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LGR - The Sony Vaio MiniDisc PC
🕑 Added 2021-08-10 02:35:15 +0000 UTCGreetings, folks! Here's a project I've had going in the background pretty much all year at this point. And finally, after importing all the right parts and peripherals I needed about a month ago, I was able to start assembling a video. So here it is!
We're taking a look at the Sony Vaio PCV-MX2 — a multimedia PC sold in Japan in the year 2000. And it's a beautiful silver hi-fi beast of a thing! Not only is it a Windows 98 desktop computer, but it's packing a built-in amplifier, CD/DVD player, FM radio, and a MiniDisc drive, all usable via remote control.
Really it's that MiniDisc drive that got my attention. I mean, how often do you see one of those mounted inside a 5.25" drive bay? And it's not MD Data either, this is just your bog standard Sony MD recorder slapped inside a drive cage and plugged into the PC using a proprietary interface board. It's usable on its own without the PC powered on, but it can also communicate with Sony's Windows applications for some classy MiniDisc authoring through software! Neat. Luckily, I was able to find a machine that hadn't been wiped and still had all the programs and data intact, otherwise there wouldn't have been much to show here. Still don't have the original Sony Vaio restoration discs, but perhaps they'll surface once this video is released into the wild. Fingers crossed!
So yep, that's that. It's a pretty information-heavy video in the first portion, but it turns into a relaxing browse through Japanese Sony software and random 90s PC games later on, so ideally there's something for everyone. I hope you enjoy, and have a good week!
Comments
Timothy Kepple
I have MiniDisc software CDs. I can send you ISOs if you'd like.
SuperTekBoy
Someone did not clean out the cookies lol.
Stuart Whitehouse
Incredible
Asaf Sagi
Not much for me to add but "oh my god what a gorgeous PC that is". LOVED the Vaio line of products.
Evan B
it still looked really good even with the non-oem speakers you found! Man, Japan gets so much cool looking tech
John Covil
Please tell me you'll share that wonderful video creation in a playlist along with your older Windows Movie Maker film. Truly, you are an auteur.
Uncleawesome
What a cool computer! :D A minidisc drive in a pc, would have been great when I had a minidisc. And to top it off it has the NASA powered sound chip! Very nice video, I love the all sony setup :) That PCMCIA also was very suprising. What a fun computer.
Matt Tester
I would've really liked this back in 2000, I was using a P100 then. In fact, with optical in I could make good use of it now! Would be interesting to see the gaming performance difference of cloning to an SSD and upgrading the RAM separately before finally combining them. Just for the sake of it.
LGR
Yeah I'd be curious to see his take on it! :)
LGR
The more I learn, the less I know, I swear
LGR
Hot.
LGR
Heh, indeed. Brings back the worst of late '90s PC gaming memories.
LGR
That'd be much appreciated, thank you!
LGR
Ooooh. That's a rabbit hole I've gotta dive down into sometime. Thanks for the link!
Alyxx the Rat
Man, this was a real treat. The only Vaio thing I have is an external USB floppy drive (that still works without any service). Still kinda lusting after a complete Vaio setup some day, especially after watching this.
LGR
It hooks up to a header on the motherboard near the sound chipset, along with the other front panel audio thingies
LGR
Fascinating! Come to think of it, I believe this is my first Japanese PC with a CD-ROM drive. First time for everything :)
Akselmo
Techmoans dream PC with that MD player :D
Pietro Gagliardi
Q: being the CD-ROM drive was apparently a standard in some Japanese computers like the FM TOWNS? Maybe the PC-98 series too? I don't have a CD drive for my PC-98 laptop so I wouldn't know for sure.
Mark Elliott
What a fantastic PC. I'm curious how the MD drive interfaces to the PC, PCI Card or direct to the Motherboard?
"I don't understand computers." LGR, 2021 🤣
itsleedarke
This is essentially pornography for me. Thanks Clint!
Nathan (PixelPipes)
I didn't realize how confusing all the various MiniDisc formats were. Might have to look that up some time. Man that stuttering is a familiar sight. Our family's '99 Compaq also had 64MB RAM, and you combine that with the preloaded bloatware, and.... yeah.
Mat Cooper
Love the totally Japanese design ethos here, combine a PC and Stereo to maximise the use of space. Very nice!
LGR
It's supposed to open this "CyberSupport" thing, but it no longer functions properly on my installation. Seems to be an interface for browsing PDFs of the instruction manuals and links to the Sony website: https://www.sony.jp/products/Consumer/PCOM/Info/vaio_customer_01q3.html
CornetTheory
I'll keep my eye out for this PC, and the discs when I go out to Hard Off; also the local craigslist type things.
SolarstrikeVG
(28:56) That is not PostPets, that is instead a social MMO game known as Sapari Community Place! It's VRML-based, and has a bit of an interesting story on its lifespan, and even got a western revival last year thanks to it forming a cult following! The shortcut "cpbrowse.exe" is the main program that it's trying to point to, but it needs a modification of a file to work as it tries to connect to a long-dead Sony Sapari server otherwise. Here's a great video on Sapari Community Place: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4O3CTaWmNw
Jan-Marten de Boer
I still feel robbed of those purplish blues, looking back at those catalog entries. Amazing work on the video :) I'm really amazed you keep being able to compare performance of these systems to your experience at the time. Kinda envy that memory retention 😜
Dan Fiscus
This is such a unique machine! Quick question I don't think I saw answered in the video - what exactly does that all-powerful keyboard help button do when pressed? Anything fun, or just pull up the F1 help menu when available? Also, that front LCD panel is super neat, if you have any more clips of it in action, going through the menus, etc. they could make for a good addition to the video! That, and any shots you have of the motherboard/case interior, it's always neat to see inside the towers :)
LGR
Could be! Although what I closed was done via removing it from the startup using msconfig and restarting into a less bloated environment. There's still a buncha randomness running though, more than I'd prefer for only 64MB RAM. Most of it's for the front audio panel integration and related Sony multimedia software, plus other Sony programs for things like the keyboard app shortcuts that I wanted to keep intact for the "full" experience. Plus there's the various Japanese language/IME localization stuff that's layered on top of Windows and always running. I also haven't checked on what driver versions are being used, perhaps there's some crap gunking up the works. Fun times in receiving someone else's computer from another country 👍
PostPets is actually an email program with cute animal functionality built in! Looks like there used to be an English version too: https://ha3.seikyou.ne.jp/home/eule/home/pospe/english.html - definitely something I'd like to see a review of some time.
Frederick G.
I miss Teiyu Goto's design on Vaio and the first three PlayStation consoles. Peak Sony in terms of hardware design.
LevyNeptune
Not sure if my mind is just playing tricks on me, but for some reason the audio in the published video seems really low-bitrate
Kris Asick
I don't remember those kinds of caching performance hitches on my old 600 MHz P3 which also had Win98 SE and 64 MB of RAM, with a Voodoo3 card... You said you had to close a bunch of bloatware... I do recall Win9x is very bad about reclaiming memory lost in memory leaks, so there's always the possibility it was doing so much caching mid-gameplay because so much RAM failed to release from all the bloat you closed, or some of it may've indeed still been in use. I always left the Resource Monitor program in the system tray to monitor that sort of thing. :B
pj
The bountiful karaoke selections remind me of the public domain karaoke host segment from MST3K haha
JennaKay
Oof this brings back memories of the P4 Vaio tower we had. No MD just dual drives (dvd-rom and cd-r) . The US editions came with the light editions of photoshop, video editors, etc. good times!
Anicast
That aesthetic is something, so much is happening on the front of that tower.
Frederic St-Georges
The Vaio brand sure did hit a homework in the aesthetic department back in the days. I've always wanted to have one, but they were just so expensive compared to similarily spec-ed PCs from other brands.
Man I would've LOVED to have one of those back in the day, hell I want one in 2021.
LGR
They look great, but yeah. The old Vaio laptops I have are notably prone to breaking unfortunately!
LGR
Yeeeeah. YouTube ate my homework.
LGR
Yes. It's a temporary preview for patrons, not the main channel upload. Uploads are glitched on LGR right now for whatever reason.
Hey Clint. Is this meant to be on Blerbs?
I always loved the Vaio aesthetic. It's too bad my Vaio laptop was garbage.
Carey Brown
Oh that's what happened earlier!
