LGR Oddware - MiniDisc Data Storage: Sony MDH-10

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  • Опубликовано: 16 авг 2018
  • Mini Discs aren't just for audio! Turns out that Sony had computer storage in mind for MDs as far back as 1993, well before the later Hi-MD format. Let's try out the MDH-10 MD Data drive from 1995!
    ● Consider supporting LGR on Patreon:
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    ● Social links:
    / lazygamereviews
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    ● Music used in order of appearance:
    Turtle Beach 3, Ain't That So 3, Real Synth Music 4
    www.epidemicsound.com
    ● MDH-10 drivers and software:
    archive.org/details/Sony-MDH1...
    #LGR #Oddware #Retro
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Комментарии • 1 тыс.

  • @LGR
    @LGR  6 лет назад +1101

    Bit of MiniDisc movie trivia for ya:
    Near the beginning of _The Matrix,_ Neo sells a guy some valuable data written on what is presumably an MD Data disc. But if you pause the scene and look closely, especially on the higher-resolution releases of the movie, you can see that Neo's actually handing off a "TDK Studio" _audio_ MiniDisc. Which, as discussed in this Oddware episode, was not compatible with MD Data storage and did not store computer data. But it sure looked cool!

    • @BollingHolt
      @BollingHolt 6 лет назад +31

      Hollywood trickery! ;)

    • @machiner6
      @machiner6 6 лет назад +67

      And in Johnny Mnemonic, the 320 GB of data Keanu Reeve's character had uploaded into his head was initially stored on a minidisc, too!

    • @ratolastehara
      @ratolastehara 6 лет назад +52

      Neo are a hacker maybe he find a way to store data on a audio disc. Just Kidding, regards from Brazil.

    • @vgtheory
      @vgtheory 6 лет назад +28

      Just like an old Commodore 64 cassette tape game. Checks out from here.

    • @marcelofrau8818
      @marcelofrau8818 6 лет назад +13

      The first thing that I remember when you said you were going to cover the MDData was the scene from the Matrix. This has always make me wonder if that was real or not. Thank you for this video!!! :D

  • @vyl-za
    @vyl-za 6 лет назад +406

    Man 90's Sony aesthetic is just the greatest

    • @startedtech
      @startedtech 6 лет назад +9

      Luke Donaldson I know, they're like the one company that didn't go beige for everything! (Though, I guess the PlayStation and PSOne ended up becoming beige....)

    • @ThetaReactor
      @ThetaReactor 6 лет назад +15

      PlayStation grey is way better than beige, and I loved the purple on the VAIO computers. The only Japanese outfit that made cooler looking hardware than Sony was '80s Sharp. The X1, Famicom Twin, and X68000 are simply gorgeous machines.

    • @700gsteak
      @700gsteak 6 лет назад +7

      Real buttons!!! Mechanical sounds!! Ahh.. bliss. :)

    • @toxicavenger6172
      @toxicavenger6172 5 лет назад +7

      @@startedtech new ps ones were a light gray. They just turn beige over time due to the yellowing of the plastic

    • @franklinromero1863
      @franklinromero1863 4 года назад

      Looks great

  • @LGR
    @LGR  6 лет назад +426

    Also, since comments always bring up Sony Universal Media Discs (UMDs) as a comparison to MiniDiscs:
    Nope, they are not the same and are two distinct formats. The primary difference being that MiniDiscs are a magneto-optical storage medium that use a ferromagnetic material to store data, whereas UMD is an optical medium utilizing one or more non-magnetic, non-writable layers more akin to a DVD. Furthermore, MD Data stores its files in a distinct way even from MiniDiscs, as mentioned in this episode of Oddware, with its own proprietary MD Data file system. So other than UMDs and MD Data discs being small, disc-based storage formats developed by Sony, there is little relation, which is why I didn't bother going into it this during the video :)

    • @LGR
      @LGR  6 лет назад +18

      Sure is! Not sure what they were thinking

    • @valvejob4215
      @valvejob4215 6 лет назад +2

      LGR having an MO drive like that would have been awesome. I honestly wish cdr/rw would have been so unreliable that MO technology would not have died. I have a Fujitsu Gigamo and it’s fantastic.

    • @holnrew
      @holnrew 6 лет назад +2

      Huh, I always thought mini-discs were completely optical. I guess that would have made it tricky to write very quickly.

    • @cyrfung
      @cyrfung 6 лет назад

      Are they similar to MO disks? Too lazy to look up myself. ;-)

    • @ezioauditoredafirenze5453
      @ezioauditoredafirenze5453 6 лет назад

      Philip Hanhurst Most likely yeah. Don't we all? 😆😆😆

  • @jameslewis2635
    @jameslewis2635 6 лет назад +58

    These things could have been a great replacement for floppy discs. They were smaller than CD's and far more durable. I can only think the reason they failed was mainly due to the strange lack of compatibility between minidisc formats and the high price. The SCSI interface itself is most likely a culprit as back in the day those were really expensive.

    • @bshpev
      @bshpev 2 года назад +2

      probs also didn't catch on because of the amount of parts for assembly in comparison to cd's. If youre some guy with money looking to get a factory assembling some electronic thing going I imagine a disc is an easier sell than a disc wrapped in plastic with a springy sliding door. investment, part sourcing, and assembly all seem way tougher for one over the other

  • @rangoononline
    @rangoononline 6 лет назад +74

    This device was perfect for mowing the lawn.
    You could listen to a lot of Weird Al without having the songs skip.

    • @drudown76
      @drudown76 5 лет назад +9

      weird al rules

    • @BigOlSmellyFlashlight
      @BigOlSmellyFlashlight 5 лет назад +10

      what a coincidence, weird al - white & nerdy begins with "they see me mowin"

    • @danieldaniels7571
      @danieldaniels7571 4 года назад +1

      Super bulky compared to other portable MD players

  • @MarkyShaw
    @MarkyShaw 6 лет назад +362

    TechMoan def changed my mind about minidiscs. I’m a little sad the format never took off in the states. Probably would have saved me from so many scratched CDs and crap. Data storage on MD is some next level stuff right there. This was a great video and as always I’ve learned something awesome.

    • @johnq4951
      @johnq4951 6 лет назад +19

      Sony didn't want it to become a standard so it was never going to take off anywhere

    • @thanthanasiszamp4707
      @thanthanasiszamp4707 6 лет назад +8

      Marky Shaw but you can always buy double side-double layer 2.8 GB mini DVDs for mini cameras to save your data. They are resistive to sharp objects.

    • @a.j8307
      @a.j8307 6 лет назад +28

      Techmoan is awesome.

    • @_sabot
      @_sabot 6 лет назад +12

      I had a MiniDisc player when i was in highschool and i remember it not very reliable. The disks were regularly broken without any visual damage. Also to fill them up with music was very annoying, you had to record it like a tape, not just copying files like on the later MP3 players. The audio quality was also not very good because Sony's proprietary codec, at least from todays standpoint.

    • @scoobylol1987
      @scoobylol1987 6 лет назад +17

      That was the earlier model MD's. Later on they did release the NetMD format which worked in a similar way to MP3 players, which at the time were quite expensive and had very little in terms of capacity. I think my first MP3 player could hold about 10 tunes at 128kps. The downfall was the Sony's heavy implimentation of DRM protection where you had to "check" a song in and out of their software Sonicstage. Despite all of that I actually still use my Net MD every day, mostly out of nostalgia, and operate Sonicstage through XP running in virtual box. Definitely a novel format at the time, I'd love to get hold of their final version the Hi-MD, but the prices are still surprisingly high even now!

  • @Markimark151
    @Markimark151 6 лет назад +86

    Minidiscs should’ve been a data format from the get go, much like Zip disks, but Sony botched the format by making audio and data disks incompatible. With CDs, it was mostly compatible, depending on the hardware. But it would’ve been cool if normal minidiscs would work with data minidisc drives.

    • @drMoonish
      @drMoonish 3 года назад +5

      I wonder how much that decision was influenced by them wanting to prevent people pirating music easily or being accused of enabling that.

    • @Markimark151
      @Markimark151 3 года назад +9

      @@drMoonish there were lots of record companies refusing to support minidiscs, but also Sony didn’t make minidisc drives similar to floppy drives.

    • @willman85
      @willman85 Год назад

      It found a use in cinema in the espionage and cyber-thriller genres, looking neat and hi-tech on screen when a CD would just seem so mundane and unexciting by comparison.

    • @Markimark151
      @Markimark151 Год назад

      @@willman85 it was used as movie props probably as product placements for Minidisc!

  • @dansanq
    @dansanq 6 лет назад +73

    Your channel is a vaporwave dream.

    • @UNSCPILOT
      @UNSCPILOT 4 года назад +3

      Gives me lots if fun ideas for 3D printing / open source electronics projects

  • @DiGiTyDarKMaN
    @DiGiTyDarKMaN 6 лет назад +87

    Whenever I watch an LGR video I feel like I'm on vacation. Don't ask me how to explain that I just get all warm and fuzzy. Haha.

    • @ejthenobody
      @ejthenobody 5 лет назад +1

      In all honesty, yeah I get where you're coming from.

    • @impv1se
      @impv1se 3 года назад +1

      sus

    • @tomyyoung2624
      @tomyyoung2624 2 месяца назад

      Yepe, they are not the same and are two distinct formats

  • @pkscarr
    @pkscarr 6 лет назад +20

    gotta be honest, for 1993 having a device that did portable mass data storage AND functioned as a music player, in the same unit, is pretty damn cool

    • @retrosad
      @retrosad 6 лет назад

      *cough* *cough* CD-Rs

    • @pkscarr
      @pkscarr 6 лет назад +7

      CD-R's could only be written to once and required a pre-installed CD writer and reader though, which in 1993 was still very, very rare to see in PC's. To have a unit like this, that you could listen to music on on the train, then plug into a PC at your destination and both read and write data to was, for the time, very cool.

    • @retrosad
      @retrosad 6 лет назад

      My CD-Rs work with standard CD players, also weren't there CD-RWs?

    • @rasz
      @rasz 6 лет назад +4

      CD-Recorder in 1993 was ~$10K :) and was the size of an amplituner, look up Philips CDD 521. This was a huge improvement over 1991 offerings the size of a mini fridge and $40K price tag.
      Still, MDH-10 was released in middle of 1995, not 1993.

    • @retrosad
      @retrosad 6 лет назад

      Oh OK (also, CD recorder? Don't you mean CD burner?)

  • @Internetspaceships
    @Internetspaceships 6 лет назад +28

    All us cool 90s kids had MiniDisc.

  • @worldofretrogameplay6963
    @worldofretrogameplay6963 6 лет назад +4

    My favorite RUclipsr! Love your content, Clint! Thank you for keeping it real and straightforward. 👍🏻

  • @olivercorrodi3340
    @olivercorrodi3340 6 лет назад +147

    next up: minidisc sandwich on LGR foods

    • @olivercorrodi3340
      @olivercorrodi3340 6 лет назад +2

      just like that gross banana mayonnaise salad brutalmoose made a while ago

    • @CattoRayTube
      @CattoRayTube 6 лет назад +1

      Yeah, I was going to say that's been covered off by BrutalMoose's History Kitchen.

    • @olivercorrodi3340
      @olivercorrodi3340 6 лет назад +2

      didn't he straight up puke?

    • @amnottabs
      @amnottabs 6 лет назад +5

      Clint: hmmmmm... crunchy [crunching noises]

    • @kingedwin
      @kingedwin 6 лет назад

      Ooooh! I hope he breaks out the torch to melt some cheese onto it.

  • @FlintG
    @FlintG 6 лет назад +57

    Holy crap that price!!

    • @javaking1000
      @javaking1000 6 лет назад +3

      Pretty sure these were targeted at business people who didn't care about the cost because their companies were writing off the inflated cost as business expenses.

    • @petman515
      @petman515 6 лет назад +4

      At that time all storage was expensive as hell.

  • @themegaman91965
    @themegaman91965 6 лет назад +1

    Awesome work LGR! It doesn't matter what you upload, you make whatever it is extremely interesting, and very much worth watching with the in-depth history of the said thing! Keep it up!!!

  • @QJ89
    @QJ89 5 лет назад +9

    @14:17: Ah, an underrated DMX classic! His uncharacteristic fusion of instrumental Synth-pop makes for a catchy anomaly in the rapper's extensive catalogue.

    • @Kr-nv5fo
      @Kr-nv5fo 4 года назад +2

      His deadpan delivery of accurately placed moments of silence really accentuate the message.

    • @syahminorizan8064
      @syahminorizan8064 3 года назад +1

      RIP DMX

    • @QJ89
      @QJ89 3 года назад

      @@syahminorizan8064 Wow, he IS dead, by three weeks. Much respect, X.

  • @spidermcgavenport8767
    @spidermcgavenport8767 6 лет назад +7

    Love Sony minidisc audio. Served me well during my first and second deployments. Mp3 player's at that time were expensive had micro hard drives and the software for mp3pro was more than the player's at that time 1999-2003. Still used a pcmcia IOMEGA Clik disc with 40mb clik disc a 2x speed CD burner, these were the devices available. Much appreciated LGR, your reviews are amazing informative and much appreciated.

    • @spidermcgavenport8767
      @spidermcgavenport8767 6 лет назад +1

      Say LGR have you figured out how to get your IOMEGA clik disc fully functional, use Windows Me it functions wonderfully, however in xp it will not function at all. Not even driver support. Used it on my Gateway Solo 1150cl and it sounds like music as it accesses the data on each clik disc.

  • @RetroGamerBoy
    @RetroGamerBoy 6 лет назад +120

    I worked at PlayStation and I bet Sony electronics pitched this to Ken Kutaragi at PlayStation for the original PSX 😁 Great find and awesome video as always, I always find your videos a great inspiration for my channel, thank you.

    • @allnightgaming7235
      @allnightgaming7235 6 лет назад +11

      Retro Gamer Boy coooool. Ya I can totally see this happening. I wonder if it was part of their Nintendo talks.

    • @TheRealColBosch
      @TheRealColBosch 6 лет назад +11

      Huh. The Hybrid MD makes more sense now.

    • @joejoe3011
      @joejoe3011 6 лет назад +13

      This definitely made me think of the PSP's disc drive

    • @austincowell7635
      @austincowell7635 6 лет назад +8

      I used to work in London opposite the small Sony store which was part of Sony's massive office space. The place was full of useless tech, including the mini disc. RGB nice chan.

    • @RetroGamerBoy
      @RetroGamerBoy 6 лет назад +8

      John Galt you can easy check up on me. My website and LinkedIn profile are on my channel :)

  • @slackeratlarge575
    @slackeratlarge575 6 лет назад

    Dude, I seriously love ur channel. Best quirky tech from the past, it's always a good trip down memory lane. Makes me feel good to know I'm not alone in remembering weird old tech

  • @MartinKronstrom
    @MartinKronstrom 6 лет назад +63

    The amount of school projects that I've lost with my Zip disks and Zip drives... I'm wondering if the Sony version was more reliable.

    • @zh84
      @zh84 6 лет назад +8

      I used Zip discs for backups. Or tried to. This did not work very well.

    • @UpDownLeft11
      @UpDownLeft11 6 лет назад +17

      I remember losing entire design projects transferring between the lab and home on zip drives. That dreaded click of death.

    • @700gsteak
      @700gsteak 6 лет назад +15

      I've never had a minidisc disc go bad. Even ones cooking in the car had no problem playing back ever. One nice thing about MO technology is that the data surface is not susceptible to magnetic damage until its heated to a xtremely high temperature.

    • @erikt211
      @erikt211 6 лет назад +3

      From this experience I’m assuming they weren’t reliable hahaha

    • @Ruinah
      @Ruinah 6 лет назад +1

      Marcus Schulz I have a set of about 15 zip disks from the late 90s that still worked last I checked about 2-3 years ago.

  • @vwestlife
    @vwestlife 6 лет назад +17

    Sony tried again in 1998 with HiFD, a more direct replacement for floppy disks that retained compatiblity with reading and writing ordinary 3.5" floppy disks, while supporting 200 MB of data storage on HiFD disks. But it ended up being so problematic that Sony took it off the market and issued a full recall. They re-released an improved version of HiFD in 1999, but by then Zip disks could store up to 250 MB and CD-RWs were becoming cheaper, so it was a flop -- just one of many in Sony's history!

    • @a4e69636b
      @a4e69636b 6 лет назад

      Thanks for the story. Maybe someone could do a video on it...

    • @KRAFTWERK2K6
      @KRAFTWERK2K6 6 лет назад

      As always it was a matter of price. Every Sony Format has been more or less way too expensive than the target group of consumers could afford. MiniDisc was sold to the young people but they couldn't afford it. And also Sony's extreme patent fees for using their technology. They kinda got stuck a little too much in their arrogance that everyone would support their formats, no matter what. Like in the Broadcast Segment. They really couldn't differ between that and the regular consumer market. Also why they thought they could justify the prices for their MemoryStick line. And with the HiFD they really didn't do themself a favor as well. Which is sad because engineering-wise they really always did a lot. Good know how, terrible marketing decisions.

    • @a4e69636b
      @a4e69636b 6 лет назад

      Thanks KRAFTWERK2K6 for the information. I so wish HiFD did succeed. It would have made mine and so many other people's lives easier.

    • @SpaceShipDee
      @SpaceShipDee 5 лет назад +1

      Sony has had many flops but also many wins. If they never push the envelope and take risks, we never would have got things like the PlayStation series..

  • @DanielLopez-up6os
    @DanielLopez-up6os 6 лет назад +32

    I just finished watching Techmoan´s Video, on the other MINI-DISK.
    OH YEAH GET ME SOME MORE OF THAT MINI-DISK.

    • @canoshizrocks
      @canoshizrocks 6 лет назад +3

      Can't get enough of that MiniDisc, MiniDisc, MiniDisc...
      Can't get enough of that MiniDisc, keeps me goin' strong...

    • @oliviamay
      @oliviamay 6 лет назад

      SquirrelBacon god damn i thought that, too haha

    • @startedtech
      @startedtech 6 лет назад +4

      Daniel Lopez *Disc

  • @Mizakit_Gaming
    @Mizakit_Gaming 6 лет назад +1

    I love this stuff. Thanks clint for all your content and years of entertainment.

  • @lesrogers7310
    @lesrogers7310 5 лет назад +1

    I've always been a huge fan of the Minidisc format, and I still am in 2018. After watching this I've now learned about the data variant so thank you for that.

  • @nickguy6820
    @nickguy6820 6 лет назад +9

    I used to be a really big Sony fan, but as I see more of their products from the 90s, my opinion of them has changed a lot. I can't even keep track of all the proprietary battery modules they used. I've got an MD player and two early CD player models, all three of which use different proprietary cells. The bolt-on external AA modules were worse than just carving out the space internally to use standard cells. And what purpose does it serve to use a non-standard audio connector on the headphone pass-through on that remote? Seriously, it's like they just got a kick out of re-engineering the wheel.
    Not to mention the fact that out of five portable disc players that I have, only ONE still works right. The hinges on another have deformed under the pressure of its own spring-loaded mechanism, which presses into the CD and causes it to struggle to spin the disc correctly. The MD player has read errors seemingly at random. Two other CD players can't even detect the disc. The oldest (their original portable CD player -- the D-5) is, ironically, the only one that performs flawlessly.
    I'm beginning to think they were really impressed with their own cleverness back then, but usually failed to make anything that would actually last.

    • @danieldaniels7571
      @danieldaniels7571 4 года назад

      Nick Guy I have a lot of 90s Sony components and they all still work great, but they’re full sized AV decks, not portables

  • @dokols
    @dokols 6 лет назад +4

    Minidisc audio was f-ing amazing in the mid 90s. Fantastic format for portable audio.

  • @measl
    @measl 4 года назад +1

    *I can't believe I've just spent 5 hours looking at all this "Oddware"! Even worse, I've worked with almost all of them through the years...*
    *Thank you LGR: these are great looks back!*

  • @SuperJet_Spade
    @SuperJet_Spade 6 лет назад

    I really enjoy the oddware series of videos you do. I honestly didn't know that MiniDiscs existed until I watched a video from Techmoan back in 2016.

  • @BinBintheRiceCake
    @BinBintheRiceCake 6 лет назад +40

    Can't belive we can buy a terrabyte of external storage for around $50-70 usd these days. My how far storage has come!

    • @AnonymousUser77254
      @AnonymousUser77254 6 лет назад +5

      びんびんごはんケーキー That's been the case for a very long time though. Things seem pretty stagnant.

    • @startedtech
      @startedtech 6 лет назад

      You can get a standalone terabyte hard drive for like $30 now!

    • @JallenMeodia
      @JallenMeodia 6 лет назад +5

      Moore's Law is slowing down, with people saying the peak storage capacity will happen in the next 30 years, but the things they're doing with data storage these days is insane. It would be interesting to see Clint talk about some of the upcoming techs but that's not really his style. :)

    • @LaurenGlenn
      @LaurenGlenn 6 лет назад +5

      I still miss the ability to back up my hard drive to a tape cartridge. The tape drives and tapes cost more than just buying another hard drive now.

    • @waltherstolzing9719
      @waltherstolzing9719 6 лет назад +2

      Do consumer grade tape drives even exist? All I've been able to find were devices for commercial use, starting at $2000+ -- it probably makes more sense to use tarsnap (www.tarsnap.com) for off-site 'tape' backups in any case.

  • @KomradeMikhail
    @KomradeMikhail 6 лет назад +12

    Always comparisons to the ZipDisk.....
    But I am still getting good regular use out of my LS-120 SuperDisk drives to this day in some of my retro rigs.
    Clearly the superior large capacity drive format of that era.

  • @clearvus
    @clearvus 6 лет назад

    Great review! I always wanted one of these back in the 90s when I had my MiniDisc players...

  • @soundguydon
    @soundguydon 6 лет назад

    I loved MD's. Back in the mid 90's the college I went to used the format extensively in the theatre department, and I loved it instantly. A couple years later they did indeed buy a 4-track audio machine that used the MD Data disks.. I still have one in storage with one of my sound designs on it.. But no way to extract the audio anymore :/
    Anyway - I have a large collection of MD's (mostly recordable ones) that I made from '95 to about '03 or so, and I still enjoy the format. There's always something "special" for me with physical mediums: Cassettes, R2R, MD, etc... While I love the convenience of modern music distribution, there's no "feeling" to it. You just click "buy" and it's on the computer/phone. Just not the same.
    So thanks for another great video!

  • @tylr577
    @tylr577 6 лет назад +17

    Yay more LGR!

  • @seoulpurpose
    @seoulpurpose 6 лет назад +2

    Between LGR and Techmoan, you could build quite an impressive playlist of underknown physical media formats. Just when I think I've learned of them all, here comes yet another!

  • @koga924
    @koga924 6 лет назад +2

    I love the zoom-ins when inserting discs. Satisfying is an understatement.

  • @LindaTheGAMERGal
    @LindaTheGAMERGal 6 лет назад +1

    Still remember those first being out and everyone wanting one to be cool. Awesome video.

  • @jacekjagosz
    @jacekjagosz 6 лет назад +5

    MD Data was also featured in the first Jason Bourne movie (train scene).

    • @LaurenGlenn
      @LaurenGlenn 6 лет назад +1

      Sony used to do this with many of their movies.... Last Action Hero had someone (Arnold, I think) visibly putting in a MiniDisc in a portable player on the screen. It wasn't subtle either.... very zoomed in too.

  • @MrNateenochs
    @MrNateenochs 6 лет назад +3

    I remember that DMX *Italo disco* album, it was odd.. but then again so were the early 2000's.

  • @jmizell3500
    @jmizell3500 6 лет назад +2

    I love your videos! Keep it up! ;)

  • @DoctorCreepy13
    @DoctorCreepy13 6 лет назад +1

    Absolutely loved MD! Had a few different brands too. You could record onto MD from any source. Really useful.

  • @davek12
    @davek12 6 лет назад +16

    I wanted something like this in the late 90s because I had a portable MD recorder and an MD player in my car, and I wanted to be able to put MP3s on MD straight from the PC. That was later possible with NetMD, but the software for that was unstable and obnoxious to use. It's too bad this didn't work like that.

    • @scruffythejanitor1969
      @scruffythejanitor1969 6 лет назад +1

      I have never seen an MD player in a car. Strange that it never even occurred to me.

    • @davek12
      @davek12 6 лет назад +3

      I still have it and I bet it still works. I had it in two different cars, but that was also two cars ago. It was a Sanyo, and actually had a very good AM/FM radio as well. I bought it on clearance at Walmart for $125.

    • @coastroads
      @coastroads 6 лет назад +2

      Check out Jay Leno's Garage of a JDM Mazda Autozam AZ-1. It has a in-dash Mini Disc player.

    • @lemagreengreen
      @lemagreengreen 6 лет назад +2

      Ugh memories of that awful Sony OpenMG jukebox/Sonicstage software. Terrible, it crippled the NetMD - could have been so much better. Think I remember there was a plugin for Winamp a bit later that made it more usable but by then it was too late, MP3 players had taken over.

    • @UpDownLeft11
      @UpDownLeft11 6 лет назад

      Ah my one and only MD device was a cheap NetMD variant. Still loved it but after a year mp3 players made way more sense.

  • @GameInterest
    @GameInterest 6 лет назад +32

    The plug on the remote for headphones looks very similar to the one Sony made for the PSP.

    • @m4xwellmurd3r
      @m4xwellmurd3r 6 лет назад +13

      Game Interest sony used that connector for almost all their audio devices for ages. Their walkman cd players used them too. Im pretty sure theyre all more or less compatible with each other.

    • @GameInterest
      @GameInterest 6 лет назад +2

      @@m4xwellmurd3r hmm... If I had this MiniDisk device I'd definitely give it a try.

    • @Jake1702
      @Jake1702 6 лет назад +5

      The one for the power on the battery/adapter too.

    • @jrmcferren
      @jrmcferren 4 года назад +2

      Sony used this connector for all kinds of portable devices (and no the remotes are not all compatible). Sony used this with CD players, MD Walkman, PSP (as you mentioned), and even cassette walkman models.

    • @taidgheshea9625
      @taidgheshea9625 4 года назад +1

      They are compatible, i used to use mine with my psp.

  • @GroversMill
    @GroversMill 6 лет назад

    I have the feeling finding all the stuff to make a video takes forever. I'll bet you had the idea for this and all your other videos 2-5 years ago. That's dedication :)

  • @nezomegamob
    @nezomegamob 5 лет назад

    This guy keeps me entertained for hours

  • @davidellis4031
    @davidellis4031 6 лет назад +121

    Oh dear. I thought that I had seen the worst of Sony but this takes the biscuit. A great idea, and they even had a proprietary format that was gaining some traction, but then they ruin it with breaking compatibility, charging too much, needing unnecessary software and an interface that most didn't have.
    Sony in the 1980s looked like they would take over the world, but ruined it with stunts like this. I suspect in the next 10 years Apple will do the same.

    • @LaurenGlenn
      @LaurenGlenn 6 лет назад +17

      Someone who clearly never had any other Sony product.... The last Sony DVD player I ever bought was in the early 2000s. A great player but it had one flaw.... audio sync delay... it was REALLY noticeable too. It must have been about 200ms or 300ms but it would become apparent and annoy you. So, I asked Sony customer service about it and they said that they had a firmware upgrade to fix that. I asked if I could download it and put it on a CD-R or something like you could on Philips players at the time. They said, "no" and that I had to ship the player to them at my expense and pay to ship it back... then wait about 3 weeks for them to upgrade the firmware. Instead of dealing with that (since I didn't have the original box anymore), I just gave it away to someone and bought another model. One that I could do a firmware update on.....
      And I'll never forget Sony starting to sell MP3 players and then simultaneously adding rootkits to CDs so you couldn't rip them and if you put it on the PC, it wouldn't let you rip it and then made you pay for DRM versions of the songs on the disc. And then some CDs (Iron Maiden's Dance of Death is one of them), you couldn't even read it if you put it in your player. You could get around that by taking a Sharpie marker and drawing over the metal ring on the outside of the disc (this is true and is the reason my CD has sharpie on that side). I had to go to the store and buy a sharpie.

    • @petman515
      @petman515 6 лет назад +12

      Apple is already slipping down the tube.

    • @ccricers
      @ccricers 5 лет назад +3

      MiniDisc was a great player but it was the shitty ass transfer software that brought it down. It should have been all USB transfer but nope. Only one that had that was the expensive MZ-RH1.

    • @BavarianM
      @BavarianM 5 лет назад +4

      @@ccricers no it wasn't
      There are alot of NetMD models that you can transfer via usb
      I own one and that's how I burn music to it

    • @sanjaalexis2561
      @sanjaalexis2561 5 лет назад +5

      @@BavarianM @ccricers is right, if you have an NetMD Player, you can sync it via USB with your computer, that's right, but only if it was synced with Net MD, if you have a recorded MiniDisc, the only way to get it on your computer is via the MZ-RH1. I've got an Net MD Player so i know the problem with recorded MDs, I thought i could digitalize my vinyls to MD and then get the ATRAC files on my computer, but only the MZ-RH1 would support this way of copying from a MD, which is not created via NetMD

  • @RetroGamePlayers
    @RetroGamePlayers 6 лет назад +6

    I'm not sure why but when I think of Mini Discs I always think of the movie Strange Days

    • @thetenth1921
      @thetenth1921 6 лет назад

      The most cyberpunk way to store experiences and memories

  • @baitsnatcha
    @baitsnatcha 6 лет назад +1

    Back in the day I was always intrigued by the internal version of the MD Data Drive. It came in a 3,5" form factor and if I remember correctly there were both PATA and SCSI versions.
    Also, a bit more MiniDisc trivia: when you're talking about appearance of the technology in movies, don't forget to mention "Strange Days". Great 90s cyberpunk movie IMHO, prominently featuring the discs throughout the whole movie!

  • @SegaCDUniverse
    @SegaCDUniverse 6 лет назад +2

    Always thought these were so cool as a teen. I love how it was used in Johnny Mnemonic as well.

  • @awsomemustang
    @awsomemustang 6 лет назад +11

    reminds me alot of the disk drive in the playstation portable .

    • @MilesPrower1992
      @MilesPrower1992 6 лет назад

      Antonio Napoli reminds me of a floppy disk

  • @SxTxferlife
    @SxTxferlife 5 лет назад +6

    Data Eata sounds like something an Ork would say from the Warhammer 40k universe

  • @pilifx
    @pilifx 6 лет назад +1

    I loved the win95 driver's look using the old Borland UI library. That tool was written either in Turbo C or Turbo Pascal

  • @dfortaeGameReviews
    @dfortaeGameReviews 5 лет назад

    Thanks LGR, I really enjoyed this.

  • @GeoNeilUK
    @GeoNeilUK 6 лет назад +5

    I think the major problem with MD-Data is primarily because it was entirely separate to music MD.
    Had the format been integrated with regular MiniDisc from the start, it might have been more successful... as would regular MiniDiscs...
    Also, Sony really should have added the drivers for their MD-Data file system to be accessible from the default shell.
    155kB/sec... isn't that about the same rate as a CD at 1x speed?
    Probably just your unit, but again, if MD-Data used regular recordable MiniDiscs that were the same as music MiniDiscs... and you could record using regular MD recorders... it might have had more of a chance.

    • @AndreDeLimburger
      @AndreDeLimburger 5 лет назад +2

      Integrated Audio and Data, but also if the Audio format didn't have these DRM limitations to your own recordings.

  • @MaddTheSane
    @MaddTheSane 6 лет назад +4

    8:16 Unless you have a very early Mac, most beige Macs (All Old-World PowerPCs) have a SCSI interface built-in.

  • @jacejai
    @jacejai 5 лет назад

    Great video. It's interesting because so many of the things in this video were similar to hardware which I had from my standard audio minidisc player from Sony - for example, the AA battery case was similar to what came with my MZR-909 in look (plugs into power + screw it in tight) with a single AA battery support. From my much older Sony Discman (before they became CD Walkman), I had remotes which didn't have screens but had the same proprietary connector to the device with the different headphones plug into the remote. Newer Sony products used the standard 3.5mm connector on the remotes so if anyone gets stuck trying to get this to work in 2018, they can look for the other Sony remotes which should work.

  • @dreamingwitch7543
    @dreamingwitch7543 6 лет назад

    Great video, CLINT !

  • @frankb5728
    @frankb5728 6 лет назад +42

    another failed sony proprietary format? you don't say

    • @tallswede80
      @tallswede80 3 года назад

      it was very good, but they ruined it with drm.

  • @EndymionMkII
    @EndymionMkII 6 лет назад +16

    Ah Sony, always with is janky weird proprietary storage mediums that end up crashing or not going anywhere other than their own stuff...
    Also damn, Clint's getting Quite FIT

    • @richaw11
      @richaw11 6 лет назад +5

      Soma LGR bodybuilding videos coming next year.

  • @Evgenii_Fedorovskii
    @Evgenii_Fedorovskii 5 лет назад

    After watching this video, an idea appeared to search for modern musical compositions in the “.mid” format. Found a whole site dedicated to this subject. I listened to music from Painkiller - and immediately a big smile on my face =)))
    Thank you for the video!

  • @ryanmiller9999
    @ryanmiller9999 6 лет назад

    Lookin' sharp recently Clint!

  • @BollingHolt
    @BollingHolt 6 лет назад +29

    Now, if 8 Bit Guy releases a video today as well, it will make this one heck of a Friday LOL.

    • @RefinedRetroReviews
      @RefinedRetroReviews 6 лет назад +5

      I know right! Check out Techmoan for stuff like this if you have not seen him. He is a lot like 8 Bit Guy.

    • @BollingHolt
      @BollingHolt 6 лет назад +1

      I watch Techmoan, too. :)

    • @tomservo5007
      @tomservo5007 6 лет назад +8

      LGR + Techmoan + 8-bit guy = *The Trifecta*

    • @Vintersemestre00
      @Vintersemestre00 6 лет назад +1

      Nostalgia Nerd is great. As are Modern Classic, AkBKukU, Modern Vintage Gamer, The Obsolete Geek, RetroManCave, and my newest favorite, Perifractic's Retro Recipes.

    • @BilisNegra
      @BilisNegra 6 лет назад +1

      I'm subscripted to Perifractic's since only last week (as well as being familiar and/or subscribed to all the rest you list). I can certainly relate! I'm glad I've found it.

  • @Bassquake76
    @Bassquake76 6 лет назад +12

    Man, Sony really locked down the MiniDisc. Fear of copyright? Also, having to use proprietary software just to read/write? Puny data size at insane cost and a lack of flexibility really made it useless!

    • @skipfred
      @skipfred 4 года назад

      Puny data size?? 140 MB was enormous at the time

  • @jackowacko963
    @jackowacko963 5 лет назад

    I always watch your videos at night then wake up remembering i have homework due 😂 keep up the interesting videos

  • @exlibrisas
    @exlibrisas 6 лет назад

    Clint, it seems you're working out! Good shape.

  • @jackkraken3888
    @jackkraken3888 6 лет назад +14

    Wow that's terrible speeds for such an expensive device, it almost feels like an insult to the Scsi standard if you ask me,

    • @jackkraken3888
      @jackkraken3888 6 лет назад +7

      No, Clint mentioned that the manual listed the speed as 150 KBps.

    • @rasz
      @rasz 6 лет назад +4

      150KB is CDROM x1 speed, not that terrible.

  • @Gutigwolfe
    @Gutigwolfe 6 лет назад +36

    Man RUclipss copyright rules are dumb. I am sure people are watching LGR to hear 10 seconds of a song instead of paying for it...

    • @tdark987
      @tdark987 6 лет назад +6

      I agree, it's gotten really bad. The fact that a tiny snippet of music (which legally would be permissible as sampling) can get your video automatically demonetized is just ridiculous. You hear short extracts of songs like that on TV all the time, and I'm pretty sure the creators don't need to license them.
      If anything it should be seen as free advertising for the song's artist, since someone who likes the extract might be motivated to seek out and buy the full song.

    • @Gutigwolfe
      @Gutigwolfe 6 лет назад +9

      @@tdark987 I put lets plays up of The Last of Us. They muted my whole video and unmonitized it cus the music quietly playing in the background with me talking over it and sounds of gun shots and zombies screaming. How can you claim audio on a video with me talking over the music? Aparently they own my voice as well. Im sure people are listening a 2 hour lets play for a the music instead of buying it. Hell I dont even know if they sell a soundtrack, so how they losing money off the music over a lets play?

    • @tdark987
      @tdark987 6 лет назад +8

      I think the big problem is that they're so goddamned cheap about actually employing people for this, so >99% of cases are flagged by an automated script - a rather buggy one from what I gather, that's prone to false positives - and never actually reviewed by a human. That's also why the dispute/appeals process seemingly takes forever and the responses are often rushed; there's probably not all that many employees for a huge backlog of tickets, and the incentive is to get through them as quickly as possible (at the expense of actually doing the necessary research).
      You'd have thought with all the money Google has they could afford to hire a few hundred more people for this.

    • @Gutigwolfe
      @Gutigwolfe 6 лет назад +8

      And I once disputed it saying I wasn't infringing copyright, and I got a generic reply saying that I was wrong and it would be still be muted. Its not even Sony having an issue, they even encourage livestreaming and recording their games, thats why they even have built in software for it. RUclips hurts the legit video makers, while people upload full music albums and slightly change the pitch to bypass the bots and never get caught and even make money off monetization. Its proof their system is broken. Hell I had a video taken down awhile ago that was posted in like 2006 or 2007 cus it had copyrighted music. Like really you need to take down an old Runescape video from that many years ago? Their bots are broken, and they need to fix them.

    • @tdark987
      @tdark987 6 лет назад +6

      In that case it sounds like they now might even be using scripts to automatically respond to appeals (or the first stage, at least). That's bad. I suppose they were just sick of dealing with the backlog, but this just isn't a proper solution.

  • @toasty1142
    @toasty1142 6 лет назад +1

    Finally my weekly dose of new lgr video :D

  • @paulmuaddib451
    @paulmuaddib451 5 лет назад

    This, like other Oddware videos, is great! Thank you for all the wonderful stuff you put out.
    That being said, do some Apple/Mac stuff! I'm curious about your opinions of vintage Apple/Mac stuff, as I'm kind of a fan.
    That being said, keep kicking ass, LGR.

  • @ugh.idontwanna
    @ugh.idontwanna 6 лет назад +19

    Loved my MiniDiscs back in the day, but I think Sony shot themselves in the foot by not supporting data storage through NetMD. When I saw Apple had made a thumb drive that was also an MP3 player, my MD days were coming to an end.

    • @watchbreaker1706
      @watchbreaker1706 6 лет назад +3

      Daniel Flugt, it was all about copyprotection, you have to remamber that sony is also a music company. These things were also ridiculous expensive, even the basic music players! Great technology however...

    • @ugh.idontwanna
      @ugh.idontwanna 6 лет назад +2

      They were overly paranoid when it came to copyright, but I think it was more a case of them seeing the success Apple had with the iPod and realsing they needed to keep up.
      Also, were they really that expensive. I seem to recall being baffled when I saw what Apple charged for an iPod (part of the reason I with a Shuffle), plus it was more restrictive with how you got music onto it.
      Of course you could get a DiscMan instead, but it wasn't really portable in the same way

  • @masonpelzer8052
    @masonpelzer8052 6 лет назад +7

    I do think if Sony did a price drop on the drive it would have been a good competitor to the Zip drive

  • @Diggnuts
    @Diggnuts 6 лет назад

    The Sony MD data multi-track recorder was my first digital multi-track recorder. Lovely piece of gear.

  • @pitashen
    @pitashen 6 лет назад

    Nice share! I used to have a MD player but never knew the data variant existed.

  • @JohnSmith-xq1pz
    @JohnSmith-xq1pz 6 лет назад +13

    Oddware time with LGR nice way to spend lunch lol
    Edit
    But can it run
    Duke3d?

    • @GozuTenno962
      @GozuTenno962 6 лет назад +1

      i SEE YOUR REFERENCE

    • @JohnSmith-xq1pz
      @JohnSmith-xq1pz 6 лет назад +1

      Robo-Teh- Kid I almost used the reference, But then I remembered LGR trying to play Duke from a click drive. Plus that meme is worn out lol.

  • @moonlightcinematix4138
    @moonlightcinematix4138 3 года назад +3

    R.i.P D.M.X

  • @gnupfo
    @gnupfo 6 лет назад +1

    Lookin good my dude

  • @dannyrichardson8019
    @dannyrichardson8019 6 лет назад

    Yessss, mini discs! I had an MDH-10 and a shoe box of MDs I picked up from a garage sale in 2001. It was AWESOME for storing my roms and emulators!

  • @BobMagana
    @BobMagana 6 лет назад +4

    I remember the first time I saw minidiscs, in 1996, I thought, someone should make a game boy using these.

    • @KRAFTWERK2K6
      @KRAFTWERK2K6 6 лет назад +1

      I only saw it in commercials. As a kid I found it cool but way too expensive (Same with MiniDV). Until i could finally afford it myself somewhere in 2009. Before that I only knew 2 people who used MiniDisc. They both had NetMD decives and used it like people used their MP3 sticks. Packing them with as much stuff as possible.

    • @BobMagana
      @BobMagana 6 лет назад

      KRAFTWERK2K6 I never saw them in person. Only in my ads. I also wanted a computer but never got one until 2003.

  • @allan.n.7227
    @allan.n.7227 6 лет назад +4

    CANYON.MID... haha.. I predicted that one :) :)

  • @kboremi
    @kboremi 6 лет назад

    Thank you for the fantastic videos!!!

  • @StarmanDX
    @StarmanDX 6 лет назад

    Nice, upload on my birthday

  • @ez45
    @ez45 6 лет назад +4

    Man, I always wished the MD would catch on. I thought it was such a brilliant format. But nope.

  • @TheWesLesley
    @TheWesLesley 6 лет назад +5

    HURRAY :D A MINIDISC VIDEO

  • @weaponxx9467
    @weaponxx9467 2 года назад

    I remember entering a contest in Keyboard magazine to win a Sony digital multitrack recorder that wrote on Mini disc data discs in 1996 when I was in Highschool. In fact the digital multitrack recorder I ended up buying, a Roland VS-840EX (with a 250MB ZIP drive), had an optical output for recording directly to Mini Disc audio format. I recorded so much audio through that output, it was cool having a red light emit through a 3.5mm fiber optic cable. . . "I'm recording lazers". . .

  • @daansken93
    @daansken93 6 лет назад

    Finally got my self a new computer so i can watch theese amazing videos in 4k. You look amazing in 4k Clint!
    Dell XPS 13 9370. Really nice thing i must say!

  • @batmangovno
    @batmangovno 6 лет назад +141

    Stupid outdated formats. YES.

    • @timking3587
      @timking3587 6 лет назад +12

      Outdated yes but Sony Mini Disk players where so much better then CD players.

    • @jamesslick4790
      @jamesslick4790 6 лет назад +5

      @@timking3587 Yes! CDs, suck (unless only considered as a replacement for LP) In portables,car decks and for recording, MiniDisc was the best medium since Compact Cassette,

    • @BavarianM
      @BavarianM 5 лет назад +5

      You're stupid too and nobody asked a thing about it

    • @spac18
      @spac18 5 лет назад +7

      Outdated yes, stupid no

    • @rikkifoxx189
      @rikkifoxx189 3 года назад

      Minidisc is great but Minidisc DATA, no !

  • @ZiMZiLLA
    @ZiMZiLLA 6 лет назад +4

    When the Gamecube first came out, I asked my friend if it would require memory cards and he scoffed at me because "how are they going to write save data to a disc?!". I felt foolish, but today, like 15 years later, I am vindicated. It was totally in the realm of possibility to have both RW and R-only sections on the same disc.

  • @manuelbesada
    @manuelbesada 4 года назад

    Love your channel.

  • @elbryan42
    @elbryan42 6 лет назад

    Great video! When I was younger I assumed this format was just something made up for the older Resident Evil games.

  • @takeshi7
    @takeshi7 6 лет назад +32

    Minidisc is the best physical media format. I wish it caught on instead of CD/DVD

    • @startedtech
      @startedtech 6 лет назад +1

      Takeshi7 ....what? How on earth is it better?

    • @ironiczombie2530
      @ironiczombie2530 6 лет назад +6

      The capacity for its time was really good, writable DVD were not within consumers reach for a few years when this medium was available

    • @TheMarkedWolf
      @TheMarkedWolf 6 лет назад +14

      Takeshi7 it’s actually way worse
      140mb capacity vs 650mb of CR rom
      $30/disks vs $2 re-writeable CDs
      CD-roms are also thinner and have cheaper players.

    • @frmadeira
      @frmadeira 6 лет назад +1

      TheMarkedWorld Plus they are a lossy format, can't record audio above 256 kbps

    • @takeshi7
      @takeshi7 6 лет назад +4

      Hi-MD was not lossy. look it up. Also these data ones can store lossless audio. No reason why they couldn't.

  • @dcleblond
    @dcleblond 6 лет назад +3

    There's also the fact that it is SCSI... maybe it's just me, but I never had a computer with a SCSI interface growing up. At least not since I was old enough to know what it was.

  • @VenoStuff
    @VenoStuff 6 лет назад

    I always enjoy these! 👍👍

  • @syn010110
    @syn010110 6 лет назад +1

    ugh I love the MD loading sound... it's such a nice click-thunk

  • @daveb5041
    @daveb5041 6 лет назад +27

    *These super aggressive copy write laws are really protecting artists like DMX from going hungry. Why buy a whole CD with artwork case and high sound quality when you can rip a few seconds of a song from a video with someone talking over it played on PC speakers then compressed into a camcorder then recompressed uncompressed and played on your computer! Way better then owning the CD. Didn't DMX spend all his money on crack anyways? Wouldn't want to take crack out of the pipe from starving artists that get a small percentage of their work*

  • @saturn580
    @saturn580 6 лет назад +10

    That early 2000s mixtape is delightfully cringe.

  • @pmgodfrey
    @pmgodfrey 6 лет назад

    I was an early adopter of the MiniDisc audio format, purchasing the MZ-1 back in 1992 and then a few of other recorder/players over the years. Sitting next to me in a rack is a Sony MDS-E12, a 1U rack mount recorder. I have a bunch of discs containing the music my brother wrote in the 1990's and 2000's. I need to archive it, and it's the only player that currently works.
    I've heard they had data storage capabilities early on, but not a single store in my area carried them, much less heard of them.

  • @ChannelSho
    @ChannelSho 6 лет назад

    I always wondered if Sony did anything with MD disks for other than audio. Thanks for sharing :3

  • @Neothemod
    @Neothemod 6 лет назад

    Some of the unintentional ASMR in these videos is just... Beautiful

  • @demonocolips
    @demonocolips 5 лет назад +1

    honestly the semi-universal battery adapters that sony made were a great thought on their part because alot of their stuff all used this kinda standard battery backup.

  • @metfan4l
    @metfan4l 6 лет назад +1

    0:50 I almost spat out my beverage when you mentioned the price. Holy crap, that thing was not a bargain.

    • @9Tailsfan
      @9Tailsfan 5 лет назад

      Well back then it was. Multi giga byte memory for most devices was just a pipe dream back then.

  • @lenovovo
    @lenovovo 6 лет назад

    I didn't know to much of what you were talking about concerning this video, but I still gave you thumbs ups because you're a cool guy. By the way LGR, back in the day, I bought a Packard Bell Legend Supreme 1605 computer. I bought it as a bundle package, back then the bundle package included the monitor, computer, speakers, keyboard, mouse, printer, cables. I thought that that was pretty neat. You can't get all of that in a bundle anymore. Man, this was one bad computer! Way ahead of it's time. I got it back in 1997. If I knew then what I know now, I would still have that computer and that would be the ONLY computer that I would use. I didn't know a lot about computers back then, anyways the reason I got rid of the computer was because Windows 95 crashed, I got some floppys from a friend in Puerto Rico to reinstall it. It took 20 disk back then, my friend only gave 19 of them, so it never installed correctly and also the optical drive went out and I didn't know how to replace it. So it set in my closet and I finally threw it away. Looking back, man, I could just kick myself. I just googled a picture of the Packard Bell Legend Supreme 1605. It showed a setup of the computer. Ah man, that was one good looking computer, and it really performed. Another google search of the Packard Bell Legend Supreme 1605 showed the specifications of the computer and it doesn't disappoint. Hopefully one of these days I will come across one, and when I do, you better believe it's going to be mine. You know what LGR, computers back then were more interesting back then unlike computers of today, which are so very boring. To be quite honest, I just don't care for computers of today, and I really don't care for any laptop. I just don't. Give me a computer of yesteryear any day. Anyways LGR, if you read this, thanks so much for taking time out to do so. I would love so very much to what you think about what I have written. Have a great weekend! :-) 08.18.18