Minidisc: Sony’s forgotten software junk or joy? / M-crew full demo and review

I was curious about the strange port on the back of some Sony #minidisc decks and bookshelf systems circa 2000. I found out that it was the PCLK-MN10 port, that connects to Sony M-crew… a forgotten piece of software that controls and records to minidisc units.

Come along as I chronicle and demonstrate the features of this fascinating system. It’s a longer video because I wanted to do MD fans a service by doing a deep-dive, since it requires specific equipment that not many people have.

I also briefly discuss 20bit Minidiscs, Wide Bit Stream, Atrac Type-R and exciting things like that!

This was a short-lived but fun era in the minidisc story, and a fun alternative to #NetMD.

Thanks to #techmoan and @cbitstech for the inspiration!

My old video is here:    • ‘Holy Grail’ tech of Minidisc track naming...  

Thanks to these special contributors:
Marlene: http://marlene-d.blogspot.com/2012/06...
Graham: https://github.com/4gra/pclk-mn10
George Styles: https://gitlab.com/ripnetuk-public/ri...

Music: ‘Why you mean?’ by Förvaltningen is licensed under a Attribution 4.0 International License. ©Förvaltningen https://forvaltningen.bandcamp.com/ this music was not altered, with the exception of volume levels.

Contents of this video

00:00 - Introduction
01:01 - The backstory
02:13 - What is M-crew?
02:39 - Recording digital files
06:06 - Limitations
07:17 - Track marks ID3 tags and metadata
08:07 - Bulk editing file names
09:00 - Multi-CD to minidisc compilations
10:56 - Minidisc editing / Groups
12:55 - Divide and combine tracks
13:32 - A-B erase
14:47 - Fading tracks
15:14 - Volume level shift / Scale factor edit
15:53 - Erasing tracks
16:16 - Manual recording
16:54 - Wide Bit Stream
19:10 - 24 bit file recording
21:02 - Easy mode
23:13 - Other notable features / Media library
23:42 - Label printing / Labelmaker 5.1
24:33 - All features list
24:55 - Review
26:49 - Thank you