MD Data

MD Data

MD Data Sony MMD-140A
Media type	Magneto-optical disc
Read mechanism	780 nm semiconductor laser diode
Write mechanism	Magnetic field modulation
Developed by	Sony
Usage	Data storage
Extended from	Floppy disk MiniDisc
Extended to	Hi-MD
Released	July 1993

MD Data is a magneto-optical medium succeeding MiniDisc. Sony wanted it to replace floppy disks, but instead came the Zip drive, CD writers, and memory sticks and cards.

Overview

The technology has 140 MB of data storage, but it is slow and expensive. It is in products such as a still camera, a document scanner, and in late 1990s 4- and 8-track multitrack recording 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 and Macintosh based computers. The format lacks an affordable computer drive. Some examples of products that used the format are a few multitrack "portastudio"-style audio recorders such as Sony's MDM-X4 and Tascam's 564.

MD Data2

MD Data2 logo and disc

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 video).

Hi-MD

Since 2004, Hi-MD 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

• 
  The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-MD1 was the only Cyber-shot camera using MD Data
• 
  The camcorder Sony DCM-M1 records 20 minutes of MPEG2-Video on a MD Data2 disc
• 
  Sony MDM-X4 Multitrack Recorder

See also

• MiniDisc
• Hi-MD

External links

• MiniDisc Data Product table