I’ve been given a Sony MiniDisc player from a friend but I know nothing about them apart from being told they are pretty good sound quality wise.
It’s a mz-r501 which is brand new! It was bought years ago but it was never used and has sat in it’s box on a shelf for quite a few years. There are also 10 blank unopened Sony MiniDiscs with it too.

Is this a dead technology? What are the pro’s and cons of it?

Cheers

All you need to know

[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KDCwCtZPpUw[/video]

Great for recording stuff. 10 years ago.
They do have uses, but I’m struggling to think of any at the moment, the typical smart phone nowadays is just about the same quality, and keeps the files easily accessible.
I’ve got a Sanyo here that used to be used for recording various things, but it hasnt been out of its drawer for 4+ years now.

Reef, I’d forgotten about them…

That’s what I was thinking alanl, I can’t see me using it. Seems like a pretty good idea though.

I’m going to give it to my son and he can sell it on ebay, anything he gets for it will help with his racing costs 🙂

Cheers

IIRC doesn’t it use a proprietary format which means using specific software to encode the discs? Good quality but limited storage per disc.

Reef, I’d forgotten about them…

Don’t! They’ve still got it! They’re a bit more hipster looking these days, but still proper West Country RAWK!

it was a sort of cross between a cd player and a MP3 player

Pretty much obsolete now

I like them. Long Play recorders can fit nearly 3 hours on a disc at decent quality and 5 and a bit at lower quality. Great for the car. Not convenient to put music on compared to mp3 players though..

Let me know if it becomes available. EDIT: too slow..

Check out: http://www.minidisc.org/index.php

The software is for NetMD, a quicker way of putting stuff on the discs.

Yeah, obsolete, due to the rise of MP3s. Shame really as it was great for recording off the radio and making compilations of the best songs – like higher quality, easier edited cassettes. I’ve got tons of them and still play occasionally, actually used one to copy some stuff off an old cassette the other day!

FWIW i still use mine, a full size hi fi seperates Sony , but only to play back recordings i made. If i didnt have those , i wouldnt use it.

thanks for the info

lazlowoodbine, I’ve no idea of it’s value but open to offers. BMX racing is surprisingly expensive so every bit helps 🙂

Still much used in broadcasting, as it’s very easy to edit discs, with the right sort of machine. My Sony can fade in and out, do all kinds of stuff, if you’ve got an old PS/2 PC keyboard, you can type in any and all track info very easily.
Sony’s excessive DRM made it a pain, as you could make only one copy of any disc, irrespective of whether it was original info or not.

Minidiscs were ace, I used to record all my old bands gigs on a portable player and edit/split tracks on it it for later use.

Very much obsoleted by ipods and the like though, I haven’t really used mine since I got an mp3 player, kitchen wish I could find it though, Ive got all the the old gigs on Minidisc and I can’t listen to them.

My brother still uses them for pro audio work. Durable, flexible, reliable, dirt cheap and not remotely nickable. But for normal people it’s dead as a doornail. I liked mine, the players and discs were an ideal human-sized device really.

Probably get £40 on ebay for it but there is a lot on there in worse condition, who knows!

If it does sell could buy an mp3 player 😛

Can be interesting to buy a bunch of secondhand minidiscs from ebay…kind of pot luck as regards what may have been recorded onto them.

Could end up listening to stuff that you’d never have considered.

Is this a dead technology?

Basically yes. Digital PCM/FLAC/WAV recordings are just as good or better quality.

It wasn’t bad technology though. Basically a more pocketable version of CD.
The data is ATRAC compressed, which is a phychoacoustic lossy format, i.e. stuff that you are not supposed to be able to hear has been removed. It does a good job and is near to CD quality.

However, what Sony did do was make it deliberately difficult to make lossless copies of recordings on the MDisks, for copyright purposes.

Sony also tried to use the same disks as a replacement for computer floppy drives but this never gained any traction.

Never mind the discs, the players themselves were very fragile, I wrecked two by hitting them and knocking the hinges out. Compare that to the second hand H120 I replaced them with which is still going strong ten years later and you can see why they were an evolutionary dead end.

Most things Sony makes are a bit fragile
Impressed that you replaced your minidisk player with a helicopter.

Most things Sony makes are a bit fragile

Weird that the portable units didn’t last – a lot of them just died for no apparent reason. I think I do have a couple of working ones still. But the Sony separates minidisc unit I have is ancient and never going to die! An Mds-JB940 it is.

I still have a portable Sony MD player somewhere.

It wasn’t as fragile as some of the Sony Walkmans I had, often held together with an elastic band.

I loved the way one AA battery would last ages in them.

They were good, but mp3 players do the same thing now are cheap and it’s much easier to transfer your music

As Apple Music keeps deleting my playlists and bought songs every time I go on airplane mode, I might go back to mine.
13.5 hour flight and no music access… stick yer iPod iPod up yer arsenal!

Got a Mds-JB940 too and a MD player in one of my cars still. I have hundreds of the things packed away. Been meaning to convert them to the PC but have only done one or too as its real time and will take forever. Think there was a slighty quicker way to do it with that net MD software but never had a compatible player.

Used to have a minidisc head unit in my car, was great as you could throw the minidiscs in the glovebox/footwell/door pocket whereas CD’s would scratch, or you put them in the super brittle cases and broke the centres or broke the hinges off the case.

Cracking format and hardware ruined by some of the most awful software ever designed to implement DRM and forsaking any sort of user friendliness.

Cracking format and hardware ruined by some of the most awful software ever designed to implement DRM and forsaking any sort of user friendliness.

That’s Sony for you, they are, after all, the company that sold CD’s with a rootkit virus that infected desktop PC’s, and also, IIRC, released CD’s that couldn’t be played on computer CD drives to deliberately stop people from ripping them.
Always thinking of the consumer, Sony… 🙄
My component MD deck is the same as DezB’s, an MDS-JB940; cracking machine in what it can do, sounds great via a TOSLink into my amp, I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of it.

Keep it in the box unopened.. Stick it in a box in the loft and probably worth a stupid amount in 20 years..

Mid range system, a lossy format like mp3 plus DRM.

PCM, Flac and wav are different because they are not lossy.

Sony DAT was the better quality system.

I had a Sony 930, used it for recording the friday rockshow. And a little player for listening to stuff on bus to work.

Mine hasnt been out the cupboard for a decade now, Mp3 and internets have put an end to it. Still use my cd’s though.

I loved Minidisc, it was a great format, had a Hi-Fi and portable, both up the loft now.

Always thinking of the consumer, Sony..

You have to remember a huge portion of Sony’s profits come from it’s music arm, they weren’t going to sell you a product that enabled you to copy music for free. Also they were trying to learn from the DAT failure, where labels wouldn’t release on it for fear of unlimited copies being made. DRM was supposed to convince labels to release on Minidisc. Of course ultimately it was all in vain as MP3, Peer to Peer networks and MP3 players killed it off.

They were good, but mp3 players do the same thing now

When was the last time you could record 2 hours of radio on mp3 and easily divide the tracks up, editing out the DJ speak? Opening up a big wav file on the computer and chopping the bits out is nowhere near as much fun! Or record a compilation of vinyl, cassette and CDs onto one format that you can play in your car? Without even switching your bloody COMPUTER on!
Minidisc was better than mp3! (In some ways) 🙂

Thanks everyone, quite an interesting product.

“Keep it in the box unopened.. Stick it in a box in the loft and probably worth a stupid amount in 20 years.. ” haha! He’ll not be bothered.

Someone has offered him £60 for it! Seems like a not too bad deal to me. And helps towards the racing so all good 🙂

I’ve got two sony minidisc recorders, one pioneer minidisc player that was an add on to my stereo system, and a Pioneer minidisc unit for the car, which is still boxed unused. All stored in the loft now.

I used to use the recorders to record in the studio, along with a Sony Microphone, which I latterly found out can only be used with certain Sony products. Which is very annoying.

I used to use the recorders to record in the studio, along with a Sony Microphone, which I latterly found out can only be used with certain Sony products. Which is very annoying.

Qu’ell surprise! See my previous comments. 😉

Minidisc? My car’s still got a tape player in it and it’s a 2007 car! I found an old tape last week and I was having a play about with it, I didn’t realise you could fast forward it track by track. There’s a button that enhances the sound quality too. I think that’s forward thinking, LPs are coming back so maybe tapes are next 😉 I’m sure i’ve got Now That’s What I Call Music 1 in the loft, I might need to go searching.
Lol

so maybe tapes are next

YOU’re clearly not a Bandcamp.com member! Tapes have been making a resurgence for a while now (nota patch on MD though, obviously)

When was the last time you could record 2 hours of radio on mp3 and easily divide the tracks up, editing out the DJ speak? Opening up a big wav file on the computer and chopping the bits out is nowhere near as much fun! Or record a compilation of vinyl, cassette and CDs onto one format that you can play in your car? Without even switching your bloody COMPUTER on!
Minidisc was better than mp3! (In some ways)

My iRiver from circa 2003 does all that IIRC. Never use the record function though TBH

They were awesome!

I had an epically good MD walkman (li-ion or AA battery, proper remote on the wire with jog dial and display)

Also have a Sony MD separate in the loft and used to have MD head unit in the car.

I was all in. Shame they’re not in use anymore. Have a shoe box full of MDs in the loft too