MiniDisc as an MP3 player - is it possible?

Doublespresso

I have recently bought a Sony MiniDisc player in the Argos sale. ;D

The MiniDisc player is a Net MD and comes with a USB cable.

Does any one knows how I can copy MP3 files from my HD into the MiniDisc? Will they play? ???

Preferably I want to do this without using the very restrictive software supplied by Sony.

Any advice from seasoned MD users would be much appreciated ;D

hollie.weimeraner

If you download the latest version of Sonic Stage from Sony, I believe the restrictions have been removed.

Alternatively search google for NetMD Simple Burner. This is the only other MD software available. It will only allow you to transfer music via CD though.

Doublespresso

Thanks for that...

The thing is that I have a whole MP3 library on my HD and I want to be able to listen to them on the MD...

Am I correct in thinking that this would not be possible? Do I have to burn the MP3s into a CD first? ???

(BTW, I assume that the MiniDisc player can play/record the MP3 format, am I right?)

Thanks again
;D

EvilMonkey

To my knowledge you cannot do what you're asking (IE play the MP3 file direct from a minidisc.) The reason for this is that minidiscs use their own proprietry compression format (various forms of ATRAC). Basically it creates, stores and plays its own compressed music files.

So as far as I know the only way to proceed would be to convert your MP3's to the attrac format.

sra

sony are starting to let their devices use mp3s - which a lot of people believe means sony have given up on the atrac format and are letting it die. I think the latest minidisks can play mp3s.

I have one of these which came with atrac software - but if you put any cd-r into it, it automatically finds any mp3s on it and indexs them.

don't know how you'd get mp3s onto a minidisc though ???

blinky

None of the NetMD or Hi-MD natively support MP3, only ATRAC (sp?).

If it's a NetMD I would suggest you to use your favourite CD burning app to burn a CD audio image, mount it with Daemon Tools or similar and then use MD Simple Burner to transfer the tracks from the virtual CD drive to the MD.

Use LP2 for the best sound/compression ratio. You can get between 2 and 3 albums on a disc with LP2. Don't bother with LP4.

EvilMonkey

Use LP2 for the best sound/compression ratio. You can get between 2 and 3 albums on a disc with LP2. Don't bother with LP4.

I listen to my minidisc on the train, so LP4's fine for me, my borthers a sound engineer though and he wouldn't talk to me for months when I told him....

The newest 1GB MD's use the latest variant of atrac, but I still believe its atrac and not mp3 compatible.


This site has a lot of info and some forums for a definative answer....

blinky

http://www.minidisct.com/ the forums are better than Minidisc.org

The only reason I suggest not using Simple Burner with a Hi-MD is it is very restrictive as to the bitrates available.