No wonder Mini disc died

i dug out my old Sharp mini disc player and decided to start using it again, but I can understand why MP3 players took over, taking ages to convert my music to it's format.

I thought the player had gone belly up, but it is working now for some reason, the only problem is I needed a windows XP based machine to get it working.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

i dug out my old Sharp mini disc player and decided to start using it again, but I can understand why MP3 players took over, taking ages to convert my music to it's format.

I thought the player had gone belly up, but it is working now for some reason, the only problem is I needed a windows XP based machine to get it working.

Do you not have windows 7 pro by any chance can use XP mode, Im presuming the need of XP would possibly be a driver problem with new OS's due to the format dieing before these OS's came out so no updated drivers although im sure some one will correct me if thats wrong

Ash

MD may be dead here, (but I bought blanks in Tesco just before Christmas), but it's still big in Japan. My japanese '06 car has a factory-fit MD player. But I will concede that getting music on them is a bit of a faff.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

i dug out my old Sharp mini disc player and decided to start using it again, but I can understand why MP3 players took over, taking ages to convert my music to it's format.

I thought the player had gone belly up, but it is working now for some reason, the only problem is I needed a windows XP based machine to get it working.

Lol, As a mobile DJ i at one time used MD ,

Plenty of hours days even spent recording stuff from CD, and later from PC on to MD, but in it's day MD was Superior to the CD
Sound quality wise, MP3 isn't as good it don't have the same depth as a CD or MD had even if recording a CD onto pc then converting it to MP3 128k or higher , But more and more DJ's are now using a laptop with a DJ app which has mixing desk controls faders BPM counters pitch everything you need ,

I got windows 7 pro yes and I did try Xp mode, but I could not get the USBs working for some reason. I need to put linux back on the other machine,if I could get the minidisc player working with Linux it would be ideal.


@tommy45, i agree about the sound quality, my brother got one separate with Cd and mini disc and it sounds really nice, I can't remember what make it is mind you.

I got a few discs still and some not even been opened, time to bring the thing back into use I think, the problem is the headphones have gone and the connection is one of Sharps silly four pole system, I can't even find the adaptor for it either. Talking about adaptors, must find the power adaptor as well, that is here somewhere.

I would love a home unit to attach to my midi system

Early ones had compression not as good as later ones but I agree up there with CD. Better than putting things onto good old school tape(would say these have now gone), to sell in tesco like the minidisks mentioned. Found that surprising but the tapes are still there and our poundland.

I have 2 sony mains ones of mini hifi size. Fitted a treat under the 1998 technics dolby pro logic (now died format I guess with 5:1 or 7:1 on dvd and bluray) HIFI separates only when 2 years ago on ebay. £500 item 12 years later for £15.

Still got 2 MDS-S38 and the s39. Same but different front and surround around the disk slot. buttons and screen same layout.

Both in the cupboard with the blank disks that most are full going back to 1998 of CD copys (naughty) and even worse top 40 songs I liked for the youth club and brownie and other discos at church I did with my stuff now sold in recient years.

Where good for discos along with the various now thats what I call music double CD's I got for friday youth club as one of the leaders, now shut and forgotten about.

I liked and in 1997 spent about £300 from currys on the silver maybe 2 fag packet sized sony offering with the lithium cell at the end.
That long gone on ebay with a 512Mb mp3 player that replaced it. That was just over £100 in about 2003 or 4.
How things move on to Gb memory players not 5cm by 5cm and cheap.

Minidiscs, record stuff in real time so 74 minutes and looking at the specs in the instructions (yes have got from 14 years ago) they only coped with 255 tracks.

My first one had a duff eject mechanism so discs got stuck and it went to the monkeys of whatever currys called the repair place at the time so many time gone for weeks at a time, lost our temper and dad made a seen one day at the counter and manager, we went out with a brand new one, still got today.

Had 2 for the discos with a cd player and a few radio mics as well the littluns liked for singing badly through. Alll thise days are over now, have none of the stuff or go there anymore, club shut before I left the church and area.

The good old days. No mp3 players or laptops with the music, CD's and minidiscs, bring it all back.

Guess if I had the disco I would have moved the cds to computer as went with loads, sat here filling a cupboard and tall cd rack and never used.

Sounding old and fed up but the good old days of doing kiddie things, was good on friday nights with the disco so many times a year.

Gone are the days I am usefull any more, Can't even get a proper job after 4 years in may of trying!.

All together now, Ahh..

Still put in the 2006 car, why, Maybe that was a digital way then before the USB hole as dads 2008 has and done skoda car driving around then and they had a SD card slot for the tunes.

I had MD in the car 1997, was headphone out of the small sony silver thing to the aux in on the car radio of renault Clio. The 3.5mm aux in hole nothing new, had in new 1994 car!. good for the portable cd player as well as tape in the car in those days.

Enough going on of the good old days, now to read some more posts on here.
Only came in for a quick read god knows how long ago.

Wonder why the MD needs a computer. Can it copy files over. Mine had phono or optical in and out. all real time recording and no computer in sight.

Edited by Daniel_g (Wed 08-Feb-12 14:26:30)

USB on yours, posh then. Must be a later one.

I have 2 home ones, will be good for museum one day.

Don't even use anymore and have a few blank ones. Did not know they were sold in tesco. Thought it had long died with the mp3 player and the ipods.

Tried a mp3 player once. headphones in public, not me.

Would get a bigger memory one now for not £10, mine was over 100 at currys in the early expensive days.

Forgot this on my post as was rattling on and did not do, found this before I started, knew it was compressed of some sort but stil good.

Don't think the DAT (tape) was as was 44.1Khz sampling like the CD I think.

Had them and a radio station my mate worked at and sat in with him a few times when no one there at night. Moved my salisbury college stuff over from them to normal tape in 1998.

Bet they have long gone with those damn computers now doing uncompressed WAV files and other choices I expect.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Transform_Acou...

Edited by Daniel_g (Wed 08-Feb-12 14:12:57)

A lot on ebay including my old silver thing ( well not my actual one, or is it) or £17.

I hardly got that about 7 years ago.

ebay has minidisk section in home audio. I looked at used and brings up some including a few low bids on things running out

mine is a portable one, only a small thing, it is called a net MD, the USb is for putting files across and it can also use a higher compression than normal MD players if needed.
the software that came with it is beat jam, useless really, so I downloaded Sony sonic stage.

Got optical as well.
I finally got it working via windows XP mode on windows 7, the reason why I had problems before is I did not realise you had to use a USB menu to connect. the other problem I had with the player is that now and again it would not transfer, found that to be low battery, I will have to find the mains adaptor.


I saw a few home ones on ebay, not sure it is is worth getting one or not. I am trying to get a ZX81 at a good price at the moment. Just for old times sake.