MD Data is a type of

magneto-optical A magneto-optical drive is a kind of optical disc drive capable of writing and rewriting data upon a magneto-optical disc. 130 mm (5.25 in) and 90 mm (3.5 in) discs are the most common sizes. In 1983, just a year after t ...

medium derived from

MiniDisc MiniDisc (MD) is an erasable magneto-optical disc-based data storage format offering a capacity of 60, 74, or 80 minutes of digitized audio. Sony announced the MiniDisc in September 1992 and released it in November of that year for sale i ...

. In developing and marketing it,

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

was trying to set the new standard for removable media to replace the 3½-inch diskette it had also helped create. MD Data competed in a format war with other disks such as SyQuest's EZ 135, Imation's SuperDisk, and the Iomega Zip. Ultimately neither MD Data nor any of its competitors succeeded in becoming the de facto new universal standard fully replacing the 3.5 inch diskette; with recordable CDs coming closest to filling the role, followed by USB flash drives.

Overview

MD Data disks can be fully read-only, fully rewritable, or be a hybrid of the two, with a portion of a disk being read-only and while another is rewritable. With 140 MB disks, MD Data offered about 100 times as much storage capacity as ordinary diskettes, and more than its competitors like the Zip (100 MB), SuperDisk (120 MB), and EZ 135 (135 MB), in a physically smaller medium. The format was featured in products such as still cameras, a PDA, document scanners, and image storage and editing systems. Another use was in 4- and 8-track

multitrack recording Multitrack recording (MTR), also known as multitracking, is a method of sound recording developed in 1955 that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources or of sound sources recorded at different times to create a cohesive who ...

decks. Meant as a step up from the popular 4-track cassette-based studios, these recorders enjoyed a brief prominence before they were replaced by relatively affordable and far more flexible direct-to-hard drive recording on

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

based computers. Some examples of products that used the format are a few multitrack "

portastudio Portastudio refers to a series of Multitrack recording, multitrack recorders produced by TASCAM beginning in 1979 with the introduction of the TEAC Corporation, TEAC 144, the first four-track compact cassette-based recorder. A TASCAM trademark, "p ...

"-style audio recorders such as Sony's MDM-X4 and

Tascam TASCAM is the professional audio division of TEAC Corporation, headquartered in Tokyo Japan. TASCAM established the Home Recording phenomenon by creating the "Project Studio" and is credited as the inventor of the Portastudio, the first casset ...

's 564. Sony's MDH-10 MD Data disk drive, meant for use with Windows and Mac PCs, could also play back audio MiniDiscs. However, the drive was expensive compared to the Zip drive and others.

MD Data2

In 1997, Sony introduced the MD Data2 format at 650 MB. The only product that used the format was Sony's DCM-M1 camcorder (capable of still images and

MPEG-2 MPEG-2 (a.k.a. H.222/H.262 as was defined by the ITU) is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods ...

video).

Hi-MD

Hi-MD, introduced in 2004 allows 340MB or 1GB of any type of data to be stored on a Hi-MD formatted MiniDisc, succeeding MD Data and MD Data2.

Gallery

Sony CyberShot DSC-MD1 CP+ 2011.jpg, The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-MD1 was the only Cyber-shot camera using MD Data Worlds first DVD Camcorder Sony DCM-M1 1999 MD DISCAM VIDEO MD.jpg, The

camcorder A camcorder is a self-contained portable electronic device with video and recording as its primary function. It is typically equipped with an articulating screen mounted on the left side, a belt to facilitate holding on the right side, hot-sw ...

Sony DCM-M1 records 20 minutes of MPEG2-Video on a MD Data2 disc Sony MDM-X4 Minidisk Multitrack Recorder.jpg, Sony MDM-X4 Multitrack Recorder

References

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External links