Ezra4no1 Posted January 16, 2012 Report Share Posted January 16, 2012 For me there were tons of reasons why to use the minidisc format as an audio recorder and player through out the 90's. In fact I've been a big fan of the format and used it faithfully up until about 5 or 6 years ago when HDD and flash based memory recorders and players began to be cheaper than owning the minidisc format all together. That with their smaller size, higher audio quality, lack of DRM (no sonic stage) finally pushed me away from the minidisc format. Personally I don't see any reason why I would want to use the Minidisc format if i had a choice today to buy an audio playerrecorder besides the novelity of it... Except for one.. I miss being able to completely manage my audio collection with out the use of a computer. It's not that I hate computers, I am a systems administrator and have been doing this for near 20 years, but I miss being able to go to my CD or Tape collection (back in the day) pulling out what I wanted to hear and listening to it on my home stereo, my car stereo, my audio player at work, at my friends house, and my portable player, with out ever needing to worry about DRM, file transfers, file formats, and or needing to download from the cloud. With the massive success of the MP3 File format, the iPod, and everything else that makes the digital world move, nothing was as easy as pulling a tape or cd from your collection and listening it to on anything you wanted to and sharing it with anyone you wanted to - and the same can be said about video tapes in the VCR days with regards to DVRs. I can't imagine I'm totally alone with this. The blank VCR tape market was huge through out the 80's and 90's and the same was true for blank audio cassettes. It would almost make sense to me that sony would take their exisiting technology of HI-MDs and tweek it a bit so it could become the modern day equivalent of the VCR. Minidiscs wouldn't suffer from degradation from over-writing, storage, or scratches as CDs and DVDs do. By also doing this I believe this could re-introduce MDs for what they were ment to be in the 90's - to re-place audio cassetts (if they could be simply priced cheaply).Of course the damage is already done. Even if Sony did do something like this audio MD's will never become the next "walkman" or "iPod", but I can see these as a cheap replacement for the common audio cassette in a new digital age that will allow you to store you'r audio outside of a computer - again if priced very cheaply. Just wondering what anyone's thoughts on this might be. Below is post I posted on a Sony's forum a while ago, which I will repost here. "Anyone else miss VCRs (not their quality) but being able to easily record a show, save it to tape, than taking the tape and watching it at a friends house or family members house? That's something you can't easily do with current DVRs, or anything else since the VCR. Why doesn't Sony make a modern VCR and use Hi-MD technology to let consumers easily record tv shows? There was a massive vcr market of people recording shows and saving them - just because everything has gone to flash-based memory and hard drives, doesn't mean people still wouldn't want the simplicity of a VCR to record and store their videos and use the Minidisc media to re-write over with out degradation to the media. The Secrete for it's success? No Crazy proprietary format, nor God awful drm schemes, and keeping it reasonably priced." 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soundbox Posted January 16, 2012 Report Share Posted January 16, 2012 I use my MD's as much as I ever did. Having a physical disk is important to me and I love that I can edit so easily and precisely without resorting to using a computer. The disks last a long time, they are secure and easy to handle and use. What is not to like? Well, I never had problems with DRM - mainly becase I just made one disk via optical or microphone and listened to it. For what I do I cannot see that MP3 players will add anything to my music enjoyment so I've never had one. I'll be honest and say that I never liked audio tapes very much even when they were the only thing around. The fact that any mistake with the pause button or rough edits were impossible to rectify and recording from the radio gave often poor results when the pause button was used to edit out the DJ's waffle. I still use VCR's as my primary video system and the quality is fine to me (I'm in a PAL area and using a CRT TV) and the Hi-Fi sound still impresses. Grab a tape, stuff it in and hit record - no messing with menus. I keep being told VCR's are 'obsolete' and won't work after the April analogue switch-off but with a digibox they are good to go. Just last night I recorded 'REM at the BBC' on my 1983 Betacord (Sanyo Beta machine) using the timer and a digital converter - and will watch it tonight. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azureal Posted January 16, 2012 Report Share Posted January 16, 2012 I agree with Soundbox, I love MD, I love the form factor and I love the sound. I have only ever strayed with a couple of Sony HD based units which used ATRAC any way, same awesome sound. In the past few years I have used mainly SP recorded via optical in real-time. I have an iPhone (my third in four to five years) and I would not waste my time copying music to is because it sounds like crap compared to any SP recorded (or Hi-SP for that matter) content. I do long for the days of the ease of a VCR ... I have a DVR and the OP is right, the ability to be mobile with the recording is not the same. A few years ago, I bought a DVD recorder made by Sony, it records in the same way as a VCR does but uses DVD-R media, it works OK, but it is limited to standard definition (480i in US) and does not really look very good, well, it looks almost as good as a decent SVHS VCR, but it would be nice to have a usable format for easily recording broadcast HD content. I have been experimenting with PC based DVR software and NAS storage on high speed network in the home ... Not optimal yet, but it will come around. Oh yeah, and unless I setup streaming to external networks, I can't really take it to my friends house to watch. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ezra4no1 Posted January 16, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2012 Thanks for the response. There will always be people who will be completely happy and even fans of older static technology, such as old LPs and record players, laserdisc video players, reel to reel audio recorder and players, projection TVs, VCRs, and so on. For those people it doesn't matter what the latest technology is. I agree that old cassette tapes had horrible quality, but they were extremely cheap, extremely simple to use (play - record), allowed you to store and save what you recorded, and they worked everywhere - just about every office, car, and home, had a cassette player allowing you to listen to your music everywhere. Why couldn't Sony re-gear these as a modern day digital equivalent to the audio cassette? They could license the technology and get china companies to pump these things out cheap - 50 bucks or less for a standard no frills shoe-box recorder and player (cooler designs would come later). I think the market would welcome such a device like this and one like a VCR since there is no such device now that does this with simplicity. A USB to connect to a computer would be great to move you non DRM media around, but the point of the device is that you don’t need a computer to record, play, and then store your audio and video recordings. It’s not like re-inventing the wheel. Sony already owns the technology to do this and personally I think the physical minidiscs have proven themselves as an extremely reliable storage media that's not subjected to scratches and damages like CDs and DVDs are, and can be recorded, erased, and recorded over and over again with no ill-effects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ezra4no1 Posted January 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2012 I agree with Soundbox, I love MD, I love the form factor and I love the sound. I have only ever strayed with a couple of Sony HD based units which used ATRAC any way, same awesome sound. In the past few years I have used mainly SP recorded via optical in real-time. I have an iPhone (my third in four to five years) and I would not waste my time copying music to is because it sounds like crap compared to any SP recorded (or Hi-SP for that matter) content. I do long for the days of the ease of a VCR ... I have a DVR and the OP is right, the ability to be mobile with the recording is not the same. A few years ago, I bought a DVD recorder made by Sony, it records in the same way as a VCR does but uses DVD-R media, it works OK, but it is limited to standard definition (480i in US) and does not really look very good, well, it looks almost as good as a decent SVHS VCR, but it would be nice to have a usable format for easily recording broadcast HD content. I have been experimenting with PC based DVR software and NAS storage on high speed network in the home ... Not optimal yet, but it will come around. Oh yeah, and unless I setup streaming to external networks, I can't really take it to my friends house to watch. I actuially have a NAS device set up in my home. I bought Nintendo Wii's from ebay for about 35 to 45 bucks which CDDVD drive were broken. Each comes with built in Wifi, an SD card slot, and a USB slot. From a Wii hacking forum I was able to re-flash the Wiis and turn them into a Multimedia device that will stream my movies from my NAS as well as Netflix to my TVs in my home. Or If I wanted to I could connect a USB HDD to the Wii and use that to stream movies if I didn't have a NAS set in my home. Only downside, is the Wii can only do 720P but I figured it was good enough for the time and the money I saved Still with all that, there is no simplicitic way for me to take any of the recordings to a friend's house to watch on their TV. ( Are YOU LiSTENING SONY??) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfbp Posted January 17, 2012 Report Share Posted January 17, 2012 Still with all that, there is no simplicitic way for me to take any of the recordings to a friend's house to watch on their TV. My TV (Sony Bravia) has a USB port. I recently purchased a 16GB microSD card that came with three adaptors: 1. for microSD->Sony MS slot 2. for microSD->SD slot 3. for SD slot -> USB I imagine some TV's must have at least one or more of these sockets. My printer (HP) does. My Hard disk/DVD recorder does (although it's limited to 2GB). So presumably that would answer your complaint? I checked, and fairly predictably, the TV refuses to play .AVI files. But it is supposed to play .mpg files (movies) and I am sure I tried this previously, with success. Wanting firmware to do this seems a reasonable request. Some later models can play mp4 files as well. I like your solution. There's a totally generic solution also, namely a Windows PC with HDMI output. You can buy one or have a local store make one suitable for HTPC use for a few hundred dollars. This removes dependence on firmware as there are a variety of software players (my favourite being VLC) that will play anything at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THIS SUCKS Posted January 17, 2012 Report Share Posted January 17, 2012 my friends all gave me their old vcrs i use three of them on a regular basis. they work fine for standard def recording. we dont have any flat tvs in our house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluecrab Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 How can I miss MDs if they won't go away? ;-) (Not that I want them to.) As for VHS, I still use it on occasion for recording under certain circumstances, there's also some VHS tapes I like to watch now and then, and not quite every movie has made it to DVD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azureal Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 Yeah, I like the idea of the tweaked Wii, that's a pretty affordable solution, must be sans HDMI, video via analog component. I use a PS3 and a small powerful laptop with HDMI to stream stuff now. I also recently bought an inexpensive "Home Theater in a Box" which streams from the DLNA server on my NAS as well. Stephen, I have a few TVs with USB as well, but all are loder and it is intended for firmware updates only, too bad. I do miss the portability of VHS though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paperclip Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 I find it telling that the really advanced computer users don't want to use a HTPC. I myself have started a quick listening session only to have a miss-boot or some other niggling little failure that made it pointless. I'm looking hard at getting a receiver that has a DLNA client. I have some old HP MediaVaults that are superb - only limited by disc space. I think for the amount of money and more-so time, HTPC is a huge waste of time and electricity. I will continue to use MD/Hi-MD for as long as possible. The quality and combinations of features, along with having a physical medium, is close to perfection in my mind. It's funny how some really good formats have fallen by the wayside only to be replaced by disposible junk. And I find the idea of paying for bandwidth to play your music laughable. I do have hope though, the folks at the-impossible-project.com bought up Polariod and are now making their own film stock. One guy i heard about made his very own 35mm KODACHROME film making machine. Maybe, there is enough interest in MD for us to do something like that? Then again, I like under-dogs and lost causes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfbp Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 I'll defend HTPC to my last breath. However probably none of the 'canned' solutions will work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paperclip Posted January 19, 2012 Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 I wasn't attacking the concept, just offering my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfbp Posted January 19, 2012 Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 It's the only way I know to have HiMD, MD, AVI (and all other video formats including a second DVD drive for out-of-region DVDs) on tap and keep the high quality sound of ATRAC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netmduser Posted January 22, 2012 Report Share Posted January 22, 2012 I found a box of old vhs tapes destined for the garbage. These older tapes were all made in japan. Using them now with a dtv converter. Fun to use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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