The discussion on Hacker News revolves around the enduring appeal and practical considerations of obsolete and near-obsolete audio formats, with a particular focus on MiniDisc and DAT, but also touching upon cassette tapes, VHS, and CDs. Key themes that emerge are the nostalgia for these formats, their technical capabilities and limitations, the challenges of acquiring and maintaining working equipment, the active communities that support them, and the reasons for their decline in favor of digital alternatives.
MiniDisc as a Viable and Nostalgic Format
Many participants express a fondness for MiniDisc (MD), highlighting its convenience, sound quality, and editing capabilities. The availability of affordable players and media, coupled with an active community supporting repairs and software, makes it a format that many still actively use or appreciate.
- PaulHoule states, "Personally I'm more of a fan of minidisc. You can get minidisc players for $100 or so on Ebay and they occasionally show up at the local reuse center for less than that and my experience is that 100% of the minidisc players I've picked up worked (had one fail in six months though...), in contrast to about a 40% success rate with cassette decks."
- timeonecom fondly recalls, "Minidisc was where the fun was, it sounded good and the Walkmen were small. I loved that you could edit the md. Which meant if you recorded off the radio, you could instantly have your favorite song on repeat (with DJs talking over the song of course, but it beat waiting weeks before something would be available) - never got a DAT deck because MD was so much more convenient."
- chem83 points to the ongoing support for the format: "There's an active community around MiniDisc these days. r/minidisc and Discord are the places to check. People have been building replacement gumstick Li ion batteries with reasonable quality and there are replacement OLED displays for RH1 and RH10 Sony players."
DAT's Professional Niche and Domestic Misfortune
Digital Audio Tape (DAT) is discussed as a format that excelled in professional and semi-professional audio circles but struggled to gain traction in the consumer market. Its high cost, complex mechanics, and contentious legal battles over copyright, fueled by the "Home taping is killing music" sentiment, are cited as primary reasons for its limited domestic success. However, its sound quality and professional applications, particularly in music production and live recording, are acknowledged.
- The article's premise is echoed by brudgers: "DAT entered the market at about the same time as CD, but was much less successful. For all its notional advantages, DAT never really caught on in the domestic market." The user elaborates that "Audio distribution dominates the consumer market and CD’s can be pressed much like a vinyl record. Basically, producing a full fledged CD takes about the same effort as manufacturing half the cassette case for DAT."
- jaredhallen questions, "Plus with a cd you could skip directly from track to track. No messing around with fast forward and rewind to find a song. Unless maybe DAT had that functionality? I never used it."
- hackingonempty clarifies DAT's functionality: "Yes the machines let you place track markers and the next/prev track button would seek to them. Not as quickly as a CD, of course."
- dekhn highlights DAT's popularity in specific communities: "DAT was popular in the jam-band-taping community around the time this device was released. Folks would go to shows, and either record the show with their own mics and tape deck, or by plugging a line directly into the soundboard and then taping."
- wombatpm attributes DAT's demise to legal issues: "I remember the DAT as a format killed by IP lawyers. The were many lawsuits seeking to prevent their sale in the US due to piracy concerns. The media was incredibly expensive. I only ever saw them in use for backup devices in small data centers."
- dannyobrien connects DAT's fate to broader tech policy issues: "As the article mentions, DAT was mandated to be deliberately limited in its use by the Audio Home Recording Act -- the first MP3 players were sued under the definition in the law, and barely escaped being banned."
- dylan604 shares a positive experience with the format: "DAT was the first tape format that was actually listenable for me. Cassette hiss was annoying, but there was nothing else so we all listened to hiss forever. Having a tape that was that free of hiss was amazing."
- pimeys notes its continued use in niche genres: "I think most of the best Goa Trance was released as DAT tapes. Some of the most legendary DJs, such as Goa Gil, play mostly DAT to this day."
- harel reflects on a recent effort to revive DATs: "A couple month ago I sent my old Sony TCD7 DAT recorder to be fixed. It was in storage for so long that the inner moving parts were stuck solid. Yesterday I discovered that in 2025 SPDIF to USB is a thing, so as I'm writing this, my DAT player is connected to my PC recording all the music I had on DATs into FLAC files. DAT was indeed (and still is) a wonderful medium."
Cassette Tape Decks: Reliability Woes and Nostalgic Value
Cassette tape technology is a recurring theme, primarily in the context of the unreliability of older decks and the surprisingly high cost of desirable vintage models. Users lament the difficulty of finding functional decks, especially those with advanced features, and contrast this with the perceived lower quality but greater availability of modern, entry-level cassette recorders.
- PaulHoule contrasts his experience with cassette decks: "My experience is that 100% of the minidisc players I've picked up worked (had one fail in six months though...), in contrast to about a 40% success rate with cassette decks."
- PaulHoule also shares his struggle with acquiring a good cassette deck: "I have five tape decks and two of them work. Most of them were fairly cheap (<$40) but I tried buying one really elite Sony deck with Dolby S that I got one good recording out before one of the heads wound up rotated 90 degrees away from where it should be."
- linsomniac expresses the prohibitive cost of high-end vintage equipment: "I always wanted a Nakamichi Dragon when I was a kid. A year or so ago I thought "Ooh, maybe I can afford a used one on Ebay now." I cannot afford one on Ebay now. They're still like $3,500USD."
- linsomniac also recounts a frustrating experience trying to buy a working deck for his son: "My son wanted to make a friend of his a mix tape, so I just recently went through the process of trying to get him a tape deck he could record to. Older decks on ebay are dicey, I got one labeled as "tested and working", but it arrived and was definitely not."
VHS: Ubiquity, Perceived Durability, and Digital Renaissance
VHS is discussed as a format that was once ubiquitous but is now considered obsolete by many. However, some users recall VHS players as being more durable than their later counterparts and appreciate the format's accessibility and surprisingly good audio quality for movies. There's also a mention of modern projects that aim to extract higher fidelity data from VHS tapes using advanced digital techniques.
- larvaetron questions the idea of VCRs being mere disposable items: "I don't know if I'm losing my marbles, but I don't ever recall a time growing up when my family (or anyone else I knew) were buying a new VCR every year or two."
- PaulHoule sees VHS as an interesting obsolete format for enthusiasts: "Today I think of VHS as ideal for people who want to get into an obsolete format. I often see decks for sale for $12 that work great at our reuse center and prerecorded tapes with great moves up to 2005 or so are $1-2 there or the Salvation Army." He also notes the audio quality: "The decks I see are late models which have automatic tracking and VHS HiFi and are highly reliable -- commercial movies are usually encoded in Dolby Pro Logic and often sound more cinematic than many DVDs because the average DVD has a NERFed 5.1 track because they assume you're going to play it on a two-channel system."
- ahartmetz sees potential in digitizing VHS with modern tech: "Obsolete formats (especially with high performance mechanics) are fun, but VHS picture quality isn't. My idea of fun would be to try to get the best picture quality possible by throwing appropriate digital encoding + error correction + compression at the problem - the more anachronistic, the better."
- aspenmayer points to specific projects for this: "Check out Domesday Duplicator, LD-decode, and VHS-decode!"
- TheAmazingRace and ahartmetz recall their family's VCRs lasting a considerable time.
- alnwlsn presents a contrasting view, remembering cheap, unreliable late-model VCRs: "Made as cheap as possible, and would quit working in about 8-10 months. Which meant I got to take apart the broken one..."
- grishka shares an experience repairing a mid-90s VCR, noting that while built to a price point, it was designed with repairability in mind.
The Decline of Physical Media and the Rise of Digital Convenience
The discussion touches upon the transition from physical media like CDs and DVDs to streaming and digital media servers. While some users still value physical discs, the convenience, speed, and often lower cost of digital alternatives are clear drivers for the shift. Slow boot times and unskippable content on newer physical media players like Blu-ray players are cited as drawbacks.
- PaulHoule no longer sees his DVD and Blu-Ray collection as essential: "Instead I watched stuff off Tubi, Apple TV, Peacock and my media server. When it was time to clear that room out so tenants could come in I gave most of my discs to the reuse center..."
- PaulHoule also expresses frustration with modern Blu-ray players: "Lately it seems like the market for used Blu-Ray players has been flooded with awful Sony units which take more than 30 seconds to boot even if all you want to do is eject a disk."
- ethagnawl agrees about the player experience: "Oh, you're spot on about the slow boot times on Blu-Ray players. Also, the copyright notices and previews you're forced to sit through are unbearable. The entire experience is just awful."
- skeeter2020 poses a question about the continued relevance of physical formats: "why not DVD, wtih hardware & movies that are just as cheap and better in almost every way?"
The Role of Industry and Consumer Behavior in Format Obsolescence
Several users point out that industry practices, including pricing strategies driven by record labels, and consumer behavior have played significant roles in the adoption and eventual decline of various audio formats. The fear of piracy heavily influenced the development and marketing of digital audio technologies.
- DidYaWipe criticizes the record industry's actions regarding DAT and CDs: "As usual, the record companies' and Congress's behavior in the DAT case screwed the American public. The lie of "perfect digital copies causing piracy" was gobbled up by a legislature of out-of-touch geezers eager to serve corporate interests, when everyone with a brain knew that all "piracy" was taking place on double-cassette boom boxes in dorm rooms."
- DidYaWipe also recalls price fixing on CDs: "Best Buy and Circuit City advertised "any CD $10.99 or less" at a time when they were typically $16. Then, all of a sudden, that deal disappeared... Why? It turns out that record companies had colluded and strong-armed retailers into rescinding this pricing."
- laborcontract speculates on Sony's strategy: "I wonder if this is what led to Sony forcing ATRAC down users throats. It killed their chance at any success in the mp3 player market which should have parlayed into greater success in the mobile phone market."
- nyrikki frames the "Home taping is killing music" narrative differently: "The whole "Home taping is killing music" was really "Industry sharks are killing music" in the era that DAT died anyway."
The Enduring Allure of Analog and Mechanical Devices
Underlying much of the discussion is a shared appreciation for the tactile, mechanical nature of older audio equipment and the satisfaction derived from repairing and maintaining these devices. The complexity and craftsmanship of these machines are often contrasted with the disposable nature of modern electronics.
- nicolaslem shares a formative experience: "I vividly remember the day when at age 10 my grandfather let me disassemble a broken VCR. It is the day I learned to treat electronics with large capacitors with respect."
- tiagod and Lio share similar experiences with the powerful capacitors in older electronics.
- grishka's successful repair of a VCR highlights this sentiment: "My hands were itching to fix something... I replaced the capacitors in the power supply section, and now it works about 98% of the time... Still proud of myself, heh." The user also observes that "the engineers who made it definitely did so with repairability in mind."
- khazhoux wonders about the impact of DAT technology today: "It was a "holy shit" moment and I always wonder (>30 years later) if it would still be a holy shit moment today."