Sony announces the end of MiniDisc (wait, they still make them??)

[Zoid]

Get out your calendars—Sony will be making its final MiniDisc stereo system in March, marking an end to the 20-year-old media format.

MiniDisc was launched in 1992, but never saw widespread success outside of Japan. Its rise in the West was stymied by the existing popularity of the CD and the growth of the MP3 format and its smaller, more battery-efficient portable players.

It was based around small, rewritable optical disks housed in a plastic shell with a storage capacity of 80 minutes. An attempted reboot in 2004 as Hi-MD failed miserably, and sales of portable MiniDisc players ended in 2011.

But the format did prove popular among sound engineers and journalists, who used MiniDisc players to record sounds, jingles and interviews before adequate solid-state storage options arrived.

The announcement was made alongside the release of a teaser video for a Playstation press conference, where it's widely expected that a new console will be announced.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/02/sony-announces-the-end-of-the-minidisc

[Green1]

CDs and DVDs need to go next. I hate them.

Horrible, flimsy format. Scratch by just looking at them wrong. Even the 1980s cassette tapes and video tapes were more durable and better in my opinion even if the quality was not as good.

How many of us wasted money on now unplayable music or games just because of easily damaged discs?

MP3/MP4 files are the way to go. Everything I have kept on thumb drives survive while others die a horrible death due to all the moves, things being "borrowed"/stolen, damaged due to one tiny scratch.

[Lord Avalon]

I take pretty good care of my discs.  Had more problems with tape.  Not a lot of problems with either, but I had more instances of the player eating the tape.  Then I bought cleaning stuff (of course you have to remember to use it).

I'm not into Linux much, but I do know that Damn Small Linux was made to fit on a 50MB business-card size CD.