Hiro

I tried to search but, couldn't seem to find anything on this topic.

Does the factory MiniDisc player play in LP mode. LP2, 3, or 4.

Thanks.

Tony

TitaniumRX8MD

Yes it does work in LP mode

sjt

LP4 sounds like crap.

bochawa

LP4 sounds decent enough on my system at home. I'm hoping to get similar results when I get my RX-8 and install the minidisc player. If not, there's always LP2.

flatso

Probably in a car the LP4 will be fine. Headphone listening is another story. On another note I wonder why MD never caught on its such a cool format.

boarder

The reason is simple: Sony's licensing costs (they created the MD format). They charged WAY too much for the format and pushed all other manufacturers out. Very few others wanted Sony to make most if not all of the profits.
They recently knocked the price down in the last couple of years, but it was too late. MP3 cds had already garned plenty of support. I personally like the size of MDs over CDs, but it soon wont matter much.

sjt

I'll never give up on my MDs while the only other alternative is CDs.

I hate not being able to afford the MD player yet... I have an aftermark MD head unit that WON'T FIT in the 8... I've had that baby for over 3 years, the 1st US available MDLP deck but now I've been letting it sit in the garage..

I hate CDs for the sheer inconvience. I've got fingerprints & scratches on a few of my CDs I've put in the car. I also have to find a way to store a bunch of CDs in teh car... so irritating... Problems never encountered with MDs.

flatso

Sorry I disagree boarder. The reason other companies have stopped selling MD is simply because people have stopped buying them and moved on to HD and MP3 and other formats. If they demand was still there they would all be selling them like they were only a few years ago licence fee or not. I hope MD does not go the way of beta but it sure appears that way.

I, Claudius

I bought a home MD recorder several years ago, and loved it so much I ran out and had a player installed in the Miata. It's a brilliant format, and I'm disappointed that it never caught on here. There are plenty of reasons - the format was too strange for people used to cassette, it was too expensive at the outset (both decks and blank discs), and Sony generally did a terrible job of promoting it. It's pretty firmly entrenched in Japan, though, so there'll be a source for blanks and such for awhile yet (Minidisco.com has very good prices on minidisc-related stuff).

I guess I'll be getting the MD player for the 8 sooner or later if for no other reason than I've got all these MDs lying around. But I have to admit that since I got a CD burner, I've been using MD a lot less.

flatso

I agree Claudius it had nothing to do with licensing and all to do with the format just not catching on like it should have. I remember a few years back all the major japanese companies were selling them. Lots of people dont like Sony because of their copy protection system with MD or just because they are so huge but I think they are one of the great companies. It's simply amazing when you look at a mini disc player and all the features they squeeze into that little device and that is just one small section of their products line.

I, Claudius

Yep. I think that's the big reason CDR caught on so quickly (and pretty much eliminated the need for a format like MD) - they're cheap, they look like CDs, and you can play 'em in your CD player. No trauma, no getting used to a funny-looking proprietary format that requires a special player, etc.

Are you a Good Rats fan, Flatso? I remember them fondly from the '70s.

flatso

Yes I am a Good Rats fan Saw them in the clubs in NJ all the time.

boarder

No, sorry, it was licensing costs. Even by there own admission. Only Japan really had the market for it (since Sony was IT during the MD timeframe). MD was "dead" before CDRs were even available. CDRs and the like were just the final nail in the coffin. MDs never caught on in the US mainly due to lack of support by other manufacturers and the music industry (which Sony tried to charge for putting the music on the MD format). Its not as if MD can't hang with MP3 players either. There are MP3 MD players out, and I love the form factor over CDs, but there just isn't the market for it anymore.

Almost all portable non-Sony MD players in the US were either made by Sony, Sharp (a licensee), or a import of a japanese version not originally intended for the US market. All of them (but sony of course) payed the "Sony tax".

Any good technological format needs a critical mass to survive. Sony was too stringent in the US market and caused the death of there own format. Thereby going the same route as Betamax.

PS. MD will stick around for a while as a lot of audio buffs use it. One of our audio sound effects guys here at work still uses it for recording sounds out in the "wild".

I, Claudius

If by "licensing costs" you mean that no one else was marketing MD components, in the past I've seen MD decks from JVC and Panasonic, and (I seem to recall) Pioneer as well. No longer, of course, but other manufacturers did give MD a shot.

tripwire

For those of you who have the mini-disc player in the RX8, can you record MP3's to the MD and playback that format through the mini-disc player or is there a proprietary (or just different than mp3) format that is being used?

I have the 6-disc CD changer and I burn CDs - converting MP3s to .CDA format, the quality is right up there with standard CDs, and it's nice to be able to do that, but I can't put as many .CDAs on a CD as I could .MP3s.

I thought maybe I could put significantly more MP3s on the mini-disc, if the unit will play them.

bochawa

Minidiscs use their own format known as ATRAC (within ATRAC there are different versions and formats, kinda like SP/LP/SLP on a VCR). MP3's would need to be recorded in this format on a minidisc.

For those of you that have the minidisc player installed, does the track display auto-scroll or do you have to scroll the display manually like with the MP3 player?

goodjam

Good eveng I have a question concerning the minidisc..
Does anyone know of a similar mini dvd dic player that would be compatible with this system? Something similar to playing the movies on PSP's