Thursday, June 9, 2011

Before there was iPod

By Bill Huiting


In 1992 Sony launched the MiniDisc (MD) as an attempt to replace audio cassette technologies. The MiniDisc was developed based on magneto-optical storage media that allowed for writing and rewriting of stored information. The fact that the information might be quickly accessed with out the want to scroll via an whole tape created this technologies really promising for ease of use over the cassette. The data compression format recognized as ATRAC (Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding) was used to allow the audio files to fit on the MiniDisc. In fact, at the SP compression ratio of 292kbps, 60 to 80 minutes of music could be stored on a single disk. Even at CD quality, 20 to 28 minutes of music could be stored on the MiniDisc.

The first MiniDisc based machine was the MZ-1 recorder. The dilemma with this machine was mainly that it had a price of much more than $750.00. It had an optical line input, audio line input, and microphone input jack. It had an audio output. Some of the earliest versions had an optical line output, but this feature was discontinued. Sony licensed MiniDisc tecnhology to a variety of organizations for example Sharp, Panasonic, and Kenwood. It was only a matter of time before all of these companies had released their own lines of MiniDisc players and recorders. MiniDisc players were also developed by Sony for use inside the residence and vehicle in 1994. All of these efforts yielded no outcomes in North America and Europe, where folks seemed content with cassettes for recording and CDs for music purchases. But in East Asia, the MiniDisc took hold and reigned as the top audio format medium through the rest of the 1990s.

In 2000, Sony launched the MiniDisc Long Play (MDLP) format. Inside the form of LP2, the MiniDisc player could compress audio at 132kbps for up to 80 to 160 minutes per disc. Inside the LP4 format, the audio could be compressed at 66kbps for up to 320 minutes of audio per disc. But a huge difference existed in how the stereo channels had been recorded between these two MiniDisc Lengthy Play formats. The LP2 used the exact same discrete left and proper audio channels as the original MiniDisc SP format, whilst the LP4 began the use of joint stereo encoding.

To maintain up with the new MP3 players hitting the marketplace, Sony developed its NetMD for launch in 2002. The NetMD featured a USB connector for exchanging music files with a personal pc. Nonetheless, in order to use NetMD on your personal computer, you'd have to install their SonicStage (SS) software program. Many individuals found that SonicStage was problematic. In some instances, it froze their pc systems. In other instances it used up lots of system resources, had file transfer errors, and put restrictions on how frequently files could be transferred. Although Sony rapidly came up with an update called SonicStage CP (SSCP), which was a lot more usable. Their reputation was so tarnished by the original SonicStage that several former NetMD users still won't buy Sony goods.

Other individuals don't use Sony items anymore simply because of deceptive claims Sony made about NetMD on the NetMD item boxes and on the Sony NetMD site. Sony claimed the NetMD could be able to play MP3 files. What they didn't bother to mention was that the MP3 files would not be played natively but would need to be re-encoded by SonicStage into ATRAC format in the course of the file transfer procedure. This not only meant that the sound top quality of the MP3 files would be tarnished, but also that file transfers to the NetMD could take numerous hours.

It didn't assist that Sony did not supply great item information to NetMD retailers. All in the course of this time NetMD retailers were telling their customers that files could possibly be transferred from the NetMD to their individual computers. Lots of people ended up deleting their original files on their computers following transfer only to discover later that they couldn't copy their NetMD files back onto their computers.

In 2004, Sony produced a variety of fixes and upgrades to their MiniDisc product line with the release of the Hi-MD. Things like USB two-way file transfers could now be completed. For the very first time, recordings could possibly be uploaded from the recorder to the personal computer but only files that were recorded within the Hi-MD format. But for numerous former MiniDisc clients it was too late, as too much harm had been carried out to Sony's credibility. Additionally to Sony, only Onkyo even bothered to create mini-component systems and residence stereos utilizing Hi-MD. But Kenwood, Teac, and Marantz still have MDLP systems on the market, although Hi-MD is backwards compatible with the previous MiniDisc formats. Hi-MD contains 1 gigabyte of memory and records in PCM, otherwise called WAV.

In April 2006, Sony came out with the MZ-RH1 portable Hi-MD recorder. This recorder went the additional step, not just could Hi-MD recordings be uploaded but also recordings created prior to the introduction of Hi-MD might be uploaded. Without having blatantly admitting it, Sony was giving MD users the chance to upload all their MD recordings to personal computer so the files could be transferred to other formats as the MD-age was now coming to a close.

A whole generation in East Asia has now grown up utilizing the MiniDisc formats. Lots of people have grow to be hardcore fans. Lots of people haven't found a viable option for making real-time copies of music for replay with out requiring the clunky intervention and use of a pc. Lots of people now collect MiniDisc systems just as a hobby. But the MiniDisc systems live on in common usage simply because many people just want to be able to grab whatever they hear to hear once more later.




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