Sony MiniDisc Walkman to support Macs
updated 08:45 am EST, Thu March 23, 2006
Sony MiniDisc Walkman
Sony for the first time will offer Mac compatibility with its new MiniDisc Walkman, according to Macworld UK. "The company took the wraps off its all-new MiniDisc product, the MZ-RH1, this morning. This portable device is being marketed as a mobile recording studio. Sony plans to make the device Mac compatible, 'bringing greater choice in digital audio devices to Mac users.'" The report says that Sony will release Mac software for the new product this summer, following the May availabiity of the player in Europe. Sony's new MiniDisc player will support audio recording with different modes and several different file formats, including LinearPCM, MP3, or Sony's proprietary ATRAC (ATRAC, ATRAC3, ATRAC3plus) formats and that it will be able to record audio.
Too little, too late.
03/23, 10:04am reply
MiniDisc is c***, and Sony adding Mac compatibility to their portable players now is pointless.
Memo to Sony: The war's over, guys, and you lost it. Long ago, and badly. All those Mac users you appear to be coveting now have been iPod users for years and are probably on their second or third iPod. Even when the time comes for them to consider their next portable player, they'll remember that you turned your nose up at their money for a long time prior to that, and they'll continue to buy iPods.
phillymjs
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jun 2000
awesome!
03/23, 10:56am reply
No no no, this is awesome. I've always wanted a $100 or less digital audio recording device that I could plug into my digital piano whenever a groove struck me, without having to launch an app to record. It would also let me bring it to my music school (with digital pianos) to record a professor's performance of a piece I'm studying so that I can use it as a study tool. I'm gonna buy this thing if I check it out and discover it works as expected.
Show me a device for the iPod Nano that will do the same with a full 74 mins of digital audio and I'll get that instead (no mics please, just line-in), but until then, MD is for me.
darcybaston
Grizzled Veteran
Joined: May 2000
What took so long?
03/23, 11:51am reply
I've always felt the MiniDisc would be a great device to record and archive audio, but was annoyed that there wasn't a way to download files to my Mac (at least not to my limited knowledge). Now Sony is finally giving Mac users a chance... Well, too late Sony, I bought an MP3 recorder years ago. I think a lot more people would have purchased MiniDisc plays for recording purposes had Sony not used proprietary formats.
misterdna
Junior Member
Joined: Aug 2004
Too bad, so sad!
03/23, 02:41pm reply
Not that there isn't some poetic justice in SONY crawling back to try to covet Mac users, but as another poster said: They lost the war, and badly at that, and their efforts to repurpose MiniDISC right now, are just pathetic.
I always thought the Japanese were big on saving face -- the way I see it, Sony is currently a laughing stock. Nice going, guys.
ZinkDifferent
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2005
MiniDisk
03/23, 07:39pm reply
Actually MiniDisks are used by many radio stations as a method to easily carry around broadcast audio, kind of like how Beta was used by TV stations to record broadcast video. At the station I work at we have about 3 portable players which we use to record interviews and 3 minidisk consoles for recording and playback.
ltieman
Registered User
Joined: Sep 2006
The Mac is Back
03/24, 12:21am reply delete
This is sorta old news. Sony introduced MiniDisc that were compatible to Mac two years ago. This is good. iPods only play music transfered from one sorce. The MiniDisc is the only walkman (not MP3) player where you record from 5 sources. MiniDisc record and play. Now I can upload my live recordings from my old MiniDisc to my Mac and edit them. Sound quality is way better than any iPod.
coghead
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