Dear Beta Testers,

Thank you for participating in our initial trial. Your experiments will help the MD community understand the compatibility issues involved with oversize MD blanks. The Miyadisc86 beta discs are slightly different from our intended production version. The beta discs are "full", having 3 tracks that occupy the entire 86m28s of contiguous recordable area that exists on a normal 80m59s disc. The first track is 1:23 and corresponds to the reserved (but recordable) area between the UTOC and the main recording area. The second track is 80:59 and corresponds to the normal recording area of an 80 minute disc. The third track is 4:05 and corresponds to the recordable area beyond the leadout. This last track also contains audio data (Bob Marley - "Waiting in Vain", duration: 4:05). Tracks 1 and 2 contain no audio data and attempting to play them will usually cause a unit to do many read retries, and the time will advance very slowly.

We ask that you complete the first 2 tests and optionally the third with these discs. They are as follows:

1. Play Test: Test Playing Past Leadout - The easiest test, try playing track #3. Will the unit play the entire 4:05 song? Are there any skips or dropouts? If there are dropouts, do they occur in the same place on a second replay? Does the track time display advance properly? Can you fast skip forward and backwards through this song? Does the unit make any unusual mechanical noises as it nears the end of the track?
   
   
2. Record Test #1: Test Overwrite Recording Past Leadout - Perform this test after you have conducted the Play Test on all the equipment you will be testing, just in case you render the disc unusable. Position to the start of the 3rd track, go into REC-PAUSE mode (thereby preparing to overwrite the track), and try recording 4m05s of audio over the track. Does the unit record a full 4m05s? Any unusual mechanical noises? Does the resulting track pass the Play Test?
   
   
3. Record Test #2: Test Making a New Recording Past Leadout - This test is unlikely to work on Sony equipment. If you only have Sony gear and do not wish to ruin your beta disc, you may skip the test. To conduct the test, erase the 3rd track. Does the unit now show 4:05 free? Try recording. Does the unit record a full 4m05s? Any unusual mechanical noises? Does the resulting track pass the Play Test?

When you complete the tests please send us the results, afterwards you are free to use the disc as you like. On Sony equipment, deleting the tracks usually results in the extra space being lost forever. On Sharp equipment (at least on the MD-MS702), as long as ALL ERASE is not used, the disc behaves more or less as if it were a normal disc with 86m28s free space on it. Using ALL ERASE on any machine will most likely return the disc to 80m59s.

Again, thank you for participating in these experiments.

Sincerely,

The Staff at Miyadisc
[email protected]

Notice: Miyadisc provides these 86 minute test discs on an as-is basis, for experimentation and testing purposes, with no claim of fitness whatsoever. The test discs contain a UTOC (User Table of Contents) that is not in conformance with the MiniDisc specification. You assume all risk in using them in your equipment.

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