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Sony To Make Its Last MiniDisc System Next Month
An anonymous reader writes "The BBC reports that Sony, the creators of the MiniDisc audio format, are to deliver their last MiniDisc stereo system in March. Launched over 20 years ago in late 1992 as a would-be successor to the original audio cassette, MiniDisc outlasted Philips' rival Digital Compact Cassette format, but never enjoyed major success outside Japan. Other manufacturers will continue making MiniDisc players, but this is a sign that — over ten years after the first iPod — the MiniDisc now belongs to a bygone era."
I remember looking at these in the early 90's. They seemed interesting, but the inability to easily make copies due to idiotic DRM made it uninteresting to me. And I'm sure that Sony was asking absurd licensing fees for others to make players (like the home Betamax days).
And rather than Sony learn any lessons, they have doubled down. For two decades. Is it any wonder their stock and their corporate goodwill are both in the shitter?
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
There were many of us who couldn't afford the Sony DATs like the M1(MSRP $1,000, sold anywhere between 500-900 used). We loved music and we loved "archiving" it. The mini-disc was a very reliable way to do this and get a reasonably good quality. It was not quite DAT or CD, but it was much better than tape. It was far easier to sneak in that a DAT or tape recorder as well.
This was a pre-smartphone where concert security as at a high. We had to duct/masking tape our mini-discs to the inside of our thigh at menu venues to sneak it in. We'd then proceed to the bathroom to undo that and attach it to our microphones that we spent almost as much on as our mini-disc players. We'd periodically check our device worrying that we forgot to hit the record button or that we forgot to activate the hold switch.
I will remember my MZR-55 fondly. Even though my original MZR-55 battery has corroded and since been thrown away, i am still able to play my bootlegs back via the AA add-on attachment that was necessary for longer shows.
Don't worry, Sony will just create another "god damn fucking piece of shit oh god i hate you sony please die in a ditch" proprietary format.
This describes Apple and Microsoft, Sony by comparison follows standards...Compare and ebook readers; phones; consoles to the competition and you will find standard connectors; standard components; standard formats.
The most recognition I ever saw for this was that Neo used them.
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
I really don't get all the vitriol aimed at Sony over the last decade or so. I have sold their TVs and other electronic equipment, owned their Playstations, I can think of far worse companies. And Blue ray is a very good media.
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
at the time, digital audio for consumers was 3 choices: MD, DCC and DAT. DAT was finicky and expensive. DCC and MD came later and battled it out. DCC tried to get the cassette form factor guys to accept them. no one I knew (I was into digital audio in the 80's and 90's) had DCC. MD was more reliable than DAT, though, in many ways. it was lossy, but it didn't mistrack like DAT did.
for live music tapers (I used to) you could pick MD or DAT. again, most people wanted lossless recording, so we never saw MD tapers, only DAT tapers at shows.
DAT stayed alive for studios, where 2 track 44.1k audio was needed. MD was intended pretty much ONLY for consumers.
(and so ends our history lesson for today) ;)
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Yeah, but what good does it do when I sign, scan, and email it to my sister to fax from her work?
Learn to love Alaska
Sounds like a NetMD player. Terrible idea. At a time when I was looking at replacing my trusty old MD player which was the staple of my childhood music collection (DRM free mind you since it was of the manually record / playback variety like a tapedeck) the obvious contender was some kind of MP3 player. Then Sony shows up with the abortion that was NetMD. All songs required conversion, it didn't work on any software other than windows, and it was far larger than the competition physically.
Not sure what your battery life problem is but I literally traveled all over the country on a roadtrip using an MD player and charging the batteries overnight. The CD players of the era couldn't keep up.
The main problem that was not mentioned here yet, was the Western protectionism.
What? That has to be one of the bizarrest claims I've heard about minidisc.
Minidisc had some decent advantages: smaller than tapes, random access and didn't chew up the tapes. But it was quite expensive. Back when I was at school the quality of ones portable music (i.e. tape) player was a big thing. Almost noone had MD since they were more expensive and the battery life was worse.
The thing is that most people carried around a D120 with the tracks of the day on. Random access wasn't particularly necessary, since one generally didn't expect it and didn't put stuff on the tape you didn't like. Also decent tape players could skip over a single track pretty quickly and entirely automatically, negating some of the advantage. And noone used original tapes in the portable players, at least not after the first original expensive tape had been eaten.
You also neeed special kit (an MD recorder), whereas the cheapest tape recorders were dirt cheap, which made sharing tapes etc much harder.
Basically in that market, they didn't quite have critical mass. At tha time, the teenage market was important since teenagers obsess over music and most adults didn't yet see the point of expensive portable tape players, especially as the effort to get the most out of them was high compared to MP3 players. Most adults simply don't have the time.
Most people thought minidiscs were cool. A few had them. A few people had parents with an MD player in the hifi unit. We would coo over them and obsess a bit and marvel over the smallness of an MD player, then generally go back to our tapes.
You are right in that MD wasn't revolutionary enough. The advantages weren't ever quite high enough. Partly that is Sony's fault. Because they obsess over "licensing" and "content" and other such bullshit they insisted on playing it too close. If they'd given manufacturers free reign it might well have taken off to a much greater extent.
Oh yeah, and we'd have had data MDs too that were common and didn't totally suck.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
over ten years after the first iPod
Statements like this aggrivate me - mainly coming from Apple Fanboys and ignorant masses. Apple's iPod was nothing new or revolutionary. The iPod is 12 years old - but the portable MP3 player is 16 years old. Apple did not even introduce the first MP3 player with a harddrive, it was NOT the largest capacity when it came out, did not work with Windows, and there was no iTunes when it came out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mp3_player#History
In fact, the iPod did not really even sell that well until around 2005 - roughly 8 years after the first MP3 player came out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Total_ipod_sales.svg
in the Bootleg scene. Sony Minidisc units were the favorite as they would RECORD. you went into the bar with the binaurial mics in your lapel or headphones and your minidisc recorder. The bouncer searches you and only finds a minidisc player and lets you in. You then record the concert better than the guy at the mixing board.
they were a LOT cheaper to get than a pocket DAT and would get past security a lot easier.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
The reason MiniDiscs had DRM in the U.S. (but not Japan) wasn't Sony, it was Congress!
Citation needed. I can find no evidence to support this claim.
Let's examine the timeline shall we?
* In 1987 Sony purchased CBS Records which is renamed Sony Music Entertainment in 1991
* In 1992 Sony introduces the MiniDisc.
So shortly after Sony enters the music business as a content producer suddenly their latest offerings for playing music are loaded with DRM. Almost none of the competing technologies were loaded with similar DRM. The companies that made competing products were not in the content creation business and thus had no internal conflict of interest. When MP3 players came along Sony continued to try to push DRM on their music players despite most competitors lacking similar restrictions. All these were internal decisions to the company that cannot be blamed on anyone but Sony themselves.
And somehow you think this is the fault of Congress?
but it was the first one that did not SUCK. I had a Diamond RIO and it's UI and operation utterly sucked. most everything after that continued to suck in durability and usability until the ipod came out.
I'm always astonished how Apple users feel the need to rewrite history...especially considering the irony. Apple lifted the UI wholesale from Creative. It got know as the 'ZEN' patent, Apple got Creative to go away with $100Million Dollars and the chance to make third party accessories.
http://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2006/05/6838-2/