Re: Which is better
I prefer(red) MD:
Pros: MiniDisc is much smaller, more convenient, protective cover, and sounds good. Their small size lends itself to smaller sound equipment. Although more expensive, in time, their price & capacity would have been competitive with CD and HD. The only reasons CD's are still popular is due to super cheap blank ones (which drives the PC CD/DVD drive mkt, and the pre-recorded CD mkt).
Cons: Neat idea at first, but MD disc and players/recorders weren't introduced at a competitive price, and couldn't keep up pricing for CD and other technologies. Lower revenue means less R&D, higher cost, longer time to become a "mature" technology in terms of professional recording, PC compatibility, consumer acceptance.
Had hard drives and memory IC's not gotten so cheap, and small, it might have bought MD's some more time. I do think that an MD-like product will replace CD and DVD for pre-recorded, and blank portable, media, sometime soon.