Minidiscs

[godzilla]

Hey all, does anyone have any experience with Minidiscs? The reason i ask is i have an Alpine minidisc HU joined via the A-Net thing they have going to an Alpine cd HU. Now for what ever reason the cd player has stoped reading cd's either in the HU or through the Alpine stacker. Now i really dont want to get rid of the units or send them to Alpine to get fixed(if they can) so i want to try the minidisc part. Does anyone know quality wise how good or bad minidisc is? Also how the hell do you get music onto the things? I assume i will have to buy some sort of seperate minidisc writer? Anyway if anyone has any input on these units, or can lend me a minidisc with music already on it to try, that would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[Scottie]

I use minidisc alot. I have a small player and a HiFi system so i was rapt when it came with my Legnum.

In raw format Minidisc is better than CD. The only problem is that if you copy from a CD it is as only as good as that.

See if your unit has Minidisc LP (will be written on it). This is MP3 for minidisc players (different format tho) and can store 80-100 songs on a Minidisc. Unfortunaely there is quality loss (just like MP3).

If you want to make up discs, just grab a minidisc recorder off eBay and you can click and drag them on via USB. Sony units also seem better in terms or quality, features and PC compatibility.

 

[godzilla]

No LP on the receiver in the Leggie. As this unit is nearing 10yo, will it be able to read MP3 & WMA etc? What would one expect to pay for a recorder? I see them on Ebay going for upwards of $500

EDIT- It does have a separate little button on it that says " L.P.S"

 

[Scottie]

I got my Recorder around 8 years ago and i am pretty sure it was brand new technology then. LP isn't selectable unless you are recorder. A player will auto detect LP. The units cannot read WMA or MP3, only the compressed MD format.

Something like this is fine, but USB is a bonus otherwise you will have to use the Line-In or Optical to record your songs on to it and it will only to realtime which is a PITA and much slower.

 

[Johny]

isnt a minidisc just a smaller cd?

 

[Scottie]

isnt a minidisc just a smaller cd?

Technically yes, but does not use a CD transport.

Here is a Minidisc

You are thinking of 8cm CD's?

 

[godzilla]

So what will my Alpine HU play? If you say you can just burn the minidisc like you would say a cd in Windows Media Player, how do you set those files to MD format? All i have is my files in my WM Library.

 

[Scottie]

You need to play the files one by one while recording on the MD. Trust me, get a USB unit, otherwise MD is not worth it at all.

 

[godzilla]

Will do, but i need to check to see if the MD unit even works as i was told by Alpine that it could be the A-Net thingy. If i may ask, could i borrow a MD with music on it from you? You can pm me your paypal or bank details and i will cover all cost for postage.

 

[Scottie]

PM Sent

 

[bratwurst_boy]

i use mini discs to, i love them. you can't scratch them and they are space saving. I bought a sony portable player from mini disc australia, it was only $79 and it came with 5 discs and a carry case. it also has sonic stage which you use to put the songs on to the mini discs, takes about the same amount of time to burn as a normal CD.

 

[Rasi]

hmmm.. I may need to look into it as I have a MD as well.

 

[bratwurst_boy]

do you have a MD player in your car Mike??? i got mine from ebay for $40

 

[Rasi]

Yeh I have a pioneer carrozzia (spelling?) head unit with a minidisk slot which was in the car from Japan. I haven't bothered looking into gettin a burner and disks as I thought there would probably not be anything around considering Mini disks didn't really take off over here in Australia.

 

[Tom]

The MiniDisc player that came with my car wouldn't read any MiniDiscs I put in it =/ So I had no music for a few weeks when I first got my car!

Just dodgy AM radio, or anything that could be picked up below 88.5FM lol

 

[Rasi]

hmm... I don't want to buy a recorder and disks if it isn't going to work. Anyone in Brissie have any minidisks that I could try?

 

[Tom]

hmm... I don't want to buy a recorder and disks if it isn't going to work. Anyone in Brissie have any minidisks that I could try?

And it wasn't just a 'faulty disc' either, my mate gave me 18 discs to use.. All of which didnt work..

I tried them upside down too lol.. They just wouldnt play, then they'd get spat back out!

So yeah, give it a try before buying recorders and stuff dude..

 

[Rasi]

Well I tried the mini disc's last night and 1 seemed to work, but no sound, while the others gave an error. ERROR 24. I tried to download the manual (in jp only) and translate it, but the pdf was password protected, so couldn't translate it.

So I think I may try another option...

http://mp4nation.net/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_36&products_id=254

has a built in FM transmitter. Thats not the reason to buy it tho... was thinking of a IPod nano, but this could be a cheaper compromise.