Why do you think that minidisc never became the format to replace cd?

[John Holmes]

When Minidisc were introduced, I was sure it was just a matter of time, for artist to begin releasing their music onto it. Of course this never happened.

It seemed to be compact and more durable than CD. So why did it never see the light of day?




"I came here, to chew bubble gum and kickass. And I'm all out of bubble gum!!!" My DVD's

[Andrew Pratt]

Likely for the same reason Beta didn't win the format war...Sony didn't do enough to make it popular ie license out the technology. They seem to have learned that lesson with SACD with other people making SACD players which should help it to become more popular then if Sony alone made players...

[P-Dub]

I also recall when MD arrived. It was so cool that I wanted one. I thought the technology was great, plus you get to record near CD quality tunes. I think the ability to record was probably a sticky point as well. Also, I think most studio's knew how cheap it was to press a CD, and it would probably cost way more to produce a prerecorded MD.

If anything, I think MD is more popular in Asia and in Europe than in North America.

With all those plusses, I only got into MD last summer. And the main reason, beside having some money to spend on myself, was the ability to record 2x or 4x the material onto one MD. So instead of 74 min, I can get 148 min, or 296 min.




Paul

There are three kinds of people in this world; those that can count, and those that can't.

[JonMarsh]

Mini-disc was introduced as a format to replace cassette, not CD. Like the Philips DCC introduced at the same time (when's the last time you heard of that?), it was a digital format intended for portable applications, using lossy compression (like Dolby Digital) in which acoustic masking is used during encoding to determine things which the ear "can't hear" and which can be safely thrown away. (Hah Hah!) (Can't be heard on what- a Bose Wave Radio?)

Well, compared with DCC, MD is a runaway success. Actually, MD maybe typical of future music formats (including SACD) which serve well the requirements of a niche marketplace (as noted, it is fairly popular in Japan and Europe) but never becomes ubiquitous in the way the 33-1/3 records, cassette, and CD have become in their time. Note, I don't listen to vinyl or cassette anymore, so many things do pass. I have considered MD, but ended up passing; couldn't find one (including Sony ES units) that could come close enough to matching my portable Sony CD player with Sony high end headphones.

OT, but another format that never caught on much in the US (for computers) is magneto optical disks. They're quite big in the Far East, fortunately (which assures their supply). I use them for ALL my critical data back up and arhival; I've owned 3-1/2 MO drives for ages, from the introduction of the first 128MB disks (they're about the size of 3-1/2" floppies, but twice as thick) to the new 2.3 GB disks. I mostly use 230 MB and 640 MB disks. Media stability is certified for 20 years, but thought to be good for 50-100 minimum. I have NEVER in 7 years lost data on an MO disk. That's reliability.

Regards,

Jon




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[John Holmes]

The idea of MD just made sense though. Even if it's initial design was meant to replace cassetts, how could the audio consumer not see that as a transportable software, it's car and personal (walkman) applications far exceed that of CD's.

Not just in durability, but it's ability to record music was (and still is) superior. Even it's cost for recoradable disc are very down to earth.

Now, I do not own a MD player of any sort. However, just thinking about it's potential sparked my wanting to know how others felt about this untapped software media.




"I came here, to chew bubble gum and kickass. And I'm all out of bubble gum!!!" My DVD's