minidisk compact disk

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ditnoj

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Howdy,

Can somebody tell me the difference, more or less technically, between minidisks and compact disks? Does one burn or reproduce differently than the other? What's the bit/hz difference?

What's the capacity of a minidisk, anyway?

D out ITNOJ
 
Both the minidisc and the CD store the data digitally, but the minidisc uses a form of compression to squeeze the same amount of data onto a smaller capacity disk. In terms of data size, I think the MD holds about 70Mb/disk (I seem to have heard that somewhere, but I could be wrong). The MD compression algorithm used to the crap, but it has been improved substantially in the last few years. It is still not the same quality as CD audio, but it can be difficult to pick (especially on normal speakers)

CD are physically burnt (when using a burner) or pressed (a-la commercial cds). The minidisc I think use a form of magneto-optical storage, which is why you can write over them about 1000 times.

I'm not too sure how the CD-RWs work. Might have to look it up

- gaffa
 
I'll Pitch In Too, Gaffa!

The CD-RW disk is a disk that can be recorded onto and erased 1000 times...If you do not have a CD Recorder, this will not be a disk you need to use.
If you have a CD Recorder, this format is especially helpful when you are learning to burn CD's, because if you make an error on it, you can just erase it & try again, unlike CD-R discs, where the mistakes or error are permanent...CD-RW Discs are excellent for storing music as well as data.
 
Re: I'll Pitch In Too, Gaffa!

Dougie Johnson said:
CD-RW Discs are excellent for storing music as well as data.
Click to expand...

...if you can find an audio player that will play them back!!

;)
 
So then my next question would be:
Is there a difference (technically speaking) between what is referred to as "burning" vs. "writing" vs. "recording" a CD?
And if CD's are "burned", how is a CD RW capable of being "re-burned" when you are using the same apparatus to "write"(had to say it!) on either kind of disc.

Also (even though answering the above question may answer this one) A Philips or similar machine "writes" or "records" in realtime or what? Once I went from the digital out of a DAT to the digital in of a Philips so is there an info buffer or something or what?

I'm REALLY curious now!

D out ITNOJ
 
Burning, writing and recording all refer to the same thing - the process of putting data onto the CD. They are interchangeable terms in this context.

The "burning" term is based off the factthat a CD-writer uses a laser (of a higher power than is required for reading the disc) to re-align the data on the CD. A CD-RW is erased prior to being re-written.

The CD can record in "realtime" so to speak, whch simply equates to 150K/sec being transferred to or from the disc. you an record in faster that realtime, but is simply because the newer burners can process the data faster (whic is why you see 2x, 4x, 8x etc. - they refer to the data transfer speeds that the CD-burner is capable of.)

- gaffa
 
OK!

Got it! That would mean that the difference between how say, a Philips does it and how the burner I have attached to my DPS 16 is basically in how the burning device recieves the info...so the Philips is receiving it and converting it via its ad/da deal and then burning and my external is receiving already converted info via the SCSI cable.

Thanks for all the info, folks

D out ITNOJ
 
Just want to add a little to the things gaffa explained very well. The MD holds up to 160MB resulting in 74 min of audio. Then there's the MD-Data discs (used in Yamaha's MD4/MD8 MTR machines) which hold 140MB of data.

Two killer links when it comes to MD and CD-R/RW:

http://www.minidisc.org/
http://www.fadden.com/cdrfaq/

Cheers,
MM
 
Recently (well, sorta) the leading Swedish HiFi-zine did a comparition between SONY's crazy SACD machine and SONY's top-of-the-line MD player. After hours of testing, their conclusion was that it sounded different, but they could NOT determine which machine that sounded better.

I've also read that a German HiFi-zine decided to test CD Vs. Mp3. I don't have the details, but I guess that the Mp3's was created with the best software/hardware availible to make sure it was the mp3 compression they listened to, not some bad sw/hw.

They couldn't point out what was CD and what was mp3 in the blindtests. This caused a storm among their readers. The zine decided to invite some of the most qualified readers to do the same test. The result was the same.
 
Check this out: The MD uses the laser to heat the MD media to something like 200 degrees Fahrenheit. THEN the magnetic head does it's thing, 'cuz the media isn't really magnetic until it's hot. Then the disc cools down, at which point the MAGNETICALLY CHANGED DISC is read... BY LASER.

So the laser COOKS the disc, the heads MAGNETIZE the media, and then later the laser is used to READ the disc.

I kept wondering why my MD-8 got so damn hot. When I found that out, I started to turn it off when not in use!

Ain't that COOL?!
 
Phillips offers a full line of portable cd players that play cdrw's starting at about 60$.
 
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