Mini-Disc ~General

MiniDisc (MD) is a magneto-optical disc-based data storage format offering a capacity of 74 minutes and, later, 80 minutes, of digitized audio¹. It was introduced by Sony in 1992².

The MiniDisc format offered several advantages over other audio formats of its time:

1. High-Quality Audio: MiniDisc utilized a psychoacoustic lossy compression scheme (known as ATRAC) that allowed for significant data compression with little perceptible effect on audio fidelity³. This meant you could record near-perfect digital copies of CDs, tapes, or records³.
2. Portability and Durability: The MiniDisc platform was extremely light and portable, had excellent battery life, and possessed a number of sophisticated file editing and naming functions³. The MiniDiscs themselves were housed in a tough plastic case, similar to a floppy disk², which made them more durable than CDs or cassette tapes⁴.
3. Flexibility: MiniDisc recorders were more flexible as they allowed replacing discs rather than expensive SD cards or built-in storage⁴. They also supported manual recording from a line or optical input².
4. Broadcasting and Field Recording: The MiniDisc format was popular in broadcasting and field recording due to its high-quality recordings of interviews and live performances².

However, despite these advantages, the MiniDisc format never grabbed a strong foothold in the market for several reasons. The players were expensive, retailing at $750 on launch in December 1992³. Once affordable CD-Rs and then mp3 players came onto the scene, the MiniDisc was all but obsolete without ever truly breaking through to the mainstream³.