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Why Sony Should've Put Its Weight Behind Hi-MD

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the hindsight-is-perfect dept.

An anonymous reader writes "OSNews has an article making a case for Hi-MD: 'Currently, .mp3 players are all the hype. Everyone has one, and if you don't, you're old-fashioned. I do not have an .mp3 player. I tried to have one, but for various reasons it did not please me. I'm a MiniDisc guy. I've always been. MiniDisc has some serious advantages over .mp3 players, whether they be flash or HDD based.'"

11 of 519 comments (clear)

  1. Only applies to ipods... by JediLow · · Score: 5, Interesting
    One thing the article completely forgets - ipods aren't the only mp3 players on the market. All the different advantages (except actually having a disk) that it describes already exist in other models/brands of mp3 players (I've used my iRiver for recording and storage - which it gets read as an external hard drive, thus avoiding the issues the article has)... but don't exist in the ipod. But, thats what the masses do don't they? Every mp3 player is an ipod to them. Back to reality - outside really liking the minidisk format, there aren't that many reasons for using it over a mp3 player.

    Why do I use a HD mp3 player? It stores a large amount of music. I don't want to have to juggle around dozens of cds or in this case minidisks, I have over 15 gigs of music on my mp3 player and I don't have the time to find the disk that I want when I want to listen to certain things, nor does the space it takes to store all the disks appeal to me. I like having a device which can store large amounts of data - after trips with groups I'll normally get a dump of all the pictures that the group has taken and put them on my mp3 player to transfer.

    I've tried the mp3 cds (which was giving me 700 megs of storage compared to the 305 megs you get from older minidisks using the hi-md format), but I ended up having too many... and when I wanted to add music to it it meant that I had to burn a whole new disk... and I just plain didn't like using it... and my mp3 player has proven to be a whole lot more solid than any cd player I've come across (I've dropped it many times, left it out in my car through all the extremes of Michigan's weather, and its still been great).

    1. Re:Only applies to ipods... by bigman2003 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I've owned 4 MiniDisc players, and I will say that they *could* have been great.

      I loved the hardware- for the time they came out they were the smallest thing out there. The removeable disks did provide an 'unlimited' amount of storage. The battery life was awesome.

      But as the author of the article mentioned, the achilles heel of the whole operation was the software.

      SONIC STAGE *is* a steaming pile of shit. There is no way around that- it is one of the worst pieces of software I have ever used. And because you are forced to use Sonic State to use a MiniDisc player you are completely screwed over.

      At the time I bought them (3-4 years ago) the hardware was A++. But the software is so crappy I would give the whole thing a D+.

      Sony can really manage to screw some stuff up. And that is one reason I am not excited about the PS3 with Blu-Ray.

      (Why did I buy 4? Well, the first one was great, but I lost it after only 2 days. So when I bought another one, I also picked one up for my wife and daughter.)

      --
      No reason to lie.
    2. Re:Only applies to ipods... by Tezkah · · Score: 5, Insightful

      See, if they would have added MP3 and Mac Support 3 years ago I wouldn't have replaced my minidisc with an iPod.

      The reason i dumped it (besides the hardware which eventually died) was because the ONLY way to get software on it was through the buggy Windows-only Sony Software that came with it.

      Sorry Sony, even if you do fix the problems with it, you're way too late. I got a taste of the high capacity iPod with the extremely easy to use iTunes software and i'm never going back. Good luck with the whole rootkit things though.

      This is one of the problems with Sony, they're in too many businesses. Their Music division has longed forced them to cripple their electronics division, or be exclusive to their record label. When one arm of your company is installing rootkits on your computer to prevent you from ripping CDs to mp3, would you really trust that same company with your mp3 device? I don't.

  2. Windows only! Soon to die. Big downsides. by linuxbaby · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Important to note that even this MiniDisc fan-boy points out downsides to MiniDisc that completely kill it for most of us:
    Even though each Hi-MD player can be used as a mass storage device under windows, Linux, OSX, and even BeOS, you cannot just drag/drop .mp3s onto it. You are forced to use SonicStage. And of course SonicStage is only available on Windows
    then he ends with this:
    Now, it's all too late. I'm afraid MiniDisc will slowly but surely die out.
    Oh well.
    1. Re:Windows only! Soon to die. Big downsides. by distributed · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Found this interesting article
      Quoting:

      "We did finally make the Minidisc machine everbody knew Sony was capable of," said Miyazaki, "but at a considerable cost." Some members of Sony's vaunted Shinagawa engineering labs have apparently felt the burden has been too high however; since January over two dozen engineers and scientists have left to join Google Japan where, it is rumored, a wireless portable audio device with a wow-factor exceeding the iPod is under development."

      Now why isnt this on the frontpage instead of MD's sad death. :-(
      So many bad things have happened to Sony just because of the constant struggle with the Entertainment division.. crapping up so much innovation. Google could prolly be THE company to set things right in portable music.
      --
      [all generalizations are untrue except this one]
  3. Penny arcade agrees! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/05/28 God bless Penny Arcade!

  4. Sorry, but no... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Flash-based MP3 players have the ability to equal or better MiniDisc players on every single count - reliability, size, weight, upgradeability, shock resistance, water resistance, speed, versatility (how many computers have built-in MiniDisc drives, versus built-in flash readers), etc. etc.

  5. Even niche markets are an issue by Saxophonist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    About a year and a half or so ago, I was looking semi-seriously at buying a MiniDisc recorder of some kind. A couple of people in the saxophone studio where I study had them, and it could really be handy for portable, off-the-cuff recording and playback of practice sessions, which is what I wanted it for.

    Unfortunately, I couldn't find one in production that fit my needs. I could not find any assurance that I could do what I wanted with a MiniDisc player from specs I was seeing online. I eventually figured out that the people who had the MiniDisc recorders all got them overseas (Japan for sure, maybe Australia as well?). I see the article author does have a recorder; I wonder if that's new or something, or if he got it somewhere other than the U.S. as well.

    I have no other reason to want one of these devices, and with Sony's reputation of late, I don't need one that badly anyway.

  6. Some people just don't get it.... by alienw · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's painfully obvious that the author of the article is still stuck in the 90s. Of course, most people that haven't owned an iPod also think this way. The main thing with an iPod (or any HDD-based music player) is that you have _all_ your music on it. You are not limited to the songs on a particular disc, and you can find any song in your collection in under 20 seconds. Not to mention, this is all on one compact device. I guess if I wanted to look like a dork and carry around 30 1GB minidiscs, swap them every 5 minutes, and deal with the hassle of remembering which music is on which disc, I would go with that format. Not to mention that at Sony prices, a player and 30 minidiscs would probably run you a lot more than $300. But hey, you get to stand out from the crowd by being the guy with a dorky player.

  7. If you're a musician MiniDisc is better by Llamakiller-4 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Nearly all Mp3 players (if they record at all) are limited to voice recordings.
    If you want to record music and lots of it, MiniDisc is the way to go.
    Leave the expensive DAT for others, a Minidisc can get you up and running with
    live recording and onto CD in no time.
    Im not a fan of all their Atrac stuff, nor am I a fan of Sony's constant annoying
    search to create their own standard. Some day companies will learn there's more to
    gain from open standards than a gamble on closed standards. Sony for instance loses
    nearly every time.
    Betamax, Sony Memory Stick, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.
    My new Minidisc from Sony is more open than their previous models.
    Works great - musicians, HiMd with Mic Input ! Great sound, on the cheap.
    Lk4

    --
    "It's what you learn after you know it all that counts", Earl Weaver - Legendary Coach of the Baltimore Orioles
  8. MD locks me out of my own music by fishbowl · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I don't approve of the way MD locks me out of my own music. I didn't give Sony the authority to put DRM on stuff I record, but my MD recorder takes this liberty. I don't want to hear about how I can buy a "pro" deck that turns off DRM, and I certainly don't care about "Soundstage" software or whatever the hell they make you use now, where you get three chances to copy your original or some such, and it's *erased* -- I *certainly* didn't give Sony permission to *erase* my masters.

    I loved the idea of MD, but I hate, absolutely seethe with hate, to let Sony abridge my copyrights by putting DRM and copy-limitations on my work, just because I chose to use their cheap media. No thanks. CF-recorders may start at the $400 price point, but at least they don't seek to lock me out of my own work.

    I really don't care how badly Sony wants to control things. When they try to control *MY* work, I tend to get very, very upset.

    --
    -fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.