Memory is (still) expensive. Minidiscs are (relatively) cheap.

So, how about a smallish unit with a long battery life that can read and write minidiscs as well as smartmedia and/or compactflash. That way you could back up your digital films onto minidisk while still on holiday or transfer music to you micro-wearable MP3 player from your stash of minidiscs.

Add the ability to charge the unit/transfer data from a PC by using a USB cable (see link) and you have a highly portable data transfer device.
-- st3f, Apr 30 2001

USB power supply http://www.halfbake...SB_20Power_20Supply
using USB as a power source for portable devices [st3f, Apr 30 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004]

DIscGO http://www.imation.....jhtml?Id=IM_PRD119
Data storage device [st3f, Apr 30 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004]

why back it up, when you can record right to it? http://www.sel.sony...mcorder/index.shtml
the world's first digital video camera with md storage [mihali, Apr 30 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004]

MD-PS1 http://sharp-world....orate/news/9704.htm
pjh68's URL as a link. Rather bulky 640x480 digital camera released in 1997. [st3f, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

What's the storage capacity of a minidisc?
-- egnor, Apr 30 2001


There are already several of these types of products. (not that it's not a good idea). www.mindsat.com and some other company I can'[t remember make that exact type of device based upon a small hard drive. Another company is going to use the www.dataplay.com discs to do the same thing, which are much smaller and higher storage (I think) than MDisks. There's two other of these things also announced, but I can't recall their names. Check the digital camera discussion groups.
-- kzemach, Apr 30 2001


It's all sounding rather baked.

The device on www.mindsat.com (thanks for the link kzemach) is ugly and I don't like it. It does have much of the functionality I was thinking of, though.

The reason why I was thinking of minidisc is that it's an established medium with reasonable storage - I thought 130MB so Rods' estimate seem about right as long as he changes the case of his 'b'. :o)
-- st3f, May 01 2001


*** baked *** baked *** baked ***

See link to DiscGO. This product (albeit currently vapourware) will take compactflash cards and surprisingly small 500MB discs. It also looks cute.
-- st3f, May 01 2001


I thought it was Le Professeur Jacques Antoine duByte
-- angel, May 01 2001


It's a pity Sony were too greedy. If Sony hadn't over priced the data version of the Minidisc, it would probably have replaved the floppy by now.

And Zip Drives would never has existed....

Might be a good idea for someone to design a camera based on a MiniDisc, although Sony already do a camera that takes stanard floppies. (Save as JPEG format - the disk are pc format so you just put the disk in your pc and open them as normal.)

Pity the camera is the size of a small camcorder.
-- CasaLoco, May 01 2001


CasaLoco - you've hit upon the point of this posting. I don't like the idea of putting a disc drive into my digtal camera and like the idea of tiny wearable MP3 players (too small for a drive).

<aside> I almost bought one of the Sony MD data drives when they came out. Zip was already on the market at under half the price of the (<£200 rather than £550). The zip was faster too. Sony had three big advantages, though.
1) The minidisc was small and cute.
2) The file structure of the disc was decided by the drive not the OS so discs could be read across operating systems.
3) The minidisc was a standard music format.
They shot themselves in the foot, though. I backed out of the purchase when I found that, even though the MD data drive could read audio discs, it could not create them. This was presumably Sony protecting its huge recording contracts. This certainly killed the product for me and may have destroyed it entirely/</aside>

I envisaged a device like a chunky minidisc player that (as well as being a fully functional minidisc and possibly MP3) player had a huge battery life and enough software and buttons to allow me to transfer data to and from the little memory cards that my camera/mp3 player uses (or to those devices directly).

DiscGO (see link) seems to do exactly this, only with the 500MB (Rods Tiger note the capital B signifying 'byte' rather than the lower case signifying 'bit' - I'll pay my pedants anonymous membership later) dataplay discs (not yet available but very nice if they live up to the hype).
-- st3f, May 01 2001


Why make it chunky - minidisc player can be made *Very* small. (Ever looked at what's inside one?) and the memory card readers are also tiny. I think the only problem is the cost.
-- CasaLoco, May 01 2001


I have succeeded in using Slow Scan TV to store pictures on cheap audio Minidiscs. Sure it's analog, but it is fun to watch the picture "upload" into the computer. It takes about a minute for a picture and you can use the mono mode to double the apparent MD capacity.
-- Amishman35, Jun 17 2002


Just to bring this long-dormant thread up to date... Dreams do come true, ideas do get baked... I reckon the I-Pod and MP3 player/USB thumb drives fill this gap rather nicely...
-- david_scothern, May 09 2004



random, halfbakery