Sony To Wind Up MiniDisc Walkman Shipments

 

 

 

Thanks, Paul:

Sony To Wind Up MiniDisc Walkman Shipments
http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20110707D07JFN01.htm

Comments

[brandon]

I wasn't even aware that Sony still produced MiniDisc players.

I purchased a Sony portable minidisc player back in 1999 along with a home stereo unit. I also purchased a few years later a Sony MDX C800-REC for my car - it had the ability to record to minidisc straight from the radio. That is, until somebody stole it out of my car just a few years ago.

As much as I liked minidisc technology, I have to admit that SD cards and units that support them are much more convenient.

[Doug T.]

It is not as if MiniDisc players were ever more than a tiny niche market in the US.

[brandon]

Doug - Back in 1999-2000 they were bigger than just a tiny "niche" market, I can recall going into Best Buy and Circuit City and seeing entire shelf sections dedicated to minidisc. I can even remember specifically at Best Buy that they had a shelf of minidisc albums.

[Guy Atkins]

I bought my first Minidisc unit direct from Japan in early 1993 because I couldn't find a US seller for the model I wanted. In fact, very few MDs were available from the USA at that time. My favorite of all was the Sony MZ-R4ST introduced in 1996. It was a small portable recorder that integrated with a docking station featuring a large, backlit LCD screen that displayed lots of information about the recording: http://www.minidisc.org/sonyim/MZ-R4ST_01_low.jpg

MD was a major leap ahead for DX signal recordings, compared to even the best of the "PMD" Marantz series of cassette recorders preferred by DXers. I couldn't believe the clarity of sound and almost zero noise of Minidiscs compared to cassette recordings with Dolby B or C noise reduction. I also *loved* the date-time stamping feature of certain Sony Minidisc models.

But time and technology move on, and I eventually started using PC based software for recording. Total Recorder Pro and RecAll pro are my long-time favorites.

[¾ Blind]

I never owned a MiniDisc but I remember nostalgically the ads that ran on WBCQ in the late '90s for the web site minidiscoDOTcom when the MiniDisc was in its heyday and the Internet was largely a wide open frontier.