Mini Disc Player Recorders anyone know much about MD?

[Kumagoro]

Hello I have to get a mini disc recorder off ebay for a reasonable amount of money and I know very
little about the things.

I cant find much in the way of which models are better than others or even which are newer
than others.

I need to copy music to mini discs from my computer but I dont really know if there is much
difference between models.. All I know is I have to get at a minimum a netMD.

These are some of the models I have seen available

MZ-N910
MZ-N710
MZ-N510
MZ-N707
MZ-NH1
MZ RH1
MZ-NH900
MZ RH910
MZ NHF800

~Now I assume that the ones with H in are Hi-MD and are therefore newer models but still I don't
know which in either group is better and in what way.

Anyone know much about MD?

Cheers.

[richieuk]

I know its practically a dead format, even back when I was in college around 5/6 years ago and I used one for recording a radio interview they were already gone then.

[Funkstar]

Why does it need to be a Mini Disk player?

Surely an MP3 player is a much better option?

The big think that the original set of MD recorders had was optican inputs, great for being used in a studio environment. They were often pushed as replacements for DAT tapes rather than CDs.

The very last version maxed the disk capacity our at 1GB and you could transfer MP3s to it. I very much doubt there will be many players around that can handle that though, they can't have sold many in th first place. Media will also be expensive and hard to get ahold of.

Personally I would stay clear of them unless you have a killer reason that requires a MD recorder. If it is just for playing then MP3 all the way.

[Kumagoro]

I need to get one for a reception as the music system they use is MD no choice in getting
it.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I was at one of the last Top of the Pops(in the audience) and they were using minidiscs still!!

[peterb]

MiniDisc is now used mainly in the professional audio field - particularly radio reporters It does use a compression algorithm, but MUCH less lossy than mp3 - which audio wise is pretty poor - even at high bit rates (and when compared with FLAC or OGG-Vorbis). Many of the portable minidisc players have optical inputs. There also ways of disabling the copy protection capabilities on some of the earlier devices (applicable to digital copying). The discs are a variation of magneto optical technology. Audio quality is excellent.

Media is still inexpensive www.discountdiscs.co.uk (general site)

http://www.discountdiscs.co.uk/Merch...ory_Code=blank

Sony specific - the MD-H disks are quite a bit more.

Sony were the main mfrs - and any of those machines by Sony will be OK (provided it is still working of course) but as always, buying on E bay carries a risk.

The rechargeable batteries will probably be special to the device - and no longer available - some had a screw on adapter that allowed you to use a couple of AA cells with it, if portability is important - and make sure it comes with the mains adapter, the power requirement is relatively high. I have a Sony MZ-R50 - it doesn't get used much, but when I do need it, it is great! (and the sound quality is much better than an mp3 file on an Ipod)

Shame - it was great format - designed to replace cassette player but was eclipsed by mp3 and the like in its turn. There was a version for computer data, but that was eclipsed by re-writeable CD.

[prehensile]

they should be very cheap, i know sharp does good ones as well as sony, the sharp ones have more open stuff and some good recorders, Normallly if it's for music, the speakers shgould be on an amplifier, and the amplifier or hifi should alllllways have an auxilary input for other inputs like turntables etc

[HSK]

pretty much what everyone's said...recently i've only used it in place of a DAT recorder when they weren't available for hire. to record sound and dialogue.

i did have a portable player when the were newer, and i did love it then. but that was years ago, you're better of going with a decent mp3 player now i reckon, cause i think the max you'll get on one disc is about 1GB's worth.

[Brewster0101]

I loved mini disc and in so many ways it should still be alive and kicking. Its media was strong and robust, so much more than CD's. Sound quality was much better than mp3's and you could actually use them as part of a good hifi set up.

Shame Sony and the public let it go to the wall. My first sony desk had a huge remote for every letter of the alphabet to label tracks......

[Kumagoro]

Is there much difference between them recording quality wise. All I need to do is
transfer tunes and save it in the original MDLP format. I am wondering if there are any differences
which are not obvious from the specs. I read that the MZ-N915 needs to have IE 6 for what ever
reason. My old MP3 player needed to have Media player 10 installed, I dont want to run into
problems like that.

[peterb]

What format are the tunes you are transfering? I don't know why you should need a web browser, essentially they are stand alone recording/playback devices - feed an analogue (or digital) source in, and it encodes and records it.

However I am not familiar with the model you mention.

[Kumagoro]

I will be transferring various formats MP3 FLAC and cda mostly i reckon. I have no idea why if it is
even true why that model needs IE 6.

[peterb]

I don't think the MD will record those formats natively (like a hard drive) You will need to convert them to audio format first. As I sid, some have a digital optical input, so if your computer sound card has optical output, that is the way to do it!

[Betty_Swallocks]

The problem with the Sony MD players was that they won't play any normal formats so your collection of music will have to be converted to the Sony format using Sonicstage which is one of the nastiest pieces of software known to man.

If you convert a tune you can only copy it to 3 discs and your copy of Sonicstage will keep track of them. If you want to put it on another disk you have to use sonicstage to "deauthorise" the disk it was on and then transfer it to the new one.

It's an awful lot of faffing around and it's the main reason I stopped using mine.

Just get an mp3 player. You retain the original format so you only have to have one copy of your music library and it's far easier to put stuff on your device.

As for recording it only records in its native format and good luck in finding a way to convert it to anything alse so that you can use the recording on your PC etc.

[tiggerai]

^ and that's why I always went SHARP

MT-888S was my last one, still got it.

I always would record from Sp-dif out from my Stereo or PC so converting things wasn't an issue. Can put a sync cue on it too so it recognises a change in track (from CD).

NetMD was the direct PC>MD but I could never afford a compatible one... the MT-899 from Sharp I would recommend as it's the same build as mine but with NetMD too.

[peterb]

Just get an mp3 player. You retain the original format so you only have to have one copy of your music library and it's far easier to put stuff on your device.

No you don't - you have to convert to mp3 format - which is nasty and lossy. You don't have to convert formats if you have a digital input - playback the encoder file on the computer using the appropriate decoder, and feed the digital stream into the MD recorder - it is a storage medium - how it is encoded and stored internally is irrelevant to the user - just as it is on a hard drive.

I don't think the OP was proposing storing the music files in the Sony format - just using it for recording music.