See Products   Home Recorders   Portables   Home/Portable Packages   In-Dash MiniDisc Receivers Find Out More   Key Features Glossary   Frequently Asked Questions MiniDisc The Most Versatile Music Format If you're unfamiliar with MiniDisc, you may be wondering what the buzz is all about. Well, how's this for starters: It's versatile (great for home, car, and portable use), ultra-durable, easy to use, ultra-compact (74 minutes of stereo audio fits onto one tiny 2-1/2" MiniDisc), and it sounds fantastic! With several generations of technical refinement under its belt, a great selection of affordable recorders and players to choose from, and significantly cheaper blank discs, it's easy to see why MiniDisc is capturing the minds and ears of music fans everywhere. MiniDisc is the digital recording format that makes a perfect match for CDs (the way analog cassette made a great recording mate for LPs). MiniDisc's compatibility with compact disc is obvious: You get crystal-clear digital sound from a laser-read optical disc that offers instantaneous access to any track on the disc (no more waiting for tapes to rewind and fast-forward). You even get CD-type features like shuffle play, and optical digital input for convenient and ultra-accurate direct digital recording from CD players that have an optical digital output. The Pros and, well ... More Pros of MiniDisc! With MiniDisc, you avoid many of the disadvantages of tape-based formats, such as limited shelf life, susceptibility to breakage, and sound quality deterioration over time (you can re-record a blank MD up to a million times without degradation!). But at the same time, you retain the key features that helped make cassette so popular: small size, easy portability, and versatility (MD is perfect for making mix recordings from CD, FM, etc., or for archiving LP and cassette collections). MiniDisc has all the bases covered. Not just at home and for portable use, but in your car as well — in-dash MD players and multi-MD changers let you take your digital mixes on the road. MiniDisc recording also offers a number of convenient and incredibly useful editing features that cassette and other analog formats will never be able to offer. Thanks to a user-editable table of contents and easy character input, you can: change the playback order of tracks without having to re-record them divide or combine tracks any way you want instantly erase any individual track or an entire disc add disc and track titles that appear on the player's display panel (great for labeling mix MDs with artists, titles, and other reference information that could never fit on the outside of the cartridge!) CD-to-MiniDisc Recording Do you love the digital sound quality and instant track access afforded by your CDs, but still settle for recording them to cassette? Well, it's time to step up to digital recording: It's easier, sounds better, and it's foolproof! You can record to MiniDisc via digital or analog input. Either sounds great, but digital transfer is especially easy (the sound flows as digital data, like in a computer, so there are no levels to set!). Just connect your CD player's (optical or coaxial) digital output to your MiniDisc recorder's matching digital input. It's that simple — you're ready to record! Do you ever record mix cassettes for a party or the car? Mix MDs are much better! Suppose you get tired of track 3. Just push a button and it's gone! MiniDisc lets you erase and replace that one track without having to re-record the entire disc. You can even change the song order without re-recording. That's just not possible with a cassette!