Sony Vaio MX (PCV-MXS-10) with Minidisc Drive

w1retap

[H]F Junkie
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I have the MSX-20, but I know a lot of people were interested in buying it from me.. here's one that just popped up on Mercari. I have no idea the condition of all the parts, but they are pretty rare and I only see maybe one come up for sale per year online. The minidisc drive is usually the first thing to break, but I know a place to buy spares. Also, I put the HDD backup image of mine in a fresh OEM state on archive.org which will work for the MXS-10.
https://merc.li/7zpfFQvub

I hope Mercari links are allowed, if not, please delete. Most people buy cheap on Mercari and just immediately list on eBay for double the price, or simultaneously list on both sites.
 
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Darn looks like that unit is sold!. Do you have the archive.org link that backup file? I would like to see what it contains.
Thanks
 
Before, it was listed at $100 + $50 shipping. Likely if restored properly, this PC would fetch about $500 on eBay. (with working Minidisc drive of course) The minidisc drive is around $100 IIRC on ImpactComputers. Lots of Sony and minidisc collectors out there.
 
I remember wanting a Minidisc player/recorder so bad back when they were still a viable (not obsolete & a left to die format) music/data format. I did not even know these combo PCs existed until I saw w1retap thread titled Esoteric (rare) hardware from the past . I imagine if I knew about these back then my want would have been 1000 times greater. Do you have a link to the ImpactComputers page for the Minidisc drive? I wonder what interface it uses and if there is a way to hack & connect it to a modern PC.
 
Cool! I suppose if you have all of the cables and that separate board and it is infact USB you could probably connect it to a modern PC the only problem I can then see is finding the drivers & software for the MD drive.
 
I know I said I wanted a MiniDisc Player/recorder really bad when they were still around but I have never even heard of NetMD and I hate to sound like an idiot but what exactly is a NetMD?
 
It allows for direct compressed ATRAC audio to be loaded to the minidisc. Think of it as using MP3 vs WAV for file size to fit way more on a disc.
 
It allows for direct compressed ATRAC audio to be loaded to the minidisc. Think of it as using MP3 vs WAV for file size to fit way more on a disc.

So you write it to the disc without needing to go through the entire 80 minutes (or however long your recording is up to the capacity of the disc of course) in 'real-time' therefore like a CD-R where you write raw PCM to it to make a audio CD but don't have to do it a 1x 'real-time' speed? Am I getting it or is there more to NetMD then this?
 
Correct, it burns the contents to the disc very fast, instead of real-time recording like non-NetMD Minidisc recorders.
 
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