UMWOOFWOOFF

Hi there... I was wondering if someone has any idea if ANY of the Sony "WX" series of double-din car stereos (japanese or usa models) can be "hacked" so that their tuners can be changed from japanese fm tuning to us/uk or world band tuning and vice-versa??? I recently purchased a Sony WX-C88REC double-din cd/md recorder from eBay. This is a japanese market deck and is factory set for japanese fm tuning. However, the design and physical layout of this deck is very similar to other US models (such as the WX-4500X and the WX-C5000, as well as the WX-C55 which looks nearly identical). I'm nearly convinced that there MUST be some way to hack the japanese models so that their tuners can be "switched" to us or world tuning. I find it difficult to believe that Sony would design two distinct different tuner hardware modules for japanese and american versions. Problem is, I have no clue HOW to "hack" this feature. I don't have a service manual for ANY "WX" series stereos, but I'm thinking that it may possibly be an option in a service manual for ANY of the "WX" decks. Again, I find it difficult to believe that this isn't "set-able" some sort of way. Does anyone out there have an idea? Does anyone out there have ANY service manual for ANY "WX" series Sony stereo? Or, for that matter, does anyone have a service manual for ANY Sony car stereo that addresses in ANY way setting the tuner for different bands? I realize there are adapters available to transpose the FM frequencies. I've used them before, always with poor results (stations usually overlap and are weak). I mainly record off the radio with my MDX-C800REC's in my other cars, but always thought it would be cool to be able to dub cd's quickly in-dash digitally without having to mess with a cd changer. But, radio recording is my primary concern...and the adapters don't provide the quality I want for recording. PLEASE help ANYBODY if you can steer me in the right direction or help in ANY way. If anyone has ANY Sony service manuals for ANY stereo, please let me know...perhaps if setting the tuner IS an option, maybe it is a standard procedure to set ANY Sony stereo's tuning in a similar fashion. Thank you VERY much!

Hi everyone. I've been into MD's for nearly a decade now, but just finally made the jump to Hi-MD (mainly just to have a deck before the twilight) and got an Onkyo MD-133 from overseas. I'm impressed so far with the quality of Hi-SP, as well as expectedly disappointed with Hi-LP. Also, the A/D converter in this deck is noisy as hell. I will definitely be using one of my MDS-JA555ES or 333ES decks for the A/D conversion. But, anyway, I noticed an interesting phenomenon that may or may not be common and well known, but I've never read about it. I have a test CD of test tones, and I was copying some of them at Hi-SP to compare the artifacts of Hi-SP to Type R SP using two different standard MD discs (one formatted to Hi-MD). Well, just out of curiosity, I wanted to see what would happen if I tried to play the Hi-MD on a standard MD unit. What surprised me, was that even on my old MDS-JB920, the disc wouldn't play, but the display read "Hi MD disc". It read this on ANY deck I tried, even ones from the early 90's. How can this be? Did they plan Hi-MD even way back then, when they were developing LP? Seems strange...but I can't imagine how a 10 year old deck would "know" of a technology that hadn't been developed yet. But...that's not the strangest thing I found... The Hi-MD test tone disc actually PLAYS for about 10 seconds on two decks...one of my MDS-W1 MD dubber decks, as well as one of my car decks, an mdx-c800rec. You can select different tracks, but they don't make a sound. Only the first 10 seconds of the first track plays. I didn't try it with music, just the test tones that I recorded to the one disc. After about 10 seconds, the sound just goes away. I can't imagine how this could be; although, I've never really researched things like this with Hi-MD since this is my first deck. Is this common? None of my other decks play any sound, but they all ACT as if they are playing something, and every one of them lists "Hi MD disc". What's the scoop on this behavior? Thanks!

I think it's officially time to start cutting and pasting the information on the site that we individually want to keep for the future... Even, as the minidisc.org site enters it's twilight, sometimes sites like this stay on for years as a great resource of information. But, then, out of the blue, they usually go "poof". Let's all make sure we archive the information individually we feel we will need while the site is in hospice. Good luck to everyone who was involved in starting this site all those years ago. It's been a great run.

Wow!!! ANY news about ANY type of MD product being offered let alone INTRODUCED new to the market nowadays is uplifting and reason to celebrate!!!!

Wow, you guys in Canada and Belgium are lucky!!! Even Sears here (who hangs on to obsolete stuff for a long time) stopped carrying the discs. I bought several packs of long discontinued JVC Crystal discs a few months back for pennies on the dollar. I DO find it curious, however, the way the administrators here bury legitimate reports of the format's state; especially when it concerns something negative that we all must prepare ourselves for. It's as if they wish that the disappearance of MD would just "go away" rather than deal with it and stock up now while you still can.

Several weeks back I reported that Best Buy only had in stock at their stores NOS unsold minidiscs, most notably a vast amount of 2002 era Sony Gold Premium 80 minute discs. They also at that time had the multi-pack variety of the last Color Collection md's (you know, those cheezy ones where the entire top is laminated with some cheap clear overlay). Well, I went to Best Buy tonight and as my ritual occurs every time I go there, I went to the blank media section. Welp, whattaya know, NO more MD whatsoever. The 20 or so packs of the gold Sony's were GONE. All traces of MD in the entire store were gone. There USED to be some Color Collection discs up by the check-out isles (you know, where the miscellaneous stuff is as you walk out) but those are gone, too. I searched the entire store. I did find a store display hanger with a tag on it for the 5 pack of Sony Premium Gold's, so I brought that to a manager so he could look up the item number in the system. He stated, "No, it looks like we have sent all stock back." When I asked him WHERE this stock went, he wasn't sure. He said, "It wasn't on clearance, we just couldn't sell it, so it got returned to corporate." So, it looks like now is the time to watch eBay for vast dumping and unloading of the Sony Premium Gold discs. Someone somewhere must be buying them all up for pennies on the dollar. You can probably get good deals on eBay for them. As far as the Color Collection (for which there was no display tag anywhere) the manager stated, "Oh yeah, I remember those. We stopped those a few months back." Saddened, I went down the road to Circuit City, who always had a lot of old stock MD's at different places in the store. Well, that is no more. No Memorex, no Sony, no ANYTHING. Well, they did have about 20 Maxell head cleaners for $2.95 on clearance. When I asked there, I got the same story: "We couldn't sell them, so they were sent back. Circuit City doesn't sell minidisc anymore." Get on eBay everyone, if you still want discs. The only store (besides online) locally here that has any old stock is Target...but I'm sure they are just selling what they still have. Be on the lookout for the Sony Premium's to be closed out in lots on eBay from re-sellers. I bet Sony has discontinued those as well.

The RCD-W100 only transfers text from non-protected text CD's from its own internal cd drive to the recorder side. Also, keep in mind any MD's you recorded digitally can't be copied to the RCD-W100 due to SCMS. Anything analog will copy to CD, but then that CD can't be re-copied. The USB port on the 780 is for the obsolete NetMD format. You can download songs from your computer using SonicStage to the 780 in either LP2 or LP4 or fake SP (LP2 transcoded as SP). NetMD is pretty much useless. BTW...why would you want to copy your MD's to CD's? CD's don't last, they aren't very portable...MD is the perfect portable PLAYBACK medium if you don't want a flash/hard drive system. MD is also the perfect HOME and CAR playback medium too. I don't get why everyone wants an RH1 to upload their legacy MD's to the computer...what's wrong with playing them as they are?????

Hi everyone... I have quite a few "parts" mindisc decks and some broken units, and I was wondering if anyone knew off the top of their head what other machines can use the entire transport assembly from an MDS-JB980? I believe the 940 can, but does anyone know if this transport assembly (meaning the disc spinning mechanism, optical block and head, ATRAC chip, etc...all as one unit) can be used in any other units? Or, does anyone know a site or tutorial that I can research to see what other units could use this assembly? Thanks!!!

If Sony would make ANY kind of Hi-MD deck, I would buy TEN of them. I'm serious.

No one actually thought there WOULD be did they? Minidisc is something that Sony probably hopes people will forget; to 99% of average folk out there, it is a symbol of why Sony is hated and failing, not an example of their technical amazement and ability (we make up the 1% that think THAT way).

The Sony Premium Gold's at ALL Best Buy stores are new old stock that is unsold; most date back to 2002. Best Buy does NOT actively distribute/stock blank minidiscs. What you see at any store is merely what they have left over, unsold from years past. Slow mover.

Very very sad, and no one cares....even here on this site, which makes it even MORE sad. Can't believe that Fuji discontinued all audio tape too, but left super VHS??? That's odd, considering that JVC invented Super VHS ET which lets you record pure SVHS quality on standard VHS tapes. I thought this would have killed off true SVHS tapes 10 years ago but it DIDN'T...many companies still make actual SVHS tapes! Why? I never knew anyone but myself who had SVHS machines. I thought they were kinda rare, especially once SVHS-ET was available on regular tapes. I guess SVHS tapes actually STILL outsell all audio tapes AND minidisc...strange, since I haven't seen a Fuji SVHS tape in YEARS in a store. Discontinuing CD's doesn't surprise me; they are disposable, and thousands of companies it seems sell them. No one "cherishes" a CD-R...mainly because in a year or two, it most likely will not play. Recordable CD SUCKS.

I find it very strange... Why can you find Hi-MD discs in Mexico and Canada at regular big-box stereo stores, but they are NOWHERE to be found in the USA, even when the format first appeared??? I mean, Best Buy, Sears, Circuit City, Target in the USA...they all stocked the RECORDERS, but NONE of them ever carried the Hi-MD discs in the states. What the **** was Sony thinking on this? Did they really think there was MORE of a Hi-MD market in MEXICO or CANADA????? Just came from Target today...the 5 pack of Memorex MD's they used to carry was recently replaced by the latest Sony MD blanks (you know, those lame ones that have the ENTIRE top covered in clear silkscreen looking cheap as FU*). Well, low and behold, suddenly, the Sony's are gone. The space on the shelf that used to be reserved for blank MD's is gone. This is at both local Target's.

I'm a realist. I report as I experience things, to keep everyone on the ball as to not hasten the slow death of MD that Sony has instilled upon us. GuitarCenter.com is the same as Musician's Friend; they are the same company. While the same company of these two OWNS the Guitar Center national chain stores, they are completely separate entities. Just because GuitarCenter.com sells something, this has no bearing on what is in the actual stores that bear the same name. The online GuitarCenter.com store was kept since it originated before the merger of Musician's Friend and Guitar Center. BTW...no one has made actual 74min MD's for YEARS. What is still for sale was repackaged old stock actually made years ago.

I think what your Guitar Center is trying to sell you is old unsold stock. The Guitar Center in Miami last I was there still had "Basf" branded MD's...that's from about 1998. A year or two ago I saw Steve Vai (the most boring concert I've ever witnessed) at the House of Blues in New Orleans before Katrina and they were recording the entire show on Hi-MD. This was just after Hi-MD debuted; I asked the soundman, and he said they record to Hi-MD as a backup to the individual tracks which they record to hard drive, but it often fails. I was just surprised to see someone in a professional application actually use Hi-MD, contrary to what most here tout as "Hi-MD is now marketed to professional or semi-professional use". If that were the case, Guitar Center (the biggest nationwide music store for semi and professional musicians and engineers) would at least HAVE A LISTING for the format.

Just came from Guitar Center... Looks like Guitar Center carries NO minidisc equipment or blanks whatsoever anymore. They had no standard MD's, no data MD's, no Hi-MD's. They also have NO listing for either the RH-1, or the M200. They DID have a previous listing for the M100, but stated that was last one they even caried. Salesman showed me the computer...they only received ONE, and it was sold at half price. The guy at the counter stated, "You're the first person in years to ask me about minidisc, I haven't seen any of that stuff around here in ages." Way to go Sony.

Regarding the post about an automobile manufacturer stopping production of parts the same year they produce the actual car, well, it IS happening. One of my vehicles is a 2006 Chevrolet SSR. Parts for this vehicle are nearly non-existent. Any Chevy dealer will tell you, "It seems like Chevy wants to forget they ever made this truck." Common parts...bumpers, windshields, taillamps, tires, etc...all not available. So, this kind of stuff DOES happen when the manufacturer is in dire trouble (i.e., GM, Sony, etc.). Regarding Onkyo, their 2007 product line in Japan consists of no Hi-MD products. This has been posted on this site before.

Jonathan at Sony (tech line), 800-222-7669. Elcaset wasn't supported very long at all; all production items were sold off to some small country in the Netherlands or somewhere. There was never a huge demand for that product, like Hi-MD. Beta was HUGE for a LONG time; that's why tapes are still available, but not actually produced...there is a LARGE back supply. Just like metal cassettes, Sony high bias cassettes died a quick death (and can be found NOWHERE...think of the millions of cassette decks sold) the quick disappearance of Hi-MD is not a surprise, since there was never really a presence of it in the market. You used to be able to buy Sony ES cassettes at Wal Mart as well as metal cassettes. Hi-MD (or MD for that matter) never attained a sliver of that market. Yet, the immediate death of anything besides a cheap voice normal bias tape was fast and complete. Why on earth would you think Hi-MD would survive longer than high end cassettes, once the machines were idled? Sorry to be the harbinger of bad news.

I'm glad there is someone out there besides me who appreciates the more "special" tapes and MD's made over the years. I never was able to ever find any of these TDK discs however; its one of the few that I don't have. Now the cassettes, I have several. The days of "hard copy" media I'm afraid are pretty much over. Its such a lost art.

They are closing out unsold stock. Get the Hi-MD discs while you can; they are only selling what has already been manufactured; production has ended.

Hello everyone... I'm a huge fan of regular old legacy SP MD. I've RARELY ever had a problem with minidisc recording, or with the discs themselves. I've actually had four discs out of hundreds give me a problem. Usually, what they do, is just start to "cut out" when being played back. All three discs were Memorex (as well as one Maxell XL-II which gives me a disc error on every deck I've tried). I've had good luck with the clear Memorex "Crystal" discs since they were actually made by Hi-Space. The instance I'm going to refer to regards one of these Memorex discs. I don't use a computer for recording, and I do alot of old-school recording off of many sources. The other morning I was trying to record Fantasia's performance on the "Today" show (BTW, her studio music is total S**T but live her singing is amazing even if the songs are lame) and when I played it back the audio would cut out every few seconds. It was a brand new disc, and there was no "crud" on my recording head (this is a VERY common problem with MD...check your recording head for debris! I've gotten 2nd hand discs that have had GOBS of crud on the top layer of the discs...which gets deposited on the recording head and will RUIN your discs!). So, I tried to play it in a bunch of my different decks... Much to my surprise all decks played the flawed disc differently. The only one that would play it with a drastic decrease in the audio drop-outs was one of my MDS-JA333ES decks. I guess the error correction is much more advanced in that deck. Anyway, after trying to dub the song unsuccessfully on one of my MDS-W1 minidisc dubbers (which makes exact ATRAC clones from disc to disc) I got the idea to play the song on my 333ES (since it almost played the song through) and record it on another disc; but, then I'd get terrible artifacts from "re-Atrac'ing" the original, so that was out. I hate CD recorders and didn't have one handy at the time, and was looking for a quick easy fix to save the recording. I figured something happened during recording and the "burn" process didn't occur properly. So, I decided to try to "re-burn" the song on the same disc by using Scale Factor Edit. I checked to see if a 2db increase was acceptable (it was) and basically let the 333ES re-burn the song on the same disc. PRESTO!!! The disc now plays on every deck I've tried it on with NO drop-outs, no hick-ups, no problems whatsoever! So, I tried this exact thing with the other 2 Memorex discs I have had over the years that had the same problem...and it worked!! Problem fixed! So, I guess it wasn't a problem with the discs per say but some combination of factors when the discs were originally recorded. But, just a tip...if you have any discs that exhibit this problem, try the Scale Factor Edit trick to see if you can "re-burn" what you may think is a ruined disc. It worked great for me!!! Here's an easy way to S.F. Edit an entire disc. If you have an entire disc that has problems, first clone that disc's TOC on another blank disc. Then, create a 74 or 80 minute long disc as one long song to use as a test disc to clone to the disc you are trying to fix. The simple reason to do this is by doing this you won't have to S.F. Edit 20 or so songs individually. Then, re-clone your original TOC back to the original disc once you've fixed it with S.F. Edit. You don't have to do this if you don't mind sitting there S.F. Edit'ing a bunch of individual songs. I hope this helps someone out! God, I LOVE good old standard MD!!!

Fuji minidiscs are also discontinued in the USA. They were only sold by Best Buy, and they have recently been discontinued. Fuji has been packaging left-over stock in improper packaging just to get rid of them. For instance, the 15 pack color "cracked glass" discs are lastly being packaged in the 10 pack transparent black packaging just to get rid of the stock they have left. The only minidiscs for sale in the USA now are Sony (but dwindling fast; can't find them anywhere anymore in stores), Quantegy (mail order), old stock TDK (mail order, none found in stores for years, TDK still selling stock produced years ago and currently does not manufacture MD's) and old stock Memorex (Memorex recently stopped minidisc sales as well). Maxell, Emtec, and Denon died in the states years ago. I've recently bought a few hundred discs since the plug has officially been pulled on minidisc.

Wal Mart discontinued regular minidiscs back in May. If you find a Wal Mart that still has them, the last clearance price was $3 for the Sony 5-pack. Circuit City has also discontinued blank minidiscs. I just purchased my local store's last two packs of Memorex 20-pack MD's for THREE DOLLARS each! That's 3 dollars for 20 of them. They couldn't even give them away at that price. Best Buy has also discontinued blank minidiscs. I bought the last Fuji 10 pack, which apparently was packaged by Fuji to get rid of old stock. It was SUPPOSED to be the dark black tinted transparent discs, but it was the colored discs like Fuji used to sell in the 15 pack in the 10 pack packaging. Fuji no longer sells minidiscs either. Best Buy still had 20 packs of 2002 Sony "Premium Gold" minidiscs in the packaging that they were originally sold in 2002...they have been on the shelves nearly 5 years; Sony changed the packaging of these back in 2004. Radio Shack discontinued both regular minidiscs as well as the 1gb discs, which I only saw ONE of in 2004...it was on the shelf, all by its lonesome, and no one knew what the hell it was. Remember back in the day (2004) when Wal Mart actually had a "Hi-MD 3-pack" spot on the wall for the 1gb discs for $9.99??? Wow. I can't even fathom that as an actual occurrence now; if I didn't see it with my own eyes back then I would swear it could have never happened. I just knew Sony was gonna F it up back then (when discs weren't readily available) and Wal Mart pulled the plug when Sony couldn't deliver the product. Basically, you can't really get either blank MD's or Hi-MD's anywhere anymore except online. Target and Best Buy are still only selling unsold old stock; they are not ordering or carrying any more MD's. Neither is Sears.

Onkyo has discontinued all Hi-MD production for separates and bookshelf units for 2007 in Japan.

Hi 1kyle... I agree with everything you said. I use MD as a recorder. I have never used it as a music downloader, and rarely touch portables. I use MD for home recording, on a home deck; the same way you would use a tape recorder. I do all editing on the machine. I have never edited or done anything regarding minidisc on a computer. If I wanted to use a computer to record, I'd just burn a CD. The beauty of MD was its ability to make a perfect edited recording of professional quality without a computer. There is no product to replace it; nothing comes close. To produce a product as a RECORDER and not actually make a HOME or PRO RECORDER is absolutely incredibly ridiculously stupid, inane, and idiotic. Thousands have held off jumping into Hi-MD EXACTLY because of this point. If one doesn't realize this something is SERIOUSLY wrong. Again, nothing is out there to replace MD. It is the PERFECT medium for home recording/editing/portability. Therein lies the problem. "Medium". The majority of the public do not want a physical hard copy of music anymore. They download it and listen to it until they get sick of it. Then, its discarded. How many people who recorded mix tapes casually in the 60's, 70's, and 80's still have those tapes and listen to them? Hardly any. I do. The other surprising reality involves the professional audio market. They don't get behind MD because Sony never fully got behind it. When Sony finally made an uncompressed version, they refused to provide the professional market with an entire line of products. A fancy Walkman is NOT going to do it. A rackmount deck is ABSOLUTELY IMPERATIVE UNQUESTIONABLY if ANYONE thinks this format will be the SLIGHTEST bit successful professionally. Going over the positives of MD and the negatives of other formats is pointless; I understand and agree with all of your points. But, like I said...the vast majority of people (and professional audio people) just don't care. And, mostly, it has been Sony's doing (or lack of doing).