Defunct audio formats

[richardfinegold]

Out of my depth here, but are there commercial services that will transfer minidiscs to DVD or a hard drive? I still see stores that advertise transferring VHS or Camcorder recordings to DVD, and cassette to CD

[french frank]

Out of my depth here, but are there commercial services that will transfer minidiscs to DVD or a hard drive? I still see stores that advertise transferring VHS or Camcorder recordings to DVD, and cassette to CD

Yes, I think there are. Though what the cost would be for any quantity of recordings I've no idea.

I've just discovered I still have one of these, original SD with FM tuner. I wonder if it still works:

[Cockney Sparrow]

Yes, I think there are. Though what the cost would be for any quantity of recordings I've no idea.............

I quickly searched You Tube - not recommended, largely downloading from a computer to a MD - using involved IT solutions. The links from that article you referred to shows that MD still burns bright in the affections of a segment of the music playing public.

Your audio unit may well have "Aux out" or "Tape Out" sockets on the back?

If there are 2 of them - left and right channels that is one end of a connecting cable. But what do you have on your computer to take the signal - I suggest, if you cannot resolve that, a visit to a local computer repair shop and ask them, if you are unsure. (If you have the manual for your audio system, take that along as well...)

If its a simple 2 phono to 3.5mm jack, its a very standard lead.

I did Google "Transfer Minidisc to mp3 Service uk". Without spending much time on it, it was easy to find services at quite a stiff charge. The one below is more reasonable - £6 up to an hour, £10 if it goes over. Its not clear to me whether they charge you if you are happy to download the resulting file but there is a charge if you want a USB memory stick. No doubt + p&p. Maybe ask for a bulk price if you are at all interested?

https://www.ghsmedia.co.uk/product/minidisc/

[Dave2002]

Lowering the quality setting and doubling the time capacity of a minidisc was also fine for speech recordings. Any system which used a less than bit perfect PCM standard stood to be condemned by the audiofiles. I always thought that any system which used tapes was bound to suffer deterioration from use and age.

There was a way to use a Sony program (soundforge?) to transfer files to a PC format but I never grappled with that and as I think it was last useable on Windows 7 that opportunity has probably passed. If I find any "lost" Interpretations on Record programs recorded on MD it would be worth transcribing them to a FLAC file I should think. But I can't see time being available anytime soon to launch into a MD exercise.

Eventually I had both Hi-MD MiniDisc recorder/players and also regular MiniDisc player/recorders. I also bought a largish collection of MiniDiscs from eBay - they were going cheap, and are easy to record over. It's amazing what other people have recorded on those.

Sony was an absolute pain for years, with their copy protection systems. I even heard of people losing their own recordings - by which I mean their own recordings of themselves or other sounds and owned the copyright - because of the copy protection. Eventually Sony gave up, and there were ways of getting recordings off the MiniDiscs - even the HD ones - to computer file. There is always the very slow - brute force way - using the audio out, and although I do have some recordings on MiniDisc [or HD] life is now probably too short to worry about them.

Some of the live recordings I made were very realistic - but the performances really don't justify keeping them now. Hi-MD did have the edge over regular MD - but with care really good recordings could be made with the MD versions.

[Dave2002]

There are plenty of [perhaps] moderately decent MD player recorders still available on eBay.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/b/bn_2316837

Also at the time of posting this, there is a drive belt for under £5 - but to see that you'll have to scroll down the page a fair way.

And here are some portable ones:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p4432023.m570.l1313&_nkw=Portable+Minidisc+player&_sacat=0

[Andrew Slater]

I inherited a brand-new Sony MD recorder which is still in its box. I know it has a USB connector, and was hoping that one day I might be able to transfer to PC the contents of some of the MDs which came with the recorder. But if Sony used copy protection as suggested upthread, then it's not looking very promising.

[hmvman]

Transferring old media (audio and video) onto new media is something I do on a small commercial basis. Unfortunately, though, all my MD machines packed up in various ways and I've never replaced them.

Talking of defunct audio formats, I was at a gramophone group meeting today and discussion turned to quadraphonic LPs. I recall that there were two formats, SQ and CD-4. Did anyone here have a quadraphonic set-up to play any of those formats?

[Retune]

I inherited a brand-new Sony MD recorder which is still in its box. I know it has a USB connector, and was hoping that one day I might be able to transfer to PC the contents of some of the MDs which came with the recorder. But if Sony used copy protection as suggested upthread, then it's not looking very promising.

At one point Sony were bundling connection gadgets with ordinary MD players that were basically mini USB audio devices, but they were intended to get the music from the computer to the MD player rather than the other way around. One had an analogue output, and the other an optical digital output which worked with MD players that had an optical digital input:

http://www.dansdata.com/xitel.htm

To go the other way you'd need to use your MD player's headphone or line-out socket. Mostly these outputs were analogue only, so the DRM shouldn't come into play, though some high-end players (typically HiFi components) did have digital outputs that might trip copy protection if you use them, depending on whether the system you plug it into respects Sony's old 'SCMS' scheme.

Later they tried to compete with mp3 players with the 'NetMD' system. If you have a NetMD player, there are hacks for digitally transferring tracks to your computer (I believe these have been incorporated into apps like Web MiniDisc Pro).

[richardfinegold]

Transferring old media (audio and video) onto new media is something I do on a small commercial basis. Unfortunately, though, all my MD machines packed up in various ways and I've never replaced them.

Talking of defunct audio formats, I was at a gramophone group meeting today and discussion turned to quadraphonic LPs. I recall that there were two formats, SQ and CD-4. Did anyone here have a quadraphonic set-up to play any of those formats?

I don’t remember the CD-4. I worked in a record store in the late seventies that a quad set up, and I remember the SQ logo on all the discs

[Dave2002]

I inherited a brand-new Sony MD recorder which is still in its box. I know it has a USB connector, and was hoping that one day I might be able to transfer to PC the contents of some of the MDs which came with the recorder. But if Sony used copy protection as suggested upthread, then it's not looking very promising.

That Sony copy protection was a real pain - but with some of the later kit it was possible to get round some of the problems. From what I remember, the HiMD models were the most versatile in terms of being able to get round some of the constraints.

Do you know what is on the MDs?

Playing around with this kind of stuff can be a can of worms, and waste a lot of time, but it might be worth trying the recorder - you might actually like the sound quality. Not worth spending more than half a day on this, unless you are feeling really dedicated.

Otherwise save your time, and maybe sell it on eBay. If it's still in the box unopened it might sell for more.

Probably for $100-$300 you could get something like a new Zoom or Tascam digital recorder which would be as good or better, and compatible with up to date digital systems.

[Dave2002]

I don’t remember the CD-4. I worked in a record store in the late seventies that a quad set up, and I remember the SQ logo on all the discs

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compatible_Discrete_4

As I recall this was a JVC/RCA system which used a high frequency subcarrier on LPs, so wouldn't work in quad without a decoder, and was also demanding in terms of the cartridge used as it would have to have a frequency response perhaps up to 40 kHz.

Presumably, as with the other quad systems, the records were "optimised" so that if played on stereo or mono players the standard L and R channels would still give a reasonable sounding output, though this was maybe never guaranteed with any of them. Having more channels can introduce unwanted effects unless handled carefully.

[hmvman]

Somebody was telling me yesterday that the recording level on CD-4 discs had to be reduced in order to accommodate the subcarrier frequency.

[french frank]

Somebody was telling me yesterday that the recording level on CD-4 discs had to be reduced in order to accommodate the subcarrier frequency.

I'm speechless! (Which goes to show what a technological ignoramus I am !) Back to recording MDs on to my computer: I found something that I (probably mis)identified as a sort of adaptor. I think it was a gadget I bought to record from the hifi MD player on to its cassette deck.

Now, by connecting various things up, phono jack (hi fi) to gadget (via two red and white stereo input jacks) and USB A (gadget) to USB B (MacBook), I managed to get the volume (from R3 playing on the hifi) registering on the computer - by changing Internal Speakers to USB Audio Codec ('select a device for sound input') so that the input level is registering but there's no sound (anywhere) and the Sound window says 'The selected device has no input controls'. So what I thought was an adaptor is presumably something else.

No one has a clue what I'm talking about, do they? Including me Ah, well...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Didn’t CD-4 require a “chisel” stylus to read the extra information? They were still completely compatible with normal stereo equipment for 2-channel listening.

[cloughie]

[QUOTE=Dave2002;n1291171]There are plenty of [perhaps] moderately decent MD player recorders still available on eBay.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/b/bn_2316837

Also at the time of posting this, there is a drive belt for under £5 - but to see that you'll have to scroll down the page a fair way.

And here are some portable ones:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_f...layer&_sacat=0[/QUOT

i’ve seen the belt drives - I thinkmon amazon but once purchased I would then take on the daunting task of replaing the old one which I fear that, even with help from the very good you tube demonstration my cack-handed attempts would probably permanently disable my beloved machine!