The demise of MiniDisc?

themadhippy, i tend to use data CDs now, since we put a pc in the our theatre, but we still keep the MD for travelling groups and what not... though MD was great when i had to do all the editing at home (that said, that PC is sitting beside me now, waiting to be repaired so it's back to MD for the time being)


as for personal use, i can't say i've used a MD in a long time. sold my NetMD (JB980) because of lack of use, not even going to mention the software though

 

Julian if you ever come to scally central, give us a description of your car, and I'll ask them to provide you with a veritable selection of the finest hubcaps thta will match your car....

I once complained at a concert rehearsal about a missing multiway extension lead. One mysteriously appeared that evening, still in it's polythene wrapping. I think woolworths had just experienced some shrinkage

Thank-you Michael and thank-you Julian. I got my budget yesterday for the upcoming 12 months. It's not looking too clever!

 

the compression used on MD seriously compromises their sound quality. Having said that they are wonderful compared to the abomination that is MP3 compression.

Bob

 

I'd agree that the compression on MD does compromise quality to an extent, but they are intended for portable use, where size matters.

In my opinion, the compromise is a lot better with MD than it is with hard disk MP3 players, and the battery life and robustness of MD players means that they won't die just yet!

 

Finally got round to having a good listen to my new MP3 player today whilst out for a walk/shopping. Even at 128kbps, I'm very pleased with the sound - it's certainly as good as MiniDisc, now I've replaced the stock headphones.

 

experimented with a pc at my last venue,found the delay from hiting play to actually getting sound a bit to long,also a md fits nicley in the foh rack.
top tip dont fire up the p.c half way during the show without checking its channel is muted first:shame:

 

Top tip indeed - nearly as good as the time I was sitting at the lighting desk, leant back and headbutted the switch for the back row of the houselights! Not a good idea, as it illuminated the back 4 rows of seats in a rather obvious manner!

 

I put my MD portable (MZR-91) up for sale on eBay and forgot all about it. Boxed with loads of accessories it only made £40 - I'd have happily kept it for that. Having said that, it was designed as a convinience-only purchase, and a 256mb Mp3 stick player for about £50 off eBay will satisfy that criteria far better.
MD won't die, it'll go the way of compact cassette - loved by those who still use it, forgotten by the rest of the population. Kind of ironic since the latter was supposed to replace the former

 

I love minidisc and I have a Sharp portable which whilst I only use it for copying CDs from my Meridian, it does great work enabling me to fill my six disc MD changer in the car. Even though I have access to CD burning, the durability of the MDs means they can roll around in the glovebox as much as they like.

As for the sound quality, well in car I cant really tell the difference between them and CD.

Regarding Sony missing the boat with the large capacity MDs they also completely ignored the boat by not turning it into a data drive. Just imagine we could have had back in 1993 a 150Mb re-writable optical drive (far more reliable than CDRW is today still). 150Mb was still bigger than a lot of HDs at that time and CD-r cost a small fortune (I dont even think it was available domestically then). I'd still use one over a floppy if they were available.

Ah well...

 

While MP3 sounds like crap worn tape on drumkits, I'll stick with MD thankyouverymuch...

I've not used my Pansonic J220 MD since September 2002 though (yep, all of a month's use!), as I got a replacement discman.

I have two full size decks as well; I use MD for mastering for CD compilations (vinyl, tape and CD) so it still serves a purpose.

Plus, I like having multiple formats - KISS never works in my hifi systems!