MiniDisc - An Appreciation on HackerTube: recommended by 5 Hacker News commenters across 5 separate months, 2019–2023.
documentary · evergreen
Techmoan's 45-minute retrospective on Sony's MiniDisc, covering the first and last machines, ATRAC, MD-LP, Net-MD and HiMD. It argues the format deserves more credit than its US failure narrative suggests.
The standard recommendation for MiniDisc history, especially as a non-American counterpoint to the failed-format story.
“Wonderful video about the format”
6 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
It was a massive success everywhere except the USA. But because the USA defines history, it was a "failure". Wonderful video about the format: ▶ this video
in “Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?” · View on HN
Reference to Techmoan is de rigeur : ▶ this video Especially any of you kids who weren't around when the MiniDisc craze swept the world like a wildfire gone berzerk.
in “Minidisc FAQ: MDLP (“Long-Play”) Mode Topics” · View on HN
Ah yes, another American-centric viewpoint (which is correct, no qualms about that part) but in other countries (probably with the exclusion of inner reaches of Africa and, uhm, Canada) MiniDisc (at the late 1990's and early 2000's)... is just there: a reliable way to have portable copies of your music. P.S. British viewpoint by Techmoan (which pointed out the American-centric "MiniDisc is a failure"): ▶ this video P.P.S. A direct rebuttal (to the point it was titled "The (Not) Forgotten Audio Format That (Never) Failed"): [link]
in “The MiniDisc: the failure of a forgotten format (2020)” · View on HN
As a younger person who missed out, I recently enjoyed this mini-documentary— especially the surprisingly lengthy history of the many devices for a supposedly "failed" format: ▶ this video
in “Building replacement proprietary battery packs” · View on HN
> There is still something so cool about MiniDisc though Agree. I really wanted one for years, I even had some blank discs to fidget with, but when I could finally afford one the iPod had come out and I bought that instead. Part of me still wants to buy a MiniDisc player and some discs, but I try to keep the amount of stuff I own down to the essentials, and vintage electronic doesn't really make the cut. TechMoan on Youtube have a few videos about the MiniDisc format for anyone interested. ▶ this video [link]
in “Dumping MiniDisc Media” · View on HN
Tangent. I had a Minidisc player for a while circa 1997 (bit hazy). It was so awesome. I spent a lot of time putting tracks on the minidiscs. I always wanted to be able to use it with a computer to store files as well, alas that required a special drive. While it existed never really took off (at least in Australia). Memory chips might be the future, but minidiscs still look cooler. Cool enough for Neo to sell one in the Matrix :D ▶ this video
in “A floppy-disk Walkman using a Raspberry Pi” · View on HN