BearBoy

Good spot! I think MiniDisc was fairly common in radio stations back in the mid/late 90s, in the UK at least. Probably for similar reasons to why you use them for your theatre productions - reliable instant replay of sound effects, jingles etc. Wonder why some pro units are rack mount style (MDS-E10/12 etc) and why some are the square boxy type like those Denons? One type for recording studios and the other for radio stations perhaps? There's some info on their use in radio stations on MiniDisc.org: https://www.minidisc.org/radio_use.html When I was growing up back in the 80s, I remember thinking DJs like Johnnie Walker, Tony Backburn, Dave Lee Travis etc were really old. Scary thing is they were younger then than I am now 😯 Anyway, RIP Mr Walker. Was nice that he was able to keep doing what he loved right up until the end.

This afternoon I've been working with a couple of portables on my desk. Got an MZ-N910 hooked up to my PC and Web MiniDisc Pro to record to some discs and then an MZ-R909 connected to my office speakers to play them back. Can't remember if I've asked about this previously but it did remind me of the inconsistency in how different players function with tracks in Groups. If you select a particular Group on the MZ-R909 then it will play all the tracks in that Group and then stop (or go back to the beginning of that Group if you've got Repeat on). This is the same way my MDS-JB980s work. On the MZ-N910, however, it starts playing the tracks in the next Group when it gets to the end of the original one, unless you have Repeat on, in which case it goes back to the start of the original Group. Not sure if I'm doing something wrong at my end but it seems a bit odd that it won't just play the Group I've selected and then stop.

Oh, and don't worry about posting about non-Sony kit. Despite the name, the forum's good for all things MiniDisc 🙂

Hi @IC.. Welcome to the forum! I'm not familiar with your JVC unit but does the loading mechanism use a belt? I've had an issue with Sony decks ejecting discs after a few seconds that's been solved by replacing the belt with a new one

Hi @Umby. Welcome to the forum 🙂 I find Web MiniDisc Pro to be really good for NetMD on Windows 11 but I don't have any Hi-MD machines. There is a guide to it on the MiniDisc Wiki HERE. They have recently introduced Hi-MD functionality to the app but I have no first hand experience. There is some info re the Hi-MD capability HERE I think the only other option for Hi-MD would be Sony's SonicStage, which can be installed on Windows 11 PCs. I have never used it myself but I know @sfbp has a lot of experience with it and might be able to offer some advice.

Sorry, I should have been more specific. I meant with regard to track markers, rather than just being able to record the audio. I've had mixed results using my current solution. Seems to generally work okay when there are gaps between tracks but not when the music transitions from one song to the next without any silence.

Hi @DanMD, welcome to the forum! Thanks for the recommendation; looks like a useful little device. Do you know if it works with recording from streaming services as well as files stored locally on your PC? The USB-C version would make a useful way of connecting a tablet/phone to a MiniDisc recorder. That's interesting. I was going to ask which encoder you had been using (I know the default "atracdenc" encoder is generally believed to be somewhat substandard) but then noticed that you said you only recorded in SP so your MZ-N510 would be doing the ATRAC encoding anyway. I wonder what's going on that is resulting in an impact to the sound quality?

This afternoon I've been cleaning battery leakage out of the remote control for my CDP-XB740 😠 Timely reminder to remove batteries from anything that's not going to be used for a while...

I suspect installing one of these would be beyond my skills/level of dexterity as well but it's great that there's now an option for the more capable to resurrect these devices.

Thought this might be of interest to anyone who has an MZ-RH1/MZ-M200 with a failed/failing OLED display: MZ-RH1 Compatible Display Modules Apparently @asivery is working on something similar for the MZ-RH10/MZ-M100 (some info in the comments on Reddit)

Good work! I'm always a bit reluctant to take the risk on a "spares and repairs" deck, or one the seller says they are unable to test, just in case it turns out to be more than just a simple belt swap/ribbon cable reseat type issue. My technical "expertise" doesn't really extend beyond that.

Another lovely Pro deck @kgallen. You must have quite the collection by now.

Good to see they put it front and centre 😉

Well spotted! Was kind of hoping they'd be made out of formica or something 😉

Actually, looks like v1.5.0 is here: https://testing.minidisc.wiki/webminidisc-testing/