MiniDisc - An Appreciation

A video about Sony Minidisc from the beginning to the end.
..................... click SHOW MORE.
In this video you'll see the first machine and the last machine as well as some in-between. There's talk about MD-LP, Net-MD and HiMD. It's a personal retrospective of a format that was loved by many people around the world but one that is all too often judged purely on it's lack of performance in the US market.
-------VIDEO TOPICS------
00:00 Intro(s)
03:11 Before the launch
06:19 Disappointing Launch
09:10 ATRAC
11:52 Year Two
12:22 The Makeup of a MiniDisc
17:11 Pre-recorded MDs
19:58 How many models?
20:58 MD-LP
21:57 Net MD
24:16 Hi-MD
26:16 MZ1
27:21 MZ-N707
29:24 MZ-B10
31:48 MZ-RH1
34:36 MZ-E900
36:11 Onkyo MD-105FX
37:18 MD things not covered
38:52 Wrap-up
40:54 Muppet Outro
-------------BUYING MD--------------
Personal MD Section on ebay
UK: goo.gl/2xHXmj
US: goo.gl/CRFCkv
CA: goo.gl/NzMglz
DE: goo.gl/s0CZjV
Home MD Section on ebay
UK: goo.gl/Jfaip8
US: goo.gl/3Qqfzq
CA: goo.gl/uYWlsJ
DE: goo.gl/ztHO9F
-------MORE INFO--------
Minidisc.org minidisc.org/index.php
My earlier video about DAT (Digital Audio Tape) • Digital Audio Tape: Th...
----UPDATE/ADDENDUM----
IMPORTANT UPDATE: +++++++++++It is possible to get Sonic Stage running on Windows 10. +++++++++
However the software is no longer officially supported or updated by Sony.
More info was posted in early comments.
------------SUPPORT--------------
This channel can be supported through Patreon
/ techmoan
Patrons usually have early access to videos
--------------SUBSCRIBE-----------------
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------THANKS TO ------
Jerobeam Fenderson for the intro animation: oscilloscopemusic.com/
BSOD screen courtesy of
• Blue Screen of Death [...
-----AFFLIATED LINKS/ADVERTISING NOTICE------
All links are Affiliated where possible.
When you click on links to various merchants posted here and make a purchase, this can result in me earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network & Amazon.
I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to AMAZON Sites (including, but not limited to Amazon US/UK/DE/ES/FR/NL/IT/CAN)

[@Techmoan]

UPDATE: +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ It *is possible* to get Sonic Stage running on Windows 10. More info was posted in the early comments. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[@scotty_blocks]

I will need to look at that, I keep a windows XP laptop especially for using Sonic Stage.

[@jonathanbuchholz8710]

I can’t find this comments can I get a link or something on how to get it to work

[@VIDSInsight]

from ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/Downloads/SO/A/SST/SOASST-01198207-UN.exe - with a security update here - ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/PUB/DOWNLOADS/SO/A/SST/SOASST-01595000-UN.EXE -

[@-Lucky-_VR]

Hey Techmoan you should try playing the mini disc on a cd player

[@SlickSonicTitan]

Both links dont work. i get "Invalid URL The requested URL "/PUB/DOWNLOADS/SO/A/SST/SOASST-01595000-UN.EXE", is invalid. Reference #9.51dc917.1511927603.3666dc9" I left my laptop unattended and it updated (win10) and now net MD doesnt work. Tried reinstalling to no avail...can you help?

[@jamesarmstrong5721]

Dude, you're costing me a fortune on eBay by showing me this cool, old tech.

[@DoktorKoch]

lol

[@j.d.philipps288]

:-D

[@Yuvia_Rain]

You could try japanese auctions? Not sure how much that would fair....

[@unclened4647]

Same lol

[@amentco8445]

@@Yuvia_Rain scalpers be scalping everywhere. I like techmoan but it's unfortunate, every topic he covers gets expensive soon after.

[@kriskeilman2087]

One feature I liked with minidisc was the ability to add or remove track numbers. You can edit the track numbers and correct the mistakes made by the distributor. Perfect example: On the Beastie Boys License to I'll album, the precise moment where the track started for their hit "Fight for your Right" was a split second late. The beginning part was slightly cut off when he would say "Yyyyeeeaaaahhhh" The original track started at "...aaahhhh" Minidisc allowed me to correct their mistake. I also added tracks to some songs that started off with lots of talking. I tracked out all the talking in Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle so I could skip the talking and go straight to music.

[@bigginsd1]

Record company thinking: “This format is able to easily copy CDs and is hugely popular overseas.” Solution: “Don’t release any of our music on it, forcing people using the format to pirate our music.”

[@44song]

The pre-recorded MD albums cost like £15 and only available in the larger stores. So I just bought CD album for £10 from the super market and a blank MD for £1.

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

Most Minidisc users were tape users who bought pirate/bootlegs of their favourite artist on cassette and then copied the tape to disc so that they could listen over and over and put a fave song on repeated play without it developing sticking/stretching faults like tapes bloody did.

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

(Oh look, I posted a comment on here a year ago saying more or less that same thing!)

[@retrocomputinggrotto]

@@44song I remember selling quite a few MiniDisc albums when I worked at Currys in the UK, having said that (for some reason) we did seem to sell a lot more blank discs that we did prerecorded ones!...

[@a552bcx]

i got the minidisc back in 1997 for $450 and carried a double-dongle recording cable to music stores. they let you listen to any cd for free. i sat there listening and recorded all my favorite song. i moved to mp3 and videos when the internet and the media sharing sites hit the scene

[@rippedtorn2310]

mini-disc was great .As a DJ it was a real easy way to record sets . Everyone used it then it just vanished .

[@StarFox85]

i didnt use...i used stanton final scratch

[@mrbishi634]

@@StarFox85 They're not the same thing. MD is a recording/playback media. Final Scratch was a DJ software which ironically (nothing "final" about it), was the precursor to the current Traktor Pro. I recorded DJ sets onto MD from records and CDs before I started using a computer to record. MD replaced cassettes until you either used CD-Rs or shared mixes online.

[@StarFox85]

@@mrbishi634 i mean i used files on the pc to the final scratch..did u use it?👀

[@mrbishi634]

@@StarFox85 No, I didn't use FS. By the time I moved on to software DJing, it had been taken over by Native Instruments and was Traktor. I think Ripped Tom meant he output from his mixer (or sound card) to an MD recorder, and then dubbed his mix and gave MD copies to his friends. Major advantages over cassettes included no quality loss from dubbing or repeated playback, track breaks like a CD, and being able to label the tracks. There was no copy protection if you recorded the original yourself. I've never seen a proper DJ system that used MDs as the source audio. I've heard that some Goa DJs did play from MDs because they could withstand extremely hot, dusty or humid outdoor conditions that records and CDs couldn't handle. But that meant giving up tempo control and therefore beatmatching, so not great.

[@tommyoz777]

@@mrbishi634 What StarFox85 is saying is that he used the software to record his mixes which now can be done with just about any DJ software. Instead, Ripped Torn did like you said output from mixer and input to minidisc recorder. This of course was probably just before Software DJing became a thing. The advantage of software recording is that it could easily be edited right then and there. However, the MiniDisc recording is a great solution as well. And there actually was a DJ player. Search for the Sony MDS-DRE1. Very rare.

[@jtmichaelson]

I worked in FM rock radio from the early 90's to mid 00's and what most people don't know is MiniDiscs were very common in radio broadcasting by 2000. We recorded weather and some last minute commercial patches and played them on the air. They were very reliable, small enough to stack up on the console and re-recordable

[@adorodrums]

JT Michaelson yeah, true. I was introduced to MD when i was in Japan in 1996, as it was really popular there by then. When i returned, i started working at a radio station, and got me an MD recorder (stationary). The first Sony MD recorder featured here was fabulous for field recordings, and i had one borrowed from my brother in law, everybody at the radio station was jealous. They had to work with some way smaller, and less professional consumer md recorder, dont recall which one. Anyhow, the greatest thing about MD format was, with the stationary Recorder at least, there was a juggle wheal which would allow cut and move audio files by 1/10 second. So without the need of a computer, it was possible to edit audio, cutting out umms and aahs out of interviews nearly as smooth and fast as you can do it today on a computer. Back then i only had an Atari for recording midi only, so i also used MD for recording masters ( a few years later, in 1998, i hooked up a pc with my Atari as slave to have audio coming from a pc instead of a 6track tape recorder...) anyhow. I still have my gear, but i might not have touched it for a decade... sigh...

[@notvalidcharacters]

Yes, I worked at a station that used MD as a cheap DigiCart around then.

[@TBustah]

I imagine that they were appealing for pretty much any storage application like that. I was introduced to the format in the early 2000s when I helped run the sound at my church. They used the discs to back up sermons. Their method was kind of backwards, but I guess it was easier to do it this way: they'd record individual sermons on audio cassettes, make copies of it for whoever wanted it onto other audio cassettes (keep in mind, this was the better part of two decades ago, and some of the older members of the church may not have had CD players), back it up on MD, and then record future sermons over the master tape. Naturally, the quality was not as good as it would have been if we were using MD or CD as the master, but since it was mostly copied onto other cassettes anyway, it didn't really matter.

[@TBustah]

Anyway, I knew that the format was much more popular in Japan because I'm into Japanese cars, and a lot of the older Skylines and whatnot have MD decks installed when they're brought over here. I'm trying to do the eikaiwa thing in the next few years, maybe I'll buy a player when I'm over there.

[@runi5413]

I used to work as a journalist in those days and used the same Sharp MT50 for recording interviews for many, many years... the thing just wouldn't die, incredibly sturdy and reliable piece of tech.

[@graemenias577]

Minidiscs were great, I was studying music technology in the early 2000s and at that time cassettes were all but obsolete and CD-Rs were completely unreliable, so we used to submit all the recordings for our assignments on minidisc. Near enough the quality of a CD combined with the convenience and reliability of a cassette, perfect. As a poor student I walked everywhere so was always listening to music on the go. I had a Sony minidisc walkman that never jogged and ran for about a fortnight on a single AA battery, compared to a CD walkman that ate two batteries in a matter of hours and skipped constantly. While they could never compete with the quality and convenience of modern digital media, I still think it's a shame that this brilliant format never had the time it deserved to shine.

[@chuheihkg]

The question is about wrong steps, Although there are serval improvements such as using blue laser. People might ask LTO tape system to do most of their jobs.

[@700gsteak]

Minidisc was never meant to nor marketed to take on cd. It was a cassette tape replacement which it did extremely well at beating in just about every category except price and availability. It was then shoehorned to compete against mp3 players which killed minidisc because of drm and other artificial restrictions which sony put on it, while mp3 players kept getting better and better. It had nothing to do with cds.

[@me2olive]

@@700gsteak Yeah, this. It was basically a personal stereo/car audio product. I actually still have mine in my car, even if it really doesn't get used much any more.

[@hamutarourapisu1219]

Minidiscs were the daddys of UMDs.

[@drakestevens5053]

You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned modern digital media. new technology takes quite a while to take off. Cassettes were introduced in the 70's, but didn't see widespread use until the 80's. Similarly, CD's were introduced in the mid 80's, but didn't really see widespread popularity until the mid 90's. This is partially because of reluctance to abandon an old technology and media library, and partially because of cost restrictions of new tech. For Minidisc, it jst didn't have enough time, I think. The first MP3 player hit the market in 1997. Digital media storage was already commonplace in commercial industries by the late 90's. As cool as Minidisc was, it was quickly outpaced by the rapid tech boom that lead into the more convenient tech of the digital age.

[@huxby]

I'm a freelance broadcast sound mixer and it may surprise you to learn that a couple of the studios I work in still have minidisc facilities which I have used within the last few weeks. Typically they get used for fairly menial tasks though - the last one I used had football crowd effects on it and I used it to cover over gaps in the incoming audio match feed while we swapped circuits.

[@HiPHOPx87]

Interesting. Great comment

[@Kirkshelton]

Our guitarist showed up to band practice with a MD recorder in around 2000 and we used it to record our song writing sessions. I was enamored by the format and always wondered why it never caught on... For the mere idea of a CD that you can't scratch.

[@videovoer8130]

I think streaming and downloads killed the minidisc, otherwise I think it would have overtaken the CD

[@dickjohnsonsixtynine]

The home decks also had great editing features which meant you could practically do what you wanted after you had made a recording. I used to record the pirate radio stations here in London in the ‘90s and you could re-edit at your leisure. Such a valuable format for real music lovers

[@halo368]

Please tell me you still have these recordings :o

[@dickjohnsonsixtynine]

@@halo368 I have all of them. They are among my most prized possessions. I often think about uploading them to you tube but I’m not too up on the copyright issues

[@pilotboy]

@@dickjohnsonsixtynine upload them on a seperate channel

[@dickjohnsonsixtynine]

@@pilotboy I have thought about it often but I’m not so up on the technical process as I would have to convert to mp3 im guessing. And I don’t have a computer or the knowledge. I probably have around 100 discs from nw London pirate stations. Many dub plate and white label pressings with tracks that I have never heard anywhere else since and of course the mc’s are there too. Any help would be appreciated! Hardcore will never die Big up all Junglists Amen

[@Pluralofvinylisvinyls]

I scored one at goodwill for $10 but it’s just been chillin next to my turntable for a year. I want to try to record some records onto MDs

[@kle3good]

For many years we used the Mini Disk in Live theatre for all music tracks and sound effects. The ability to move tracks anywhere we wanted, copy them and edit them to where there was 0 lead in time (for the effects going off at the right time). It was always totally reliable, never missed a cue, so much better than laptops or cds as there was always some unforseen "issue" to stop playback when needed. If it wasnt for modern digital sound consoles where these tracks can now be played off usb right from the deck I would still use them. Loved them.

[@Mr1967flyingv]

Yep love em for all those reasons, still use em....

[@JohnSmith-sz4cq]

Minidisc found quite a niche in the broadcast and performance industries: it was digital with near-CD quality, easily recordable, more durable than CD, and the memory buffer/instant start was perfect for cued/timed music and effects.

[@KirbyBivans]

I used Minidisc professionally for many years and am grateful that I could. It was an important tool.

[@LAHegarty]

This video made me buy 20+ MiniDisc players and over 100 MiniDiscs, I even have a MiniDisc car stereo player now.

[@LAHegarty]

MiniDisc is the future.

[@veerchasm1]

Loser talk! 😂👍🏻😉

[@spootymaniacs]

@Crypto World sometimes we love things so much that we are willing to pay the price. hell id be the same tbh lol.

[@poisonshift78]

I can haz sum monies?

[@njones420]

@@markmak8874 some of us repair our own stuff and have never used after-service ;)

[@TheDjboy169]

I absolutely love this media. I wish it would've had a bigger footprint in the industry. Great video.

[@nerdnalist]

“History is written by the Americans”, is one of the best lines uttered on this channel! I worked at RadioShack in Western New York from 1999 to when they close the place down and I’m sure I’ve sold one or two mindics throughout that lengthy career but I can’t remember doing so. I sold a ton of RCA MP3 players that came with a 32 MB CompactFlash card. So glad I found this channel. Please keep up the good contact! Ps. I considered buying a minidisk player probably in 1999 because I was tired of hearing skipping when I was jogging with my CD player but MP3 players came out later on that year and I purchased one of those instead.

[@iljunjang]

MD fan in Seoul, Korea. Love, love, love this video. Must have watched it a hundred times. Thanks so much Matt. Much much looking forward to your next MD videos.

[@markuzet1]

Hands down one of the best channels I have ever come across on KZbin. Jaw-dropping research and great presentation. Please keep up the good work!

[@SpadaFer]

Elegance right ? .... Is what I always say....is all about elegance .... Even in a trash talk the elegance is imponent.

[@nthgth]

Couldn't agree more!

[@stoltobot]

All in one systems here in Japan still include a slot for minidisc

[@MP-Fin]

cool

[@TerryMcKean]

Right on. stoltobot... and mega-kudos to Japan for providing the most amazing electronic inventions over the years.... especially with not only awesome miniaturized devices like these MiniDisc machines, but things like ASIMO, too ... Asimo just blows my mind to micron-sized dust particles!..LOL! :-D ... very very amazing! My laughter is out of sheer dyed-in-the-wool electronics-nerd's joy as I analyze the things I see learn about Asimo...

[@madamx7422]

You're right, in fact I happen to own one that also plays DVDs

[@hayleyscomet3447]

stoltobot kinda wanna buy a Japanese all in one pc now.

[@hulkhatepunybanner]

Which AIO systems?

[@rabalajoie]

I loved my MDplayer! This was 15 years + ago. I was pluging my Playstation 2 in it with an optic cable, with those long nose adaptor and recorded the songs playlists from the in-game radio stations in GTA Vice City. 🎶I Just died in your arms tonight!! 🎶 Mmm, memories.

[@ZalonDK]

The soundtrack simply made Vice City, even tho San Andreas was the better game. SA had a great soundtrack as well and did fit the story great, but VC was something else. I doubt it's just nostalgia as the games are only 2 years apart and I've probably played a lot more SA than VC. However VC feels a lot more special to me, where as I don't even remember GTA 3.

[@smartguy9765]

That's awesome haha

[@HaswellCore]

@@ZalonDK gta 3 also head a great OST and how could one not remember such a genre-defining game

[@svendevarennes520]

I did exactly the same thing, on metallic blue sony mini disc player. Good memories

[@supme7558]

Dork

[@suttercane129]

2 Things I LOVE about Techmoan..... It's so much retro fun, and I love his Shirts.

[@snackman94]

"These things are gonna replace CD's soon. I guess I'll have to buy the White Album again." - Agent K, MIB

[@44song]

So I guess the American script writer didn't know the existence of MD......

[@shibolinemress8913]

Snap 😊! I was thinking of the same MIB scene, as well as the one from Star Trek: First Contact where Zefram Cochrane plays Steppenwolf's Magic Carpet Ride from a tiny disk.

[@s.g.3042]

Yeah, right, at mediocre tonal range of a MC it totally blow the CD outta market ;))

[@snackman94]

electrictroy2010 I was just kidding. The quote popped into my head because MiniDisc was an optical disc which was smaller than a regular CD and at first, it may have seemed that they would replace CDs. Obviously, they didn’t. Especially with the rise of MP3 players and smartphones. In fact dedicated Digital Audio Players still exist for playing high-resolution audio with better DACs and amplifiers than most phones.

[@luckykennedy7364]

Honestly I buy every version of the white album

[@LPXDproductions]

oh boy a 44 minute video on Mini Disk im getting snacks and chilling on the couch for this one

[@kurtownsj00]

I've tossed out several cheapo CD players over the years, but my old MD player and it's accessories have been kept because they're special!

[@PHlophe]

Kurt, indeed very special.I am always chuffed when people comment on how fantastic the device is. I can read envy in their eyes. I am probably the only bloke in my borough with it. This walkman survived my son's repeated attempt to split it open, even our moggy tried to scratch and chew it.

[@kurtownsj00]

@@electrictroy2010 In my case, it was 2003-ish. I wanted an iPod or fancy mp3 player but as a jobless highschooler, couldn't afford it. I didn't realize how much hassle the conversion process to ATRAC3 would entail or any of that, I just knew the marketing hype. I wanted something that could fit in my pocket and not skip when skateboarding or biking. Got it for Christmas because I knew it was cheap enough to be realistic as a gift option!

[@user-jt1jv8vl9r]

@@electrictroy2010 5X now...

[@BavarianM]

@@electrictroy2010 Shut up you pedant

[@EricLS]

For the first millennials, who were nerdy, MD were seen as an end to end digital recording solution in the US. We had them and used them entirely for that function. It never even crossed my mind, or if it did I don’t remember now, that I could ever buy an album on this format. Interesting stuff.

[@hoffmannolsen]

Great video, thanks for mentioning me - lol.

[@Techmoan]

It was a while ago when you sent me those discs..probably about a year or so now.

[@ChickenExotic]

Thank you for sending him the discs...i really appreciated this video..I was rocking an MD player in middle school...i loved the format, but the ipod was the final nail in its coffin.

[@Commodore4eva]

thanks for both of you for making this video possible!

[@andymorin9163]

The iPod really killed physical media in general.

[@drbanner70]

I agree. I bought my first CD player (Fisher PH-D800) in 1991. Stopped buying cassettes and replaced them with CDs. By the mid-to-late 1990's, when I first noticed MiniDisc, the players, both portable and home, seemed expensive and I bulked at the thought of buying into a new medium after I had already gotten rid of my cassette collection entirely for CDs. I passed. Plus, as mentioned in this video, the selection of studio recordings on MiniDisc compared to CD at the time seemed minuscule at best in my area. Another reason why I had to pass regrettably. Still, MiniDisc seemed like something cool to get into.

[@antunkatona5674]

Hi! I was 15 years old when I went to a Sony store for the first time and got a brand new catalogue. Minidisc was featured in the first quarter of this rather thick catalogue. Of course, this was in 1998 but I dreamed about that MZ-R90 ever since. I became something of a student of MD technology so finally, I got a machine of my own in 2004 while I was in college. It was the MZ-NH1 model and I still have it! The thing that kept me interested was constant improvement of design, features and sound Sony seemed to have poured into the format. Every new catalogue was like a whole new Universe of technological showcase of that was possible. Quite remarkable actually. No one else but the Japanese could have done it. The early days of the format were difficult but you have to understand that in the early nineties, the fastest PCs were based on Intel 386 CPUs, not nearly enough powerful to compress audio in real time. So I think the problem was not in the Atrac mathematics but the IC industry that just couldn't manufacture something that would be powerful, small and efficient enough to fit within the confines of a portable machine. Things improved significantly during the mid and late nineties of course and this is where we finally saw the Type-R and Type-S DSPs. In terms of compressed audio, MD still sounds wonderful even today. I think this is because of the machines themselves. MD was a high-technology format so machines had to meet specific criteria with respect to the quality of their ADCs and DACs so generally, they do sound a lot better than modern mp3 players. I bought a Fiio player believing I'd be getting the modern equivalent of a good quality MD machine but unfortunately it didn't live up to my expectations. Even with lossless files, the audio always seemed two-dimensional and bland whereas Atrac (standard SP mode, Type-R-encoded) sounded more alive and warmer. One other thing I always liked is that fact that having a portable MD recorder with a microphone is like having a portable studio in your pocket. Obviously, it isn't a Neve mixing console but it is certainly good enough for "sketching" a new song. Also, recordings from analogue sources sounded simply wonderful and that has to do a lot with the quality of the built-in ADCs I think. You could edit your recordings on the machine too - name, move, erase, join, divide, group etc. different songs on the disc and some machines even allowed for rehearsal modes to allow for very precise adjustments before the actual change has been written to the disc. Even the basic models had most of these features. This is turning into one long post and I do apologise about that but ut really does make me a bit sad seening these wonderful machines going for small change on eBay. I think you're actually getting them for less than it took to manufacture them. Imagine how much work went into designing them. Yes, I totally agree, Minidisc had a personality factor that's missing on modern audio players. Thank you very much for this video! I admire your literacy and diction of speech and - patience! Best wishes from Croatia! Cheers!

[@alext3811]

If you're talking about DAC qaulity, I would like to add that some modern smartphones advertise high-quality DACs (LG is the company that comes to mind). ave you tried any of those, and can they replicate the sound of minidisc?

[@Phenom98]

Thanks for sharing! I don't think I ever saw one here in Mexico. (But then I'm only 20, so...) Ahh the 90s. Such an exciting time for technology. A ton of formats battling it out and unreal computing power progress! The difference between the year 1990 and 2000 is unbelievable!

[@TheAurgelmir]

Mini Disc was HUGE here in Norway too. Everyone I knew had one. Interestingly the "Discman" was popular before AND after the Mini Disc. I think the main reason for the return of the Discman was that it was easier to just burn a CD with your favorite MP3s at that point, seeing as how MP3 players weren't "there yet" in terms of price etc

[@reyathua]

This was an incredible video. I'm now nostalgic for a format I never personally used. My middle school band teacher (US) regularly used minidiscs to play and record music, especially of his steel drum side group. Good times.

[@DJEshelman-personal]

MiniDisk was awesome for me mid-way thru my DJ career in the early 2000s - We had catalogs of thousands of songs stored way easily than CDs and such, and more reliable than computers were at the time.

[@Strangelove101]

MDs were huge in Asia, great sound quality and much smaller and lighter than a Discman. I rocked a MD player for about 5 years, until MP3 players killed them....still have a few MDs, don;t have the heart to throw them out.

[@AndrewL]

erm not really, they were not cheap. Maybe it was popular in Japan.

[@barrie5224]

I loved my MD as a teen, but I was the only person I know who had one.

[@InimitaPaul]

I could never afford one and I wasn’t that poor, they priced out the market that would have made it in the UK.

[@barrie5224]

@@InimitaPaul I don't remember how I got one, I think it was a hand me down from a relative.

[@madonemt]

@@AndrewL they were more expensive than cd players yes but much more versatile and reliable

[@mjohnson77682]

I had minidisc through most of university here in Canada (1996-2000), where CD's were dominant at that time. I cannot remember how I got into it, but NO ONE else that I knew had ever heard of it where I lived. Every time people saw it they were in awe of it, it was like they were seeing the future in my hand......fast forward to 2002, I am getting on a plane to Asia to go traveling, sitting next to a guy on the plane who asks me what is that little machine in my hand? I go into my usual description of it and expect him to be blown away by my minidisc player....he pulls out his MP3 player and tells me all the discs that I am carrying would fit into the player he had in his hand....I knew the writing was on the wall. I loved my MD player!!

[@CurritmoRx]

Thank‘s for this appreciation of the MD theme, this is one of the best Minidisk documentaries. For me, Minidisk IS still in use (for ideas & synth-recording) since the year 2000, even if I can hardly believe it. Hardware- and Disc QUALITY is 100% stable for 21 years (both Recording- and Play Modes, I use a SONY MDS-JE530 deck) and almost every MD is still recordable and playable with one single exception with an error on a disc. Even this is no problem: I made 2 track-divides (before and after the spot) so I can avoid this incorrect track. Maybe excluding it with a program or simply see a " ! "-warning in the display if I want to skip it manually - MD is nice to handle like always. One error in 21 years and even that disc is still 99,9% playable. All others 100%, some recorded partly more than 10 times. For synths with S/P-DIF coax or optical outputs (for example Roland or E-MU Sound Modules), all fits perfectly to the inputs of the MD Decks for the sessions. After that, also the data transfer via S/P-DIF to the PC soundcard works at 100%, error-free function for more than these 2 decades. Unbelievable, still love it. So thumbs up for Minidisk, thumbs up for your channel!

[@MythicalMonk3y]

Ah yes, the minidisc player. I remember taking on a summer job while in school so I could buy one. I still have it and it's funny to see what kind of music I was listening to in 1999.

[@mipmipmipmipmip]

MythicalMonk3y Did you have the disk with Mariah Carey's pouty face on it like they showed on the mock player at release?

[@maximumaxiom6823]

I did exactly the same, I worked in summer '99 to buy MD player, I lived in Ex USSR country LATVIA. That summer I had US peace corp worker living in our family and he ordered one of ebay for me, it had to be shipped via USA embasy as no ebay seller would ship straight to LATVIA, so at the end I got mine like half the price, it would be in a shop. I think it was like $130 and it took more than month of my summer wages............but I was the only one in my high school to have one.

[@daspolemon]

I liked MiniDisc. In its time, it was pretty futuristic, it was fun to play around with it. The fact that the discs were in a caddy, made it about as convenient as cassette tapes, in that you didn't have to be super careful when handling it, like a CD. I always kinda hoped they'd eventually subplant floppy drives, as the next-best medium for re-writable mobile media. That never really happened, unfortunatelly, we kinda went straight to USB-Drives and to some degree SD-Cards. Even today, it seems very futuristic, I think.

[@dant5464]

16:11 crazy to think there was a time when Mat had just six MiniDisc machines.

[@EbrahimJohnson]

I love Minidisc I still have two of those devices and still love listening to those... great work on this video

[@litigioussociety4249]

The reason minidisc wasn't popular in America was due to car stereos. People in Europe and Japan were more likely to use mass transportation, so a portable audio system was commonplace, but in America people had or wanted vehicles with CD players, and using original CD albums or CD-R's with hundreds of mp3s was much more desirable. Also during the 90s CD-RW drives became more affordable and more common with computers, which was perfectly complementary to the car stereos.

[@DijaVlogsGames]

Litigious Society Wow, great point! Never thought about it that way.

[@GLITCH_-.-]

Other problem is I didnt really heard much of them in the first place. Im from germany. I had a couple of Cassette players, walkmens, and some portable CD player. But I dont recall any extensive marketing of MD players. But now I find myself in the situation where I want a portable player beneath my smartphone that uses a physical, swappable recording medium. And CDs are just too big, but are the only thing I have now. I really want a Hi-MD player now... :(

[@GLITCH_-.-]

NuHorizons the ones worth getting, with mp3 or at least better encoding, are about 100€ till 1000€ wherever I look. Not especially good

[@Deftonesdsm]

Litigious Society i and bunch of my buddies had in car mini disc players. i duno where this idea of being unpopular here in the U.S. comes from. they were huge in the midwest

[@franktakcsvonbraun8109]

Deftones Dsm What part of the midwest are you from? I'm in Ohio and never saw them. Hell, didn't even know about them until 2006.

[@simontlee3]

Watched this video a few times now, would love to see another one on the Mini Disc

[@Martin.Krischik]

I recorded everything onto my MiniDisk via optical connection. Never used a PC at all.

[@user-jt1jv8vl9r]

This was the advantage of Minidisc over MP3 that you didn't need a laptop or computer.

[@rikkifoxx189]

Me too and I will never change.

[@5feet19]

I enjoyed your video and it brought back a load of memories for me. In 2000 until 2004 I was working in Japan, minidiscs were everywhere especially with teenage schoolkids. I bought a portable which I hooked up to the car stereo system, and I bought a HiFi model (made by TEAC) which I used to record analogue signals from Internet radio stations in the UK, then the next day listen back to them in the car. After leaving Japan I went to Malaysia, where no one had ever seen them and were still into cassettes. Finally the TEAC gave up in about 2007, and I lost my method of recording. Good times though... I still rate it as an excellent format.

[@Mspikes]

I'm not sure if someone else may have mentioned this, but from what I can remember, MiniDiscs did catch on with radio journalists in the mid 90's and early 2000's as a pretty good method of recording interviews. I believe it was mostly due to the players allowing for bookmarking and having a accurate HH:MM:SS counter on them. I can remember using them as a youth radio journalist here in the US, and seeing professionals carrying around larger players by Marantz around 1999 or so. I still have 2 of the old recorders in my storage closet.

[@Mspikes]

I wrote my comment too soon before watching the entire video. The MZ-B10 featured was exactly the one we used to use! Being able to slow down the playback was very useful for transcription purposes!

[@JerrySnook]

Yes! I was going to mention this as well. It was a great way to quickly get sound bites prepares for broadcast. You could hit a button when you had a potential candidate, then could easily find it later. You could also mark it for use during remote broadcasts. I used it for years!

[@madcockney]

I was involved in community FM radio between 1996 and 2000 here in the UK that was considered a professional station. We used minidisc recorders/players in several locations including output studio, standby/recording studio, and portables for news collection. (Also don't forget that they replaced tape in small portable recording studios for musicians etc.) They were terrific for putting trails on, jingles, and items to be broadcast at a specific time later. The editing functionality was great. 96 was the time when hard drive play out systems were on the same but they were expensive. We had a music library that was all on minidisc. The interesting thing was that some music sounded better played off a MD that was copied from a CD than the original CD. That should not be so as Attrac was a lossy compression. I remember discussing this on a profession MD forum and the thought was that unwanted artefacts, etc disappeared during encoding to MD. It could also be something to do with how we hear. Don't forget that many in those days, and even today, think that CDs sound brittle compared with say Vinyl

[@MinoTheShow]

I think it's largely that Sony just put really good digital-to-analog converters in the portables.. definitely have a 'warm' bent to the sound.

[@paulhayes5724]

The station where I work has a large chunk of its archive stored on minidiscs. The thing that annoys me is that despite it being a digital format, there doesn't seem to be any way to easily rip or copy across the files, and to access anything you have to play it through in real time.

[@aestheticstorm]

When I was in high school in South Dakota in 1999, we had a Japanese exchange student who had the MZ-1. Being nerds and into everything Japanese at the time, my friends and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. We had never heard of MD, let alone seen the device.

[@Th3Sabator45]

especially in south dakota, now i was barely getting around to things in 98, but from what i've heard even in big cities japanese culture was off. now that probably was even more off in south dakota at the time!

[@LikaLaruku]

Around the same time, a Japanese exchange student gave me my first mini CD; a single of Shazna. He was excited to meet someone interested in rock music from his country.

[@liquidalloy]

I still use both my mini disc players. First one I bought was in 1999. I love it. all my discs still work. I got a portable one with all kinds of fancy features.

[@SayMcGillicuddy]

Terrific. Thank you very much for the care and attention in assembling this piece. 45 mins very well spent.

[@HSMtruman]

Mat took a fashion class with James May ! hahah

[@cougarhunter33]

THAT is a great shirt.

[@tomcole020]

MKEtruman clarkson approves of your message. 😂

[@hausmeisterengineering5952]

I was thinking the same thing!

[@alomonwo]

MKEtruman Mat is the 4th ex member of TopGear.

[@buddyclem7328]

Alex Munoz The 4th member of original Top Gear is The Stig. Despite how he drives subcompact cars on KZbin, any chance that Mat could be The Stig? Perhaps he is playing some kind of obsolete music format in his helmet, like Mini Disc.

[@JeanKatana]

I loved it! I had the Sony MZ R50 from '97, a bit later also a stationary device at home and a MD Car Stereo! Sounded way better then Cassette or mp3! Was great for this time!!!

[@Onion_Knights]

yep, sounded better than MP3 and sometimes, a CD

[@Astro_War]

2019: Mat you can never do too many Minidisc videos in my opinion! I am still using Minidisc, although I am also still using compact cassette and also vinyl, so I guess I must just like physical forms of media.

[@kevinnelson66]

@Erik Cnating Or if you drop your phone or MP3 player in the toilet. Haven't done that yet. (knock on wood)

[@richardrejmer8721]

I am a volunteer radio show presenter on a local Community FM Radio station, in Australia. We stopped using our Mini-Discs (used for Community Service Announcements and Sponsor's Messages) Just LAST WEEK!! We didn't get rid of it because it was a crap format. . The only reason it has been phased out is because the Mini-Disc players we were using are so old now that there are no longer parts to keep up repairs to keep them operating. . The actual Mini-Discs themselves are still working fine. . . As a very high fidelity and easy to use format, they are FANTASTIC!! It's really only the availability and ease of use of more recent high bit-rate MP3 digital format that has phased out our old reliable Mini-Disc system.

[@PlasmaHH]

In the late 90s I was selling audio and tv equipment in germany, but while people were buying CD players for on the go, mindisc didn't sell well, at most one unit every few days, while portable CD players went over the counter by the dozens per day. In my impression, the majority of people did not buy it because there were no ready made albums available. Everyone was listening to CDs and had already lots of CDs and copying them over to the minidisc was not worth any effort.

[@mabusestestament]

Yes, also because people went on using cd-players for listening to cd's burned on the computer.

[@SevcaCZ]

The purpose of the MD was not to compete with the CD format, but was ment to replace cassettes. I bought my first Hifi MD deck (not portable) as a DJ in 1996 and I recorded songs on it which I could not have instantly on CD or special DMC mixes which were released only on Vinyls which I did not used when I played parties and discotheques. In the beginning of 90's I even used my Technics 3 head deck and Sony MD deck was amazing replace of a cassette deck. In the middle of 90's writeable CDs were too pricy compare to MDs. And for many years I used MD as a creating playlist and even copies from cassettes. Editing, erasing, change track order and other things were just superb that time and that help me even rebuilt my cassettes recorded from fm radios without much noticable lost of quality. And I still have both Technics deck and Sony MD deck even if I play 95% of music as flac and mp3 and mostly I use Tidal, Deezer or Spotify these days, I still sometimes try what I have on my cassetes, mds and I plan to do some service-cleaning to my Technics 3 header and digitize some old cassettes and I probably will start to record some MDs again just for fun, just for the great feeling of holding some physical format in my hands. When I play MD or cassettes I always have better feelings than searching music as files or folders. Last weeks I realized how boring is listen to music which I instantly can have (Tidal, download etc) compare to MD or cassette which i must record first and it force me to listen to it. I got lot of downloaded music which I haven't heard much but I am sure I heard my cassettes many times. This is why many ppl still love old formats like vinyl, CC, MD etc compare to "boring" instant download or play. And what I wanted to say is Mini disc was never to replace CD, but replace cassettes and it did perfectly.

[@claudiecotet7927]

Dennis Lubert panasonic here still have about 100 mds but lost the power - supply Hi from ex-wiesbaden.

[@RichardThorneanorak]

I had a portable CD player and one in my hi-fi stack. I bought the same combination - one mobile, one stationary with my 2 Sony players. The portable CD player I tried to use once on a bus, every time the bus hit a pot hole or hit the brakes the CD went berserk, jumping across the disc. As for mobile Mini Discs, they were perfect and worked on a bus, in the field and at home. I have boxfuls of mini-discs I recorded and I still have all my players today.

[@charlesfreitag5503]

I acquired one of the mid range versions of these MD player/recorders for use with a radio station i worked for in the early 2000s, i have to say for rec audio quality.... was beyond ANYTHING else available at the time. Crisp, Clean, clear, noiseless, and accurate. was if not better than MP3 to date IMHO. TY techmoan for the elegant reviews!

[@allengator1914]

I love my Sony MiniDisc player. I bought the home play/record MiniDisc deck back in the 90s and it came with a bonus portable MiniDisc player too.

[@davidgiesfeldt6650]

In the US, we wondered why Sony who created the Walkman and DiscMan some how missed the DIGITAL format… It was that they had their own preceding the ubiquitous iPod and later iPhone. The Hi MD versus the DAT would have been a great choice especially with linear PCM. Thanks for raising our awareness. -- did BetaMax do better in places other than the US? Thanks!

[@nemesis91101]

Minidisc was huge in Japan and pcm should be the best option just limited on playback to himd

[@gjfkhvjzjsxbq]

Betamax is not better than vhs its picture quality is only slightly better but its worse in every other way

[@BecauseGames]

😆 I worked at virgin megastores on Oxford Street and one of my duties was to stock the tiny pre-recorded mini-disc display in the corner on the ground floor 😂

[@BobEmrich]

no way that’s so cool!

[@lesrogers7310]

I miss that Store. Along with Tower Records it was a regular haunt of mine as a frequent visitor to central London. Good times they were too...

[@user-jt1jv8vl9r]

I used to love going into Virgin (amd HMV) for music and later dvds in the 90s into early 00s. I'd also go to Black Market records and Unity.

[@babyzorilla]

Still have a minidisc player still works great

[@danandkiko]

Getting back into MD yet AGAIN. Love it. Thanks for the great info and MD love. I remember being one of only a few of my friends who had any interest in MD in the States.

[@mkAYY825]

i loved minidiscs and was not happy when they disappeared, it brought back a sort of tape culture,where you could record and exchange mixtapes with friends, but with the sound of a cd , it also looked and felt better in your hand than a CD in my opinion

[@Mrwheresmyhouse]

Nice suit.

[@westsenkovec]

Very James May-ish

[@CoffeeFurret]

He going to try and sell me a used car, isn't he?

[@rjnash2610]

sarky little sh!t :)

[@Phulax.]

Most likely, yes.

[@stevemaherart]

I'm actually really digging Techmoan's wardrobe lately, very sharp.

[@starlight4649]

Techmoan I feel like your videos are bringing back the vintage craze for whatever your videos are about. I remember watching your reel-to-reel video both before and after searching Ebay for some reel to reel tape players. The prices shot up pretty fast and the cheap ones were gone. Maybe that's just a coincidence

[@mortmortmort8908]

I had a sony CD player that supported atrac. It made it possible to load up *so many songs* onto the disc. I loved it at the time, as I was in high school and discovering loads of music. It made things so much easier as it meant not only did I not have to carry around a bunch of CDs, it also meant i didn't have to use as many blank discs, which was important, since I was a kid in high school and whether or not I had blank CDs depended on whether my parents were willing to buy them.

[@KnjazNazrath]

Minidiscs were great for dead drops. If you leave a CD or USB lying around people will be afraid of getting a virus. Leave a minidisc and people would be _far_ more likely to give it a spin. As someone who used to own an open source breakcore radio station, the joy of leaving minidiscs of CONTRA, Kamikaze Deadboy, and other copyleft musicians at squat parties and relevant raves such as Sick and Twisted was a pure joy for a teenage me. Good times. Also, I ran BLAG for a while, so the end sketch cracked me up.

[@TimonSuricata]

just picked up a minidisc player/recorder for free at a garage sale and im loving it! it is like new tech to me! haha

[@jondeare]

I adore my minidisk.

[@700gsteak]

What model? Make me jelly.

[@2fathomsdeeper]

I loved MD for pro audio! They really shined in beauty pageants where the first night had half the contestants, and the next night the other half, and the third the final. Being able to move the tracks around without having to burn a new disc was awesome! No other format compared! Only problem is the bass sucks in playback, but can normally be fixed by the low freq knob on the channel strip, and sending a direct aux line to the subs. Still run MD today!

[@fred-youtube]

I know this is late, but are you recording to the discs in ATRAC 3? The original (ATRAC, not 3) had worse quality and therefore worse bass

[@2fathomsdeeper]

@@fred-youtube Not at that time, as it wasn't available. I can now with my single rackspace unit.

[@JuggaloSupreme]

Minidisc is still very useful for recording digitally, and I have to take my phone case off in order to attach it to my stereo, so I still use my minidisc player / recorder. And I still have like 25 or 30 mini discs so... Oh, and I'm from the U.S. Best physical format ever...

[@ronalddamp2745]

Hi from uk juggalo..you can buy a device that plugs in to your hi fi and yr phone will connect via bluetooth and play spotify etc perfectly..cost about 20 pounds sterling..hope this helps

[@nthgth]

@@ronalddamp2745 Bluetooth often has a negative impact on fidelity

[@coydog7902]

This one of the best techmoan videos it even made me almost cry!

[@phsyco123]

Back when flash drives were still an unpredictable problem, I used to use one of these as a a data storage device with the USB capability on the later walkmans. It confused the living hell out of other students and had the school IT guy fangirling like a nyt every time he saw me doing it. Ahh windows xp.. how we miss your plug and pray..

[@rexsexson5349]

Plug and pray?

[@jayselad]

Just discovered your channel fascinating videos on retro tech. These mini discs machines have so much personality and your analysis is superbly thorough.

[@DevinBauer]

Pretty cool seeing this, as a kid in the early 2000s my parents were the only ones I know of with minidisc players and dad hung on to them till 2005 when he got a iPod Photo 60GB and that was pretty much the death of minidisc for him. Here in the states there were physical releases from what I remember but most of the library he had was of course written over from an extensive library of CDs

[@MatthewSlaterAU]

I didn't get into minidiscs untill MP3 capable CD players were appearing, I was bought one of those for xmas one year, and returned it for a portable minidisc player, by the end of that year I had a Kenwood MiniDisc stereo as well, its still going strong nearly 20 years on

[@Claytone-Records]

I have a portable minidisk recorder that I would connect to my Mackie1402 VLZ (soundboard)which fit into a laptop bag. Backpack with a couple cables and good Mics. Here in Austin, Texas I had permission to record in all of the music clubs as all the sound guys wanted to see if I could make it work with their system, or not. I recorded over 300 live shows. Then I would bring these home to my Sony mini disc deck and enjoy editing them adding titles etc. This deck is now over 20 years old and still works wonderfully. I know because I record my own music. Up to a full band. The deck was bought as a floor model for about $200. This when new units were going for about 4-500$. Thanks for your show.

[@vcancer]

Been using my MD Walkman all-day long. It's still working after 20 years since it was manufactured.

[@CitizenSnips69]

Hey, is your walkman running? Yes? Well.. uhh... alright. Carry on then.

[@the_wudarian]

all day? you mean 75 minutes at a time.

[@vcancer]

@@the_wudarian I'm old school, I grew up with 8Track, tape cassettes and CDs so it's nothing to me.

[@chipmunk6386]

Minidisc is awesome. All my minidisc players is working perfectly. My main minidisc player Kenwood MDF-9020 have been playing almost every day, from way back 😁👊

[@nthgth]

Seems like they were all made before the era of mass corner-cutting, I'm sure they're solidly built for the most part. Especially Sony ones. I still use my ~2003 CD MP3 Walkman sometimes! (And it'll read Atrac3 Plus, but I've never explored that)

[@irishhawk1]

This video was singled out for inspiring so many MD fans to create all the tools, new albums and the wiki we now enjoy!

[@michaelruby3951]

I've spent the last year making minidisc compilations. I'm up to about 100.

[@agumonkey]

1992 people, the years Windows 3 (not even 3.11) was released. Think about how advanced it was ..

[@agumonkey]

Also good point about the "failure" relativity. That said, MD lasted long but failed on market share; not on personal value; whereas Ipod flipped the business upside down.

[@agumonkey]

Fun trivia, a HS buddy went to the US in the late 90s and came back with a Sharp MD702 he got not for much. For me it was a proof that America was still the future .. your comment may hint that these MD players were sold at low price to clear inventory ...

[@lightfantastik]

American here... I've had 2 or 3 portables, two desktop/rack units, and an in-dash MD car stereo. By far my favorite recording media ever. Sure, modern SD cards are convenient, have huge capacity, are available everywhere, and allow uncompressed audio if you want, but I'm also always losing them !

[@glpilpi6209]

James Ward I liked mine too , but the mechanicals eventually failed on my player and it was just too flimsy to repair properly.

[@frvo]

Good ol' days...

[@konservenknilch]

Austria here. I went straight from MC to MP3, but minidisc was definitely an option for a while, and quite popular (late 90s). The supposed obscurity must really be an american thing.

[@jacobjason9879]

I do agree. they weren't dead. it seems it is only a US thingy. bad marketing nothing more. MD being dead in the US does not mean it was dead globally.

[@alexale8540]

and in Europe MD wasn't popular at all with gigantic pirate market in Russia - where you can get very cheap and only mp3-CD's. Don't forget that iPod was already on market - but first 2 generations was useless without buying a Mac computer with iTunes for another +$1000. In our building was office of big european consumer magazine publisher - they tested all mp3 players and always ipod was a winner (only Mac model), i remember that they never tested any MD players for comparison, because they just not existed in the stores at all.

[@elimalinsky7069]

Raffael Lichtenberger MD was in fact quite popular in Europe for a short period (1998-2002), and of course, it was a huge hit in Japan. In the United States and Canada, however, people barely knew it even existed.

[@matthewdeward1984]

As a seventeen year disc jockey I thought this was going to be the holy GRAIL of new music. I had the personal player, I had like thirty of the sony players, those things were handy as shit, a cd that doesnt get scratched... you can rearrange the order, i mean it was the perfect mix between mp3 and REAL AUDIO like tangible alums

[@matthewdeward1984]

@@electrictroy2010 THIS IS OBVIOUS BUT BY YOUR LOGIC SO WOULD HAVE CDS, I love when people comment just out of sheer arrogance. I obviously see as they went out in like a year??? I was speaking strickly from a disck jockeys perspective and no ACE you cant re record up to 1,000,000 on the BEST metal Tape, ( I also run a studio so I know PLENTY bout tape), the majority of my Djing was done on SL 1200s, So Shoot as Un practical as Vynil is why is Technic, re releasing their SL 1200Mk2 ( oh for 1,000$ btw) strange? Hold on party let me que up the tape ROTFLMAO nice....

[@matthewdeward1984]

the players were 100 dollars US, not that shabby, the minidiscs blanc were 3$, HE stayed using them For almost a decade, Largest Dj organisation in Michigan at the time- Luckily it wasnt all we used, but when compared to hauling vynil, cassettes, or Cds, Id still take Mini dics, they were small, portable, re recordable up one million times before playback distortion and protected from scratch( some liked them some didnt) the Compact Disc kind of stayed around the entire 90s and the was double the size and scratched so not sure again what your point was?????

[@ricardob.6924]

I remember when I first knew about the minidisc, it must have been around 2000 or 2001. I was blown away thinking THIS is the format I have been waiting for all my life. I used cassette walkman every single day, I had one of the largest compartments in my backback dedicated exclusively to dozens of tapes that I carried around everywhere making clack-clack noises. Unfortunately the mini-disc never caught on in my country, the players were way too expensive. I only knew one person that had one. I had high hopes that in a few years it would become cheaper and as ubiquitous as CDs and CD players, but then the mp3 caught on instead. Great video, Techmoan!

[@CaptivateTeacher]

I worked in a Sony owned retail store in Canada during the time MiniDisc was available. It really was a good format but by the time Net MD was out, it was clear that MP3 players were going to take over.

[@jari2018]

The MD is used in(was) in realplayer-format and it sounds better than mp3. Had mp3 on a sony walkman cdplayer but what a mess to record - never did anything to improve if the recordings made by my computer could not be played - a faliure to my knowledge and the walkman died.. counted to about 600 hours played - and it was brand new - I call that crap and pretty shure it was due to the walkman trying to read different format i put on the recording like mp3 abr,cbr ,vbr and mp1 and mp2 and 2.5 and mp3 bladeencoder + mp3 pro various formats like 3 of them ( wiki is wrong) - maybe the mp3 in the sony was to old also - dunno I was careful with the walkman but -I call it bad manufacturing by sony since it was the from last batch they made.

[@RobertLeBlancPhoto]

Remember the portable CD players that also played CD-R disks that had MP3 files on them? I always wanted one but couldn’t afford it. 🙂

[@cosmolv]

MiniDisc failure are SONY bad marketing. PreRecorded CD's are live until today, but not MiniDisc. From perspective wiev MiniDisc are way better than CD's in any way... MiniDisc has nice formfactor and i use it until today. i can record it at 24 bit 48 khz and it sound great (better than CD's) I think SONY has a big fail to stop MiniDisc. They can produce BluRay MiniDisc (for HiDefinition audio) but they give up and starting to make Mp3 and HiDef walkamn's to allow pirate music take over and completely killed prerecorded formats! Bad for musicians and bad for all music industry. SONY geve up and Apple take all... :) But as i said, i do not like listening music from PC, i like to hold my music in hands, not in iPods, iPds or any other flash device. i Like to listen Music album i real format LP, CD ar MD. I like that feeling where i take my MiniDisc and slide into Hi-Fi MD deck, press PLAY button (real button) :)

[@mitsuevo8mr]

@@cosmolv cd and dcc sounds better than minidisc anyday of the week!! Even a good metal cassette recorded in a good deck recorder sounds as good if not better than minidisc!! Portability wise yes minidisc wins! Sounds quality wise there were better formats at the time!!

[@cosmolv]

@@mitsuevo8mr Depending on deck on which is playing and Atrac version. Don't find any difference betveen CD and MD at least on hearing. For example on Hi-MD you even. cannot measure differences technically. :) I like Tapes too, recording and listening until these days. I have good Pioneer CT-S670D digital tape deck and yes, it sounds like CD even on Type-1 tape without any hiss.

[@XANApwns]

Daft Punk on pre recorded MiniDisc?! Holy shit please take all of my money

[@gazjones3393]

i have this too. lots of virgin releases made it onto md in the 90s

[@1blisslife]

XANApwns Me too!

[@lemonslice2233]

It's one of the cheaper ones.

[@XANApwns]

LemonSlice Cheaper maybe, but it doesn't seem to be any less rare. No active listings on eBay at the moment

[@sonickrnd]

Just look on discogs Daft-Punk-Homework / release / 513762

[@JerryEricsson]

Thanks for another trip to the past! While sitting here in my electric powered recliner locked away in my little ranch home in rural South Dakota I spend much of my time in search of knowledge. Your channel always adds to my memory store. When I saw the minidisk label I thought it would be the mini CD and since I have an old Sony Camera that takes these disks and is actually a great little photo machine I thought I would watch. I was quite surprised to see something I never got into in my computer world. I did use the Zip drives and a few other strange drives in my day but I don't think I ever saw one of these. Again thanks a million, I do love your shows!

[@HerbJon]

I used MD for 14 years between 94 and 08. Loved it! Thnx for the video!

[@celticcc3658]

Sony didn't realise what an amazing product they had. Something 1000 times more robust than a cd and was re-writable. My minidiscs have stood the test of time where as quite a lot of my cd collection has deteriorated

[@spootymaniacs]

not to mention CD's are exposed and prone to scratches/smudges, MDs have that hard shell around them

[@TurreTuntematon]

Buddy I think it’s that what he means by robust.

[@iGladsMusicWorld]

That's one of the main reasons why I started using my MD again as my 6-7yr old Cdr's have deteriorated and are unplayable.

[@petrisalonen4893]

Yes! the case was a remarkable invention. It looks great and no scratches no dust and a case that lasts without any problems. I have about 200 minidiscs, all still playing just as good as new. I made all Recordings between 1992-2010. Greetings from Finland 🇫🇮

[@soulfunktionphoto3593]

After watching this show again I've now for some crazy reason now bought 2 Sony MD JB920 hifi separates (upstairs and downstairs).OMG the sound quality and functionality on these players are amazing, I have now been buying blank discs like it was the end of the world!! Since watching your shows I've bought a Tascam DAT player and now two JB920's which cost me about £100 each via eBay. I did sell my Soundburger for £300, so it's. paid for these 3 machines! My vinyl sounds superb which I record to DAT and then via coaxial record it onto MD. Mix tapes never sounded so good shame I can't share themas no one I know has one. Call me Mr OCD but I love inputing the album tracking onto the minidisc and watch it scrolling........just love it!!

[@damianhaber4890]

I had that Sony recorder too (in 1994 - 1999) which I used to record mixes (dj on a mobile disco) and then split into tracks - something we were unable to do with casettes!

[@iGladsMusicWorld]

Update I now have a JB940 which has a keyboard input which is an absolute god send for inputting titles etc. Sound quality is amazing as ever. I do have to laugh at the cassette tape revival.

[@johndanielpalmer]

I had several minidisc products. One Sony mini component recorder, a Panasonic portable recorder (got stolen from work) and a portable sony player. Loved the format. Thanks for bringing back memories!

[@peetiegonzalez1845]

I bought an Aiwa AM-F1 portable recorder in 1993. It was an absolute game-changer. The very fact that you could delete individual tracks in a random-access fashion, combined with the near-CD sound quality made this the most useful format right up until mp3 players started to come out. I owned many different desktop, luggable, and ultra-portable units, and also one in the car. A little machine that could strip the copy-protection from the TOSLINK data stream was widely available, which helped to keep the format useful.

[@TerryMcKean]

Thanks Techmoan.. this video is great.. thank you for sharing. That MiniDisc format definitely got bullied out of existence... it did not "fail due to lack of interest". The fact that it could record over and over and over with one disk really made it a threat to the influence the then-current monopolies had over such things that were already extant or developing back then. Are there any digital disc recorders available new nowadays that can do that? ...or do they have a limited number of times a plastic disk can be recorded on and erased and recorded on again? Last I heard, such more 'modern' disk recorders that came out after the "failure" of the MiniDisc are limited in re-record time because actual microscopic pits are burned into the plastic to make the tracks and those don't go away during re-record... the recording head simply burns new pits somewhere else on the space that is left in the plastic, and the old 'erased' track-pits are still there, but are simply flagged in the disk's track master-file, and the free space that is left in the disk logically gets less and less. That MiniDisc is an awesome record/playback technique.. I like it! :-) The little MiniDisc players and recorder/players are definitely cool, too... beautiful works of electronic/mechanical art, miniaturized.

[@TerryMcKean]

29:25 That one is totally awesome.... it's tiny, rugged, nice looking, does all the MiniDisc things, and can be powered by batteries available anywhere... I like that one the best of the bunch in your video... I had never heard of Sony's MiniDisc invention until I saw this video a couple days ago. It's very intriguing and I look forward to finding, buying and using an MZ-B10 and some disc cartridges .... a new hope and goal for the future. :-)

[@TerryMcKean]

...and the fact that the MiniDisc recorders can melt the pits into the plastic disks and then later melt them flat again and re-melt new pits in that same track location is the key feature that makes it all VERY cool! :-D

[@Techmoan]

Good luck with your hunt.

[@TerryMcKean]

Thank you Mat... and to you, continued success to and your show.

[@1blisslife]

Techmoan I'm taking out my old dusty MD's & gonna take a gander down memory lane thanks to you... this brings some nice memories for me. Cheers

[@guyfaulkes3035]

The final 3 minutes with the OS Wars was the best! The Muppets should be so funny.

[@bland9876]

Everything in there was true even my friend bought a used apple laptop and used it until it wouldn't let him anymore

[@andrewl9472]

This inspired me to bust out my old minidisc player. I forgot how much I liked it and how there was something satisfying about picking out a physical disc and playing it versus looking through a list of files.

[@stdorn]

Still have my Sony MiniDisc rack system and portable player as well as a bunch of blanks and a hand full of store bought albums. I wish it had caught on. I absolutely loved the format.

[@seanc.5310]

I remember in the USA that Circuit City (RIP) had prerecorded albums on both CD and Mini Disc back in the 90's. I actually still have a few. I think they are all from Sony Recording Artists and record labels which might be why the format never opened up fully like CD but was actually still a superior media format. Just like Beta Max, Sony did so much right and yet so much wrong to win the format wars. At least until Blu-ray VS HD DVD.

[@coolcat6303]

Yeah those were the days. Wish i had a time machine so I could go back & buy some more before they stopped making them. You can, however, still buy pre-recorded albums on MD if you look on ebay. They're pretty expensive though. Most go for about $35 & up.

[@albertcornstarch8607]

Are pre-recorded MDs able to be erased or are they like CDs where you get what you get? I’m wondering since MiniDisc was touted as being “rewritable”, but if you buy an official album and accidentally erase it…what’s next?

[@seanc.5310]

@@albertcornstarch8607 i don’t remember that being a thing with the prerecorded ones. I think they were unable to overwrite but I’m not 100% certain on that

[@seanc.5310]

@@albertcornstarch8607 kinda like audio cassettes tapes having those cut outs that prevented recording

[@tomalcolm]

I got my Denon mini disc in 1998 in Japan. Loved everything about it. After losing that one on a ski trip in 2000, I bought a Kenwood and then a Sony. The green anodized Kenwood had some quirk, whereby you couldn't charge and listen at the same time, the charge port blocked the headphone jack or something, hence the upgrade to blue anodized Sony. I used it all through university to record my lessons and concerts. I eventually ran out of discs which weren't available in Canada and I got myself a Roland-Edirol R-09HR. None of these machines could upload audio files to Mac so I eventually gave up on them all. Around 2000 the electronics shops in Japan offered dozens of models MD. Portables, boom boxes and home stereo systems. A year or two later, Sony MP3 players were on offer. Video rental stores back then offered all the latest pop music CDs for rental at 100¥ a pop. This was the advantage of MD; you could get the latest music for less than 1/10 the price of the cd and burn it to MD. Illegal music downloads were virtually unknown in Japan at the time. Thank you for the video. It was a real trip down memory lane.

[@gracelast5487]

This video was the reason I got a mini disc player last year and I've been using and loving it ever since.

[@DJGallifrey]

I loved my Mini-discs. As a DJ, I had many uses for the format including making compilations that I could carry that didn't take up as much room as CDs did. Plus the editing functions made it possible to make edits to songs that I couldn't do (at the time) on CDs. Of course, nowadays, you can do that with a computer program, but back in the late 90s/early 2000s, this was state of the art. And i had fellow radio DJs that used it on air for commercials instead of the old cartridges that were used for commercials. I still have my portable SONY MZ-E40, a SONY ZS-M35 boombox and my prized rackmount SONY MDS-E10.

[@superapple4ever]

Could you please do a UMD video!? Love your content.

[@TheJonnyTauntonShow]

superapple4ever god, umd, how those three letters caused so much grief to psp owners

[@fiatlux8828]

JonnyTaunton I think there was more outrage when Sony ditched UMD when the PS Vita launched. Myself included.

[@Jacksirrom]

I would like that as well. Despite our boy Techmoan not seemingly being too interested in game formats, what was the deal with the design? Might not be worth a long form video like this, but definitely worth a short, at least.

[@weegee721]

yea my umd drive is fucked, so sad I can't play the simpsons game for nostalgic memories, and I never had a memory card for my system so, if I turned it off I had to start over. :(

[@supersnail5000]

It occurred first with the psp go, dropping support of them while still running the same hardware (although it made it much smaller).

[@vonroretz3307]

A friend drives a BMW with a mini disc player factory installed.

[@craigavonvideo]

I still have my Sony In-Car unit from nearly 20 years ago. Not being used anymore of course, but it was a great peice of kit.

[@way2deep100]

MiniDisc was perfect for cars as they were durable enough to leave the jewel cases at home. People talk about using phones in cars but I wonder how many incidents were caused by drivers taking out or putting away Compact Discs. In the mid to late 90s, I had a Sony in-car MiniDisc player with a 10 CD changer in the boot, while my girlfriend's car had a Sony MiniDisc player and a 6 MiniDisc changer in her dashboard. I still have our domestic Technics MiniDisc recorder in the attic and in BBQ weather I still use a JVC boom-box (RD-MD5), which plays CDs and MDs and can dub the former onto the latter. Techmoan hinted at the versatility but you could delete and swap around tracks and make good quality compilations, all of which we take for granted now. But today I'm getting the equivalent of about 100 albums on an 8gb thumb drive, which must be 10 times as many as would have fit on 8gb worth of MiniDiscs, so I feel like we must be getting short-changed in the quality department despite all the audiophile-level brands that are putting their names on factory-fit car audio. I was recently asked to pay nearly £5,000 extra for a Bowers & Wilkins in-car system that won't play CDs, which may be long-in-the-tooth but at least are not so zealously compressed as today's default options. I've gone a bit off-topic but I would love to hear a literal "techmoan" on that particular subject.

[@hi-friaudioman]

Nice!

[@coolcat6303]

@@way2deep100 I still have a minidisc car stereo as well. It's a Sony md/cd/stereo deck & it looks very stylish even today. Use it all the time. I would also add that MD's were great, in cars, because they were less likely to skip if you hit a bump or a pothole.

[@way2deep100]

@@coolcat6303 How do people react, especially young 'uns? Takes me back to a girlfriend I had 20-odd years ago. I installed a Sony Radio/MiniDisc deck AND a 6 MiniDisc changer in her Corolla. Earned me maximum points and bonus points when I used my Technics home deck to 'magically' swap around her tracks at will and enter the track and artist to scroll on her display. Heady stuff in the 1990s. I was a god for a while back then but sadly only a few neglected discs survived the test of time. I still have one device that will play MDs so I may well be taking a cruise down Memory Lane this weekend.

[@807D14M0ND5]

Great video. I'm totally buying one! I remember seeing them in stores when I was too young to afford something like this, but I always remembered it. The time has come.

[@tejanospecial]

I lived in the US and used minidisc for a good 4-5 years. I had a Sony MZ-R37 for portable use and also a Kenwood KMD-673R for my car. Loved mini disc! Thanks for all the videos on this tech I fondly remember

[@brianartillery]

I still love it as a format. I really like using it to make 'mix tapes' - indeed, I have used it to record favourite cassette mix tapes, and old vinyl, to preserve them. It's a superb format, infinitely flexible.

[@SmR8008]

I still use minidiscs. I record on one connected to my hifi in the house and play on another in my workshop. The discs are more durable for use in the dusty environment of the workshop 😊😊😊

[@saltysoysauce954]

Smart!

[@simonfoster967]

How did you record on the mini disc from your hifi

[@SmR8008]

@@simonfoster967 I just use regular interconnects connected to the cassette input and outputs on my amp 😊

[@SmR8008]

@Карасик Ерохин that means paying for music from the internet. I record from my CDs 😊. I no longer have a computer with a disc drive

[@SmR8008]

@Карасик Ерохин Mate, I enjoy using old tech. I dont actually have to justify that

[@styxx8445]

Once again, a brilliant video, i have and still use all my MD machines, keep up the great work mate.

[@chent]

Wow, you have a real Daft Punk minidisc!? You have the coolest stuff ever

[@chent]

And Sony has a controller like that for phones, it's wireless and offers better sound then the phone would without one.