Is Sony Pulling The Plug On Md?

[Breepee2]

Someone on minidiscforum.de has talked to someone from SOny Germany Product Developemnt who's said Sony and Denon (?) will cut all money to MiniDisc research and development soon and stop production in 2 to 3 years. Then they'll put the format to sleep. If discs will still be manufactured is not yet clear, and although this technically is all a rumor, I think it's something most of us know doesn't come totally out of the blue.

http://www.minidiscforum.de/viewtopic.php?...ight=sony+denon

Well, time's up I guess...

I hope they'll add FLAC as a nice anti-climax

[hobgoblin]

hmm, are they talking the entire line or just md's but not hi-md's?

as for the production of discs, tdk makes md's i think but hi-md's are so far sony only iirc...

[D-EJ915]

2-3 years from now is a long time if you think about it...they way technology comes about.

[Christopher]

An inane rumor, and nothing more. Moving this to off topic.

[Breepee2]

An inane rumor, and nothing more. Moving this to off topic.

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MD being possibly/likely discontinued is *very* ontopic.

Is this your standard procedure for bad-weather topics? Just ban it to offtopic? Hmm, for a moment a was thinking you were a zealot.

[jadeclaw]

I agree. A rumour, nothing more.

Minidisc is too strong in Japan.

Plus the cost for the production lines for Hi-MD-Blanks.

Sony won't throw that away...

[Christopher]

Breepee, I don't believe you understand how many hits we get here to the forum, espesically the Hi-MD section. Have you ever checked out how many people are on at the same time, or how many Google keywords link to this forum as the #1 hit?

With things being as confusing as they are for the novice, this sort of topic planted in the Hi-MD forum would do more harm than good [in the raise awareness sense]. It is perfectly suitable in the off topic forum as it's merely hearsay - it hasn't been banned, it hasn't been thrown in the trash bin.

[Breepee2]

With things being as confusing as they are for the novice, this sort of topic planted in the Hi-MD forum would do more harm than good [in the raise awareness sense].

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And that seems to me like you have your priorities wrong. This site is supposed te be for anything and everything MD, including rumors. It's appears that negative things tend to be muffled away, as if this site is more worried with Sony's salesfigures than providing information.

On the minidiscforum.de it's also on 'prime-time'. And I'm perfectly aware of this site's position in views and links and I think that's why this shouldn't be in the much less viewed OT forum.

[MZ-NH1]

Say Sony were to stop the manufacturing of all MD's (Hi-MD, NetMD's...)

What would be the the next best player to go to, to enable us to do clear recordings?

I mean there are more then enough mp3 players out there to choose from, but what about recording devices?

What do you think?

[Christopher]

I'm sorry you disagree with my actions, but until I see something with a little more backbone, I just can't let a topic like that sit in the Hi-MD forum.

Why would I concern myself with Sony's salesfigures? It's none of my business and really an unnecessary comment. I'd concern myself with Sharp or Kenwood's sales figures first! Most negative topics are canned because I won't foster a community full of flames and fighting - I've seen such be the mark of ruination far too often.

Do you think Rick, the webmaster, would let something like this go on the front page of minidisc.org? Why do you think he wouldn't do so?

p.s. Enough discussion of my action, continue it in PM if you deem necessary.

[MDfreak]

I don't know how reliable the info is. I also have regular contact with productmanagement but then at Sony Netherlands/Benelux and they NEVER tell you something about future developement. And if they do it is HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL so if it is true it is probably the last phonecall that person had with the people of Sony because he published it openly.

What I personally think is that it concerns a personal view of someone @ Sony that he thinks MD will last about 2 years but that it is interpreted as that it is a fact Sony will stop research in 2 a 3 years. I moreover think that Sony looks at it from year to year and as long as they sell enough units they will develope new once.

So if this is true and it gets back to Sony someone @ Sony will have a problem because he talked to much. Also the person who published it has had it's last conversation with Sony telling him any confidential things.

Furthermore we had such rumours also before the intro of Hi-MD.

Off course there will be some time in the future that there will be no more new MD's. Also nobody at Sony will officially confirm this info until the last units are produced so it will stay rumors until that moment so discussing it is a little bit useless I think.

[pata2001]

I think it's probably regarding the old legacy MD format. I won't be surprised since HiMD uses a more versatile FAT filesystem, and you can use HiMD formatted disc for both data and music, unlike the old incompatible MD data. 2nd gen HiMD units already cannot record to the old legacy formats (SP, LP2, LP4) on the unit itself (you have to use SS). However, I hope Sony doesn't phase out playback compatibility.

[Silvadragon]

OMFG I JUST HOPE IT DOESN't HAPPEN!

btw, sony has plenty of money, they invest in stupid things like flexible paper which other companies are already doing. So y doesn't sony keep the MD format and redivert a part of they're billion(s) dollar research money to MDs?

[Bananatree]

OMFG I JUST HOPE IT DOESN't HAPPEN!

btw, sony has plenty of money, they invest in stupid things like flexible paper which other companies are already doing. So y doesn't sony keep the MD format and redivert a part of they're billion(s) dollar research money to MDs?

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Because we already have HiMD?

[Damage]

Interesting topic, and interesting rhetoric-as in MD vs. HiMD. We do know that MD as a format has seen no advancement in last two years or so (NetMD and Type S DSP being the last major advancements). Also consider, the lack of MD and MDLP recording options for 2nd Gen HiMD products outside of SonicStage.

If nothing else, I wonder whether or not this is just the official announcement for the non-Hi flavored MD. We're seeing the last days of MD, being replaced more and more by HiMD...

It is nothing new.

[Breepee2]

There are now 2 Sony-people who've said Sony is leaving MD-business:

http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=10006 sixth post.

[bug80]

As long as there's no *real* alternative for studios, radio stations, journalists, musicians, etc for a high quality recording system with swappable media, I don't see MD disappearing.

That said, it could be possible that Sony has a future format in mind, for example decks and portable recorders with 100 Gb flash cards, or something.

[Breepee2]

Flash is too expensive for the time being in that sort of quantities.

I hope they'll switch to UMD-rewritables. They're essentially DVD's, so it isn't impossible.

But I think the future Sony has in mind is just HDD and Flash players, and let 3rd parties continue to produce MD's to use with their old MD-hardware and leave it at that.

[sushi]

IT'S TRUE!!!

ALL OF IT!!!!

NetMD, HIMD and even the top secret 3rd generation with the .avi support and the 25GB disks!

I was told in person by someone who knows. Yes, the King - Elvis Presley told me in person yesterday. But he said not to tell anyone... doh!!!

[Christopher]

Regular MD is going to fade, but Hi-MD still has quite a few years left.

[Ishiyoshi]

Interesting conjecture, breepee2. However, in my opinion, your conjecture has no concrete foundation from the beginning and you continue to back your thesis by hearsay and sources that do not actually define Sony’s official position with regards to the format.

At this point, it is only plausible to state that Sony may phase out the production of legacy MiniDisc device with the advent of second generation Hi-MD units. This is really nothing new. Therefore, I think an edit of your thread title is in order until Sony actually concludes the end of the MiniDisc format.

[Breepee2]

Regular MD is going to fade, but Hi-MD still has quite a few years left.

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Pulling out of MD business sounds different than discontinuing the old MD-line. I think there can be no doubt of what those Sony-eployees think is going to happen.

@ Ishiyoshi

Normally I'd agree, but Sony has a history of not officially talking about anything. Of course they'll officially announce it if they completely abandon the (Hi)MD.

The thing is now 2 Sony-eployees in 2 different countries have said so. Why would they say so if there's absolutely no basis for it?

When I add up that the new CEO practically considered the MD and Atrac legacy and wanted to move to HDD/flash players, I think those Sony-employees could be right.

[sushi]

When I add up that the new CEO practically considered the MD and Atrac legacy and wanted to move to HDD/flash players, I think those Sony-employees could be right.

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Me too! But that doesn't prove anyting! It's heresay! We all know that MD won't be around forever, but it's here now, so enjoy... or at least enjoy the bits that aren't crippled!

[jonny mac]

MD is in no danger of being phased out in that kind of timescale (2-3 years). Tape players are stil around and they're far behind MD in terms of both technology, features, quality and convenience. Every dog has it's day but MD is not over yet, HiMD is great and with the proper TLC from Sony (and possibly other companies) will survive for many years yet. I don;t believe this rumour, it's just the latest of many, none of which have been substantiated.

[bobt]

Sony will keep MD's around for a while, they do not drop many technoligies,elcassette and DCC, are two that they did away with, but incorporated feature into newer units. They would rather be diversified rather than specialized, and hopefully soon a true portable recorder/uploader MD will come to satisfy the semi to pure professional. Even with it's limitations, it is far superior to DAT, and DAT's offer uploading if I'm not wrong.

Just my humble opinion, but I really do believe that MD and HI MD will be around a while, but nothing is forever, haven't seen a new sony turntable 4 a while ( haven't looked either).

Bob

[saaron]

but nothing is forever, haven't seen a new sony turntable 4 a while ( haven't looked either).

Bob

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I bought one a few of years ago (October 2002) -- not the greatest; just a basic compact unit. Nice to see that you finally don't need a separate pre-amp or ground lead connection for these things!

I think we'll probably have to wait to see what the product line-up looks like in a year's time. There's still the same line-up of MDLP decks on the sony.co.uk site that they've had for the past few years and one shelf-system. If they disappear in six months and aren't replaced by HiMD equivalents then I'd say any flavour of format is probably without much of a future. More worrying to me is the lack of 3rd party support. Denon is the only manufacturer in the UK that seems to offer components now -- nobody else has MD-equipped shelf-systems for sale any more and that wasn't true three years ago. It's all just portables that look like stock clearouts more than anything else and Sony's kit.

Doesn't bode well, but I'm sure TDK/Maxell/Sony will continue to produce blanks for decades to come.