Minidiscs

[seemster]

Anyone remember minidiscs? I just found all mine and the player/ recorder too (a Sharp MS701) but sadly no charger. Tried eBay and gumtree but don?t think I?ll be able to source one so may have to bin the lot. Very sad!

[Sephiroth]

Being able to move tracks around on a disc - seemed like magic at the time

[Captain Marvel]

https://www.subtel.co.uk/index.php?cl=details&offerId=878338516&lang=1&anid=100734&cnid=9f09120a56c515d2155e32616e8c2cd8&campaign=co.uk-pla/Ladeger%C3%A4t%20Steckdose/100734&gclid=Cj0KCQjw_absBRD1ARIsAO4_D3vb_EgOlsLHH8Dz7YCa8Tw5TWfok-9mktVx2bfUhzIlV_5kFdNSQd4aAj5fEALw_wcB

[seemster]

Thankyou Captain Marvel! Pre-ordered for delivery in October... exciting!

[fishbiscuits]

I was a massive fan.. I had a hi-fi deck, a portable player, and a minidisc car stereo! Yes the editing, shuffling, track splitting, etc was a revelation, but also the sound quality and robustness rendered the cassette instantly redundant for me. I'm not sure why they weren't a bigger hit, perhaps the cost of hardware and (un)availability of pre-recorded material was a barrier (although IMO the very existence of pre-recorded discs was kind of missing the point).

In the 90s, Sony made real quality stuff, it was all built like a tank and just kept on going... through years and years of near constant use and abuse. The in-car unit was pulled out of a major car crash, but went on to have many more years of happiness in subsequent vehicles. The portable got used in clubs and bars, with much beer spilled onto it, and became stained yellow with smoke. The hi-fi deck led a relatively sheltered existence, but got jammed some time around 2011, and my somewhat cack-handed attempt at freeing the disc with a screwdriver caused irrevocable damage. I kept the portable long enough to transfer the irreplaceable content onto MP3, and finally waved goodbye sometime around 2013.

Anyway... enough of my nonsense... Captain Marvel may have hooked you up (although I'm a bit dubious of a pre-order, available in one month, for a piece of 1990s hardware). If that doesn't work out and you have rare material to preserve, there are many audio transfer services out there.

[seemster]

Turns out subtel specialise in selling stuff for older gadgets - I called them, UK number but based in Berlin, and all seemed very legit 🤞🏽

Are there services who would actually take all my CDs and transfer to digital (iTunes or similar)? What would it cost for c.300 CDs? I?ve never got round to it and just figured that at some point I?ll get them all on Spotify. What would you do?

[Captain Marvel]

DIY

https://www.amazon.co.uk/External-iAmotus-Portable-Desktops-Notebooks/dp/B01MAWMTII/ref=asc_df_B01MAWMTII/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310843013710&hvpos=1o3&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14476226246110429218&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9044975&hvtargid=pla-471812670870&psc=1

[Sephiroth]

"I'm not sure why they weren't a bigger hit, perhaps the cost of hardware"

I think the main reason was the dawn of MP3 file-sharing and then ipods around the same time or just after. For most people the sheer scope and convenience way outweighed minidiscs

[ianr]

From looking at the user manual and spec therein (linked from https://www.minidisc.org/part_Sharp_MD-MS701+MS702.html), won't a standard 5v DC supply (with the right jack size, and remember to check the polarity) plugged into the DC input socket do the trick?

[fishbiscuits]

seemster Wrote:

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> Are there services who would actually take all my

> CDs and transfer to digital (iTunes or similar)?

Yes, you can get CDs and minidiscs transferred. But it's expensive, so you'd be better off just buying the MP3s (or just subscribing to a streaming service). Only worth doing if it's something rare.

Sounds like good advice from Ian, if it can run off a generic 5V adapter. Also, that link suggested that it can run off 2AA batteries? I remember some players ran off a single AA battery... must have been quite an engineering feat in itself to get that working with any sort of useable battery life!

[RichH]

I loved MiniDisc and still have a working Sony MZ-R30 portable and some 1980's Aiwa HP-V99 in-ear phones which sound amazing.

I'm currently in the process of transferring all my legacy music formats to digital files and, for MiniDisc, I've decided to just use the analogue output from the MiniDisc player (or, with care, you can use the headphone output) and record onto PC/laptop using wave editor software (search the Internet; there are loads of them). So not a digital-to-digital copy, but acceptable.

I'll use the same technique for cassette and vinyl. Then I've got some 78's to do which will be a bit trickier but even more fun!

Thank goodness I don't have any wax cylinders :)

[seemster]

Loving this thread!

When I?ve got the charger I have to hope the player still works... if not, RichH, I might beg some help from you... there?s just a couple that are mixes not albums which I?d really like to be able to listen to / get the playlist for.

Thanks all, happy reminiscing!

[DovertheRoad]

I just found mine recently. An Aiwa with full recording features. Back in 2001, post 9/1, I found an airfare on BA to Chicago for ?99 and was able to afford a trip of a lifetime to go see my blues hero Buddy Guy play in his own club. I took the mini disc rigged it up with a small lapel mic and smuggled it in to record the set. I still have it and it plays perfectly - around 1 hr of high quality live recording complete with sound effects from a trip to the bog.

[fishbiscuits]

RichH Wrote:

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> I'm currently in the process of transferring all

> my legacy music formats to digital files and, for

> MiniDisc, I've decided to just use the analogue

> output from the MiniDisc player

Fair enough, but you can get a digital USB interface for around ?20. Just in case you want to improve the quality..

[RichH]

Yep, I've got a couple of USB interfaces but I think my MiniDisc player doesn't have a digital output, only an analogue one. I'll check though to be sure. However, I've got a handful of pre-recorded MiniDiscs which will likely be copy protected so I doubt I'd be able to copy those ones digitally anyway. I seem to recall you could get an interface with a so-called "SCMS-stripper" to get around that but I suspect they'd be pretty hard to find nowadays.

[fishbiscuits]

Oh I see!

I never really bothered with pre-recorded.. partly as CDs were cheaper and superior quality (I seem to recall they had a reputation for being transferred from the masters "on-the-cheap", and rumours of early versions of compression algos being inferior). But mainly because it was only very mainstream stuff available. But I did pick up a couple of bargain bin ones... Blur and The Clash, I think.

In your shoes, I'd probably just buy the MP3s, or find a way to capture the audio from a streaming service instead of transferring the MD. Personally I was only really concerned about the irreplaceable stuff. Gigs and radio recordings, teenage band "demos", things people had recorded for me off rare vinyl, etc.

[malumbu]

laserdiscs? Did anyone ever have a player? They came and went in about a week. We had some GIS's at work (Google that too - I came up with this

[fishbiscuits]

I never met anyone who had a Laserdisc player, as far as I recall! They were incredibly expensive. They did quite well in Japan though, you could still buy them well into the 2000s.

Apparently Laserdisc, although it looks like a large CD, actually worked by a completely different principle... it didn't store digital data as such, but rather pits of variable lengths. So is really an analogue format (albeit with an optional digital audio track). Each side of the disc could only store an hour of video, so you'd have to turn it over halfway through a movie... or if longer than 2 hours, change the disc. Would love to get my hands on one, just to check it out.

[RichH]

After the failure of LaserDisc I remember a shop near Catford Bridge that had a Philips LaserVision player plus a big box of discs on sale for ?99. I nearly bought it but thought better of it. Still have a mountain of VHS tapes though and a Dolby Pro Logic decoder.

fishbiscuits Wrote:

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> ...I was only really concerned about the

> irreplaceable stuff. Gigs and radio recordings,

> teenage band "demos", things people had recorded

> for me off rare vinyl, etc.

Ah, all my similar stuff is on cassette. Things like "King Biscuit Flower Hour" recorded from pirate radio.

[peckman]

Ahh .. mini discs ! They were great (and tapes) . Something so special about making a mix to give to your mates . Still got boxes of tapes and mini discs sitting around. Happy days ! Reminds me of story of legendary reggae dj .. dj Derek.. apparently he put all his vinyl on mini discs and sold his vinyl .. then it went absolete .

[peckman]

Really interesting bloke dj Derek. Amazing dj and story but unfortunately a tragic end .

[SamualSS]

I loved MiniDisc. And I also have other tools to have my music storage. Spotify Music Converter(https://www.drmare.com/spotify-music-converter-for-win/) form DRmare website is good for me to download Spotify songs. I put them on my mp3 players and listen to them offline.