MiniDisk Repair

Repairing a Sony Mini Disc audio recorder.

[@utopianporelmundo9882]

Amazing! I just took out of storage my MD and had the same problem. I cleaned the lens and IT WORKS PERFECTLY!! Thank you! Such an easy solution and 2 minutes work! It's a shame minidisc didn't really took on the market because the sound quality have no comparison! It's absolutely great!! Thank you. Back to my old MDs ♥

[@salmanpaul5672]

Thanks bud, you just saved my beloved MD deck from the garbage bin. Works perfectly now, God bless you.

[@12voltvids]

Glad it worked.

[@ShazeemKhan]

garbage bin? these bad boys go for a hefty sum on the bay, working or not

[@przemko2620]

Thanks to your video, I was also able to bring my mini-disc back to life after more than 10 years of non-existence.

[@midnightmike2008]

I have a few of these players. I use them to deejay weddings and parties. Two of my units started doing the same thing. I took it in for repair, and they could not fix it because parts were no longer available. I did exactly what was done in this video to both my units, and they work perfectly! Thank you for posting. Long live the MD format!

[@Dillisive]

I use to have this exact model. Made AWESOME recordings. Crystal Clear.

[@NoMoneyG]

Thanks for your video's!! I have recently purchased 2 deck units and about 10 portables (Collecting Portables) in the last 3 months of 2017. Like you I have so many MD's I recorded back in the mid 90's (100+). I had purchased a Sony deck & portable unit that I used daily for work & gym. I used MD's from 1995 to 2005. I broke my portable and sold my deck on Ebay as I was into burning CD's like many did. This was before recordable CD's by a few years & very few people even had a computer, but I loved the Digital Recording aspect compared to CD quality. I never got into purchasing Cassettes from Artists, rather I always purchased CD's. When I was 13 I got my 1st CD player in 1985 & I remember so many people came to my house to see a CD & CD player! That sounds funny today, but it was like having the 1st TV in a neighborhood I suppose!! My 1st CD ever bought was by "Tears for Fears: Shout" "Songs From The Big Chair" album. I will never forget that. I am getting back into "Physical Media" as I miss the experience of having a physical thing in your hands. Like in the last few years I see so many people getting back into Vinyl Records!! Fun Fact: Vinyl outsold CD's in 2016!! For me I appreciate it much more than computer files (all of them). I have many MP3 players with hundreds to thousands of songs on them, but just miss the appreciation of something aka Artwork, Lyrics, etc.., if that makes sense, especially to us "Older Folks"....;) Thanks again for the Vid!! Happy 2018 to All...!!

[@SergioGarcia-jg3yy]

Couldn't agree more, word by word!

[@lechiffre2617]

Never thought a machine of this age could have some feelings - like "SORRY" - as HAL in the movie 😂 - maybe it dreams when powered off

[@metaljoe9088]

Minidisc is an awesome format. Timeless

[@paulrb894]

Good video, still use minidisc today as sounds better than CD. what was the steel drum music at 15m32 secs please? as I remember I loved that song thanks

[@12voltvids]

Spyro Grya - Morning Dance.

[@paulrb894]

​@@12voltvidsmany thanks 😊

[@tookitogo]

Holy smokes, that's a super early blank MD, printed with the labeling such that the shutter is on the left when right side up, which was changed almost immediately after the format was released!

[@lawrencecavens5760]

WOW! even though this was done back in 2015 - They're still neet Today. As for me I got into mini disc back in 2003 when I bought a Sony mini disc MZ-510 portable unit, And it still goes on today - but I've used it so much the paint is starting to wear off and the plastic casing is showing signs of age with cracking by where the screws hold the case in place.

[@thesoleilhub9596]

Thanks a lot for the video,same unit same issue got it fixed now it’s time to list it on eBay 🎉

[@TonyBanks21]

Minidisc was an absolute brilliant media format-a lot better than cassette tape !! So sad it is regarded nowadays as an ‘obsolete format’

[@12voltvids]

I liked minidisk. It was great for the car. Of course now with flash media it's totally obsolete. I still use CD for audio myself like many others do as the sound quality is superrior to any of the compressed formats

[@Bushwick1]

You are the man!! I had the exact same problem on my JVC XM_448. Cleaned the lens as you suggested....... All is working fine! Thnx!!

[@gojira45]

Hi, how did you get to the laser? Do I need to detach something in order to get there? Thx in advance

[@KZ3W]

Hey There , Thanks for Posting . Learned some from this . Got 2 decks and 3 MD portable units . What did you use to clean the laser unit ? ( 70 % isopropyl alcohol ,,, ? ) And ,, just last night ,, heard a little clicking sounding when I was recording . If it continues ,,,,, might it be the laser getting dirty ? THANKS for any input .

[@karlito_sway]

great video. great format, i must have hundreds of mini discs mostly of dj mixes, the divide function was brilliant for putting a track increment without a physical 'gap' between songs so the mix would still flow. further more, i invested in a cd recorder that, when connected via an optical cable, would carry all the track info, increments etc over when burning to a cd. i would still use the set up today but its all in storage due to lack of space.

[@deanhook4357]

Karlito Sway I've just got into my mini disc recording (again) exactly same as you,mix on the mini,transfer to the CD recorder. 2018 still lobbing out CD mixes :-)

[@karlito_sway]

@JoJo killz 3000 my units used are not top notch, a grundig mini disc & cd combo, cd recorder is a double cd by Phillips. Connected via optical provided a lossless transfer which twenty years ago was a great addition to my set up! Looking to relocate to bigger property so I can set up things again. Happy mixing!

[@karlito_sway]

@JoJo killz 3000 it's gotta be 1210's! Got the same! 25 years old they are now. Time flies!

[@wildbill23c]

I know this is an old video, but thank you for making it. I recently by accident discovered mini discs, and just purchased a Sony Walkman NET MD MZ-NE410 portable mini disc player, although it says its a recorder. I can't seem to find any minidiscs anywhere of course, a few online though so at some point I guess I need to learn to record my own discs.

[@CWBBC]

Mate I’m so glad I stumbled across this video . I have a technics sj hd501 , was having the same toc readind disc error when trying to play old discs from back in my djing days . Opened the unit . Cleaned the laser and it’s as good as new . With out this vid I would have either sent it away for repair or binned the unit . Massive tanks

[@lesrogers7310]

Nice little deck the 501, I have two plus a spare working mechanism.

[@cubinn149]

Super cool you would love my high end sony ja30es player amazing sound

[@revoxjazz8317]

To this day, I cannot quite understand why such a system has failed to convince the whole world. Since 1998 I have several MD machines and to this day, I am quite satisfied with them and I like the quality of recording / playback. ATRAC still seems to me to be an excellent format.

[@12voltvids]

It failed because recordable cd came out and we already had cd players.

[@revoxjazz8317]

It serves as an explanation, no doubt. But I still think that this format was really buried on purpose. Best regards from Portugal

[@Pizzacam3]

@@revoxjazz8317 I'm with YOU! I'll always ATTEMPT to buy new UNITS if/when they break cause they've all been Sony and only this unit in this video broke on me... My second shelf one had minor issues like with the dial skipping around as you turn it, but that gets so much use even if it was a button would probably wear out first or eventually but I just make sure to turn the dial very slowly as to not break anything that makes it switch around... and my current shelf unit works fine(for now) and my potable Sony player/recorder only had an issue where the display is fading and one of the spring or whatever keeps the little buttons in position has snapped of the FF but I just have to press it a little harder so it makes contact...but I'm surprised it failed too just because yes, we have 80 min recordable CD-Rs etc but you can drop theses a HELL of alot more than a CD and just leave them stacked open on an entertainment center for 20+ years and pop it in and not have a single skip or scratch ON them! How does CD/DVD compare to THAT when I'm constantly having to re-burn CDs/DVDs because either the label got messed up or I'm afraid the finger prints or minor scratches will render it unplayable!! NEVER had those worries with MD's... Think I actually AM going to invest in a NEW OLD STOCK DAT... you can't go wrong(TO ME) with enclosed DIGITAL formats... the protection you get from a case that opens VS. one that only opens when inside the player is just not the same at all! BTW @12voltvids What IS that music ON the MD's you used in the video!? I really loved the music on the first one but would love to know the tracks for everything... I swear, sometimes even if these are popular tracks or artists and I SHOULD know who they are...you just can't know every artist out there...

[@MWhiteRay]

I had a surprising experience with the repair of c13 read error on my sony disc-player (no disc was readable anymore). Since I'm only a user, I fed Q-tips into the minidisc-input (player), cleaned a bit and this fixed the problem.

[@t0nito]

I just bought a faulty mds-je500 with the exact same error, I tried cleaning the lens and nothing changed. What I ended up doing was replacing the electrolytic capacitors on the mechanism board. There should be six 100uF 6.3V and two 10V 10uF surface mount capacitors, I used normal capacitors by soldering the legs to the pads as surface mount capacitors suck and are nothing but trouble, works flawlessly now!

[@johndd1000]

My player/recorder is a Sony MDS 302 - appears to be the same as yours, but without a disc inserted the hole above the head position is covered by a plate. When a disc is inserted the whole top plate moves forward and the hole is uncovered, however the mini disc itself now covers the lens. Could you please tell me how you got access to the lens. Thanks

[@VintageElectronicsGeek]

Very informative review...never owed one, wanted one and a DAT....my thinking this was just a small optical disc working on the same principles like a CD...thanks again!

[@12voltvids]

JacksJunkDotCom Similar in respect that both use a laser. That's about the only similarity.On a CD data is stamped into a spiral track. On a recordable CD that spiral track has a slight wobble to it to allow the laser to track it. On a pre recorded CD, pits are stamped into the track or groove. When being read the pits cause the laser to go in and out of focus as it is reflected back. This in/out of focus is read as a 1 or 0. For an CDR (or DVDR) the recording layer, which is a dye layer that is coating the disk under the reflective layer has holes burned into it to represent the optical pits of a stamped disk. Read out is the same, dye burned, strong reflected signal back, bye not burned weak signal reflected. Minidisk is a Magneto Optical. It works on the principle that a magnetic charge will change the phase of light reflected back, almost like how an LCD panel changes the phase, or polarity of light passing through it. The laser on record is used to heat the recording layer which demagnetizes it, and the recording head directly overhead imprints a new polarity,On playback te same laser at low power is reflected back, and the polarity is detected which determins a 1 or 0. CD-RW and DVD-RW work on a similar principle of altering the phase of the returned laser, but in the case of CDRW and DVDRW they do it without using a magnetic head. They do it entirely with the laser.

[@VintageElectronicsGeek]

12voltvids That is very interesting how it works....you sir are a great wealth of knowledge...thanks for sharing!

[@GamleMich]

Have you experienced getting the message "Disc repair" on your CD-RW900 machine?

[@stephengorin3059]

I used to repair a few sony mini disk players over the years. Other problems were that the micro switches that sence the mini disk position of the laser ( disk in, disk down, record tab sence for pre recorded disks, laser end travel ( Both ends of travel ). Also worth replacing is the suspention mount rubbers x 4 ( these can fail over time ) I also have never had to replace a croock or faulty laser. Spin motor can get a "dead spot " and a bit of contact cleaner on the brushes normlly fixes that. The electronics seem to be bulit proof, to a point. My main repairs were mainly to ham fisted people that pushed the disk in to the machine faster than what the deck can take. My local radio station had a number of sony mini disk recorders in there studios ( 3 ) and stood the test of time.I still have a Kenwood car mini disk player and remote 5 disk cd deck. replaced several years ago ( 10 ) and now use a kenwood usb radio ( no cd deck or blue tooth ). I still have a sony R55 clam shell mini disk recorder. Great for recording live music.

[@willnix2175]

@stephengorin3059 Great info Stephen. Any idea if a JVC MD player would use same parts and have similar issues? I have a JVC XU-301 MD player I'm having trouble finding info on. I've cleaned the laser and tried to check things out as best I'm able, but information is limited. The unit will accept a disc and will eject it, but the disc won't spin and it seems to be something other than a dirty laser.

[@andrewthestarfam9668]

thanks for this video i use mini disc all the time

[@AlbertBurdge]

Thank you soooooo much! I just did this on my MDS-302 and now it works and I'm listening to Forrest Gump The Soundtrack on Minidisc. Thanks!

[@12voltvids]

Excellent. Thats why these videos are here. I have a pre-recorded minidisk by the band 54-40. I know one of the members, I went to school with his wife. One of these days I am going to ask him to sign my copy of this rare pre recorded disk. There wasn't many minidisks that were released.

[@wizzNarts]

Hi, I really like your videos. I found this because I encounter some weird issues with my Sony MDS - JE 510. It records exactly 6 seconds and then stops with the message "LoadingError". Do you have any idea what could cause this behaviour? thx... ☺

[@Barbs0545]

Found this very useful. I own a Sony Minidisc deck MDSJB940 special edition and due to my clumsiness, during cleaning the laser eye, I believe I damaged the over-writer (over light), component. Could you be of any help regarding a source for a replacement. Thanks. Barbara.

[@1Blastarr]

Were you ever a teacher? You make stuff sound very simple and you make the repair seem "doable". Wish I had a teacher like you when I was in school "forever" ago.

[@12voltvids]

1Blastarr No never a teacher. Worked in the retail/service industry for a while and then ran the service depot. Owned and ran a successful video production company for many years and now work in the telecom industry working with fiber optics.

[@THOMMGB]

Hi, I'm so glad I stumbled across this video. Thank you for doing it. I know this is an older repair video, but may I ask a question about Sony minidisc players? I have a couple of Sony MDS-JE510 minidisc decks I got in as-is condition. They both have problems ejecting minidiscs. The eject mechanism doesn't work as it should. From research, this appears to be a known problem with these decks. There is something physically wrong with the nylon gears that move the disc into position for playback or ejection. They appear to be chewed up. Have you ever heard of a fix? When I've actually been able to load a minidisc, the player plays just like it should. Thanks very much. I've learned a lot from watching your videos. Regards, Tom

[@1blisslife]

Just a random guess... Trying to 3D print a new one might be worth a look.

[@tacofortgens3471]

Is it more reliable than DAT? Or sonewhat equal?

[@MichaelAChang]

I've got one that's just as finicky, and I always laugh when I see the chassis is so empty - one day I'll stuff a power amp in mine and use it as a standalone.

[@rsanchez7111]

Did you sprayed that dry air directly to the lens? Thanks

[@12voltvids]

At 4:00 you can see exactly what I did. I wiped the lens with a Q-tip. The air blast was not directed at the optical block , just into the opening, and at a distance. You have to be careful with compressed air, as it can cause an ESD discharge that can easily damage laser diode. I used compressed air to blow dust off of the disks themselves. I opened the shutter, just like I did when I showed the disk surface, and blasted air into the opening to blow the dust off the disk.

[@richardabrahall1458]

Did you put anything on the q tip or just use it dry?

[@SurferJoe71]

I am glad you explained how it works I have MD MZ-NH6000 Hi MD I still love it,I have that unit to still working good. One QuestionWhy do tracks skip during playback after some use in the portable unit that I have ??The other day I saw a MD changer for the car audio for sale on Amazon....If your interested Cheers Matt

[@12voltvids]

SurferJoe71 Mini disk uses a read ahead buffer to reduce skipping, but on a really rough road say in a 4x4 that can upset the laser enough that it can't read far enough ahead and the buffer runs out.The only obsolete tech I use is DAT, and that is to record from the music channels on my cable service and then dump them on the computer. Gives me cueing time to record them so I don't miss the beginning of the track. My car can't take an after market stereo. The entertainment system is an intergrated part of the car and without it, well the car won't run. It has a CD player with MP3 playback, and a 128 gig on board SS drive, so I have about 20,000 tracks on the system in addition to XM. Its a Bose system, sounds fantastic.

[@missreed1950]

Thanks for the video. I've had a problem with the disc not ejecting. I removed the cover and was able to slide the disc forward to remove it but when the disc is re-inserted, the disc doesn't go back far enough to drop, I get a Read Error and the disc is immediately ejected. I coaxed the disc all the way in, it dropped and began to play normally. Now the disc won't eject again and is stuck in the tray. I only have about 10 hours of use on this MDS-E10. Any suggestions?

[@sejrec56]

I love Mini Disc too and I still use them. I have several mini disc home recorders like yours and several portable ones, but the portable ones I’ve been starting to have problems with. I’m a musician, and many times I’d either record a show or a practice session and then later in edit mode, divide between selections. And you can title too. I’ve actually edited original song ideas and rearranged order of sections to see how it would fit together. Great format. Now I also have a few multitrack minidisc recorders that glitch out. Mostly upon powering up it will say “BatteryLow” But I don’t know how to do that. I’m sure it’s an internal memory battery. Sometimes while recording the unit will just stop recording after a couple mins! These are great if only I can tweak them back to factory settings w replacing battery.. Can you show us how? You can buy these recorders “As Is” on eBay w this same problem for cheap

[@LA-bh4gn]

Problem sorted. Thanks very much

[@nickfatsis9607]

Yes, an obsolete format (but still great) but that doesn't stop people asking stupid money on eBay, even for non working, non ES units they still want big money, or the classic "Untested" LOL, we all know what that means!!!!

[@12voltvids]

Ebay is the place to get ripped off. I will never use ebay to sell anything. Got burned on 2001 by a dishonest buyer. Learned an expensive lesson. They have measures in place now to reduce this. PayPal now required a verified bank account but back when Elon musk owned it you didn't need to verify who you were. I sold an expensive lens, (with a camera attached that I got nothing for because the lens was worth about what I got for it) and the buyer claimed that he didn't make the purchase on his credit card, that his credit card number was stolen. I got burned. I will till the day I leave this place hold the owner of paypal at the time, elon musk responsible for permitting this to happen, and will never ever buy one of his shitty cars. Beside the fact that his cars are junk anyway. I have many neighbours that have them and none have anything good to say. Lots of quality problems that you wouldn't expect on a "high end" car. My 2 volts for example have had 0 problems and one is almost 10 years old. Just new tires is all I have done.

[@joelacourt]

I get an odd issue with my deck. Some discs stutter. But play back fine on all my portables. It’s usually only the first song. But plays fine after I fast forward the song to about 13 seconds in. Any tips from anyone here?

[@12voltvids]

Since minidisk has a 5 seconds buffer they shouldn't skip. I would suspect the spindle motor

[@joelacourt]

@@12voltvids it’s not really skipping, but more so stuttering. It takes about 1 min to play the first 13 seconds, cutting in and out. The record levels pulsate. Then after it finally reaches the 13 second mark the whole album plays back fine. It plays other discs totally fine I recorded with netmd. And discs I’ve recorded with the optical cable or analog have a tendency to stutter. Sometimes the first song. Sometimes the 4th or 9th song. Sometimes not at all. Also, I’m using brand new Sony 80min discs. It’s a really puzzling issue!

[@Rockimitations]

I have a similar problem but ... a from me recorded disc does TOC reading and then it gets ejected and then shows error but when I put it in another MDS-303 it works fine. A blank disc doesn't stay in gets rejected automatically. Lens is "cleaned". any ideas?

[@leonjohnsonjr3331]

I found one just like this at the thift store for $8 bucks it had a bad belt but it only play certain mini disc

[@holycowmanheck]

You can also UNDO all edits before ejecting a disc.

[@trentmycroft5329]

i have just got a kenwood dm-3090 it turns on has display but just says toc reading when i insert disc, there are burn marks on the hood around the heavy coil, do you think its worth trying to fix by cleaning lens?, thanks

[@orenego]

Hi, Same problem, same solution, thank you very much.

[@cubinn149]

Lol alot of my old md recordings was off satellite music too like the jazz mix

[@12voltvids]

Once you learn the language of jazz everything else is just boring.

[@rastaman5105]

Good taste of music Jazz/Fusion !!

[@FrankJamesMusic]

can you tell me if the sony MD players can be converted to "single play" mode like the Denon machines have? Thank you.

[@SUPERPAT1432001]

I have the same player and I just took it out of storage. I connected it to my amplifier and it plays but the sound is distorted. So you know how to fix that issue? Thanks.

[@12voltvids]

Your not plugged into phono input by chance. Have to ask because I have seen that.

[@nasraroshan7875]

My Onkyo MD-110 minidisc recorder mechanism is same as your sony. in my machine, the magnetic head scratches on the top of surface of disc in recording time (circular scratches by rotating disc and magnetic head touch. in some discs the scratches are less but in some discs are more. I tried to clean bottom of magnetic head by a wet ear cleaner carefully, but it didn't solve. Do you have any idea?

[@12voltvids]

Open the shutter on the disk and use compressed air to blow all the dust and grit off the disk surface. This is generally how scratches are created. By dirt on the disk surface. In record mode the head makes physical contact with the disk, so if there is dirt on the surface is it going to scratch the disk.

[@nasraroshan7875]

Thank you for your reply and advice.

[@iroxsonyt1848]

Hello Oh my ! you're the only one to post video about how to fix a md player (trust me I checked a lot of website and videos too I know that you post this video a long while ago but if you still making video about md player and solving problems about it I got a question for you (I spend a lot of time on watching your video and trying to understand how to fix my problem) So I have a MD in my player and suddenly one day no way to eject it. So I opened my player just today and took of all the dust but eject button is not working I wonder if some material broke inside I don't see the real problem as long as it was working a few week ago if you can help me or telle me if you have a video about this problem that maybe I didn't see From France Thanks in advance ;D

[@iroxsonyt1848]

I have a Sony DHC MD333 ;) I know it comes from the past and it's so vintage

[@lesrogers7310]

If it were mine I would dismantle it (at least to the point of removing the front panel) and spray contact cleaner on the micro switch. I see this is one of Sony's 'Micro Systems' so it will be a little complicated. However, if you can hear the eject mechanism attempting to work it may well be the small eject drive belt that needs replacing. You will probably need this: www.minidisc.org/manuals/sony/service/sony_HCD-MD333_service_manual.pdf

[@MrTopsoil911]

I accquired a sony mini disc player works great. Looking for a tabletop unit to add to my vintage system

[@grizzlyaddams3606]

27 dislikes in 2020. Now we know who works at Sony repair.

[@ivanf3750]

how can I run the entire display completely in test mode?

[@shaun9107]

one of the BEST of SONY is the MD as well as the PS .

[@wehatejeremy8837]

shaun lomas lllk

[@wii1245]

shaun and the PS2, 3, and now the PS4!

[@pauloacedo7461]

My sony MDS S37 got the lens cleaned, it worked for about 6 discs then stopped reading discs... I am looking for tips on what to do to bring it back working

[@ShazeemKhan]

did u try changing the belt/s & greasing the transport?

[@pauloacedo7461]

@@ShazeemKhan no i did not but i dont think this is a fix

[@ShazeemKhan]

@@pauloacedo7461 oh shycks, I am sorry. There are a few groups onlime who can assist I am sure

[@wizzNarts]

Hi, do you have any idea how I can get rid of the "Loading Error" when trying to record? Playback just works fine... Thx ;)

[@gctechs]

Does the magnetic head lower on the disc in the proper way?

[@12voltvids]

The magnetic head only lowers down on record, and when writing the TOC.

[@fiazshah3838]

hey, love the video. question, i have a portable MD, MZ-s1 that plays discs fine but if i try and record, it ruins the disk. when i try playing that disk, the player says "error". i checked the write head which appears to be intact.

[@halo3odst]

take a q-tip dip it in rubbing alcohol and clean the writ head with it.

[@gustavoherrera5719]

Can you explain how to conectt to a devices with rear conections

[@ryans413]

So it just audio. It's kinda like how a HDD works just in disc format instead of platers

[@wii1245]

Except that in the HHD, the read/write heads move rapidly by a voice coil mechanism .

[@mybigfatpolishlife]

And in a HDD there is no laser to read the data

[@andridcore8042]

Great vid. Nice tutorial

[@kenkobra]

Any recommendations on where to send a Sony MDS-101 for repair? All discs that are inserted say the disc is not good. This includes all prerecorded discs.

[@husambinni]

Hey friend I know this is an old post but did you manage to fix the MDS 101? I have the same model and it keeps giving me the read error message. Thanks in advance

[@kenkobra]

@@husambinni Never was able to fix it. i just purchased a used one on Ebay fot about $80 a few years back.

[@leonjohnsonjr3331]

That unit came out in 1995 i paid $500 for mine

[@moviebod]

Very interesting. I have subscribed.

[@thomasdalton9938]

Hello I just bought a used RCA 5 CD DISC CHANGER MODEL RP 5088A And I'm needing a remote for it I'm having trouble finding one can you help me please 🙏

[@12voltvids]

I don't have one and have no idea where to find one.

[@OX71]

An old video but I just wanted to make an observation, during your editing of the disc you tried to divide tracks while in pause and it would not let you, I've just started recording and had the opportunity to use that feature and it did divide and then rehearse while in pause, my deck is the mds je510, you should try again if you haven't already.

[@12voltvids]

oxseventyone Yes I figured that out. It had been many years since I used this deck and to tell you the truth after shooting this and playing around with it for a bit it went back into my stereo cabinet and hasn't even been reconnected. If I need it I will connect. Like most of my components it doesnt get used. I really want to turn my living room into a music room. The problem right now is there is a big fish tank still in the corner and the sound of the water splashing around ruins any chance of music enjoyment. I have been waiting for the last of the fish to die so I can dismantle and sell the tank. Problem is salt water fish live a long, long time. A few I have had for about 17 years. I made the mistake of getting this for my kids when they were little. They are all grown now and the fish still there.

[@OX71]

12voltvids , well I've been enjoying your vids on the audio stuff and just got into the minidisc and vintage audio receivers money trap, your videos are very informative. Thank you for taking the time to make them.

[@12voltvids]

oxseventyone Vintage audio money pit. That's right. This vintage stuff is like gold compared to the new stuff. Service wise I tend to avoid the newer stuff the vintage is so much more serviceable until you run into parts availability. This is the biggest issue today. All I can say is I am glad I got out of the service industry as an occupation when I did in 2003 before the bottom fell out. That gave me a chance to retrain and move onto the telecom industry. Now it is just a hobby

[@bobsbits5357]

hi allways seeing discs around at carboot sale in the uk the 24bit later one's are very good i have a 24bit audio mo recorder Yamaha D24 don't run out format down

[@12voltvids]

Hi bit sounded great. Even the atrac3 didn't sound bad but the original atrac sounds like a bad mp3

[@robertmattison1282]

Does this work with you-know the full size dvd player that are combination, where the cd laser plays but the dvd laser doesn't. To everyone reading this please feel free to correct me, if I misspoke on how this technical stuff works.

[@12voltvids]

+Robert Mattison Some DVD players use 2 physical laser diodes, one for CD and the other for DVD. Some will be through a single lens, others will have 2 lenses side by side. Some players, like Sony had 2 totally separate laser readers.Early DVD players only had a single red laser, and these ones could not read CDR disks because the dye layer on CDR was not sensitive to the red light, and the wavelength just passed through it, whereas it absorbed the IR light from a CD laser which is a longer wavelength in the IR spectrum.So it could be dust on the lens that is obscuring the shorter wavelength required to play DVD, but passing the longer IR wavelength for CD.Note, that some players may have 2 lenses in the same housing side by side, some units (certain Sony units) will have dual lasers, and others will have only a single lens, with 2 laser diodes and a mirror in the optical block.If it is not dust then it is likely the laser block. The CD laser is working, but the DVD laser has failed.

[@kirknelson156]

still use my sony deck MDS-JE470 and have the portable WZ-N707. both work great, use the portable while walking my dogs.

[@kirknelson156]

oh and nice thing about the portable was it connected to the computer via USB and I can drag and drop my MP3's to it.

[@Synthematix]

Minidisc may be an obsolete format but i would rather listen to minidiscs than shitty mp3's i'll never part with my Onkyo FR-X7, tbh to me they sound better than cd probably because theyre 48khz not 44.1

[@12voltvids]

And minidisk is also a low bit rate lossy compressed audio format virtually identical to mp3.

[@Synthematix]

@@12voltvids All musics compressed in some way though unless you have the band live in your living room even vinyl is, iirc minidiscs are about 140mb for 80mins try getting an 80minute mp3 sounding good at 140mb, mp3 is horrendous for sound quality especially with stereo separation it phases like crap, especially on rear speakers, right around when minidisc was at its peak the first MP3 players were launched and they held 32mb of data, not even enough for 3 songs at 320k, in fact the first MPMan MP3 players couldn’t even play music at 320k

[@12voltvids]

@@Synthematix CD is not compressed. Neither is dat. The first mp3 players with limited memory didn't sound good but at 256kb or above they blow the doors off anything minidisk could do. The first gen minidisk with atrac1 sounded pretty rough.

[@Synthematix]

@@12voltvids Yup atrac1 was pretty terrible however the Sony type S recorders were amazing, especially Sonys ES line with net MD, the powerful editing features of the last generation of recorders was awesome too, then along came Hi-MD recorders, well they sounded absolutely beautiful

[@Synthematix]

I’ll also add I don’t trust cds, they rot like crap, md compression works very different than MP3, with MP3 you lose a lot of the frequency band, with atrac3 you lose empty space

[@leongailberger7676]

Hello guys, i have a problem with my Sony MDX-C7900R car stereo, when i put a Minidisk in the player the laser is working and it spins about 1 second, then it stops spinning and then it starts again spinning. After 10 seconds it says Error.

[@nicmost3044]

TAPE!! , Yeh mr. 12voltvids- ,,, good enough for us. I would have said the same? Re,,. Ps, love your repair vids, got a Sony MD myself..

[@serieusmoat1937]

Hi, i got the same problem with i guess the same MDS-302. After it did 1000's of recordings in my home studio only 2 MD's play. (HD recording was to expensive) I gues i will try to do the same after... 15 years not listening to my recordings. If it works, i'll put them on mp3 or WAV afterwards. :) Thanks for this video.

[@donald1056]

It wasn't really broken just need to clean the lens!!

[@12voltvids]

+Donald Ellett Well it was broken until I cleaned the lens.

[@SeVinKru3ger]

Mine just went out 15 minutes ago, I have the same one your doing your video on right now

[@lawrencecavens5760]

But now the next thing that has replaced the mini disc unit is a Sony digital voice recorder that can record both by mic and Aux in - 😃

[@alexroot1980]

I have the same problem of Francesco. Follow up!

[@tonycaramete8989]

is there any cure 4 that ?

[@tonycaramete8989]

hi there, i got a Sony MDS-JE 640 that spins the disc trying 2 read it a few times but spits it out saying READ ERROR C13

[@12voltvids]

If it isn't dust on the lens, or in the disk inside the caddy I don't know. I am by no means a minidisk expert. In fact I have worked on exactly 2 Minidisk units and they are both mine. Some day I might dig up my old minidisk car player and give that a go.

[@tonycaramete8989]

appreciate the reply, i have many disks and tried a lot of them, they're all clean & well kept, but the machine doesn't seem to read any of them while other 0ver 20 machines do that; i'm thinking may be the laser it's gone cuz i cleaned the lens numerous times with q-tips & 99% isopropyl alcohol

[@grizzlyaddams3606]

Wow. I'll bet that's the problem with my Sharp. Will see tonight.

[@KZ3W]

Ha Ha ,,, Comment made me laugh .

[@pearlmax]

I don't believe anyone when cleaning the pickup lens allegedly fixes any read or write issues. Unless there is a visible film on the lens, it's a placebo and accomplishes virtually nothing. Especially this video where you cut away, use a different MiniDisc than you had before, and already knew that it would work. The obvious acting job gives it away.

[@12voltvids]

Well see this is where you are wrong. This unit would not read, and now does read, and still works today. So believe what you want, but it was just an dusty pickup that can CLEARLY be seen at the 3:52 point of the video. At 4:12 the lens is now cleaned. Different disk? OK now I know that you are blind and stupid. Go back and look at the disk at the beginning that would not play. It has a VHS tape label on it that has in hand writing "Andy Summers Jazz Guitar" on the label. The same disk that I load at the 4:40 point to play. The disk that I opened the shutter on was a different disk. Now the reason that the camera cuts was, well I had not intended to try to clean the machine. I was going to end the video and fix it another time. Then I decided to try to clean the lens and see if that was what was wrong, so I had to put the camera down to go get a Q tip. But then believe what you want, the video evidence is there. The disk would not read, the lens was wiped clean, and duster blown in, and then that same disk that would not read now does read, as do all the other disks I have. I don't need to stage faults as I have enough real faults to troubleshoot.. There have been instances where I am troubleshooting, and the camera is not running when I find the fault, and I have to go back and re-create the fault, but they are all genuine faults to begin with. Some of those plasma sets I spent hours, and hours on, and am not going to record 5 or 6 hours of circuit tracing, and all of a sudden the fault is cured when a faulty part is disconnected. So in those cases the fault part is re installed for the camera, but they are still legitimate faults, and repairs. Now as far as cleaning the lens, if it isn't obscured with viable dust (as this was cleaning will not solve the problem) Very often it is internal clouding of the lens especially of the unit is used in a smoking environment. This is not the case with my equipment, as nobody is permitted to smoke in my house. Usually when a CD player does not play it is 1 of 3 things. The spindle motor is shot. The disk table is bad, and has slipped up or down on the spindle motor and this causes the disk to be too high or to low to focus, or the laser pickup is bad. On heavily used players the laser diode gets weak, or the optics cloud up as a result to contaminants in the air. Since this minidisk had perhaps 50 disks recorded on it, and I didn't play them on this unit I only used it for recording so I could play them in the car I knew the laser would not be weak, however I had done a huge renovation, and this unit sat in the cabinet throughout all that dust. When I went to use it after the reno was done it wouldn't work so I put it in storage for like 10 years before I fixed it in this video.

[@pearlmax]

I went back and I watched a frame by frame and I caught the 2 frames where you pull the DISC out. So sure, I guess I'm "blind and stupid" because I assumed that 60 minute disc that you brought out for no reason was the one that you yanked out of the drive. You seem a bit defensive. Regardless of why it began working again, you clearly knew it would work prior to recording the sequence where you show it working. Which is fine, recreate the moment of truth, but make sure your acting is on par. If all you did was irresponsibly and unprofessionally jam that Q tip in there, the issue was probably caused by a misalignment, and by some stroke of luck you reversed it. Do what I do and you'll soon realize how rare it is for a pickup to work again simply by cleaning it. I can't think of a single instance as a matter of fact.

[@12voltvids]

pearlmax The 60 minute disk I opened up was an old disk that was blank so I opened that one so as not to risk a disk that had recordings on it. The only time cleaning the lens will fix cd player or minidisk recorder is when the problem is caused by dust on the lens. You can see that it DID NOT read the disk and it DID after cleaning the lens off. Nothing else was done. Yes I knew it was going to read because I actually did test it prior to turning on the camera again so I knew I had fixed it, but I can assure you that is all I did was what I showed. If the cleaning had not fixed it the video would have ended and the unit would have ended up on the repair bench and a separate repair video would have been done. I was as surprised that it was just a dusty lens, but it was drywall dust all over the inside. Another one where the fix was not captured was the very first plasma set I fixed. I had been working on the set for a couple of hours looking for the bad cap and sure as shit the one that fixed it happened when the camera was off. So I had to go back and reshoot the replacement. Does this make the video any less authentic? I still show the part that was the root cause.

[@ShazeemKhan]

12voltvids did u use a dry cotto swab or was there a chemical on it?

[@lesrogers7310]

This method DOES WORK. I have done this exact same fix on many MD decks and it's fixed the reading ability in 90% of cases. I now use a slightly different method were the cotton swab is dipped into Isopropyl first and I have an even higher success rate.

[@BixLives32]

It is MAGNETO/OPTICAL and is NOT OBSOLETE. It his highly advanced from the current storage methods. You have your concepts a little skewed. If it is "obsolete", why do have these things?

[@12voltvids]

BixLives32 Minidisk is obsolete as an audio format. Magneto optical may well still be in use in some applications, however from an audio perspective, it is obsolete, just like DAT. They no longer make the recorders, they no longer make the disks and they no longer have new parts available. My concept is not skewed. Betamax is also an obsolete format but some people still use those machines. Just try to find a NEW minidisk recorder. you can't, and there they are obsolete.

[@gmshadowtraders]

+12voltvids Tascam still have 2 models in production to this day for sale. It remains an incredible format. Only regret is that blanks are now very hard to find but are readily available on the second-hand market.

[@12voltvids]

+gmshadowtraders They probably have DAT machines still in production too.Many people didn't know this, Sony still made Betamax tapes until earlier this year!

[@gmshadowtraders]

12voltvids Oh yes and don't forget good ol' cassette decks too. Even vinyl is conceivably better than them all, with some turntables costing many times more than the most expensive CD player.

[@12voltvids]

+gmshadowtraders Oh you are referring to something like this?www.thevinylfactory.com/vinyl-factory-news/why-this-stunning-new-heavyweight-turntable-will-set-you-back-30000/30 grand for a slab of cast iron and bronze. I don't think so, but then, audiophools are not the brightest bulb on the string.Same for those dummy's that fall for the glass globe amplifiers. Sure tubes have a different sound, and I would know as I have 2, a vintage, and a modern design. I don't use either because neither sounds as good to my ears as my 30+ year old Hybrid design Luxman, which to my ears, and I have a pretty good ear, sounds about as good as any amplifier I have listened to. It has the harmonics of the tube amp, so It has warmth, and it is punchy and has well dampened bass which is something the glass bottle amps generally do not have.

[@banztm33]

repair or cleaning

[@12voltvids]

It's amazing how many things can be fixed by cleaning.

[@jacobp7289]

I had the same model back in the day. Every 4-6 months it would give the same problem as yours and needed a cleaning.

[@sejrec56]

I Also have a portable that will Not write TOC.

[@blakebechtel5192]

752 degreese ferenhieght!

[@12voltvids]

But only for a fraction of a second. Just long enough to demagnetizing the recording layer.

[@IAmGaz_]

My recorder would play but it wouldn't record so I cleaned the lens and now it records :)

[@12voltvids]

+gaz52 The reason for this is MD uses heat to erase the disk by pringing the MO laret up to the curie temperature to erase the magnetic layer. A dusty lens will obscure the laser, both reducing it's available power, and also scattering the beam and preventing a sharp focus.

[@juanpabloalvarado9814]

+gaz52 I have the same problem, my deck read but doen't record...I will try cleaning the lens.

[@wii1245]

+12voltvids does the laser read the minidisc during playback like a CD?

[@juanpabloalvarado9814]

I guess...otherwise you would have to open your deck and see, while is working playing music ...

[@jmg9808]

LeM .D est intéressant dans une petite radio locale pour envoyer des pubs oumessagesparserie de3/4.il suffit de mémoriser l'ordre dechacun et ensuite, Lecture !besoin delà TLC!(télécommande).......(lecteur/enregistreur!!BonSon!)

[@RUfromthe40s]

tune it

[@mikeb8638]

To bad sony didn't make it MDLP

[@lesrogers7310]

This machine was made before MDLP was introduced.

[@replayanalitico]

Mds ..

[@daviddavidson9064]

U