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more Minidisc availability in UK now

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1kyle

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Ever since the start of the New Year I've been seeing a lot more Minidiscs (blanks) AND RECORDERS in the UK now than I have for some time.

I couldn't believe it when I saw a lot of Minidisc Blanks (80 Min TDK coloured one's) in WAITROSE of all places --a Supermarket selling for 6.99 GBP --- approx 10 USD a packet of 10 (I bought 5 packets at that price).

I've seen blank minidiscs on sale now also in WH SMITH (large News / bookseller) and even in some of these "Cheap DVD/ Music" stores.

Dixons also carries the NEW 1GB discs (at least in 3 stores I visited in the North of England -- Kingston upon Hull, Leeds amd Manchester and had various Minidisc recorder models on display as well. OK I haven't seen the RH1 but they could order it --they had the 900 however.

So certainly in the UK there is no sign of an "Iminent Demise" of the format yet. I also hear it on the grapevine that something to look forward to in April / May will possibly appear.

Incidentally I had to laugh at this one -- So many people got Ipods for Xmas who couldn't operate them that Selfridges --a well known Central London Store (expensive) is starting "Ipod training" courses at 65 GBP (100 USD approx) PER HOUR and there's a MONTH's waiting list to get on one of these.

Why didn't I do something like that -- I suppose that's why there's people like Bill Gates and people like me.

Cheers

-K

Edited by 1kyle
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Well thats good news, I couldnt find HIMD discs anywhere except a sony store when I looked. How much was dixons selling them for??

In my local sony store they have moved the HIMD's from out the back!?!! to behind the desk where you can actaully see them! A sign of increased sales maybe??

Edited by Matt J
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Not seen many Hi-MD discs in stores over here (loads available on-line), but plenty of the old 74/80min discs (except in my local Dixons - but they're garbage anyway....)

Now Sony, build an MDS-JB980 with Hi-MD capability and I'll be VERY happy.

:ok:

Edited by MDGB2
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That's good to hear!

Not sure what's going on with Dixons tho' they've dropped MD altogether.. here in Ireland anyway!

HMV still sell the packs of 5 tdk 74's for €13 - no wonder they're gathering dust! :D

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Hello 1kyle, yeah at what price though..!! I shop in Kingston upon Thames, John Lewis say they do 'em fer a fiver but never have any in stock.

John Lewis in Watford had some 1 GB MDs on Tuesday for £5-50. Last time I went to Watford (December) the Sony shop had packs of two for £9-98, but they didn't have any this week.

Kyle, which Waitrose did you get those MDs from? The Waitrose I go to (South Harrow) always has packs of 10 TDKs, but at £11-99 not £6-99!

Meant to say that Discount Discs in the UK have plenty of 1 GB MDs at competitive prices. I've dealt with them several times and they provide a fast, reliable service.

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John Lewis in Watford had some 1 GB MDs on Tuesday for £5-50. Last time I went to Watford (December) the Sony shop had packs of two for £9-98, but they didn't have any this week.

Kyle, which Waitrose did you get those MDs from? The Waitrose I go to (South Harrow) always has packs of 10 TDKs, but at £11-99 not £6-99!

Meant to say that Discount Discs in the UK have plenty of 1 GB MDs at competitive prices. I've dealt with them several times and they provide a fast, reliable service.

Hi there

Waitrose in Willerby E. Yorkshire (Between Hull and Beverley). I was there again yesterday to buy some food --- they were sold out but the manager says they'll have some more next week and sales have been brisk.

(Perhaps they are using them as a "Loss Leader" but I don't care however if I can get them cheaper).

Anyway I've now got my ENTIRE CD collection (around 500CD's) copied at LP2 on the 80Min discs --if you use a HIGH QUALITY deck like the MDS JB980 for recording and playback the quality of LP2 is IMHO indisinguishable from SP and is almost as good as the original CD.

I always record 2 (and only 2) CD's per disc which makes accessing the collection easy.

I NEVER download music from ITUNES or elsewhere -- the quality is pretty abysmal and there are all sorts of hassles if you want to play the music on different devices etc etc.

With my minidisc I can just pop it into any machine I care to name and play it. If I'm mad enough I can even create "ATRAC CD's" which is a way of increasing the amount of music you can store on a CD without having to resort to MP3 encoding which I don't like.

I'm sure 999 out of 1000 people won't be able to tell if a disc has been recorded at SP or LP2 -- especially if they've been used to listening to MP3's.

I use MD Simple Burner for creating the discs --- I don't rip via Sonic Stage which I hardly use any more -- I really don't like being bound by a computer for music.

Eventually if a decent deck comes out I'll switch to HI-MD disks --but seriously if a minidisc (standard) gives you 2 1/2 hours of decent quality music just take 2 or 3 discs --more than enough for a typical journey.

I actually only use HI-SP for PCM live recording - By using 2 recorders you can get enough time to change discs etc etc --and these days buying a 2nd recorder for this purpose makes sense anyway.

If a High quality HI-MD deck appears as well as a HI-MD car radio then my needs may change --but hopefully a HI-MD deck would still at least on PLAY allow Legacy SP/LP2/LP4 PLAYBACK even if it couldn't record these formats.

Cheers

-K

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That's good to hear!

Not sure what's going on with Dixons tho' they've dropped MD altogether.. here in Ireland anyway!

HMV still sell the packs of 5 tdk 74's for €13 - no wonder they're gathering dust! :D

Yeah. Theres still a few units floating around here and there but overall the formats gone. Peats still have them as to one or two Sony stores in Dublin. I notice Argos now have dropped all the 1gen units and only carry the 2nd gen 710. The odd part was they never dropped in price anywhere.

http://www.peats.com/cgi-bin/shop/db.cgi?v...=5&path=10x4180

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When I was on the way out of england to come to canada for a holiday I saw some Hi-MD discs in duty-free... but that was the only time I saw them in england! Argos have 80min mds and so do some other places!

I should have got some of those Hi-MD discs but I had no cash on me! :(

That would have been in Dixons, yes? Their normal price for a HiMD disc is £6.99 so duty free is about £6.19. You can buy them in other shops for £5.50 or online for £4 if you know where to look so Dixons are hardly a bargain.

As for greater availability, I wouldn't say so. It worries me that overall the price for the 1GB discs seems to be creeping up, which suggests that popularity is fading. Sony centres usually have HiMD units as do a few other places but in general they're hard to find unless you look online.

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When I bought my MZ-RH10 early last year I went for a month or so before buying a Hi-MD disc, using conventional discs formatted as Hi-MD for MP3 storage.

Bought a Hi-MD disc from a Sony centre store for £5

I still notice stacks of conventional MDs in places like HMV and stuff though.

£6.99 for 10 though, that's awesome.

Most of mine are Sony Premium (the brown ones) 74mins. Dixons used to have a good deal running on those back in the days.

(about the only thing I've ever bought from Dixons)

Come on Sony, don't give up on MD.

I want to know about this exciting announcement in April!!

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