Any MiniDisc Driver?

[leolaw]

Is there any MiniDisc Driver (music thingy) that serve the similar purpose as the CD Rom?

So I dont have to use my MD player to burn musice since it is too slow

 

[43st]

No. The trick to minidisk is a proprietary audio compression algorithm I believe. I think this made it a dead technology even before it was released, but that's just opinion.

 

[leolaw]

Cuz i saw there is a series of computer from Sony that comes w/ the MiniDisc Drive

 

[lazybum131]

Sony now has cd-players that support playback of ATRAC3plus (ATRAC being the minidisc compression format). So there should be a program, but I dunno if it encodes the files first, and then you burn it onto a CD, or if it encodes and burns at the same time. And then I don't think you'll have the ability to transfer the files anyway.

Also there are NetMD players. I dont' own one, so I can't tell you how it works. But it's suppose to allow for really fast transfers. Not sure about this, but I think the program takes sound files (i.e. mp3's) and encodes them, and then outputs through USB to the minidisc player. But even if it does this, I don't think you could use it for a non-NetMD player (or at least I haven't heard of any upgrade package that can make an existing MD player become NetMD).

What I've done is taken an older DVD player with optical output, and I just play CDs and hook it up to my MD player using optical. Unfortunately for me, my DVD player can't read CD-Rs and CD-RWs. I'd have to go to the family room to use the current DVD player to record from my own CDs then. Which really ain't that bad considering my family doesn't really sit down to watch movies all that often.

 

[GnomeCop]

http://www.minidisco.com/mds-nt1.html

 

[leolaw]

Geeesssss, 325 bucks???? that is even more expensive than the portable minidisc player itself!!!!! I thought the price range would be about 100-150 man!

 

[GnomeCop]

you asked for it

 

[WobbleWobble]

You're best off getting a cheap NetMD recorder.

I have a older Sony N505. Works like advertised, but remember in order to get 32X, you have to record using LP4 mode. Most people I know use the LP2 mode, which works at 16x.

Sony's software is slow and restrictive. RealOne with the NetMD plug-in works a lot better.

 

[IdahoB]

You're far better off not even thinking about Minidisc - the compression technology is awful, the units are overpriced, and the NetMD and equivilents are shockingly slow and feature loads of frustrating anti-piracy technology that makes it impossible to copy items digitally from the player to the PC. Do yourself a favour, spend a few extra bucks and pick up an iPod or similar instead - you'll not regret it - especially as they're so good for fast portable file storage as well.