October 2nd, 2005
Sony’s Mini-Disc Format About to Bite the Dust
By Alice Hill
RealTechNews
You don’t have to be a tech junkie to know that Sony is trying mighty hard to re-gain lost ground. New CEO, new plans for the Playstation, but unfortunately, there is rumbling online that the Sony MiniDisc (MD) format may soon bite the dust. The news is coming from some pretty credible MD folks over at Sony Voice, an independent discussion board on all things Sony.
Our Take: Sony Restructure + New Focus = No Mini Disc. I know MD nuts who will literally cry at the news, but this looks like a category that just never caught on the way Sony imagined.
It is becoming clear with the recent restructuring of Sony that the Minidisc format may soon become extinct. Hell, QUALIA’s out the door, what’s really stopping us from thinking MD isn’t next? Even in Sony’s Annual Report for 2005, which in every previous year has featured a MD unit mentioned positively or pictured in one form or another, cited: In the portable audio market, trends and ways of enjoying music are changing rapidly as consumer preferences shift from CD-based and MD-based products to those with flash memory and HDDs. In spring 2005, we released our latest Network Walkman, reinforcing our lineup of Walkman portable audio products in the Japanese market, which until then comprised the CD Walkman and the MD Walkman. The Network Walkman, available in both flash memory and hard disk models, enjoyed strong sales.” Source: Sony Voice via Digg
David Johnston says:
It’s about time!
October 2nd, 2005 at 11:16 pm
Alice says:
I agree. I remember Tower “Records” launching an MD section. Not many buyers to say the least…
October 2nd, 2005 at 11:48 pm
Roy says:
This will disappoint one of my friends, who is so into MD he has an in-dash player in his motorhome. … I was about to muse on freeing MD tech for other purposes when I remembered that USB flash memory is down to $40/gig. Nevermind. Adios, MD!
October 3rd, 2005 at 5:35 am
David says:
Sony just DOESN’T seem to GET IT! The MD never took off because Sony thought they could RULE the universe with their own stupid format….they’re doing it AGAIN with the UMD, which will likely befall the same fate!
The UMD could only survive if Sony allows the format to OPEN to companies outside Sony AND make a cheap burner for it…
Just my 2 cents
October 3rd, 2005 at 7:17 am
Andy says:
Why don’t they make use of the MD as a storage device instead.. make it into a standard drive like dvd etc.. small handy and light..
I’m sure sony have the technology to make it into really high capacity..
October 3rd, 2005 at 7:31 am
Matthew Price says:
MD is valuable for it’s ability to record from virtually any source, (in both compressed and uncompressed format) and in particular, mic in - thus making it a great tool for musicians, reporters, audiophiles, etc. etc. Recordings can be archived on cheap, removeable media ($1/disc) or uploaded to PC. All this can be done on a unit costing $175. It is not a replacement for iPod or any other kind of MP3 player toy. Also - the sound of Sony’s “stupid” format) is excellent, and gapless. Newer players also support MP3. Unfortunately, Sony did very little to advertise this, as evidenced by the comments on this board.
October 3rd, 2005 at 7:37 am
Kelvin Shek says:
RE: #3.
one Hi-MD disk that can hold 1gig costs only 7 bucks.
October 3rd, 2005 at 8:06 am
Jay M. says:
I agree with the previous post by Matthew. I would add that MD is incredibly popular in Japan. It never caught on in the U.S. likely because it was never advertised properly (if at all). The units are small, affordable, and provide many features such as on-device recording, editing, deleting, ATRAC/MP3/WAV/WMA/DATA compatibility, phenomenal battery life, etc., etc. Also, for 6 bucks you can buy a 1GB MD and record hundreds of songs at excellent quality. If you need more memory, you simply buy another disc. If your computer crashes, your MDs are safe. So you can keep on listening. With an ipod,.. um…good luck. (FYI, I own many devices: iPods, MDs, flash-based, etc. and enjoy them all for different reasons.) If this medium does in fact get discontinued by Sony, it is not because of MD’s quality, price, or features, it is simply because they do not sell as well as HD devices.
October 3rd, 2005 at 8:13 am
Marty M says:
As a long time fan of MD (bought my first MD unit, the MZ-1, in 1992), I would hate to see this format go away. Yes, Sony screwed up their marketing of it here in the US (the format was most popular in Japan), but that didn’t stop me from buying players/recorders over the years.
As for the one comment about making into a data format, that was done some years back with MD-Data. It failed, most likely due to lack of marketing, but the latest Hi-MD format makes it really nice. True, it’s no competition with the 20gb DAP market, but for cost, 20 blank Hi-MD discs still beat price on even a used 20gb iPod.
I recorded many live shows and other interviews with my MD recorders and I’d have to say it was nice to edit, easy to carry with me and the models I used took AA batteries, which for doing lots of recording, were easy to find and purchase without worrying about finding a wall socket to charge a dead battery.
Sorry to see that Sony has hit on hard times, but personally, if they would have stayed focused on their core products and making them better and more useful than trying to buy up every last movie studio and other diversions (how many Memory Stick formats do we need??? stop already, Sony!!!), then I don’t think we would be seeing them laying off 10,000 people and trying to scale back their product lines for the sake of profit margins.
If this news about MD is true, then I think it’s time some of us MD fan boys go out and purchase a few extras to last for some time. I know the last two models I used are still in operation, even with my daily use of my iPod. MD is a great format and one that I’m happy to have used the last 13 years.
October 3rd, 2005 at 8:29 am
c.a. says:
The MD catered to a small niche that Sony never exploited. Harcore audiophiles always loved the format. They just needed to make the players a bit more aerodynamic and take the DRM stuff away and it would have been the greatest success ever.
October 3rd, 2005 at 11:12 am
Interitus says:
The problem was MD’s were too expensive. In downtown Vancouver I can go to a store that imports Japanese goods and buy a 250mb MD for $2 (Canadian). If they were that cheap through all of North America they would have becomame very popular
October 3rd, 2005 at 11:21 am
beandaddy says:
How long do you think the media will be supported if Sony MD goes the way of the BetaMax? any ideas?
October 3rd, 2005 at 1:44 pm
nt says:
MD should take the place of cds and dvds. i have an indash md player in my 66 mustang b/c i didn’t want a tape deck and a cd deck kept skipping (damn 302). cds and dvds are easily scratched and not portable. mds, ahhhh. people in US saw it as a something vs. mp3. which it is not….i like the above posts, shows that MD is known to a few people out there.
October 3rd, 2005 at 3:23 pm
Victor says:
Sony should have marketed MDs as the replacement to cassette tapes. That’s where they failed big time. I use my MDs as a new replacement for cassettes. So, I make “mixed tapes” (and yeah, I know I can make CDs) but I can use them to record audio (lectures, presentations, voice over work, etc.).
Oh well, i have enough discs for the time being. It will be sad to see it go and there’s nothing really that takes its place yet. Flash based drives are the obvious choice but no device currently offers the type of features MD player/recorders offer.
October 4th, 2005 at 12:09 am
Jared says:
I agree that minidisc is a great format. and if they actually marketed them here in the U.S. and sold their good units here at a reasonable price they would have also been more popular. instead, they’d release the low-end models and they’d be overpriced. i think hi-md was a great move and added great features and capacity to the format. 20gb to one disc wouldn’t be wise. part of the idea is that its removable storage, so you don’t need a whole drives worth. i think 1gb is good, but 2-3 would be great if they’d leave the price around $10/disc. a lot of flash players with 1-2gb cost $200, and then you’re stuck with 2gigs and will have to reload your player everyday.
October 4th, 2005 at 5:48 am
Michael A. Vickers says:
Re: #5
You actually can use the newer version of MD as a mass storage device, but it doesn’t work well because the mechanics/chemistry of burning an MD can not keep up with, say, CD burning speeds. It can keep up with USB 1.1, but no way it will keep up with anything faster.
I’m going to miss MD if this news is true.
October 4th, 2005 at 6:05 am
Donavon says:
Sad very sad. This is the only device I know of that is a replacement to the Cassette. I have used mine for travel recording and recording snippets of things to practice.
Any suggestions on what would work in it’s place? An audio recorder with decently priced removable media.
October 4th, 2005 at 3:14 pm
Charles says:
Replace it with this a flash memory player from iRiver. Voice, FM, and Line-in record. 34 hrs of music (more if you lowered bit-rate) and 40 hrs of batter life (1 AA battery.
http://www.iriveramerica.com/prod/ultra/800/ifp_899.aspx
Not sure how many hours of audio a single MD holds, but I don’t think it’s 34.
October 4th, 2005 at 3:44 pm
Jared says:
the amount of audio a single md holds depends on the quality setting obviously. for pure, uncompressed audio it holds a little over an hour and a half, and with very compressed audio (ie. speech-only recommended) you can get up to 45 hours on one disc. i use a atrac3 bitrate of 132kbs and get about 16.5 hours per disc. not too bad for $6/each!
October 5th, 2005 at 1:21 pm
escalation746 says:
If you look at media cost, durability, quality, flexibility, etc. there is nothing comparable in the portable recording market to a Hi-MD. They are way more reliable than a HD unit, much cheaper than flash-based units, can be used for data storage, etc. etc.
Pease don’t get me going on about crap things like iPods. But who said the best technology wins?
(Related info on my blog.)
October 6th, 2005 at 9:17 am
Funkmother says:
Minidisc doesn’t appeal to everyone. Its primary strength is in its ability to record anywhere in digital format from microphone or other input. It won’t necessarily appeal to people as an audio player. Any comments to the effect that the ease-of-use is not up there with an iPod ignore its primary strength. As a portable device capable of producing quality recordings, there is no equal.
FuMo.
October 6th, 2005 at 9:20 pm
BrianTheSane says:
Ah yes the mega company that brought us BETA was trying to shove yet another standard on the masses. Looking for the next standard they are trying to push. Although I do happen to love the design and function of most Sony products.
October 8th, 2005 at 5:20 pm
Yob says:
I will never buy another Sony product.
How dare they treat loyal customers like this!
October 23rd, 2005 at 12:00 pm
alyssa says:
i have a HI MD and i am very happy with it. i bought it about a year ago and have never had any problems with it. each disk holds 1gb memory whereas with apple u pay bundles of cash just for couple GBs extra. i would rather carry and extra few disks then pay £££ for couple more GBs.
February 17th, 2006 at 1:08 pm
george says:
There must be SOMETHING awful good about MD! When a die-hard analog-only guy like me goes form knowing nothing of the format, to buying an MZ-M100, then spending the next 48 hours with headphones on my skull and a poop-eating grin on my face, Sony has a real winner here! When the first multi-track Hi-MD machine comes out, a nice used quarter-track reel-to-reel will be on my curb, waiting for the garbage bus.
Some of us still prefer fidelity to song-count, and Hi-MD’s ability to record in un-compressed PCM should be a huge hit with the audiophiles that want to take awesome sound with them.
As for media cost, the discs are a steal! Try paying $45 for a 10 1/2″ reel of tape…and the little disc sounds better than my best tape deck!
The fact that such sound, easy editing, and a big choice of inputs can fit in a shirt pocket has gone un-noticed, tells me Sony isn’t quite as good at selling as they are at building.
If MD survives, it may be because enough of us write to Sony, and instead of complaining (for now), let them know that we ARE out here, we DO appreciate the MD format, and that they need to promote these little wonders in every way possible.
Just 2 cents from a newbie to the scene…
February 26th, 2006 at 2:38 pm
paul jones says:
i rememeber when i first bought my first sony mini disc
it was slim like the newwer model but longer.
it didnt have many features like the new models have today.
the new models can record from diferent devices,tape recorders.
computers.the ipod cant do all that the mini disc can,
when sony first introduced the car mini disc i to thought sony
had somthing.diferent than other companys.that were tring to keepup
with them.then they improved the mini disc.by adding more time to it.
upgrading it so you could record more music.via computer and home stereo.sony even had mini disc decks for use with.your stereo system.
its a shame they are going to abandon a great format.
March 3rd, 2006 at 5:11 am
Antonio says:
I´m glad I kept my portable cassette recorder with mic ! I bought two top quality mds recorders and both are dead now, due of been so delicate with the clima. If my cassette fails will be the end of an era on technology-creativity wise !
December 23rd, 2006 at 3:48 am
Butters says:
MiniDisc and especially the Hi-MD (1 Gb) MiniDisc format is still king IF you are an audiophile. If you like watching movies on YouTube, then get an Ipod for audio. If you like watching movies at the cinema on a big screen - then MiniDisc is the portable audio equivalent. It’s the best digital recorder and player for the money, the memory is cheap and not fragile. You can drop your recorder and it will probably still work - try that with a hard drive or even flash memory.
The units are the size of a packet of cigarettes and yet can record CD quality. They weigh less than 80 grams and the discs weigh nothing. You can keep 4 gigs of memory in your pocket with the recorder loaded with a disc already and not feel the thing.
Great format if you love quality. If you want to listen to crappy MP3 format, then get an Ipod like the sheep.
March 9th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
Cook says:
My God!!! This cant be happening….
Very, very, very bad news.
Period.
March 9th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Likes Quality says:
MD was a strong format and could have been a lot better if sony didnt go and screw it all up. They neglected MD and tried to beat iPod with flash based MP3 players, which was IPOD’s turf, NOT sony’s. if sony had stuck behind MD and improved it, they might not be in the situation they are now. iPod is more “high-tech” and “newage” but there are a lot of fields where the whole “bling value” dosnt mean shit, like professional and field recording. The sound quality from my MD player kicks my iPod’s ass by about 5 times. In addition I’ve actually run over my MZ-NH1 with my bike once and it still kept going! lol, i’d like to see an ipod take that kind of punishment. Case and point, for recording and QUALITY, MD will probably always have the upper hand. That is if sony dosnt neglect it! They should make MD to support drag-and-drop MP3 reading
that would really go over well. In addition, if you really wanna look at it Hi-MD is one of the most reliable storage and archiving systems in the world. CDs dont suffer from magnetic degradation but they scratch if you even look at them wrong. Harddrives go bad quickly and the discs lose theyr charge over a few years completely destroying the data. Flash discs can usually last up to 100 years(estimated) without losing data but you get a .1 volt spike and they freak out and ditch their data. MD is covered in a hard Case and the discs(if treated properly) arent even scratchable.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:58 am
best_is_better says:
I got into MDs as the replacement for cassettes. And they did a fantastic job, way exceeding my expectations! As of today, I still can’t see anything that can touch MD as a removable medium technology. And I speak as someone who will choose quality over quantity every time. So you can imagine what a colossal letdown it is for Sony to abandon the format just like that now. In the meantime (the last two years or so) Sony just whetted my appetite even more with its improved version of MD, the new HiMD format, which I find increasingly harder to resist despite all the above-mentioned doomsday predictions, which sound so very true too. I have yet to hear a squeak of any news that Sony is going to support HiMD at least as a niche product. And that is unusual. What am I to do then, you wonder? Well, since I can’t see any alternative on the horizon and despite all the odds of MD surviving the onslaught of inferior technologies for the undiscriminating masses, I’m going to have to go and purchase the MZ-RH1–and fast, while they last! I have little choice there. And what about the deck? There’s no choice here: it’s going to have to be the Onkyo MD-133 for better or for worse! Unless the unthinkable will happen, something you wish for but won’t hold your breath for. No matter what, I have decided this month RH1 shall be mine.
MD is dead; long live HiMD!?
June 7th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
ClapekDodki says:
sesso duro
July 17th, 2007 at 3:21 am
Martin carr says:
Here in Australia we had to rally the troops just to get Sony Aust. to import them. I’d even heard a Japanese model had a built in camera.To use the lingo of todays youth,MP3’s like, suck.
August 12th, 2007 at 7:28 am
MARC says:
MAYBE IT LL GO BUT I VE HAD THIS MEDIA FOR THE LAST 10 OR 12 YEARS AND BELIEVE IT OR NOT THE RECORDING QUALITY HAS BEEN INCREDIBLE AND ALSO IT TURN OUT TO BE VERY USEFUL FOR MANY LOCAL SINGERS WHO WISH TO MODIFY QUICKLY THEIR PROGRAM DURING AN EVENING WITH TITLE INTEGRATION ITS WONDERFUL. I THINK ASIDE OF MP3 MEDIA THIS IS A GREAT REPLACEMENT FOR K7 USE.
March 6th, 2008 at 11:51 am
David says:
MD is unsurpassable for sound quality; versatility; ease of use and for keeping music real… tactile, sleek and light. Sony never PUSH anything hard enough do they? They have great tech guys (and gals) but they seem to let “grey suits” market them. If they only let really enthusiastic tecchies and end users market them instead of these people who neither really understand or care just how great the MD format is, we would be seeing one in every home as part of hi-fi and in pocket (just as we did for decades with the cassette but without the problems and limitations that tape had). What other medium can edit so quickly and easy and with a bit of filtering a la jb940, even make a copy that sounds better than original. Personally I am stocking up on machines because life would be poorer without MD in my hifi set up, my dashboard and my pocket. Ipods are great for kids or on tube where sound comes second but an equal to MD??? Come on! Sony… you need to seriously look at your marketing - there is something wrong with a company that takes a solid gold product and tries to flog it as though it was a pile of cr*p in a car boot sale.
March 10th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Adam says:
I think I will be switching products and preserving my old MD collection. It’s Sonys fault that they don’t want to continue selling useful equipment. So if my home deck takes a crap, thats it for me. Sony was good back in 2003 then they started to fizzle out cause of some unknown secret in the company they will not tell to the public why its not avaliable to the USA.
Sony is with the Galactic Federation Police in electronics everything they sell is under strict limited sales, they don’t even want to make extra money off of online sales on shortwave portable radios. Sony = Police State Electronics
Company
June 7th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Frankie says:
I knew that it was only a matter of time. I was at the Sony MD introduction on the West Coast (SF Bay Area) back in the early 90’s and I have been a fan ever since.
I use it as a high quality replacement for cassette and HI-MD quality is very good for copies of LP’s which I edit and transfer to CD.
November 24th, 2008 at 6:15 am