links

Links related to MD:

• Sony, innovators of the MiniDisc, their US Minidisc page, Hong Kong MD page, German MD page, Netherlands MD page (with an MD Commercial on it), Sony France and Sony Italy's MD pages, Sony Europe's MD pages (including a virtual MD player) and Professional Audio Division's MD technical overview, Singaporian MD and Customer Support pages. Sony customer support can also be reached by email at [email protected]. An excerpt from Sony's 1995 annual report gives a business view of Sony's audio technology and discusses the success of MiniDisc. Their 1996 Annual report says a few more warm and fuzzy words about the format. Sony Europe's page has a virtual MD player (requires Shockwave).
• Sharp Japan's English MD pages contain interesting information, including the ``Sharp MD Story'' and their entire MD product lineup that includes their new MD-X3 system. The Sharp USA MD page lists the MD gear they sell in the US (you can call 1-800-BE-SHARP to find a dealer near you). Sharp Deutschland's MD pages give specs (including ATRAC versions) of much of their equipment.
• Yamaha's Multirack MD Pages.
• Alpine Japan.

• Sony has a handy glossary of HiFi terms on their website.
• A book covering MiniDisc, has been written by Jan Maes and Roger Verlinden of Sony Europe's Technical Support staff.
• MD technology borrows heavily from the Compact Disc.
  • This paper, A Fundamental Introduction to the Compact Disc Player, provides a good introduction to the digital audio theory and practice in CD devices.
  • Philips also has some excellent technical information about Audio CDs and Optical Disc Technology.
  • The CD-ROM Meta-FAQ has good deal of information describing just what a CD-ROM is.
  • Andy McFadden's CD-R FAQ is a good source of general CD-R information.
  • Finally, a nice into to CD technology was written by Andy Poggio.
• Sevo Stille has written a good introduction to Microphone terminology and setups.
• Cross reference table of commercial audio formats. Allows comparisons at a glance. (Tampere Univ. Finland)

• Historical events related to digital audio (Tampere Univ. Finland).
• In The Principles of Digital Audio by Ken Pohlmann there is a chapter devoted to MiniDisc.
• The Art of Digital Audio (2nd Edition) by John Watkins has sections covering the technology used in MiniDisc.
• The Pro Audio FAQ is a good source of information about digital recording formats, equipment, and theory. It contains good explanations of digital jitter and digital vs. analog recording quality.
• MD recorders digitally connect to other equipment (CD players, PC sound cards, etc.) using S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format), Tomi Engdahl has written a detailed description of its signalling. Peter Knight provides additional information on the S/PDIF C channel coding.
• Tutorial on digital audio for the layman, including an interactive, Java-based Fourier transform demonstration.

• A set of EBU SQAM recordings represent particularly difficult audio signals for perceptual coders (you can torture-test your MD with these).
• LAME, an open-source patch, can create a high quality MP3 encoder from the original reference code.
• The IIS MPEG Audio Layer 3 site has public domain MPEG software and also an MPEG Audio Layer-3 FAQ that, along with the Usenet Compression FAQ's Introduction to MPEG, the MPEG Information Page, and these Audio Compression References give further information about MPEG Audio compression, Layer I of which is nearly identical to the PASC system used by Philips.
• Yamaha's new TwinVQ audio compression format (based upon work at NTT), is said to give near CD quality audio at 20:1 compression ratios.
• Jari Yli-Hietanen has a summary page highlighting modern audio coder technical points, he includes info on PAC and ATRAC.
• Esin Darici Haritaoglu has written a nice paper on Wideband Speech and Audio Coding that touches on the fundamentals of all audio coding, including ATRAC.

• HomeRecording.com has some useful tidbits for the home recordist.
• The DAT-heads mailing list Home Page and the DAT-Heads FAQ contain information pertinent to digital and live recording, some of which applies to MiniDisc.
• The Sound Professionals points out a clear and comprehensive description of how microphones work.
• The Microphone FAQ is hosted by Harmony Central (text version) and MJJM in Holland (html version).

• The Candian Copyright Board imposes a 60 cent tax on every MD blank sold in Canada (as of 12 Dec 99). More information is outlined in an article by the National Post.
• The Home Recording Rights Coalition works to preserve your rights to purchase and use recording gear.
• Frank Beacham made a formal statement before congress in 1992 lobbying against the Audio Home Recording Act. He has some thoughts about the real motivations for introducing MiniDisc. A more recent article discusses the use of MiniDisc and the MZ-B3 portable for radio journalism, and a follow up article discusses the use of the MZ-R30 and MZ-B3 portables in this field.

• Martin Clinton notes an interesting ZDNet article on Lithium Ion Polymer Batteries, the ``builtin'' rechargeable cell used in the Sony MZ-E95 player.
• Howard Jow revisits NiMH battery life after a year of use.
• Batteries are a critical component of MD portables. You can learn more about modern rechargeables on this page about batteries as well as on a Motorola page on LiIon Cells and Battery Management Techniques. There is also a comprehensive battery information FAQ that is worth reading. A new battery type, the Ray-O-Vac Alkaline Renewal (rechargeable) cells, use technology developed by BTI. Sony also offers information about LiION batteries.
• Howard Jow compares the Sony NH-9WM and 14WM battery packs.
• Lytron has a high tech battery charging system for getting extra life from NiCad, NiMH, LiIon, and Pb cells.
• The Cadex battery chargers and analyzers site has interesting details about battery maintenance and excerpts from a battery book.
• Pete De Bonte has a detailed MD portables battery page.

• In Comparison to Minidisc
  • 5/01: A Minidisc T-station comparison gives 87 views of Minidisc's superiority to MP3 players.
  • 4/01: A Tech-Report.com MZ-R70 article judges MD favorably in comparison to MP3 players.
  • 4/01: An IDC report on the compressed audio player marketplace believes that an "increasing number of vendors and consumers alike are turning to cheaper alternative media to transport their music."
  • 4/01: A New York Times article predicts a "Digital Storage Format Shakeout," mentioning Dataplay and other media.
  • 3/01: An interesting article on Twice.com tells how portable MP3 and MD players outsold CD-R related sales for the first three quarters of 2000.
  • 3/01: David Hogan's Advice for Aspiring Tapers article on a Pearl Jam site concludes that MiniDisc is the best bet for the cost-aware taper.
  • 12/00: The MiniDisc T-Station posts an article discussing the battle between MiniDisc, CD, and MP3 audio players.
  • 7/00: A CNet article states CDs, MiniDiscs still reign over MP3s; the article mentions that MD holds 40 percent of the digital audio recorder market, ahead of CD recorders with over 30 percent.
  • Jamshid Afshar has written a reasonably balanced FAQ sheet about MD vs. alternative recording media.
  • An evenhanded MaximumPC article compares CD-R and MiniDisc.
  • Compare.net does a CD/MD/DAT format comparison.
  • GadgetSquad's article on MiniDisc vs. MP3 emphasizes MD as still keeping competitive.
  • A Cnet article compares CD, MD and MP3.
• MP3
  • Tao Pan finds an EETimes article covering the SoundsGood MP3 module add-on for the Handspring Visor. It is also usable as a standalone portable digital audio player.
  • Howard Chui tells why he picks MD over MP3
  • A CNN article concludes that Portable MP3 is not ready for prime time.
  • MP3's dire threat to Minidisc (Etown).
  • CNN has an interesting article covering RIAA's rival to the MP3.
  • A DigitalMASS article talks about Fraunhofer's MP3 licensing and the rise of Ogg Vorbis, a free software alternative.
• Sony Memory Stick Walkman and MusicClip Player
  • Sony's newest cell phones now have Memory Stick readers built into them (such as the CMD-MZ5). A Japanese product page describes one cell phone that even has recording capabilities via analog and digital inputs. Another Japanese news page has lots of pictures of the cell phone.
  • The Sony CLIE PEG-N700C (see original Japanese press release or English PalmInfoCenter article) is the latest of Sony's PDAs which can be used as a portable Memory Stick player (complete with wired remote).
  • Sony's NW-E3 MusicClip Player, NW-E5 MusicClip Player, and NW-MS9 Memory Stick Walkman appear on Sony's Japanese SonyStyle page. Further good photos of the NW-E3 have also been found at the site.
  • The MC-HP1 & MC-PW11 ``Vaio Music Clip'' players (machine translation), the former is a headphone unit only, the latter is arm-band mounted and weather and water resistant. Each unit handles both ATRAC3 and MP3 coded audio.
  • Tim Russell takes a close look at Sony's solid state Music Clip player and its SDMI constraints. His recommendation: stick with MiniDisc. Robert Jung clarifies Sony Music Clip's MP3 capabilities. Further detail on the Music Clip's use of ATRAC3 is found on Sony's site.
  • CNN reports on Sony's announcement of the Memory Stick Walkman.
  • Sony's ATRAC3 page talks about the technical function of the unit (you can also register to get an encoder at this site).
  • Sony's official NW-MSY Memory Stick Walkman press release (also available in English) talks of the unit's use of 32 & 64MB memory sticks. A second Japanese press release gives further information.
  • A Japanese news coverage sige has news of several Sony mockups of future Memory Stick Walkmans (pictures: 1 2 3 4).
  • Snapshots at CEBIT '99 and Comdex that show the Sony MemoryStick Walkmen.
  • An article talks about a Sony tie-up with RealNetworks, providing ATRAC3 audio delivery over the Net.
  • Reviews of the Memory Stick Walkman have been done by ZDnet and GadgetSquad.
  • Sony has a Club Memory Stick page.
  • InTechZone has info and some pictures of Sony's Memory Stick portable audio player. GLOBAL-DVC.ORG shows Sony headphones incorporating a memorystick player (scroll to the bottom of the page).
  • Memorystick.org offers information for developers, and is loaded with promotional material and information urging more companies to support the format (the site, not surprisingly, is run by Sony).
• The Rio
  • A comparison is made between the Sharp MD-MS702 MiniDisc player and Rio MP3 player in which the Rio suffers, principally for its sound quality.
  • A Macopinion review favors MD over Rio/MP3, so does a review in 3Dhardware.
  • In a Fastgraphics MD, MPMAN and Rio comparison, MD shows its merit.
  • Daniel Currie argues the benefits of Rio vs MD.
  • Photos and Japanese information covering what's inside a Rio MP3 player show that it is not exactly jam packed.
• Other Solid State Portables
  • The Marantz PMD680 professional-level solid-state recorder uses a PCMCIA type III slot for audio recording.
  • Teac has a line of PC-card recording units which accept PCMCIA type II ATA standard Flash memory cards.
  • Michael Stouffs notes a review of the Casio WMP-1V wrist watch MP3 player.
  • Professional solid state MPEG recorder: Developed jointly by Digigram and Nagra, the RCX220 allows up to 3.25 hours of MP2 stereo recording on a 192MB (!) flash card, with USB transfers to PC.
  • Recorder: PASS gives brief coverage of the Denon DN-F20R, a Flash Memory based portable recorder. Intended for professional use, it includes an uncompressed recording mode.
  • Recorder: Aiwa's photo and Japanese announcement of their MM-FX500 shows the world's first portable MP3 encoder/player. Aiwa has English coverage for this unit. With 32MB of memory, it records music (analog input) at 128kbps/44.1khz or voice memo (builtin mono mic input) at 8kbps/16khz. Battery life on AA x 1, rec: 5h, play: 10h. Dim: 65 x 90 x 18.5mm, 80g. MSRP: JPY 39,800
  • C@MP's portable MP3 player, being sold at Supreme Video, can be inserted into a regular cassette deck for playback.
  • Solid State audio gets coverage in a newspaper clipping of the Solid Audio Player from NTT and Kobe Steel, due to debut in Japan for $250. (More information on SoliAudio can be found at AudioExplosion.com.)
  • Chris Dom spots Erikson's combined MP3 player and cell phone, no wireless downloading however.
  • Casio announces their MP3 player wristwatch (Japanese product info page). Due out in April, the unit holds 32MB of audio and can be loaded via USB port (each 4 minute track taking 70 seconds). Casio also has an English page for their WMP-1V MP3 wristwatch, capable of holding as much as 66 minutes of audio (at FM radio quality).
  • A Japanese press release and product page describe the Toshiba MM-300 SmartMedia player. The SDMI compliant JPY29,800 unit plays MP3 as well as Twin-VQ formats. Specs: 86x52x10mm, 54g, 5.5hr battery life.
  • Sharp announces their new headphone-shaped ATRAC3 player. Incorporating an SDMI compliant 64MB Sony Memory Stick, two hour playing times (at 66kbps) are possible. Battery life: 4 hours, MSRP: JPY48,000.
  • eDigital's Internet Music Player handles ATRAC3 coding as well as MP3, EPAC, Liquid Audio and others.
  • Panasonic releases pictures and Japanese info on its SV-SD70 solid state player. Due out in July for JPY49,800, the AAC (not MP3) based unit uses SD flash memory cards and plays 4 hours on a single AAA cell. Unequipped with an audio data input jack, its SD cards are docked to the PC with a USB or PCMCIA adapter for downloading. Its SDMI compliant software converts CD and MP3 (but not .WAV) tracks to AAC. Larger capacity cards are due in 2001 (256MB) and 2003 (1GB).
  • Samsung's Yepp, a portable MP3 player with an optional base unit, allows direct recording from CD and connection to a HiFi system. More information indicates that one model provides speech recording capability.
• CD-R
  • Sony's USB-equipped ``Digital Relay'' CRX10U/A2 portable CD-RW drive ($399) doubles as a portable audio/MP3 CD player.
  • The Philips Magnavox Expanium portable CD/MP3 player is reviewd byMP3.com.
  • Aiwa releases the CDC-MP3, an in-dash CD and CD-R/RW MP3 player.
  • The CD-R FAQ has very thorough coverage of writeable CD technology.
  • Ricoh's CD-R handbook has a good description of how CD-R recording works.
  • An article in CD-ROM Professional gives a detailed look at the CD-E (CD-RW) format's technology, problems, and chances for success.
  • A TWICE article states that the music industry isn't too fond of the CD-RW format.
  • SRTL's preliminary product info on the Philips CDR870 CD-RW recorder indicates that only erase last track and erase all editing operations are possible.
  • A portable MP3 CD-R player is being developed.
  • Tagram's Mambo-X P300 portable MP3 CD/CD-RW player. Available in December, it also plays regular CDs and runs for 14 hours on two AA cells (price: $175).
  • Arzeno Fabrice has made a brief page covering Philips 3 new CD recorders.
  • Kenwood's 919 series car audio components (Japanese and (brief) English information available) play MP3 CD-R/RW discs as well as normal CDs.
  • The Goodman GDMP330 Portable CD Player, available in Europe in July for 150 Euros, will also play MP3 CD-R discs.
  • Terrac's MP3 HiFi component plays MP3 CDs as well as normal ones and can be fitted with a hard drive for amassing huge music collections.
  • Zdnet takes a look at the MPTrip portable MP3-CD player (available for ~$110 at easybuy). The unit even has a [very low quality] audio recording mode.
  • A Korean company has produced a custom CD vending machine.
• 8cm CD Players
  • Philips has an 8cm CD-R portable MP3 player available.
  • Digit Life's 8cm CD article notes three MP3 players using the format.
  • The MET 8cm CD/MP3 player, though not tiny (98x93x23mm), nor particuarly long playing (4 hours battery life), does offer 3-6 hours of MP3 audio capacity on cheap mini-CD media. Unit does not record.
  • Review of the MPzip (first mini-CD MP3 player). The near-CD player bulk and poor battery life (~1-2 hr) are unfortunate, however the easy, unimpeded computer access to its media is a plus.
  • Michael Hoffman is keeping track of mini-CD/MP3 players and DataPlay untis.
• Other Moving Media based Equipment
  • The ARCHOS Jukebox Recorder 20 MP3-recorder does real-time MP3 recording to a 20GB hard drive from microphone, line-in or digital sources and is USB 2.0 connectable for drag-and-drop PC file transfer flexibility.
  • The Compro PDS-AV portable MP3 player doubles as a portable digital media storage device with the use of a 3.5" drive slot compatible with both regular floppies and 120MB SuperDisks.
  • Zapmedia'sZapStation is a home audio/video unit capable of playing CDs, DVDs, MP3s and MPEG videos.
  • The Nomad Jukebox portable player ($400) by Creative Labs contains a 6GB hard drive which handles both MP3 and Windows Media format audio.
  • RCA's Lyra MP3 portable player will accept CompactFlash or an IBM 340MB Microdrive.
  • The Compaq/HanGo Personal Jukebox, a hard disk based portable MP3 player with 80 hour music capacity and 10 hour battery life, is due out in December for about $800. (MP3FactoryDirect has a few further details).
  • The Mp3mobile is a little Lunix PC with hard disc that provides 35 hours of MP3 music in your car and sells for under US$1K.
• New Media
  • Sony's OpenMG Light & ATRAC3 to be adopted by NTT DoCoMo's PHS-Compatible "M-stage music", opening the way for high quality, copy-prohibited music downloads to mobile phones in Japan.
  • Sony's double density CD-ROM/RW is announced in this July 2000 press release.
  • HitClips MicroMusic is an inexpensive product for pre-teens that stores a single minute of audio on a chip.
  • A New York Times article discusses MP3 player developments. The latest trend? Coupling moving mass storage (40MB Clik, 340MB IBM Microdrive, 500MB Dataplay) with them to overcome mass market appeal limiting flash-memory costs. A ZDNet article also mentions the DataPlay disc.
  • Sensory Science has announced the Rave:MP2300, an MP3 player that uses Iomega Clik discs. The $10 discs store 40MB on 2" magnetic media (cf. MD's $3, 160MB, 2.5" MO disc).
  • Iomega's HipZip player utilizes PocketZip disks (previously known as Clik! discs). Note: If the comparison table also included Minidisc (e.g. recorder@$300, 20 blanks@$3/each) it would beat the HipZip by $300 and best it in audio quality as well.
  • A Wired article covers the DataPlay Disc, a tiny 500MB write-once medium designed to hold music, books, games and photos. An ETown article states a DataPlay equipped Rio MP3 player could be on the market by June 2001. A CNN Sci-tech article discusses DataPlay's problems and possibilities in the portable audio marketplace. An ABC News article observes Dataplay's uphill battle.
  • C-3D has announced a technology they have developed that can store 140GB on a CD-size carrier, using multiple storage layers.
  • A Sony announcement and a Sharp announcement both outline the development of a 50mm 1GB MO disc (with 2GB and 4GB versions possible) that looks surprisingly similar to the Sanyo/Olympus/Hitachi 730MB, 50mm mini-MO. Both are slated for use in digital cameras.
• DVD
  • Pioneer's announcement of the first home DVD recorder, bringing MD-like editing features to video recordings. (Does it have an audio-only mode?).
  • A Ziff-Davis article discusses DVD-RAM's standardization problems.
• Non-MP3 Encodings
  • On the alternative MP3 front, an interesting article from Wired Online discusses the new VQF compression format, plus a pic of the SolidAudio player which is based on this 18:1 compression system.
  • e.Digital, Lucent and TI announce secure Internet audio downloading based upon Bell Lab's EPAC audio coder (which gives CD transparent quality at 11:1 compression).

Thinking of making a MiniDisc home page? You might read our Suggestions to MiniDisc Webmasters.

An alternative to creating your own page, MiniDiscussion is looking for people interested in running MiniDisc message boards that deal with a topic they're experienced in.

• n5md.com is a recording label company that issues recordings in Minidisc format only; two releases so far as of May 2001.
• Bj�rn Blomberg's EE plaza has a good section on Minidisc.
• Steven Goetz has the beginnings of a Minidisc Fan Page.
• MD Central has a clean simplicity to its design.
• James creates a MiniDisc page entitled MDWorld, with links and some MD unit info.
• Keep up with MiniDisc news in Malaysia with MiniDiscNews.com (page is in English).
• Dion Longworth runs a page dedicated to the latest JVC electronics, including MD equipment.
• Petey has a MiniDisc website that concentrates on pre-recorded MDs and MD label templates.
• Audio Heat features an alternate formatting of the MD FAQ.
• Dan Bruner creates a MiniDisc Graphics page of MD graphics and logos.
• Pareen Gandecha used his MD unit to record several bands live in Manchester (UK), you can listen to his results at the Love Garage website.
• Dan Foley starts the Canabrism Minidisc Site, with general MD information, equipment reviews, and links.
• Ryan Graft has made a page devoted to live MD recording.
• Leon runs DiscArray, an MD website with some reviews, interesting links, and a design outline for a 25 button cellphone-like MD portable.
• Ecoustics has a good MiniDisc section with links to many equipment reviews.
• Paul Robertson has started a UK MD page with a focus on blanks, trading and accessories.
• Fabian has made an MD Fan page.
• Axel Stenberg has a stylish MD page at bounce.to/md.
• Louis has made an enthusiastic MD page with several equipment reviews.
• Davin has started MiniDisc Technology Today, featuring MD news and articles.
• The T-Station gives good coverage of modern MD gear, with the option of adding your own equipment or merchant review. They also have an extensive MiniDisc blank gallery.
• Thabenksta has started a MiniDisc page for newcomers to the format.
• Lou Moore has created the MD Trading Post which has extensive information on Sony's new line of 1999 MD deck models.
• Tim Silverman has written a brief intro to MD.
• Jeff Heffernan provides links to MD merchants, with particularly good coverage of the pre-recorded MD suppliers.
• MiniDisc World describes itself as a "source for the latest information on Minidisc products and technology on the Internet."
• Felix creates MDgear.com, a MiniDisc resource with detailed information on the more popular portable units.

• Random Site   Stats   List Sites
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  This MiniDisc Webring site owned by Eric Woudenberg.

• MiniDisc Switzerland http://minidisc.ch now offers free webspace to anyone wishing to make non-commerical MiniDisc homepages, you can even choose your own URL (e.g. http://minidisc.ch/yourname).
• Shawn Lin's MiniDisc appreciation page has several interesting sections including comparisons of MD to cassette, DAT and CD; info about MPEG Layer 3 on the net; an MD Techie Corner. He also has a FAQ sheet on MD recording and Digital recording.
• Hardeep's MD Gallery Page has images of a wide range of MD equipment.
• Martin Borus' MD homepage covers several MD hacking topics and has a few snapshots from I-Funk-A ' 97, Berlin, CeBit '98 and the Cebit '98 home show. .
• Steffen Hung's Swiss MiniDisc Page, www.minidisc.ch, offers free web space for those wishing to make MD pages.
• Ken Deeter has an attractive MD Page.
• Larry Bell has a page devoted to recording with the Tascam Portastudio.
• A. Tanone has a brief encomium for the MZ-R30.
• Dostick's MiniDisc Page contains a fully scanned Sharp MD-MS200 manual.
• Robert B's MD page includes a discussion bulletin board.
• Nicholas Riley's MD Page has a audio clip of Sony's North American MD commercial.
• P. Jalvinger has a succinct MD page.
• Behnam Tony's French/English MD page has several nice MD equipment pictures.
• D. Jonason's MD page has some info on the Yamaha MD-4.
• The Eclectic Homepage talks about his new MiniDisc.
• Yumiko has a brief MD page.
• A British MiniDisc page contains a few nice pictures, including a diagram of how the ``shock-resistant'' memory system works.
• Roscoe Mittleman's MD page has an MD supplier rating page and an MD specific search engine.
• Maarten's DCC Page has some even handed comments on Digital Compact Cassette equipment. David Rogers has also begun an ambitious effort to build a complete DCC page.
• Kyle Schmitt's MiniDisc page.
• An MD fan has a page that enthusiastically supports the MD format.
• Luis has the beginnings of a page devoted to MD advertising.
• Chris Keen has a collection of large images suitable for Wallpaper on your PC/Mac desktop, including a couple of Minidisc images. Chris also has a generalised MD tech-spec.
• Mat Smith has some comments on the relative merits of Sony and Sharp portables.

• Matt Snow starts up a MiniDisc hip-hop trading group site on Yahoo.
• Lou Moore encourages MD Trading in his recent newsletter, and gives beginner step-by-step instructions on how to get involved.
• Marc Grunberg offers MD trading through Tha MD Trading Post.
• Tim Boswell's TradeCheck site is designed to foster MD trading and features a trader ratings database.
• Emanuele has an Italian MD trading page.
• Anthony Vita has a MiniDisc Trading Post for those who want to swap MDs.
• Stefan Baden has made an MD Trading page.
• Pete Williams has made a small MD Trading Site.

• AV Convert offers MD to CD mastering services.
• CD Post will burn a CD for you and mail it to your door.
• The MD Sleeve Center collects and designs MD album sleeve labels, all available for free download.
• EDL in Britain has a very spiffy MD TOC Editor for folks with MD data drives and Windows machines. It even allows control of the SCMS bits.
• Sony Disc Manufacturing has a good deal of technical information for artists producing MiniDiscs.
• Emagic performs music media mastering of MDs, CDs, etc. They charge $1.93 an MD in production runs of 500 pieces.
• Looking to do a little techno or dance music studio work in Novosibirsk, Russia? DM Records can help out, they do their mastering with an MDS-JE500.
• A table showing the production sales of the optoelectronic industry in Japan predicts over 100% growth rate for MiniDisc players in 1995.
• Pioneer has announced that they will introduce professional use audio system based upon a computer Magneto-Optical drive, the unit will allow 16, 20, and 24 bit recording, at up to 48KHz.
• If you're wondering how Japan is able to manufacture such technological wonders as MiniDisc, the Japanese Technology Evaluation Center has written an informative report on Electronic Manufacturing and Packaging in Japan.
• Rodus sells a Macintosh DB package for keeping track of MDs, CDs, etc.

• Fixtronix (Ireland) offers service and repair of professional Minidisc gear.
• Aiwa posts tech bulletins for servicemen repairing MD gear (archived local copy available).
• You can order any Sony electronics accessory (such as remotes, manuals, etc.) direct from Sony.
• Sharp also allows the online ordering of parts from their Canadian website.
• Sony has a National Direct Response Center at 800-222-7669, representatives there can help you troubleshoot problems with Sony equipment.
• Sharp's World Wide repair centers. Sharp UK states: Although not officially guaranteed by Sharp UK we do try to honour "non-uk" warranties where reasonable. Providing the units proof of purchase is available and verifies that the unit is not older than 6 months and the fault is a genuine one, i.e. not due to incompatability of use within the UK or accidental damage/misuse, we can offer a warranty service. The approved contractor is Sharpserv. They can be contacted on: Tel: 01623 413800, E-mail: [email protected].
• Sharpserv are UK repair agents for Sharp MD equipment and can supply and repair current (and some older) models. Tel: 0870 7380000 Fax: 01623 522025
• In House Service Company does Sony, Denon and Kenwood authorized warranty and out-of-warranty repairs on audio equipment, including MiniDisc units.
• MWES in the U.K. repairs MD equipment.
• Link Communications in Britain repairs and rents pro-use MD equipment.
• Sony UK service centre in West Drayton, near Heathrow, phone: 020 8283 2700. They have been reported to do good work.

Repair Tips

• Having trouble with your Sony MDS-PC3? Check out Peter Boon's helpful guide on how to fix problems with obtaining a working audio signal.
• Johnathan Woithe creates a page that gives advice on getting service done on older Sony MD decks.
• David Popovits from Sigma Electronics Israel maintains a Repair Q&A Message Board. He also contributed a detailed and interesting repairman's view of portable MD recorder problems plus 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 pages of followup questions and answers.
• Shawn Lin has an MD Techie Corner page with useful tips for diagnosis and repair of MD equipment.
• Etown offers elementary MD troubleshooting tips.
• Duncan Chisholm discusses repairing a Sharp MS200 that smacked a concrete floor.
• Shawn Lin analyzes the MD Optical Block Failure prevalent in older Sony MD gear. He offers a repair technique that Graham Baker is able to duplicate.
• Shawn Lin discovers and repairs an MZ-R2 internal cable failure.
• Sony MZ-R55 self recording-start problem: Hoshing Kwong describes a circuit board fix.

• Tutorials
  • Transferring MP3s to MiniDisc and MiniDisc to MP3 (Matt Charman).
  • MP3 recording page (Shawn Lin).
  • T-Station's Computer/MP3 recording MD page.
  • Analog MP3 to MiniDisc transfer (Jesus Perez).
  • Recording MP3 to MiniDisc (Lee).
  • ZDTV discusses S/PDIF PC to MD connections and mentions the idea of high-speed downloading.
• Using a Apple/Macintosh computer
  • MusicMatch for Macintosh has support for MD track marking, as seen in this screenshot.
  • iTunes is a free program for Mac users to manage their MP3's (including the burning of MP3's to CD), created by Apple. Ken Tidwell has written an iTunes guide covering the software's use with recording to MD.
  • MPLAY Multimedia Player is a freeware program for recording MP3 (and most other audio formats) to MD on a Macintosh, offering user-settable inter-track delay and cross-fade times.
  • Macintosh MP3 to MD digital transfers (and back) are covered in a page by Dale Greer.
  • MP3 to MD recording on the Macintosh from the N2MP3 encoder documentation.
  • Adding pauses for trackmarking
    • PlayQT is an AppleScript controller for QuickTime Player that automatically adds pauses between songs to facilitate trackmarking.
    • Doug Adams' free Insert Blanks AppleScript for SoundJam can insert a blank MP3 between each track in a playlist.
  • A MacNN article with reader followup covers Sony's apparent lack of interest of Macintosh support for the MZ-R70DPC [USB to Digital audio link] (note however that the unit will be "unofficially supported" through 3rd party drivers).
• WinAmp Utilities
  • A German MD user's page describes his efforts to create automatic track marks with Winamp (and a little Visual-C programming) when recording digitally from a computer. (Click on the "MD" link on the left margin.)
  • MiniDisc Winamp Skins that make the player look like a Sony MZ-R30 or Pioneer unit. (MiniDisc Switzerland)
  • WinCue, a Winamp plugin that automatically adds a pause between MP3 songs to ease track marking.
  • Pause Between Songs, another Winamp plug-in that will automate pauses between songs to help people record their MP3's to MD.
  • Shorten audio format plugin for Winamp
  • RockSteady, a Winamp normalization plug-in useful for adjusting levels when recording from your computer to MD.
• Sharp's Internet Recording Kit
  • Music Dish has an article that covers some creative uses of the Voquette Netlink.
  • The San Fransisco Examiner and Chronicle has further Voquette Netlink coverage.
  • ZDNet has a brief editorial and favorable review of the Voquette Netlink/MD recorder bundle.
  • Dave Derby tries out the Voquette Netlink, but finds it disappointing.
  • Sharp announced an MP3->MD Internet recording kit (bundling their MD-MT15 MD recorder with Voquette's Netlink software) at Comdex '99; this is covered in articles from Mp3.com, ZDNet, and eTown.
  • Sharp USA's Internet MiniDisc page covers their hardware/software package for recording Internet audio to portable MD units with analog synchro-start. (Available from from Shopping.com for $70 as of 1 Dec 99).
  • Voquette offers a free Beta version download of their Internet music player (the software component of Sharp's Internet MiniDisc package).
• A comprehensive evaluation of software MP3 decoders can be found at David Robinson's webpage.
• Earjam.com is a Voquette like device that helps you locate and play a variety of web audio content.
• Frontx sells an inexpensive way to cleanly get multimedia inputs and outputs to the front of your computer using a FrontX port.

• PC Soundcards with digital I/O
  • See also the Accessories Table section on Sound Cards.
  • The Gamesurround Fortissimo II (see also this close-up picture) offers TOSLink optical I/O for around $49. Note: Several users have mentioned that this card does not make track marks with recordings.
  • The Leadtek WinFast 4X soundcard, a $30 digital I/O sound card that comes with a TOSlink optical I/O daughtercard, TOSlink cable and optical mini-plug adapter.
  • The Chaintech MD Mate sound card includes an optical input/output module, available for USD $49.
  • optiComp sells several TOSlink-related products, including sound card add-ons and a cable distance extender.
  • The AOpen AW744 Pro sound card with optical output is available for under $30 from several online dealers. Charles Snider writes a review.
  • The Midiman DiO 2448 sound card offers full optical and coax I/O for about $150 (available from Zzounds.com for $110).
  • The Delta DIO 24/96 is a digital I/O (coax/optical) PCI sound card that is PC and Macintosh compatible.
  • The $35 Korean SoundTrack Digital NX sound card has Coax and TOSlink output.
  • The Aureal Superquad, a $50 sound card with optical output (search on "aureal optical" at Pricewatch.com); only the OEM version has optical output, their retail version does not.
  • Opcode's SONICport Optical allows a USB to TOSlink I/O interface. Note! Before ordering an Opcode Sonicport, you may want to read about Opcode's financial status.
  • The Czerny 744XG, a Korean soundcard with optical and coaxial digital audio I/O.
  • The Hoontech SoundTrack Yamaha Digital-XG soundcard (US$69.00, optical and coax S/PDIF), the also offer the SB DBII and SB DBIIIdaugther cards for SoundBlaster Live/Value that adds digital optical and coax I/O capability.
  • The Xitel Storm Platinum soundcard (US$79.00, TOSlink outputs).
  • The Yamaha WF192D soundcard (optical S/PDIF out)
  • The Hoontech 4DWAVE-NX soundcard (US$46 with coax/optical S/PDIF outputs)
  • The Creative Digital I/O Card for the SB Live (incl. Value) soundcard
  • The Sound Card Performance Benchmarks Site has reviews of many digital audio i/o cards.
  • PCAVTech has many PC sound card performance test results.
  • A site called Digital Experience has a comprehensive table comparing digital sound cards. (Note: Some information is inaccurate and out of date.)
  • PCAVTech has Sound Card performance results for a wide variety of cards.
  • The Zefiro Acoustics ZA2 card provides digital i/o as well as sample rate conversion and MPEG encoding/decoding.
  • The Terratec Soundcard provides analog and digital audio I/O.
  • The Adb Multi!Wav Digital PRO card.
  • The Guillemot Home Studio sound card provides full digital i/o.
  • Creative Labs offers the Soundblaster Live! card which has digital I/O
    • Apache Micro offers an add-on bracket giving Sound Blaster Live! cards SPDIF and optical input/outputs, as well as a digital DIN connector.
    • An informative overview of the SB Live, Danny Haak's Digital Connexxion SBLive! website.
    • Opticompo's POCAB bracket couples with the Soundblaster Live to provide SPDIF coax and optical I/O for about $60.
    • Creative releases the Live Drive II optical I/O bracket (standalone product).
    • Creative now has a digital optical i/o option for the SBLive.
    • The Hoontech Soundtrack 97 is an alternative 4-track optical output add-on for the SBLive.
  • The Xitel Storm Platinum is an inexpensive soundcard with TOSlink output.
  • The SEK'D Prodif 96 is a soundcard with optical and electrical S/PDIF and AES/EBU input and output.
• USB and PCMCIA to Digital I/O Devices
  • LifeView CatchSound, a USB to TOSlink audio adapter.
  • The Canopus MD-Port is a USB to mini-optical I/O adapter (input side includes sampling rate conversion to 44.1khz), MSRP: JPY16,800.
  • The Xitel MDPORT-DG1 USB to TOSLink audio adapter sells for $100 (available from Minidisco). 3D Audio Immersion gives a review of the MD-Port DG1. Tony Toghia finds this solution to get the DG1 to work with Sharp MD recorders: "By using MP3 Turbo Injector to combine a short, 3-second MP3 of total silence with the MP3 song I am recording, this gives the Sharp MD recorder ample time to lock onto the digital signal and start recording exactly when the song starts."
  • The Swissonic USB Studio, a USB to Digital Audio I/O interface, is reported to be PC and Mac compatible. (Price: US$850)
  • The Egosys U24 is a full duplex USB to TOSlink/coax/line adapter, with Windows and Mac drivers (not yet available?).
  • Thunderwire promises a complete iMac-to-MD digital solution by "Spring 2000", a Windows version is to follow.
  • The VXpocket is a high quality analog/digital I/O PCMCIA card for PC or Mac laptops (MSRP $730).
  • The Yamaha RP-U100 (MSRP $500) is a USB port equipped HiFi receiver with TOSlink in and out. The USB connection allows the unit to bypass the computer's sound card and get a direct digital signal. Both Stereo Review and ZDnet comment on the unit.
  • The Xitel MD-Port AN1 is a USB to MD (analog) adapter for the Windows platform. Thomas James contributes a tidy review. You can purchase this adapter from Electronics E-Mall. Gregory Chan reports it also works fine on Macs with third party USB cards after downloading Apple's USB 1.4.6a1 DDK and installing the included drivers (It works on Macs with OS 9.0.4 and built-in USB ports fine as is and doesn't need the drivers).
• Other Digital Audio I/O
  • MacNN's original article and follow-up setting the record straight that the Sony MZ-R70DPC is indeed Mac compatible.
  • Townshend Computer Tool's DATLink provides digital audio I/O (S/PDIF coax/TOSlink and AES/EBU) for machines with SCSI interfaces.
• Software
  • Creative Labs' Live!Ware 2.0 allows direct recording to a minidisc (requires special daughtercard). Apparently it includes direct support for digital MD recording.
  • Voquette Netlink is a software package for recording Internet audio content to MiniDisc. A Gadget Guru commentary talks about the Sharp/Voquette Internet bundle.
  • Tracer's Digital Audio Restoration (DART) Software (and a capsule summary of it) allows you to clean up analog recordings on a Windows machine before recording them to MD, CD, or DAT.
• Analog Devices discusses the details of sampling rate conversion and their new ``SamplePort'' chips.
• Shawn Hunt has a nice page with construction plans for a sampling rate converter that will operate in professional mode (SCMS immune).

Korean

• Taeyong Shim's MDWorld MiniDisc page, covers a variety of MD topics.
• MD Planet keeps a well-maintained website covering the latest MD unit releases and news.

Chinese

• An ITPower article on ATRAC (in Chinese) compares different ATRAC versions (and "borrows" several tables of information from our site!).
• 51digi.com keeps up to date with all the latest electronics news, including MiniDisc info.

Japanese

• The MD Convenience Station has lots of information on new portable MD units.
• Sharp's Japanese MiniDisc pages with many nice pictures including an animation of the MS100 ``slot-in'' design.
• Onkyo's Japanese MiniDisc pages which contain some nice diagrams related to MD theory.
• Puwa-ris has a surprisingly complete Japanese MD page.
• Kosa-P's thorough Japanese MD pages list current portables and decks.

French

• Minidiscque.com compares the MD format to several other digital audio formats.
• Sebastien Bogaert's MD page en Français is quite complete, including good technical information on MDs.
• A Canoe.ca article gives a favorable review of the MD audio format.
• Christian Abegg maintains a French MiniDisc site with a comparison database on the latest MD recorders (available in both French and English), an MP3-to-MD guide, MD-to-MP3/CD transferring, and a full French translation of the MDLP FAQ (originally in English).
• An "Exposition of the MiniDisc" is put together by Oliver Blanc, including the technology behind it, unit test modes, and ATRAC details. The French documentation and associated test software is also available in download format.
• Christian Abegg's Tout sur le MiniDisc has lots of useful MD information, including a full French translation of our MDLP FAQ.
• Jean-Francois Vincent has made MD-21, a French Minidisc page.
• A French MD Page covers many MD basics and has a Sony MD commercial in GIF animation (the text of which says It's MD).
• A few very nice French pages cover MiniDisc Data Drives (English) and the MiniDisc manufacturing process (English), as well as Sharp's MD data activities (English).

German

• The Warentest institute has a comparison test of MP3 and MD.
• A German testing institute's has summary results for 9 modern MD recorders.
• General MD coverage article by the consumer review magazine ``TEST''. They give a table comparing several MD decks.
• Martin Borus' German translation of his interesting MD hacking page.
• A Swiss (German) Article on the technical details of MiniDisc.
• A detailed German page on MiniDisc technology.
• Smokey's Aiwa AM-F3 Page gives good coverage of the Aiwa portable in German.
• Guido has a cute MiniDisc page auf Deutsch.

Dutch

• Robier Pieters has a modern (ca. 2002) Dutch Minidisc page.
• Marck Evers runs MDcenter.nl, a Dutch website with information on MD recorders on the Dutch market, MD technical information, and PC-to-MD recording instructions.
• Teun van Hoesel has a nice MiniDisc Page in Dutch.

Danish

• A nice Danish MD page.

Swedish

• Patrik Hall has started a nice Swedish MD page.
• Johan Halldorf has an MD page in Swedish.
• A pretty Swedish MD page (I know where they found their pictures!).
• Johan Fryxell has started a Swedish Minidisc Page.

Italian

• Claudio Bassi has an enthusiastic MD page in Italian.
• Luca Lusuardi's Italian MD page is worth a visit even for its fashion exuberance alone.

Spanish

• Francisco Javier Moreno's Minidisc Page en Español has lovely explantory photos, even if you don't read Spanish.
• Roger Boix runs a smart Spanish MD site Qué sabes de... Minidisc.

Portuguese

• A Brazilian Audio page has a bit of MiniDisc information in Portuguese as well as an editorial about MiniDisc.
• Oduvaldo 'Duca' Pavan offers a Brazilian perspective on MiniDisc on his pages, in Portuguese.
• A Portuguese MD Page has some brief MD commentary.

Russian

• Vasiliev Andrey runs a Russian MiniDisc Info site.

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