History (1990s): Mini CD-R/CD-RW

This article was published by the Museum of Obsolete Media.

Mini CD-R/CD-RW (1990s-)

Mini CD-R (CD-Recordable) and Mini CD-RW (CD-Rewritable) are 8cm versions of CD-R/CD-RW.

They can hold anything from 156MB (18 minutes of music) to 210MB (24 minutes of music).

They can be written to in spindle-based or tray-loading CD-R/CD-RW burners (and read in spindle-based or tray-loading CD players) but there were also some devices that were specifically designed around the Mini CD-R/CD-RW.

One of these was a number of models in the Sony Mavica line of digital cameras. The first of these was the MVC-CD1000 released in 2000, which could record to Mini CD-Rs. Later models in the line (the last of which was released in 2003) could use either Mini CD-R or Mini CD-RW.

There was also a portable Mini CD-R burner called the Imation RipGo! that was introduced in 2001. This could burn MP3 files to disc, and also play them back.

Sony also introduced a Mini CD burner (called the PhotoVault), allowing pictures to be saved from a memory stick, USB flash key, or camera with an USB connection.