The Video Advisor - A one stop resource for independent film making and video production advice

MINIDISCS
by Andrew Lock

MiniDiscs have been around since the early 1990's, the format being developed by Sony.  Although primarily used for storage of audio, the format can also be used to store data.

In their standard format, minidiscs can store up to 74 minutes of music, which is the same as a CD.  In recent times that has stretched to around 80 minutes.  With compression options, the storage capacity can be further stretched to double that, a kind of long play mode that some minidisc recorders allow.

The minidisc format allows for some useful features.  Just like CD's, you can access individual tracks instantly.  There is also the ability to store track names and an album name, which can both be edited at any time.  Tracks can also be edited at any time, to divide a track into two, combine two tracks into one, and move tracks so that they play in a different order.  These are all valuable features that are not possible with CD's.

The format was embraced in Japan and Europe, and to a lesser extent in the USA.  Over the years there have been a number of developments with the format.  Firstly, NetMD allows users of specially equipped minidisc recorders to download music from a PC to the recorder, using special software.

In 2004, Sony announced a major overhaul to the format, releasing a new standard of MiniDisc, the Hi-MD.  The new Hi-MD discs are the same physical size as the original minidiscs, but they have increased storage capacity (up to 1GB of data) and the recorders they partner with are enabled with some great features, such as the ability to upload music or data from the minidisc to a PC at high speed, via a USB2 connection.

Minidiscs have become popular with film makers for recording audio, often in favor of DAT. This is for a number of reasons.  It is a reliable format, not prone to dropouts, portable, and flexible.  It records digitally, and with the new Hi-MD format, audio files can be uploaded and transferred directly to the timeline as WAV files, which saves time having to manually capture the audio.

Further links:

Crutchfield Advisor - Minidisc, the most versatile music medium

Minidisc Community Portal - One of the most comprehensive sites about minidiscs