MiniDisc (1992 – 2013) | Museum of Obsolete Media (original) (raw)

MiniDisc was a magneto-optical disc format for audio, introduced by Sony in 1992.

MiniDisc, along with the Digital Compact Cassette released the same year, was intended to be a replacement for the Compact Cassette. Sony’s previous attempt to replace the Compact Cassette was Digital Audio Tape (DAT) but this had failed in the consumer market.

MiniDiscs were very popular in Japan but made a limited impact elsewhere. A smaller number of pre-recorded albums were available than other formats, and after around 1995 it faced competition from other recordable formats such as the CD-R.

An incompatible variant for data storage, MD Data, was introduced in 1993 but failed. Later, Hi-MD introduced higher capacity disks, could be used for data and audio, and was compatible with MiniDisc, however Hi-MD itself was discontinued in 2011.

The disc itself is housed in a cartridge with a shutter, and can be recordable (blank) or pre-recorded. Capacities ranged from 60 minutes to 74 or 80 minutes. Data is read to a memory buffer to prevent skipping except under extreme conditions.

The last MiniDisc players were sold in 2013.

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Dimensions: 71.5 mm × 68.2 mm × 4.8 mm

Capacity: 60, 74 or 80 minutes

MiniDisc (1992 – 2013) | Museum of Obsolete Media (original) (raw)

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