Sony: MiniDisc Is (Finally) Dead

Never bought a single one....rest in peace

Mine's still alive. Maybe a museum will take it. I could use the space. With the advent of capacious Flash drives I'd be surprised if they don't start selling music and movies on USB ROMs. Nothing to scratch, no fingerprints, smudges, dust and other hassles. Can't wait to get one of those cheesy plastic visor thingies for my truck an' stuff it with tiny brightly-colored rectangles: "Say, Bubba, was noticin' you gots Trisha Yearwood's latest thar. Mind if I borry..." "Why, shore, BillyBob, yew kin borry my music anytime so's long as I kin borry yore wife anytime!" :-))

They were good in their time, I used a lot for radio interviews and studio playout. It has been a long time since I last used one and I am surprised that Sony were still making them.

The biggest hassle with them was the editing as they had to be dubbed off to a computer in real time. There was a very pricey system using MD data drives but this was too expensive even for most professionals. Later units had USB interfaces but could only be used with Sony's rather clunky software.

They survived the onslaught of solid state recorders for a while because of storage costs. The discs were cheaper per hour than memory cards but this has long since ceased to be an issue for most.

My dashboard-mounted one died a long time ago, after about three weeks of constant use after I bought my second-hand car.

You will not be missed.