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BubiBohnensack
The minidisc (MD) is similar to a compact disc (CD) with these exceptions... MD's use a form of audio compression, which enable them to be smaller in size but store the same amount of audio as a CD. MD's are comprised of an optical-magnetic disc in a protective housing similar to that of a floppy diskette but more rigid. MD's allow you to name, move, delete or add tracks and can be re-recorded on up to one million times without degrading.
MD players and recorders have been quite popular in Europe and Asia for some time now, but are less commonly found in the United States (except for in radio stations which have embraced the technology). The reason you don't see MD's as much here in the states is because of poor marketing. When Sony first started selling MD units, both blank MD media and the units themselves were very expensive. But, not unlike CD's when they first out, the cost of MD equipment and blank media have dramatically gone down.
MD's have many advantages over other audio storage devices. Audiocassette tapes and digital audiotapes (DAT's) tend to wear down and degrade over time. They are also both vulnerable to magnetic fields which can damage the information stored on them. CD's are magnetically safe, but tend to become scratched unless you are very careful with them. There are a whole host of reasons that I prefer MD devices to MP3 devices, but I won't get into them right now... The most important point about MP3 players is that they can only play audio, not record it. MD's are magnetic, but are not affected by magnetic fields and will not loose their magnetically encoded information. The reason for this is that an MD only become magnetic and can only be written to when a laser heats the surface temperature well above normal room temperatures. At normal room temperatures, the magnetic information is "locked" in place and not affected by external magnetic fields.
One of the latest developments in MD technology is called MDLP (minidisc long-play). MDLP enabled units allow the user to lower the sampling rate or bits per second of the audio which in turn lowers the quality of the audio, but increases the amount you can store on a single disc. MDLP has two settings, LP2 and LP4. LP2 doubles the size of available space on a disc and LP4 quadruples it. In other words, a 74 or 80 minute MD can be made to hold 296 or 320 minutes respectively.
A minor downfall of MD's is the imposed use of SCMS (serial copyright management system) copy protection. It's built into most consumer products, but not used on most professional equipment. Essentially, what this does is prevent you from DIGITALY making a copy of a copy. Fortunately, It DOES NOT prevent you from making ANALOG copies. The idea behind SCMS is to protect copywritten material from pirating. However, if you are a musician or involved in the music industry, SCMS tends to get in the way. I myself am an amateur musician and I prefer to work with my music digitally... To get around the SCMS problem, I use what is called an "SCMS stripper". The stripper removes the copy protection from the information stream and allows you to make unlimited digital copies from one MD to the next, to the next, to the next, etc... It is perfectly legal, provided that you are not pirating copywritten material.
Something that we have to look forward to is Sony's introduction of what they are calling "NetMD". NetMD will be an MD recorder that you can hook directly up to your personal computer (PC) via a USB port. It will then be possible to transfer music files digitally, at high speed and directly from the PC. They are saying that it will also be possible to move or name tracks on the NetMD from the PC. And, from what Sony has told us so far, we understand that we will be able to transfer audio files from PC to the NetMD, but nobody knows just yet whether it will be possible to transfer from the NetMD to the PC. There is also a question as to how the SDMI will affect this, but it sounds like a great step in a good direction.
MD players and recorders have been quite popular in Europe and Asia for some time now, but are less commonly found in the United States (except for in radio stations which have embraced the technology). The reason you don't see MD's as much here in the states is because of poor marketing. When Sony first started selling MD units, both blank MD media and the units themselves were very expensive. But, not unlike CD's when they first out, the cost of MD equipment and blank media have dramatically gone down.
MD's have many advantages over other audio storage devices. Audiocassette tapes and digital audiotapes (DAT's) tend to wear down and degrade over time. They are also both vulnerable to magnetic fields which can damage the information stored on them. CD's are magnetically safe, but tend to become scratched unless you are very careful with them. There are a whole host of reasons that I prefer MD devices to MP3 devices, but I won't get into them right now... The most important point about MP3 players is that they can only play audio, not record it. MD's are magnetic, but are not affected by magnetic fields and will not loose their magnetically encoded information. The reason for this is that an MD only become magnetic and can only be written to when a laser heats the surface temperature well above normal room temperatures. At normal room temperatures, the magnetic information is "locked" in place and not affected by external magnetic fields.
One of the latest developments in MD technology is called MDLP (minidisc long-play). MDLP enabled units allow the user to lower the sampling rate or bits per second of the audio which in turn lowers the quality of the audio, but increases the amount you can store on a single disc. MDLP has two settings, LP2 and LP4. LP2 doubles the size of available space on a disc and LP4 quadruples it. In other words, a 74 or 80 minute MD can be made to hold 296 or 320 minutes respectively.
A minor downfall of MD's is the imposed use of SCMS (serial copyright management system) copy protection. It's built into most consumer products, but not used on most professional equipment. Essentially, what this does is prevent you from DIGITALY making a copy of a copy. Fortunately, It DOES NOT prevent you from making ANALOG copies. The idea behind SCMS is to protect copywritten material from pirating. However, if you are a musician or involved in the music industry, SCMS tends to get in the way. I myself am an amateur musician and I prefer to work with my music digitally... To get around the SCMS problem, I use what is called an "SCMS stripper". The stripper removes the copy protection from the information stream and allows you to make unlimited digital copies from one MD to the next, to the next, to the next, etc... It is perfectly legal, provided that you are not pirating copywritten material.
Something that we have to look forward to is Sony's introduction of what they are calling "NetMD". NetMD will be an MD recorder that you can hook directly up to your personal computer (PC) via a USB port. It will then be possible to transfer music files digitally, at high speed and directly from the PC. They are saying that it will also be possible to move or name tracks on the NetMD from the PC. And, from what Sony has told us so far, we understand that we will be able to transfer audio files from PC to the NetMD, but nobody knows just yet whether it will be possible to transfer from the NetMD to the PC. There is also a question as to how the SDMI will affect this, but it sounds like a great step in a good direction.
