Minidisc Format Overview and or Ipod Rant

[368Lefty]

My Advise on ear bud The Shure 315 Isolation earplugs

[VOXS2]

Also this minidisc walkman looks more futuristic design and more cooler with funtions..... rather then boring mp3 devices with no disc of the music product ?

[VOXS2]

hi great video. Can u tell me if the minidisc walkman is old technology today? course i know there are stuf like mp3 without disc and such.... but i think without proven what u have as music... your music will be inside a harddrive and u cant see the actual product of the music to beging with... This device looks quite high tech... is this exsist or old stuff now? I havnt never seen minidisc music at the shop before.. it only seems CD music albums on sale.

[dummie20]

actually i think .wav is a better container for lpcm than flac cd format but i dont think ipods or minidisk use. wav even if they did they would still be compressed by mp3 or atrac witch brings us back to 272 against 320 kbps

[dummie20]

ipod ear buds really do suck i agree with that they should stop making them

[dummie20]

mps cuts out the inaudible parts of music also atrac format is 272 kbps at 80 min a disk. flack witch is cd format up to 1400 kbps standard iTunes mp3s 128 kbps my ipod is using mpeg format at 320 kbps my ipod beats your mini disk

[DOBBSA87]

Have to say I agree with everything here. I love my minidisc, and the sound reproduction seems to be far better than an mp3 player, even an iPod. Superior components perhaps?

[SuperGilberto1977]

People who only buy and collect singles do not appreciate music. They only buy the flavor of the month.

[BoogieWithStew]

People don't listen to whole "albums" anymore because 99% of music created is absolute garbage. Almost no bands make 3-4 good songs, let alone an entire album worth listening nonstop.

Audio compression (MP3 and Sony's ATRAC) is obsolete today, as their primary value 10+ years ago was their reduced storage space. But some iPods are 160GB, plenty of space to store uncompressed WAV files (which I don't think an iPod can even play).

Sadly iPod, and hence MP3, remain dominant.

[Phedrus1975]

Both formats have their uses. When I was out in Iraq and away from home for months, it was a genuine comfort to have my entire music collection with me. I found at home, I would become lazy and not 'think' about my music, just hit play and start skipping about. Something was lost. MD brings back the excitement of making compilations, as I did as a kid with cassettes..

[Phedrus1975]

Music should have emotion and romance. There is nothing emotional about 10,000 compressed files. I'm happy to sacrifice the convenience of iPod for the tactile feel and the careful consideration of copying playlists in real-time. Quantity does not mean quality.

[WhoneRanger]

yes... agreed man... and I love the press roll on the snare at 3:95. Who is that? I recognized the Dave Brubeck at the end.... I'm a huge jazz fan.

[Phedrus1975]

I have a 160gb iPod, and two Sony MDS-JE520 hifi decks as well as a minidisc head unit in the car.

I actually think that the convenience of the iPod can work against it! It's too easy to skip from track to track and album to album! With the minidisc in the car, I carefully select the album, and listen to it from beginning to end and appreciate each track! Sometimes technology takes something away from the music!

[febed01]

@Phedrus1975 Yes, one day I realized that I spent more time skipping from track to track than really listen to the music... That's one of the reasons I came back to MD.

[jazzlook]

@Phedrus1975 You're right on everything you mentioned. I have 7 MD players/recorders - one in my car, a portable one, two professional machines, one in my main home hi-fi setup, one in my secondary home hi-fi setup and one in my record setup - After so many years of listening pleasure in those machines i still think they excellent. Many years have passed, zero fail. I agree with Atrac format, i like the electronics, i like the way they sound and it's mechanical stability. MD forever.

[lukewind30]

Wow, lords knows we should take advice from a this guy! I guess there are always people who can't stand change. I had a mini disc and I loved it, but i would never go back to it. Go take your stupid hate and sit on it, no one cares.

[Legion2000]

You rule man!

[wayneleon100]

I have had both the IPod and Mnidisc {sharp MiniDisc-Mt821H}. The crystal clear clarity of the Minidisc is outstanding. Although the capacity is nowhere near that of an IPod, I still find myself using my MD everywhere I go. I record on it too. Yes, it may be yesterday's technology, but there are plenty of people out there {me included} that still love it.

[bredgeo1]

I did keep the same make/brand minidisc "Sharp" to put them in the Sharp Boomboxes. In the GF 9191... I by-passed the RCA Phono In pre-amp and hooked them up to the Minidisc via the GF 9191's recording levels (left and right) just incase an input was not balanced... I could balance them. Voila!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[rob92376]

You ever go to mini disco website to buy mini disc players an blank media. Thats the only website I know that have mini disc. The only thing I worry about is will the software support window 7 or do I have to stick with windows vista an windows xp. I only bought 2 mini disc players from them. Saving up to buy another one.  Gave me other one to my buddy.

[kinmanyuen]

cool thing about MD is that you have physical value of collecting songs with effort instead of dumping data on a huge storage device

[goingdownthetubes]

how about this ?, get a creative zen

sound amazing and is not a gay ipod

[3LD3VIL]

i have a question my brother have a minidisc car stereo how you record this minidisc's? i need a special recorder? please i need help thanks!

[ajuk1]

I reckon if Minidisc would have been much more popular if it was capable of data storage from the start, no separate data storage, I think Minidisc would probably still be popular as a data format now if it had taken over from floppies in the mid 90's as it was floppies were for many the only option still even though they were more than inadequate untill USB keys became common place about 02-03.

[ChiefChimpy]

what type of labels do you use and where do you find them?

[rob92376]

Call and tell Sony you want a blue ray mini disc video walkman player with backward compatibility touch screen video and music with software ATRAC. If alot of people call and let them know they will make it for md fans.

[SolipsisticElixir]

That would be badass!

[GoldenOx]

@rob92376

e

damn that would be so fn cool.

[GracefulRaven]

@rob92376 Hell Yeah, That would be awsome. I'm a md fan myself I love it.

[13gt666]

fucking cheapskate jap crap lovin wide load retard yank i fuckin hates yer

[13gt666]

YOU FUCKIN LOSER

[tronfan1]

just because your friends only have singles, doesnt mean EVERYONE has only singles

why have all your music on a ipod? ever heard of shuffle play? not the fake shuffle play of minidisc units that plays the same sequence every time, true shuffle play that truly randomizes the sequence of songs played, thats why

you CANT copy through NetMD music FROM the player to PC! you could do it realtime...lets see about 10gb of music would take about 1 year of continuous play...have fun

[kinmanyuen]

buy a radio... that's the same but with commercials and gibbery in between

[ilcool90]

Good video. One question. Is it possible to connect the player by trough Line-out to my mac and put recordings of it and put songs on it ?

[jdcontrol]

YES, you can use a stereo cable and connect your computer's headphone jack to the MDs line-in jack and record. some MDs will give you some more options, like using a microphone, recording through optical cable and stereo cable...etc.

[treble8601]

Cool!!, i have the same minidisc as you. Today I open it for cleaning it inside because it had a malfunction on the "next" button since I Purchase it in 2004 =(.

But Now it Works great!!, I´m so Happy and the best thing is I´m not going to waste my money buying an ipod.

The Net Md are great.

[Hexachloraphine]

this guy is cool, and right, like a chomsky for our generation.

plus people who carry 10,000 plus songs around with them spend more time searching through lists of songs than listening to any actual music

[bigbubba954]

I have the same exact Minidisc player as you do! lol

[johnmonk66]

ranting about the crappy headphones thatcomes with ipods is a mistake I have to point out because the headphones that came with my sony md player are just as shitty. to be fair you should complain about md headphones too.

but until I can record directly onto ipods, I will be using my sony md( I only need ausio recording for voice, if I was a musiclover I know md's are much better for music)

[johnmonk66]

you are mistaken about the usb connection, that is only available on the net version of the recorder, most md players do not have usb connections.

I still dont know how to connect my sony mz-r50 to my pc to store audio recordings

[smokeandmadness]

I LOVE my MiniDisc!! I've been using it regularly since 2001 to bootleg concerts and local bands! Back then I knew nothing except that's what I needed to bootleg and I dropped $400 on the unit and a $100 for the mic. My plan was to actually return it after bootlegging a special concert, but after hearing my results I couldn't live without it!

I NEVER use it as a mp3 player, that's what my Ipod is for. Maybe one of these days I'll upgrade to an Edirol R-09....

[jenserikbech]

But what will you do when the unit is worn out!?

The only reliable format is buying CD's.

I don't like the iPod way either, I like to hold the media in my hand and put it in a player. The picture of the album adds to the experience.

But with "all my Sony stuff" breaking, I would not rely on their minidisc. Especially when they have stopped supporting it.

[gomemdesoto]

5.20 "So it increases the quality by amplifying the parts that you can here? ... Huh ?!

How can a lossy compressed audio format such as ATRAC increase the quality of music, over the uncompressed original?

Have a look at ATRAC Advanced Lossless, things are much better here. You'll be impressed.

[gomemdesoto]

2.30 What's wrong with just having singles on a player? This is why we use playlists.

IMO problem is most albums these days only have two or three decent tracks, the rest is just mediocre fillers.

Can't see the point in putting stuff which is mediocre and never gets listened to on any portable audio player. where that be a Minidisc, Ipod, Iriver, Zune or Zen.

Minidiscs can be just as easily damaged as CDs. What about the nasty DRM which Minidiscs seem to have?

[CrystalClairsan]

I respect your views on these Minidiscs, however I'm not picky when it comes to music quality. Heck, sometimes I discard the higher version of a song because I find the lower quality better sounding.

The reason I have an iPod and not one of these discs is because I am an artist who uses the photo capability to showcase my artwork and take pictures with me.

[MAJIKVEGGIE]

MINIDISC FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[10472112LEE]

I've researched and still trying to find a MZRH1. Why wouldn't I? It's all about sound.

[Spokguy1984]

Which song comes on around 4:38? I love my minidisk player, I was one of the first to adopt it all those years ago :-)

[fordieform]

2:58

my main reason for minidisc is that no matter how careful i am, the cd EVENtually will get SOME scratches on it. thanks for the vid, I'm trying to see if i should get a minidisc player or not because sony doesnt sell them here anymore, but I've pretty much decided to do so because I love cd's over mp3 and for that matter, as you mentioned, entire albums.

-hero

[caboose1289]

I actually own an iPod and I totally agree with you on everything you said. Even though minidisc is an older technology it makes a lot more sense I think. I've actually lost all of my songs twice because my hd broke so if I would have them stored on a minidiscs I would still have them. Great video man, well done!

[pusrob]

3rd part of comment: Nowdays there are iPods cabale of playing videos. My question is: do you really gonna watch movies on such a tiny screen? You can't be serious.

To conclude all my thoughts: iPods can do much, but most features are useless, because you ain't gonna or just won't be able to use them in everyday life.

What I suggest: go 'n buy an (Hi-)MD player until you can, because you won't find any better (better in quality and flexibility) portable format in the near future.

[CrystalClairsan]

Well when you're in a position where you have no tv or laptop available and you want some fast entertainment, iPods will seem more reasonable. Heck, if you can game on screens as small as the Gameboy, you can watch videos.

[pusrob]

First of all: I don't play the Gameboy, and neither I play games on other mobile devices. Why? The screen is just too tiny. I just can't enjoy games or anything else on a tiny screen. Well, if you don't have a TV or laptop why did you buy an iPod? A netbook would be more reasonable. You can get a new netbook for the price of an iPod Touch (Acer Aspire for e.g), and this netbook would be much more useful. I still don't see why do people buy iPods when those things don't worth that much money...

[pusrob]

And to continue my previous comment: How will you listen to all those thousands of songs when your batteries die after a few hours?? Since you can't change batteries in iPods (the very idea is stupid), you need to be somewhere near to a PC or AC connector to be able to recharge your iPod. What kind of portability is that? This way the whole idea of storing thousands of songs on a single unit is pointless.

[dummie20]

@pusrob i use my iphone all day have no battery issues plus i dont have to buy battery's

[pusrob]

Here is a question for iPod lovers: Do you really need all those many thousand song when you go somewhere? It's OK that you can store so many, but do you really have the time listen all those? There are still only 24 hours per day! I don't think anybody listens music the whole day, so I don't see why do you need all those thousands of songs on one player.

[gomemdesoto]

"Here is a question for iPod lovers: Do you really need all those many thousand song when you go somewhere?"

In my case yes. Especially when I'm away from home for days maybe weeks at a time. IMO its so much easier and lighter to take a Zune, Zen, Iriver or Ipod, than taking a bag full of CDs, Minidiscs or Cassettes.

BTW I have a few hundred songs with me at all times anyway, on my Nokia E71 mobile pone.

[provolute]

Hey dude! I'm convinced, because i'm going to buy the MZ-RH1 soon in 2009!. I think, and maybe i'm just oldfashioned, to place an actual disk inside a device is for me a much more better way than having all your music on one single device. I'm with you man, because whats the point of having all your music with you? Second of all I personally think that the design of an md-player is so much more robust than any mp3 hdd player or flash player that is on the market. I've searched a great deal for a

[provolute]

of you, more or less.

with all the mp3 players I've seen and i've seen alot, it's always about appearance and expressing yourself...........and for quality....well thats far to been found.

MD = just highquality sound, with no fancy extras......i love it, and thats it

going with mainstream is as a bunch of sheep jumping of a cliff......kinda stupid isn't it ;)

I really hope MD will make its comeback.

MD for life!!!!!!

thats all i want to say.

cheers Mate

[provolute]

suddenly the device isn't as cool anymore as you first thought it was. This is also because you have no reference of what is really good (like MD). What i'm trying to say is this, You buy something fancy, you like it for sometime, then there is a better newer player on the market with lots of new great fuctions and suddenly the device you have bought isn't that cool anymore. The next thing you know you want that cooler device. What many people don't see is that nowadays the quality of these

[provolute]

why do you want to view videos on it? To me, it is kinda silly that people want this. I think that many people are just going with the meanstream. They see that someone has a mp3 player with greater features and they want it to. It's actual a really human reaction. But what is also a human reaction, is that when you buy such a mp3-player (wich is btw far less quality than these md-players), you first like it alot and think you have your money well spent and after a while you get used to it and

[provolute]

nice looking player with great soundquality and i don't want all this extra crap they are offering. I'm obviously referring to all those mp3 players with there fancy screens where you can store your foto's video's....I think that today, many people are staring blind on all those "great" features these mp3 players have to offer.....but at the end, the only thing that matters (to me that is) is that i can listen to music. Why do you need all those extra crap? Why do you need a full color screen?

[technomike9000]

I agree with you totally man!

and I'm buying a Minidisc player/recorder now.

[FlattKatt]

Did you ever get a hi-md player?

[jdcontrol]

I have that same Minidisc, in fact, Ive had it for 4 years now and Im still using it.

I would never trade my Minidisc for an mp3 player, its pointless and just dumb.

Minidiscs rock!

cheers!

[leored79]

he's reading from the screen..

[sebthehousekid]

Hey by the way do you know how what kind of mic can plug in to Minidisc players, mine has a plug in for a mic.

[rottenrubbles]

sony stores have mics for MD recorder. I bought mine in one of their stores. I'm not sure if any other ones sell them.

[woodymusicgroup]

you borin cunt, i hate you

[colinmorris]

You and I, sir, we are kindred spirits.

[jamesmoo2090]

then if you get a new hard drive and hope to upload from MD to PC to restore your music...

the copy protection WILL NOT ALLOW IT, the only way is to use a program that will record on the PC at REAL TIME. not to mention, immagine uploading to PC 10 gigs of music, one disc at a time!!!(net md.. about 50 discs!!)

-Minidisc units come with bad heaphones... just like ipods, it is an oxymoron that if you care for your music quality you already own or will buy better headphones.

[jamesmoo2090]

In HiMD with the units that support mp3 playback still takes a LONG time, the physical disc drive is very slow compared to a hard drive or flash memory

-if your hard drive gets corrupted argument: WRONG DUDE!!! sonicstage, the minidisc software has huge copy protections, meaning sonicstage only allows tracks to go from MD to

PC if they originally came from that PC.

if your PC Hard drive crashes, sonicstage data is GONE

[jamesmoo2090]

Dude you have some huge flaws with your argument, and i was a huge minidisc fanboy,from 2000 to 2006 i have owned: MZ-R37, MZ-R700, netmd MZ-N710, and himd MZ-RH710 ; so im not making crap up. Now i own creative zen vision M and zen V

-Ipods tend to have singles - thats totally a personal option, did you organize your music by playlists? do not tell me that you dont have a disc full of singles!! and anyways, why pay for songs from a cd that you do not like?

[jamesmoo2090]

-netmd is a extension of MDLP, so a 80min disc can record 160min on ok quality or 320min on low quality.

to record a netMD disc takes a LOT of

time, let say you ripped the CDs to MP3 and want them to put them on a net md player... it needs to transcode and then upload to the player!!!

it is a 10+ minute job!!! even ripping the CD in sonicstage (the MD software) takes a LONG time, this was acceptable in late 2001.. not so much now

[VreeFisions]

Very neat printing.

[tallswede68]

Can you tell me what program you use to print the minidisc labels? Where do you get blank stickers?

[Swordsage]

Actually, the Hi-MD stuff isn't all that expensive if you know where to look. I've seen Hi-MD units going for as much as 150 bucks some places. My own Hi-MD models (two MZ-NH1's) cost me 200 a piece, though I'll admit that I got lucky. Still, the bargains are out there, and a guy like you who truly appreciates music, and knows good tech when they see it, deserves a machine worthy of that appreciation.

[tallswede68]

Why are you still using regular minidiscs when Hi MD exists?

[SolipsisticElixir]

The Hi MD players are really expensive, used or new. I intend on getting on later, when I work heavily throughout the summer.

[lolointro1]

hey how abt u lose weight and get a life instead of worrying abt minidisc LMAOOO

[lolointro1]

but i love u

[SolipsisticElixir]

Hahaha, grand!

[LordButtercracks]

The 80s and 74s Ive seen come in so many designs. In Japan you can even buy MDs at the 711 or local bodega or drugstore - anywhere.

The big electronics shops literally have about 30 different types of design/colored MDs

The HiMds only come in 2 I believe and only Sony make them - the original Blue and Red and the Crystal Blue.

[Dithulusutsamotho]

i have 136 MDs. i use my Hi-MD recorder to record live concerts. great sound quality!awesome technology - i don't know why sony have abandoned the format. did u guys know that the bbc uses md for backup?

[marravilla]

I had send your video to my friends. MD-recorders are my dream for my greatest music. i take the md-recorder always with me. Good luck for you

[PinePowerLI]

I prefer minidisc as well. It sounds better, it's flexible, and you can change the battery. Its amazing what people will give up just to "look cool". Part of the dumbing down of society I guess.

[chadergeist]

I love MDs! I wouldn't know what to do if someone gave me a Ipod or MP Player?

I'm a MD Lover and I'm passionate about this format!

I can do alot of editing on them.

[marravilla]

I am also a freak of minidiscrecorders. I have some in my page. Have a look

[sonus03]

Hey, not a bad video. Was sometimes hard to tell what you were saying because of the music in the background but apart from that, not bad at all.

I've been using iPod for several years now but the other day I couldn't find it and went into town with my good old MiniDisc player instead - and I couldn't beleive the difference in QUALITY! The sound was much richer, had more bass to it, more fidelity and less noise. So from now on I only go into town with MiniDisc and leave the iPod at home! :)

[JamesMethod]

Not your best review.

Nor did you convince me that minidisc is a better format than a HDD or SSD.

Also, your complaint about iPod owners, only having singles seems to match your enjoyment of compilation albums.

Also, kbps is kiloBITS/sec. Not bytes.

p.s. I only have full albums on my iPod (I'm OCD about not having full albums) and I've rated about 2/3s of my 16 gigs of music. (might also be the OCD)

[SolipsisticElixir]

I somehow doubt im going to convince any one to switch to MD's.

The point I was trying to make with Ipods is that the majority of individuals will only have 1 song from an artist and nothing else. The compilations I make are different, for instance, I will have an electronic compilation with a few songs from a single artist that best represent the genre of the compiliation.

My mistake, its kilobit.

[SolipsisticElixir]

I am under the assumption that the general population is following my assumptions, however accurate this is, is subject to questioning. You are an outlier, the general population is not going to be watching MD format overviews for entertainment in any capacity.

I would have very much liked to explain my fascination with MD's in greater detail, unfortunately a large portion of it had to be cut to reach the 10 min mark required by youtube.

[SolipsisticElixir]

Ipod Nano: $150

Ipod Classic: $250

Ipod Touch: $300

Minidisc Player: $35

30 used minidiscs: $10

Savings? Tremendous

[SolipsisticElixir]

The first 30 seconds is scripted, the rest is not.