Registered: Mar 2000
Location: Columbia, MO
Posts: 125

OK, I know this is WAY off topic, but the VC crowd is pretty dang sharp, so I bet I'll get some good advice.

I've become kind of interested in the minidisc format after seeing one on a trip recently, plus Sony's new commercials with the alien. Anyone have any experience with these?

Registered: Jan 2000
Location: Twin Cities, MN
Posts: 1683

As far as technology goes, the MiniDisc has been eclipsed by MP3/Flash memory technologies.

As for convenience and overall price, they are still viable.

It WAS a great idea, but, as usual, Sony didn't want to share its idea with others in the beginning and it has kind of gone the way of the Beta tape...

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Chandler, AZ
Posts: 289

I have used them in live performance situations (music) .. The format is nice because it works like a tape but plays back like a CD ... so you get quick access to tracks/sections and so forth.. Its really nice to play live and then be able to hear what was played -- I think in these types of situations it could be one of the best as far as price/performance/ease of use is concerned..

However, for virtually everything else, I have used CDs and MP3s due a far greater universal acceptance..

Joe

Registered: Aug 2000
Location:
Posts: 36

when i was looking at getting a portable music player about a year ago, i was trying to decide between minidisc and mp3. i think that minidisc is a far better option. the main reason for this is i wanted to be able to carry a good sized library of music around with me, about 20-30 minidiscs. the discs only cost $2 a piece. with mp3 players, you can only have a few songs on the player and to get more, you need to buy memory cards. have you looked at the price of memory cards? lets just say, its a tad more than $2 per card. A card that could hold as much music as a minidisc would probably be about 64mb, which costs $150 atleast. The one thing i didnt like about my portable minidisc player/recorder was that it took forever to enter track names. On mp3 players, you can do this on your computer (some of the large minidisc recording decks made to be plugged into a sterio system have keyboard ports though). Also, i think MD has better sound quality then mp3 by far. Im the kind of person who spends twice as much on Sennheiser headphones as i spend on the MD player itself, and mp3 quality just wasnt that good. After a while though, I got tired of copying all of my cds onto minidisc format and naming all of the tracks, so i bought a really nice sony G-Shock cd player and i use that now. when i want to listen to mp3s on the go, i convert them to wav format and burn them to a cd with my CD-RW. I also wanted to be able to listen to friends cds on the bus going to school. i think a good old cd player is the best option overall. If you do want a minidisc player, i think im going to sell my old one, a Sharp MD-MS702. You interested?

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: Columbia, MO
Posts: 125

hmmm, maybe. Since I've started looking into it, though, I'm pretty sure my CD player is too old to take advantage of the digital recording feature - I don't have the port for the optical cable. Is there much degredation of sound quality with using the regular rec out connections on my receiver?
(thanks, by the way, for the info!!)
I may still be interested, what kind of $$ are we talking?

[Edited by PaulD on 08-27-2000 at 05:45 PM]

Registered: Aug 2000
Location:
Posts: 36

i dont know of any portable cd players that you can record directly too. i have a cd-rw drive in my computer, i burn the cds there and then listen to them in my cd player. if you dont have a cd burner, this wont work for you, but you can get cd burners for good prices, and youd be suprised how much you use one once you have it. it also depends on if most of the music you listen too is cds you buy or mp3s you download. if your interested in my MD player, i was thinking of selling it for $180. that includes the MD-MS702 portable md player/recorder and everything it came with (except maybe the headphones, they were cheap pieces of junk and i dont think i kept them. that price also includes a nice carrying case i bought seperatly, atleast 25 discs, most blank, some have music on them which can easily be reformatted. theres also a carrying case to hold just discs. if i have any other stuff with my minidisc ill throw that in too.

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 6

i bought the sony mrz-90 recorder (japanese import) a while back and i have to say i love it. i've owned two mp3 players in the past... the original rio pmp 300 and the creative nomad. they are nice, but it was a bit tiresome changing the music one them since they used the parallel port back then. most mp3 players these days use usb. both minidisc and mp3 use lossy compression schemes to fit the audio into those tiny specs. however minidisc is far less lossy than mp3. you can always change the encode rate for mp3... but then you can only fit about 15 minutes of audio into 32mbs of memory. minidisc is fixed... but all music recorded (especially through optical) is still incredibly clear quality... i've never noticed hiss on a md. mp3 on the other hand... many songs unless recorded at about 360 something kbps can still sound hissy or more often "warbly" but then you sacrifice ALOT of space for that. a couple more things... you can get mds in 74 and 80 minute formats in alot of cool collectible styles with prices ranging from $1 to $3. !!avoid maxells... they will screw up your equipment!!

oh yeah... in america, mds are only a niche technology... although WE are gaining more groud every day... ^_^... but everywhere else in the world... europe and asia... they have been if not more popular, then just as popular as cd players for years.

if ya can't tell... i just love MDs! check out this link for more indepth but not too technical info...
http://www.t-station.net

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Redwood City CA
Posts: 472

Yes, I have a minidisk; it's a nice piece of equipment and I personally see it as a replacement for cassette tapes. I can record a CD to a minidisk, pay only $2 for over an hour of music, and travel with it without risking the loss of the original CD.