Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Minidisc anyone?

0098386

0098386

Suspended
Original poster
Jan 18, 2005
21,574
2,908
I found my old minidisc (2000) recorder yesterday, after a charge it was back to normal. Currently listening to what I considered music back when I was 14 :eek:. The sound quality is fairly brilliant too.
But they're great. Even when I bought an iPod in 2004 I still missed minidisc.
My iPods on its deathbed now but instead of going for a new one I might just buy a new minidisc player. Well new... the last portable Sony released was in 2004 but it's still the pinnacle of Minidisc they say.

Anyone else still using them? Or any fond, or maybe not fond memories?
 
i love my minidisc stuff.. i have a home unit hooked up to my stereo,a net md unit hooked up to a set of speakers(net md stuff can let you transfer minidisc stuff from disc to windows xp based pc's w/the proper software),my portable unit,a sony home unit not in use, and two alpine car stereos with mindisc in them(one from japan,in my expedition now and another not in use,which is a uk radio...love my stuff
 
MiniDisc - another brilliant idea from Sony. Created by Sony. Killed by Sony.

Anyway, I used to really like my MiniDiscs. The Sony PC I had came with it and so I bought a bunch of albums to listen to. Always annoyed me though that Sony restricted it to the music, as it would have been at the time a great replacement for the floppy disc. And now it's dead. Thank you Sony (for nothing, really). :)
 
Used to love to go snowboarding with my MiniDisc player; fairly inexpensive and pretty much indestructible (especially when compared to a $300 large screened iPod). Don't use it anymore, but I've still got it sitting around.
 
An MD player with mp3s stored on the minidisks were far better than the iPod was for the first two generations -- cheaper, and better battery life.

It really wasn't until the 4th Generation iPod (the one with the scroll wheel borrowed from the 1st Gen iPod Mini) that iPods became attractive to me.
 
Jaro65 said:
MiniDisc - another brilliant idea from Sony. Created by Sony. Killed by Sony.

Anyway, I used to really like my MiniDiscs. The Sony PC I had came with it and so I bought a bunch of albums to listen to. Always annoyed me though that Sony restricted it to the music, as it would have been at the time a great replacement for the floppy disc. And now it's dead. Thank you Sony (for nothing, really). :)
Click to expand...

I've been reading up on new ones and they allow you to store data on them (comparable to a memory stick I've heard). But this was in 2006 and yea, too little too late. It's also a shame they didn't go down the video route and have full colour displays on the front. Or at least make them also compatible with UMD video. But like you said - created by Sony, killed by Sony!
 
I still use one of the more recent models (with external mic) for recording band rehearsal. Makes a good quick and dirty recording device. The files can be transferred to my MacBook Pro via USB.
 
mattwolfmatt said:
Just like Blu-Ray? ;)
Click to expand...

The Blu-ray discs are selling quite well, at least in the US. But again, whereas HD-DVD had no region coding, Sony's Blu-ray does. They seem to feel a need to lock things down and make them proprietary, just so that a competitor can come with an open standard that will become broadly adopted and kill Sony's implementation. Still, in terms of full HD video, Blu-ray at the moment has no competition. We all expect on-demand downloads to eventually be the answer, but it will be a while before we will be downloading 25GB movies at a spur of the moment. I think Sony is safe for a couple of years. :)
 
I had a portable one back in 2003 or 2004 and it was pretty cool. But eventually hard drives and flash storage got cheaper and an iPod was the way to go.

I do miss it though, there's something strangely nostgalic about carrying around several MDs and switching them when you wanted to listen to something else.
 
A friend had one when we were say 11/12?

She was always a bit spoilt and I remember feeling like I was meant to be terribly impressed by her minidisc player. Instead I smiled while thinking how totally pointless it was to buy a CD, then buy minidiscs, then spend time transferring the CD to minidisc.

I mean, we were 12, it's not like we ever went anywhere. :p
 
I remember being introduced to MiniDisc when I flew to Singapore and Hong Kong to visit relatives back in the mid-90's. I was in my mid-teens at the time and was blown away by these tiny CDs in their little plastic caddies! Smaller than Discmans -- heck, even smaller than the cassette walkman I was using at the time.

They were everywhere in Hong Kong and I resolved to buy one before the end of our trip. And I did, a Sharp MDMS722. Cost me about $400.

As I would soon discover, the thing was built like a tank. I once accidentally dropped it down a full flight of stairs, and watched in horror as it bounced its way to the bottom. It survived unscathed -- not even a scratch.

I dubbed a selection of my favourite CDs to carry with me on the bus, but where this thing really shone was live recording of concerts and other events. There was simply no better way for a consumer to record audio in the field (unless you could afford a DAT recorder).

Eventually I bought my first iPod, and then the Sharp was only pulled out for recordings, until eventually that stopped too and I finally sold the whole kit on eBay.

I also had a Sharp MD-R2 deck at one point, but sold it soon after -- MD was not really finding its space in my living room so much as it did for "on the go" playback and recording.

I still own a Sony MZ-E300 cheapie player (no recording ability), and my collection of MDs is still sitting around somewhere in my basement. I also still own a Sony CMT-MD1 CD/MD combo shelf stereo system.
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
I used a portable one back in high school and for a few years after until it was stolen out of my barracks room. I never had one in a vehicle so once that was gone I eventually decided to just trash all the discs. No big loss.

I always wondered why they didn't sell DVDs on minidiscs. No matter how careful you are with them, they end up with scratches. Minidiscs would have been a great solution.
 
notjustjay said:
As I would soon discover, the thing was built like a tank. I once accidentally dropped it down a full flight of stairs, and watched in horror as it bounced its way to the bottom. It survived unscathed -- not even a scratch.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. I've dropped my MZ-R91 onto pavements and all it seems to do is release the battery (the latch on that model was really weak, used to hold it down with blue tac). Mine has a bit of damage over the record switch and to this day I don't know how it happened. It's been under so much weight before and never gave in.

And awesome. I was after that exact Sharp MD recorder but they were sold out so my parents (since it was a birthday present) paid a bit more and got the MZ-R91.

519HSYD4FGL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

was (and is still) my baby :eek:. Thinking I might just get a new battery for it until I jump in on the MZRH1.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back