this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2023
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Funny: Home of the Haha

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[–] SayJess@lemmy.blahaj.zone 102 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Ah yes, the Panasonic Discman, the prime successor to the Phillips Walkman.

[–] be_excellent_to_each_other@kbin.social 28 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Glad I'm not the only one who got a twitchy eye reading that.

[–] SayJess@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 2 years ago

I thought to myself for the briefest of moments: Am I being Mandela Effect’d?

[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 17 points 2 years ago (5 children)

I am really confused now. I know Discman is Sony's name, but generally people refer to any such portable CD player as "discman". At least where I live.
And it's not just regular people, even shops refer to them as dicmans.
Here are some examples to back my claims:

exampleshttps://www.alza.sk/discmany/18886534.htm
https://aukro.sk/discmany
https://www.mall.sk/discmany
https://discmany.heureka.sk/
https://www.okay.sk/collections/discmany

The only exception seems to be Nay, referring to this category as "Portable CD players".

[–] SayJess@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 2 years ago

That’s very interesting! Around me, we called them CD Players, it must be a regional thing. Many people called the portable cassette player a Walkman, even though that was a lineup of products from Sony.

Looking on US Amazon, there are several players that have Discman, Walkman, or both in the titles. Sony must not be enforcing their trademarks (wrong term?) for the first non-sponsored listing being called:

2000mAh Rechargeable Discman CD Player:Walkman CD Player…

[–] TheGreenGolem@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 years ago

Yepp, we all called them Discman back in the day regardless of the brand.

[–] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 years ago

I believe other brands have the same problem.

Velcro is a good example.

[–] poppy@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Yeah we called them all discman too. A Kleenex/tissue situation imo.

Edit: though I do concede an official label in some sort of display probably should use the generic form “portable CD player” or something similar.

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[–] Pixel@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 2 years ago

At least it's not a sony ipod

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 53 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

Wasn't the actual "Discman" a Sony product? In the same line as their Walkman cassette players, but for CDs?

I had a Walkman back in the day; but never an official Discman player. All my CD players were pieces of shit 😩

[–] Ottomateeverything@lemmy.world 21 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Yes. The pictured item is a portable cd player, not a Discman.

Apparently SL-SK420 or whatever that says didn't have the same ring to it.

[–] Donut@leminal.space 16 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This is an interesting phenomenon called a proprietary eponym, where a brand name becomes synonymous with a product.

Just like walkman and disc man, in my language we call a car satnav a "TomTom" after the brand that popularised it here.

[–] mxcory@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 years ago

Here is the scene from the Clerks cartoon about adhesive strips.

https://youtu.be/wD6ZW05R9kY?si=G7DxsQtQf1iQ82mh

[–] espentan@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Yeap, Discman was the name used by Sony up until around the year 2000, when they changed it to "CD Walkman".

[–] Crozekiel@kbin.social 50 points 2 years ago (2 children)

This thing is so recent it could play MP3s... The first Discman was released in 1984. I'm actually really confused why they picked such a recent version, the technology was almost phased out when this thing was released. FFS the original iPod came out a year before this thing...

[–] Jubei_K_08@lemmy.world 11 points 2 years ago

Probably because they couldn't purchase the other ones at reasonable prices anywhere.

[–] hperrin@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

My guess is that this is just one of a number of CD players they have, and they want to show how the technology progressed.

[–] guyrocket@kbin.social 39 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Is this your kid nephew's "museum"?

"Old" is not 20 years and that is not a goddamn discman. Sorry, Ralphie. You can do better.

[–] jpeps@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago

I think you're missing the point. Museums collect this stuff not because it's old, but because it was significant to people at the time and they want to collect it for prosperity. Imagine if they waited until 2050 and then said "Shit! Wasn't there a cd player we all liked at some point? Does anyone have one?" They should have one, they're a museum! Many museums will be maintaining an iPhone collection for example.

Regardless, most people under 30 likely do not have access to a cd player, and I'd guess many never owned one. It's not strange for that to be in a museum even without what I've said above.

[–] elbarto777@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I disagree with you. In the tech industry, 20 years is ancient. If you were born in 1985, 20 years prior that was 1965, and the tech of that decade was very different from the 80s tech.

Imagine someone living in a year where calculator watches were already a thing, and when in a museum displaying one of those radios in wooden cabinets and knobs with the style of the time they said "that's not old!!!!!!"

[–] danielbln@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago

Sorry to be the one breaking the bad news, but you might be old yourself if you think like that. Don't sweat it, happens to all of us.

[–] mob@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Museum ≠ old.

I'm sure there are mp3 players in museums as well.

[–] Snowpix@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The Colorado Railroad Museum has railroad crossing signals donated by BNSF that are only a few years old. Museums will gladly accept both old and new.

[–] skyspydude1@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Yup. I'm pretty sure the Computer Museum out in Mountain View has stuff on display that's less than 5 years old in some of their "progress of technology" type displays. I think when I last went there a couple years ago, for gaming history they had all the latest (at the time) consoles as well. It was pretty funny seeing something like a PS4 in a history museum though.

[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Laughs/Cries in cassette based Walkman.

Hold onto that. The cassette mechanisms that are produced now are absolute trash. There's literally no manufacturer on earth who makes a good one anymore.

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[–] blackn1ght@feddit.uk 11 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Wasn't Discman a Sony brand?

[–] Esqplorer@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Correct. This isn't labeled correctly.

[–] Mango@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I'm pretty sure that's walkman.

[–] blackn1ght@feddit.uk 3 points 2 years ago

Both Walkman and Discman were Sony brands.

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[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

I had that exact model. Only CD player I ever bought new, portable or otherwise.

[–] synapse1278@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago

I had the exact same model !

[–] MxM111@kbin.social 6 points 2 years ago

I still have working cassette player!

[–] krakenx@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

That was legit the best MP3 CD player. It never skips no matter how much you shake it and it builds a different, but consistent shuffle playlist depending on what song was playing when you hit shuffle.

[–] Blackout@kbin.social 5 points 2 years ago

Couldn't they have picked one from the 90s at least

[–] hperrin@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I had that exact model. And I was cool, wearing my over the ear headphones.

[–] Konstant@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

I've seen consoles like the Sega Genesis and the Master System in a temporary exposition and end up taking photos since I haven't seen one for so long lmao

[–] RoseRose56@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I like the design, I got a Sony CD Walkman last month, and I love it.

[–] crackajack@reddthat.com 3 points 2 years ago

First time I felt truly old is when Digital Foundry made retro review of Batman Arkham Origins. They only consider a game retro if it's ten years old.

[–] TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

And the worst part is that I had the exact same model.

[–] Llewellyn@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Maybe you belong to a museum too...

[–] Resol@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

2002? Didn't they rename the Discman line to the CD Walkman around this time?

I remember seeing a Patreon exclusive video of a CD Walkman from 2003. I'm not sure if this is the first one to bear that name or not.

[–] catbaba@lemmus.org 3 points 2 years ago

You guys thinking what I'm thinking? HEIST

[–] ares35@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

warehouse staff have already removed the artifact for safe keeping and replaced it with a hastily-sourced replica.

[–] S_H_K@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 years ago

It reminds me when I was visiting my older brother in Spain and we went to a tech museum. There was a Sinclair Spectrum and me and my brother were thilled to see it. My niece was astonished fisrt then she was picking on us for hours non stop" you're a pair of dinosaurs" "you belong to a museum" "any plans for retirement" . When I told my wife she was like "well you're almost forty honey" ☠️

[–] buzz86us@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Except this was at a time when a 16gb SD card was like $100

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I think a 512MB USB drive was about 30 bucks at the time. Not sure 16 GB SD cards even existed.

[–] eek2121@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

I used to own one of those!

[–] Norgur@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

mine is in a box in the basement. My dad found a CD with songs from a German kid's TV-Show (Die Sendung mit der Maus) from my childhood a few years back. Playing this one CD is the only job of that player now. Still does it though.

[–] FluffyPotato@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago

Fuck this brings back great memories. I used to supply my whole school with CDs and tapes of people's favourite music. I always threw in a couple of extra songs with a similar feel and style if there was extra space. I was the only one that had the tech so I was like a queen in my school until mp3 players came around.

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