technoguy

A MiniDisc (MD) is a disc-based data storage device intended for storage of up to 80 minutes of digitized audio. The technology was announced by Sony in 1991 and introduced January 12, 1992, and is capable of storing any kind of binary data. The music format is based on ATRAC/ATRAC3, using digital rights management, various bitrates, and sampling directly from the analog input. Minidiscs are popular in Japan as a digital upgrade to cassette tapes, but have flopped in the United States despite multiple marketing efforts by Sony.