never did make a huge stamping ground on the UK market
and since it's a Sony patented design no other bugger can join in!

Dunno about that, as plenty of other people make MD walkmans.

The problem is more likely to be due to competition from solid state
portable media, which does what MD does far better - except for the cost
of the media. The walkmans you can get these days with hard disks onto
which you can load thousands of tracks seem to eliminate the compelling
reason to hold on to removable media unless your collection is
particularly huge.

--

"Jokes mentioning ducks were considered particularly funny." - cnn.com

Is Minidisc dead?
 

" I haven't seen that substantiated, they have invested a great deal in
improvements to the medium lately, although it is getting to the point
where they really have nowhere else to go.

I haven't seen that substantiated either... but have heard some silent
background whispers.

The problem being facing stiff competition from MP3 weather this format is
better or not.

This is where the MD excelled at as a compressed recording format rather
than a playback medium since pre-recorded music is not available in droves
in music outlets.

From it's concept it never did make a huge stamping ground on the UK
market
and since it's a Sony patented design no other bugger can join in!

Dunno about that, as plenty of other people make MD walkmans.

Oh! You've surprised me. Not one to look at the portable market much other
than the proliferation of MP3 players on the market of recent times.

The problem is more likely to be due to competition from solid state
portable media, which does what MD does far better - except for the cost
of the media.

Yes true but in these computer times... soon plumet.
Until then MD has some holding ground.

The walkmans you can get these days with hard disks onto
which you can load thousands of tracks seem to eliminate the compelling
reason to hold on to removable media unless your collection is
particularly huge.

--

I wonder how sick people will feel when the hardiscs fail? I'm sure some
will. Maybe not much of an issue right now but if someone has hundreds of
songs on 1 disc and they paid to have them on there.......


Steve

Is Minidisc dead?
 

Hi, it sort of depends what you want and when you want it. As I see it MD is
no more. You have to go solid state for portable

Not if you don't like the cost, which is considerable. Blank MDs are
dirt cheap.

I think the ongoing collapse in large CF cards prefaces the end of MD

--
reply to thechachman-n-o-s-p-a-m@yahoo-DOT-co-DOT-uk (remove nospam)

Is Minidisc dead?
 

A certain Chachi, of uk.rec.audio "fame", writes :

Hi, it sort of depends what you want and when you want it. As I see it MD is
no more. You have to go solid state for portable

Not if you don't like the cost, which is considerable. Blank MDs are
dirt cheap.

I think the ongoing collapse in large CF cards prefaces the end of MD

CF cards have not collapsed to the price of MD blanks. Although I do
remember a time when MD blanks cost about ten times what they do now (ie
pretty close to the current price of an equivalent CF card).

--

"Jokes mentioning ducks were considered particularly funny." - cnn.com

Is Minidisc dead?
 

The EggKing in uk.rec.audio:

Well is it?

If by dead you mean can't buy music on it then it was never alive, but the
format seems at least as useful as ever. There are perhaps more people
using them now than any other time.

The compression used is a little old fashioned next to mp3, itself invented
more than twelve years ago. Maybe you are more patient than I, but if I
were to buy player it would be one with pc conectivity so that the music
could be transfered faster than at play speeds. Some of the more recent
minidisk devices do this. I think Sony call them NetMD or somthing.

No brand, but still good mp3 players can be had quite cheaply, maybe you
can hunt down a 'george'[1] in the uk (Richer used to have them, but were
asking a high price and I remember seeing a few on ebay)

Lastly, if you want a portable device with cheap media consider an 8cm cd
player, the discs hold 180Mb, which is good for quite a few mp3 albums. You
can burn or read in virtually any cd drive/player. Anything mechanical now
is stopgap, mind, solid state is the future.

[1] see http://www.dansdata.com/usbmp3.htm

--
Jim H
3.1415...4999999 and so on... Richard Feynman