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Technology

Price of Minidiscs in Australia? 37

Posted by Cliff from the hidden-costs-or-blatant-price-fixing dept.
Luke Butcher asks: "I recently moved back to Australia and I'm appalled at the price of blank Minidiscs, here. In the UK they range to about £1 per disc and the US about $1.60 This equates in both cases to roughly AU$3. Over here the cheapest I can find them is $4.50 and average prices are $5-6. I have tried to get blanks sent from the US and UK from several online sites only to find them not able to deliver to Oz, when they can quite happily ship DVDs and the like. I have done some searching and am unable to find anything explaining this "phenomenon", other than it looks like a blatant price fixing situation. I can find no reason why consumer demand would play a part, I wouldn't mind betting all such discs are produced in Asia, so this also rules out transport costs. Perhaps someone out there can provide an explanation as to why we in Australia pay more than double the normal cost blanks."
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Price of Minidiscs in Australia? More

Price of Minidiscs in Australia?

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  • Tax on blank media? (Score:2, Informative)

    by amorsen ( 7485 )
    Such taxes are common elsewhere, perhaps Australia has them too. The neat thing is that the tax is then usually given to private companies. I just love supporting corporations with my tax money, getting nothing in return.
  • i can't remember the brand name but you can get them in i think JB hi-fi. they have jewl cases which is pretty cool as well.
  • It's never really taken off here. Yeah - you can buy players. But the only actual discs tend to be imports - you won't find them on sale in places like HMV or whatnot.
    • It's not a distribution medium, it's a medium for recording your own stuff.
      • That's true - but as a recording medium there are better (non-lossy) things.

        The only real advantage minidisc has is size. The disadvantages are numerous - lack of people with players, lossy, expensive.

        Yes - being expensive when there are other cheaper alternatives tends to mean that the more expensive alternative stays expensive, unless it has huge advantages.
        • The only real advantage minidisc has is size.
          It helps a lot that you don't need a PC to be able to record them...very useful if, for example, you're visiting someone and hear something you'd like to record. So, on that count they beat CDR and MP3 players.

          Lack of people with players isn't really such a problem for recordable media. And in quite a few parts of the world, they're not *all* that expensive.

          • "lossy"

            Indeed, ATRAC is a lossy compression format, but it is superior to mp3 and a few others, although there are no doubt people who disagree, people who agree, people who think that only CD quality is acceptable and others who think CD is too crisp and that vinyl is king. You can't win.

            Marking "lossy" as a reason for the supposed cost of MDs doesn't address it. It's certainly no worse than high bitrate mp3.
            • Also, ATRAC can use a greater resolution for sections where the music demands it (up to 20 bits on most recorders, 24 bits on ATRAC 4.5), whereas redbook CD is fixed at 16 bits. (Obviously this is only useful where you have source material with better resolution than CD).

              Some more info here [tripod.com].

  • Easy (Score:1, Interesting)

    by droyad ( 412569 )
    Australia is behind in almost everything from US and UK. Japan is infront of both of them. The reason is the amount we are willing to pay.

    Everything technological is more expensive here. For example the laptop I just bought, in the US i could have a dvd/cdr (instead of just cd) and double the HDD, double the ram. For about US$300 less then in Australia (I converted properly). Plus the laptops are made in indonesia.

    The market in australia is not as big, not as technological (only about 1 in 40 IT students have a laptop) and therefore stuff is more expensive.
    • The market in australia is not as big, not as technological (only about 1 in 40 IT students have a laptop) and therefore stuff is more expensive.

      As an Australian IT student, I can tell you that most students don't have them because of the cost. It's not that we aren't as technological, it's just hat we dislike being ripped off.

      Besides, I find I can do all my work either on my desktop system here at home, or in the labs at uni with no problems.

    • Don't be a moron. Australia has in the top ten in the world for a) home computer numbers, b) home internet usage, c) and mobile phones. Oh wait, we're ahead of the US and the UK with mobile phones.
      About the only thing I think we're behind with is broadband, but that's due to a moronic government going nuts with the largest telco in the country.
  • Remeber that Sony owns minidisc technology. They can (and I suspect do) charge whatever they want for it.

    I'd rather have an MP3/OGG player than a minidisc player. Even a CD player and a CD burner.

    Just a thought... Does the US call them minidiscs or minidisks? If so, that might be your problem... Different spellings in different countries.
    • I'd rather have an MP3/OGG player than a minidisc player.

      So would I, but there just aren't any practical options at the moment, which is why I'm still using Minidisc. My digital music is all in Ogg format, so an MP3 player isn't really an option (given that I don't want to have to reencode it all). There are currently no portable Ogg players. Also, with Minidisc, I can carry 10 disc around with me, to get lots of hours of music when I'm on the move. With MP3/ogg, the cost of compact flash, smartmedia, memory stick or whatever generally makes that prohibitively expensive. The only alternative is to get a player with a hard drive built in, which is more expensive and loses you many of the benefits of portable digital players (no moving parts, light weight, etc.). In a few years time, I expect to have a portable digital player. But for now, I'll stick with Minidisc.

  • I've seen them for around $1 at JB-HIFI. Bought 'em too ...
  • ...'cause they stiff us for prices for conmsumables here in Cameroun as well. I hear prices are a bit more reasonable in South Africa, but that's to be expected, isn't it?

    You think the price for MiniDiscs is exorbitant in Oz? You oughta try buying a decent tech mag in Nigeria or Cameroun. .net Magazine is available in the UK for £ 4.49 an issue; I bought my last copy from the newspaper vendor for the equivalent of £ 16 an issue. Accessories and reading material -- it's scalper's prices all the way out here. Sigh!

    So. I feel your pain....maybe you oughta switch to CD-RW or CD-Rs instead.

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