pitdroidtech

Want! However I just bought a Sony CMT-BX3 - supports normal, mp3 and atrac cd's; atrac music players via usb; mass storage compatible mp3 players via usb; mp3 on usb drive via usb; any analog source via line in - BUT not MD by usb or SE Walkman phone by USB. Oh, and fm/am radio.

not too recently, I got an NH600 for $40 (Australian) - brand new - run out sale. Now I'm waiting to see an RH1 at a similiarly priced runout sale (I'm pushing the proverbial uphill I think)

*record audio from music DVD's via the DVD Player optical output (a lot simpler than ripping audio from the DVD via PC) *record audio from set top box optical output (if it has it) (great when there's a good concert on TV)

I just bought two 200GB SATAII drives for $50 each. I was pretty happy with that. I also recently bought a HDTV USB dongle - damn nice. GREAT for capturing stills from favourite movies (and records video quite nicely too).

Last movie I saw was on TV - Wedding Crashers. I'm not sure if this is a good thing, but man the character of Isla Fisher (nymphomaniac stalker) really does it for me. Oh where can I find a gal like Isla Fisher who wants to hump me all day everyday and won't take no for an answer?

I realise this is probably a little off topic, but Nero only takes over your computer if you install the InCD package - simply deselect InCD on install and no problem. If you don't install InCD, then nothing Nero runs unless you actually go to the Start/Programs menu and select it. Personally I find Nero one of the less obese Burner softwares available. (in case you aren't aware, you don't need InCD particularly - WinXP includes natively the ability to write to a CD/DVD as if it were a large floppy) Nice PC btw, groovy :-)

I've read several reviews on the CX300's and also comparisons with the ep630's from Creative. They seem to be the same headphones (though the creative has a straight plug, the sennheisser a right angle plug). There seem to be quite a few people claiming they use the same driver and are essentially identical. This pleased me as they are cheaper than sennheisser yet I've always been impressed with sennheisser. So I bought a pair of ep630's and indeed found them to compare to my SE HPM-70 headphones (based on Sony EX71 or EX51 depending on who you speak to) the same way reviews compared the CX300 to Sony EX71's. The EP630's are certainly better than the HPM-70 headsets, but there is also an appeal about the HPM-70's that keeps bringing me back to them. I think it's the grooviness that aeriyn refers to in her initial post with regard to the EX71's, so I lean towards thinking of the HPM-70 cans as basically repackaged EX71's. There is just something appealing about them, even though the EP630's have much higher fidelity and clarity. I vasililate between my hpm-70's and ep630's as the mood takes me. Of course the extra length of the ep630's doesn't help. The hpm-70 is basically a fastport (SE phone connector) to 3.5mm extension, with the headphone themselves only having a lead of 20cm or less. HPM-70 3.5mm lead + ep630 = A LOT OF CABLE

can you burn non-drm stuff?

haha, what a crack up

Yep I'm happy with mine. Find I don't use the job dial a great deal for general listening. Mostly it's track advance or volume. I also find my NZ505 remote works well for the basics. I agree on the sound. It also pairs well with atrac, I'm very impressed with HiSP recordings of analog sources.

Good price. I was shocked a couple of weeks ago to spot an MZ-NH600 in my local electronics store for $39. I grabbed it right quick. My first HiMD unit too. The cheapest I've seen the MZ-NH600 anywhere else (new) is $100. Can't even get any decent models in Brisbane -I'm looking at paying $600 to buy direct from Sony (for the MZ-RH1), which I'm not gonna do unless it's my only option.

Get a HiMD unit, so you can easily copy the recording back to the computer as data. Otherwise you will be constrained to realtime line out to line in recordings (and associated signal loss unless you have an optical or TOS input on your soundcard). As to recording time, if you use HiSP mode (atrac3plus 256Kbs) on the recorder, you will get almost 8hrs recording on a 1GB HiMD disc and 2hrs 20min on a standard 80 minute disc. If you use HiLP mode (atrac3plus 64Kbps) you will get 34 hours on a 1GB disc and 10hr 10 min on a 80min disc. If you want to use the highest quality, linear PCM (1.4Mbps), with no compression, you will get 1 hr 34min on a 1GB disc and 28min on a 80min disc. You can of course swap discs easily if you do so at a break in the music before the disc runs out. This would mean you would need to keep an eye on your watch. For comparison, atrac3plus @ 256Kbps is roughly equivalent to mp3 @320Kbps (though we are speaking apples and oranges somewhat). atrac3plus @ 64Kbps is similiar to mp3 @ 128Kbps. Linear PCM is uncompressed 44.1Khz digital audio.

no, but good idea. I'm thinking of recording some audio files to minidisc from the computer via line out - I downloaded some "free" DRM protected tracks via a Sundail-Mail promotion, but the tracks are completely forward-locked; you can't even rip them to CD or record the audio stream to wav - they are completely locked down. They will only play via Windows Media Player (atleast itunes et al, you can burn a cd). The way I figure it, if it's for my own use, then "fair use" rights still apply, regardless of whether I paid for it or not. I paid for the internet time to download them, for the paper I bought for the download details, and all the associated time I invested in sourcing the tracks. So therefore I think I have the right under the "fair use" provision of copyright law to copy the tracks to minidisc

Jean Michael Jarre popcorn? I'll have to check that one out

Britney Spears, Blackout. (just for a complete change of pace from Pink Floyd!!)

yep, I never could get proprietary batteries, other than to make thinner formfactors, but it seems pointless to not have the ability to fill up anywhere standard batteries are available. However with a phone I've been convinced otherwise. One of the beauties of mobile phones is they provide a 15hr plus MP3 player (SE phones 30hr on flightmode). And since you charge a phone everynight as a matter of course, you can usually get through the day without issues. It's also good from the camera point of view - no worrying about needing to find batteries - the phone can take hundreds of photos without blinking. Camera and MP3 playing ability add very little to a phones already massive power consumption - most of the power use is via UI and radio. But to have all your standalone devices on proprietary batteries means having to have 5 different devices charging in dock all the time. Your desk becomes dock city! Not to mention the hassle and expense when a battery dies. One AA/AAA charger, a bunch of rechargeables, and that's good enough for me. And trusty phone as a backup music player/camera

Pink Floyd

record to minidisc from turntable output, and filter out hiss with mild hiss filter using goldwave or similiar. Keep it all as wav, sounds great. Convert to 256Kbps atrac3plus if you want to conserve space but retain good quality.

Hmm, I might steer clear of SP1 for vista for the time being. So far I've had no worries whatsoever (was a clean install of both windows and sonicstage 4.3, not upgrades)

That's very interesting news. According to Sony Australia, the NWZA816B supports these formats: Supports: MP3 CBR (Constant Bit Rate) Supports: MP3 VBR (Variable Bit Rate) Supports: WMA (Unprotected) Supports: WMA (WM-DRM 10 / PlaysForSure) Supports: AAC (Unprotected) Supports: Linear PCM No mention of ATRAC at all. Maybe the Linear PCM is ATRAC in a WAV container? Do you know if the NWDB103/105's support ATRAC as well? I want to get one, but only if it can run ATRAC/ATRAC3PLUS. If it's mp3 only, I might get one anyway, but if it doesn't work with SonicStage there is no point for me as I'm actually using SonicStage as my music library (I prefer it over itunes). Still atrac support would be nice, so I can run atrac through my Sony USB capable mini-system (which can play atrac off Sony players, but not unfortunately, HiMD units) without burning atrac cd's.

NZ505 remote partially works on the MZ-NH600 - stop, track forward and reverse, ff and rew, hold and volume all work. play doesn't do anything. Tmark and caps just moves through groups, delete and edit do nothing. (This remote has no display.)

Maybe not "without Sony", it'd be great to see them continue to develop the hardware platform, and I also quite like SonicStage and also there are some advantages with the ATRAC codec. Infact I would like to see Sony keep developing SonicStage, including adding drive letter transfer support, since I have come to quite prefer it as my music library software, but I agree on principle the platform should be more open. Of course with true native mp3 support (drag and drop, like the latest Sony MP3 players) there would be no need for proprietary software at all: you could use WMP or any music library software you like for transferring music to the drive letter of your choice (even itunes, using third party options for drive letter support). DRM pretty much has been dropped entirely, from both hardware and Sonic Stage. Even Connect store is dead, and Sony BMG are walking away from DRM also. As to format support, MP3, AAC are bare minimum, ogg would be nice but as long as they maintain PCM then it's probably a pipe dream. Very few players support ogg natively. Realistically, Sony probably won't maintain ATRAC unless the Japanese market continues to support it.

Well I'm definitely going to do my best to keep mini-disc alive after reminding myself last weekend of the usefulness of minidisc. I went down to my mums farm, and had my MZNH600 and a few discs with me, and my walkman cassette player. I ran some of mum's cassettes through and recorded onto minidisc, marked out the tracks using the unit itself, tagged them in Sonic Stage, then ripped them onto her PC, then burnt to audio CD (for mum), and made MP3 copies (for my phone). (she's been wanting to listen to them but has no tape deck only a CD player). Now I realise I could have reocrded them straight into the sound card from the cassette, but 1. Sound card (mike) 3.5mm input on mum's laptop is a crap and weak signal. 2. I could do all the sound level adjustments on the minidisc without having to use a Audacity or similiar on the PC - much more straight forward, 3. breaking up tracks using the mark function on minidisc easy as pie, and 4. I get to keep a pure copy on MD for archival. Basically with the cassette and minidisc walkmen, I can record cassettes to minidisc anywhere at anytime without need of a PC at all. All on battery power if need be. Now there are very few, and only VERY expensive, solid state handheld digital recorders that can manage that. And mp3 players, well, just forget it completely some of the tapes were very crap quality (very old), but I surprised myself with how well they cleaned up in Goldweave. Hiss removal was all it needed. MD Forever!

comparing the current ATRAC SP to the older SP used on net-md and md, I've heard a number of people claim that the SP on Hi-MD units sounds better. I haven't done any direct comparisons myself so I can't give a personal opinion. I rip my cd's to minidisc as 256Kbps ATRAC, and I don't use mdlp (132 or 64 version) or atrac3plus (64 or 48 version) since they have way too many artifacts, and atrac3plus does too much guessing for my preference. But the ATRAC 256Kbps sound all right to me. I'm not sure if the ATRAC SonicStage uses for bitrates above 132Kbps is atrac3plus? If so then I think atrac3plus is okay at high bitrates. Sony seem to have dropped ATRAC support completely in mp3 players, I wonder if this signifies death of atrac, or whether the japanese markets will continue to support atrac (SE phones in japan support ATRAC for example, not just minidisc and flash based players) and ensure it's continued existance? Or, will we see atrac dropped completely, even in minidisc, and if so, will minidisc live on as a formfactor sans atrac? Now that would be a turn up for the books, minidisc players that not only support mp3 (which we now have), but have no support for ATRAC! (I sorta hope they continue support for atrac) There is also the question, will Sonic Stage live on, if so, when will it get the ability to copy songs from the library to a Sony (or other brand) music player via usb mass storage(ie: a drive letter), as opposed to only an ATRAC device or cd?