BearBoy

I suspect this is one of the reasons sealed MiniDisc blanks have never got to the crazy prices decent quality sealed cassette tapes go for. That and the fact that one MiniDisc is exactly the same quality audio wise as the next. No point in paying a premium trying to get better sound.

Wow. Interesting that they're rationing stock. I've probably got enough spares to keep me going but I wonder if this will have a knock on effect on the, already inflated imho, prices people are asking for blanks on eBay and the like? Nothing like a bit of fomo to get people to spend more than is sensible...

Just did a quick test with my MZ-N710 and a pair of Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pros (250 ohms) and it was loud enough for me (although I did have the volume a fair way up). I suspect I don't blast things quite as loud as some people prefer though. That or my player has also been modified 🤔

Nice find! I don't know how common such mods were tbh. Back in the day, I wasn't aware of anyone who had modded their player and I never felt the need to. I wasn't a member of a place like this back then though so maybe those "in the know" were doing it to all their MiniDisc players?

Surely the more you use the more you save? Or something. Maybe I should be buying more blanks. Just to save money, like 🤔 Love the fact that children used to be able to send off for knives from the back of breakfast cereal. The mind boggles 😂

Would have been a good investment looking at what the 1GB discs go for these days.

That's probably for the best 🤣 I also double checked today... 🙄

I've got a feeling I looked into that once and they didn't deliver to the UK.

It's a sickness 🤣

I keep meaning to do a proper stock take as my spreadsheet's out of date but a quick rummage through some boxes in my office turned up 370 sealed blanks 🙄 I don't think I need to start panic buying more 🤔

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've got enough to be going on with. Although I did have a quick peek on Amazon.co.jp after seeing the news. Fortunately/unfortunately, none were available for delivery to the UK 😄 I imagine this news might push up the eBay pricing a bit though?

I was responding to @kgallen's post from last August 😉

I guess it had to happen eventually but Sony have announced the end of Minidisc manufacturing LINK Bit of a sad day but surprised it lasted as long as it did. They outlasted blank Blu-rays too! Now, do I need some more MDW80Ts 🤔

Not sure how much of this applies to Hi-MD devices like your RH1 but have you: Installed the Zadig USB driver? Have you successfully connected a different MD device? If so you might need to uninstall the Zadig driver and then then reinstall with your RH1 connected (I have to do this when swapping between different NetMD devices). How far do you get in the connection process? Can the app see your device but not connect or do you get the "no compatible devices found" message when you click on Connect?

Hi @JohnD - welcome to the site. I don't think I've used ElectronWMD, if I have I certainly didn't need to use a "keyring" from SonicStage, but have you tried the "normal" Web MiniDisc Pro? That allows you to extract the audio from MDs/Hi-MDs over USB. Web MiniDisc Pro Hi-MD Guide Web MiniDisc Pro link

Yeah, I think you need a number of devices with the Group functionality to make it worth using otherwise you end up with wonky looking disc titling, which would bother me 😂. All but two of my portables have it, and I tend to default to the 980 in my office stack when I'm using a deck, so I'm generally using a compatible device.

Did you manage to make any progress with identifying the issue @IC.?

Apologies for digging up an old post (I think I was on holiday when you posted these pictures) but just wanted to say how impressed I am by your skills in designing/building this. 100% looks like a professional product.

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?