laidler

It's interesting you say Sony didn't release an all in one doqnload/installer, because the very file I found did used to be on the Sony downloads page, which is now long defunct. And it installed 4.2, as well as Open MG. As far as I can tell it's complete, but if it craps out I'll go to the downloads page and give 4.3 a go.

Oh, alright, fair enough. I did find a copy of 4.2 last night though. On that server it took me over an hour at an average of 20K a second, and even for an 82.3MB file that was slow. But I got it and it works. Does 4.3 offer any new functionality over 4.2, or if I just rip the occaisional CD into WAV or mp3 should I just stick with it and not mess around with things? I noticed with my account I can't add files to the software downloads section, but do you think other people here would benefit from having it added to the roster? I saw 4.3 in there already. If you guys want it I can send it in, you just have to let me know where. Anyway, thanks for the info. Just glad I'm stubborn and kept lookng. I found 2 or 3 pages with the same exact link to the old Sony downloads page, but wouldn't you know it that since the pages with the redirects were so old that the Sony page it went to doesn't exist anymore. Shame Sony decided to kill their downloads page, especially the free ones. But this is Sony we're talking about here. Anyway, I've got what I was after. Cheers guys, James.

No no, my point was 4.3 runs on Vista and above. I run XP-Pro and 4.3 will NOT work with my machine.

I recently had to re-install everything on my computer, and like an idiot forgot to back up my copy of SonicStage 4.2. I run XP-Pro, and I've always used this useful program. I've been searching online like mad, but havent' come up with much, and 4.3 isn't compatible with anything under Vista. So I was wondering if someone here could please help me out. However, if you guys can find something better (and free), then please let me know. Thanks guys.

Where would I find a download for 4.2?

Ha ha, you fanboy. Anyway, is there a cap on the capacity of card the M10 can accept? Though I doubt I'd shell out the cash for a 16GB card, it would be nice to know if it can handle them. Also, is there a difference in performance between micro SD and micro SDHC media in this device?

That's a relief. I could have handled some silly Sony proprietary formatting for the card, but I plan to eventually buy one of those car stereos with a USB connector and use one of those little USB adapter connector things for an SD card. Means I could, say, play it in the M10, stick the micro sd into the car, then take it out and right back into the M10. Guess I will buy one after all. Just hope it plays with my Sennheiser HD 280 pros nicely, the ICD-P620 the school paper has sounded just awful on headphones. But then it's a mono voice recorder.

Steven, could you conduct a little experiment for me? I'd like to know if one can directly put MP3s or .WAV files directly on a MicroSD card using a computer, as in through a dedicated card reader or USB adapter, not the recorder it's self, then put the card into the recorder and see if it plays the files loaded into it. I'm still a little worried about the recorder formatting the card in a way that a card written on by another device such as a computer won't register. Sorry for the paranoia, it's Sony's fault. Would be great if I could play things in the recorder from an already written card, or take a card out and play it in something like one of those newer car stereos with an SD slot or even use a USB adapter to play in a USB port. Thanks, James.

Sure. It keeps freezing up apparently, losing files, ceasing all function, etc. Not to mention lousy customer support. Also it doesn't seem to be as video friendly as the box claims. Seems the supported formats are few, as well as resolutions. Look them up on Amazon and hold on tight for all the really bad negatives.

Been reading up on the recent series of digital Walkmans. Holy Hell the problems are rife. I've never seen so many negative reviews for a product. Oh well, if it didn't have the problems it did and removable flash memory I'd be over the moon for it. Cest la vie. Think I might go with the M10 after all.

Sounds cool, and Wizard, I use SonicStage to rip my CDs to .WAV and I'm happy with it, so I'm not so keen on getting other software to rip in other formats etc, blah blah blah. Anyway, the Edriol looks great, but holy Hell in a hand basket is it expensive. Sure not a HUGE bit more than the Sony, but that's money I c ould put towards SD cards and CDs etc. Know what I mean? I don't know, I'll do more reading and see what I can glean from everything. It's way cool looking though, cooler than the Sony. Thanks guys, keep the suggestions coming. Love learning more about different things and how well they work and what for. Peace guys, James. Uh-oh, looks like that Edriol from Roland has problems, and customer support like Sony is crap. And it's Chinese? Is the M10 actually made in Japan or is that made elsewhere? If that Edriol is Chinese made I'm not too sure I wanna risk it guys.

I'm looking for one which can handle uncompressed .WAV files, and this kid used to carry around cassette Walkmans, I can handle a fat iPhone. Anyway, mp3s are cute and all, but I am a CD quality uncompressed .wav guy all the way. No FLAC, no ACC, no WMV, just .WAV. So other than that Kenwood, what out there handles uncompressed .wav, and does anyone know much about that Creative player I put a link up of? I'm still leaning towards the M10 sicne it has the ruggedness thing going and as long as the bass boost sounds good I'll be happy. Plus I've started doing journalism stuff at school, so this thing would be more convenient than my small but bulky tabletop cassette recorder and more versatile too. Anyway thanks for the input guys, James.

Haha, looks awesome mate, but it's Japanese only, even the manual, and also, I am taking a journalism class, so I might need the recording capabilities of the Sony after all. I don't even know if that Kenwood would even have menus in English. Though the 5 band EQ does sound interesting. Shipping's damned expensive too. Wish those Japanese would stop being stingy and share their better gadgets here. Europe and The UK gets cool stuff too, so what the crap? Guess they hate America, haha. Anyway, I'll have a look around. I know Transcend has some interesting devices, but the user reviews for them are horrendous. Update, I found this from Creative. They're a decent company, not the greatest, but comfortable middle of the road with most of their stuff. But I don't know, I might be better off with the utilitarian, tank like PCM-M10 just for durability. Anyone had experience with this thing? Thanks for the input guys, James. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16855102067

Well, the capacity of HI-MD turned out not to be as good as I'd hoped, plus they're damned expensive, plus all the regular players out there with an SD or Micro-SD card are strictly mp3 only, I'm kinda outta options for a portable player which can handle .wav files, and dash it all, I want full uncompressed CD quality with me. I have a few mp3s, a lot of them do sound nice, but I can still hear the difference. So unless Sony decides to pull their heads out of their asses and make their fancy mp3 Walkman handle uncompressed .wav too, I figure my best bet is the M10. I also like removable media, call me an old school idiot if you like, but I don't like being stuck with what's in the damn thing and not be near a PC to load and reload stuff, I'd prefer a little chip to just plug in. Anyway, pardon the rant. But seriously guys, if you have a better idea, I'm all ears. Thanks for the comments, James.

On the brink of ordering one of these for now around 220 with free shipping, and my one real question is about playback. I'd like to assume this is gapless like the various MD and HI-MD recorders of recent years, is this the same? Also, what's the EQ like? Not trying to sound like a snob here, but I have a high quality set of Sennheiser headphones which really need a good source driving them, otherwise they're horrible. Good home HI-FI equipment rocks them out, and they sound OK with my MZ-M100, and the EQ on Foobar 2000 is great too, so I'd like to know how well one can mess with the sound on these. Thanks guys, James.

I see, so the basic working insides, display type aside are still the same? Badge engineering at work there I guess, thanks Sony, you pirates. A local guitar center has an open box MZ-10 there for 169, I've been thinking of trying it out, of course I'm going to ask first about return policies. If you think it's just a matter of making an adjustment in the service mode I'm happy to try it. Let's hope Mr. Fumble Finger, that is I, don't bollox things up. If it works I'll let you know,and let me know if you have any luck with yours Stephen. Good luck, James. BTW, where is that service manual? Bit dizzy trying to find it here.

I liked your hold your horses comment, but the seller beat me to it. He offered me a 50 dollar partial refund, so I'm going to put that towards sending it to Sony to have it serviced, though, if you've come across a similar problem, might be better off selling it for 100 bucks or something. Anyway, from my own research the RH910 is the same as the M100, like the M200 and RH1 are the same exact machine, just different aesthetics and a microphone package. Anyway, if you try out what I was doing, which was transferring PCM to the unit using SonicStage, you might get the same thing as I. When mine went crazy with the spinning and lost laser I also unplugged it, put power back in to eject the disc, then either slowly built on what I had compiled on the disc or just wiped the whole thing and started again. Also, your suggestion of filling a disc with a bunch of other formats and bit rates, no offense, but data is data is data, it's all written the same way, it's all ones and zeros, and if I wanted to put a bunch of mp3s of a player I'd have bought an i pod or Zune or Walkman mp3 player, not an expensive Hi-MD recorder for uncompressed CD quality PCM. I bought it for that purpose, and I expect the damn thing to work. Anyone here actually had experience with Sony's service center and actually gotten their unit back in working order? Seems to be a rather simple fix, either replace the laser or what ever little thing is there. But if they really are the idiots I've heard them to be, then where the heck else can I have this thing fixed? I may not be an idiot but I know enough to realize I can NOT fix this myself. Please pardon my impatience and frustration if it has bled through a little too much here. As always I appreciate any and all comments. Thank you, James.

Right, I went online to Sony and they quoted me 99 dollars for sending it in and having it serviced and replaced. Think I'll just return it to the seller if it's still an option. It likely is a laser which needs more power, and I haven't the skills for fixing it, so I'll just scratch the whole thing. Thanks for your comments and advice guys, I'll just send it back and sell the discs I bought and buy one of those PCM-M10s which use micro SD cards. Take care guys, James.

Guess I could give it a whirl, but I'm guessing to the recorder it's all data, so it might do the same thing with whatever I put on there. And what adjustment would I have to make it that's the issue? How would I do that? I will try the mp3 thing tomorrow. Thank you for the suggestion, James.

I guess it makes sense, a physically different format like the Hi-MD as opposed to regular MD would bring laser power into play. So how do I fix it then? Or do I contact the seller and politely ask if I can return it for my money back? Personally, I do love this little unit, but I want as much out of it as I can get, but I must admit it was a rude awakening to not have a full gig on the disc like it would be with a CD having 650 to 700MB, I know those have that actual capacity since I've filled them. If I were to try to put a new laser in, could it be done? And if so, where would I get them and how much are they? I'll mention the laser thing to the seller, see what he says. Thanks guys, James.

Funny thing, my dad suggested laser power since the alignment seems to be fine hence the darn thing working, but why would it run out of power after a certain point on the disc? I thought power would be uniform throughout the thing. If that is the case what must be done? Send it to Sony and have a new laser put in? How much would that cost? I bought the thing for $160 counting shipping, so would it amount to the equivalent of buying a new $400 MZ-RH1/M200? Boy do I feel like a dunce. I'd try putting a new one in but I don't know if my technical skills are quite up to par. Guess I should be looking for service manuals for this thing. Oh well, live and learn, hindsight and all of that. Thanks for the input guys, James.

OK guys, I tried the whole one at a time thing early on, also, it's USB bus powered so power isn't an issue. I have however more or less filled up two TDK 74 minute discs with PCM close to capacity and no problem. As far as I can tell on Hi-MD discs, of which I've so far used three, it seems to crash just after 800MB, looks about the 830 mark or thereabouts. The unit works and works well, it's just up to a certain point with the Hi-MD discs. Could it be something off with the laser track? But then wouldn't that mean that the unit wouldn't otherwise work as well? Perhaps the three out of the five new discs I have might be from a bad lot. I still would like to know what the Hell happened to that 39.1MB on the disc, these things should be just like CDs, only one format, not used in more than one type of drive, sheesh. Anyway, thanks guys, James.

Well, I tried it. Got a TOC error notice, the thing started beeping, but nothing blew or fizzled out, so it's OK. Just wish the bloody thing could put more than 800MB on a disc without trying to destroy it's self. Bloody annoying enough that the damn thing only has a usable memory of 961.9MB, where the Hell is the rest of the 39.1MB on the disc huh?

Right, sorry guys, in California here.

Hey guys, I just bought a good condition used MZ-M100 on Ebay, it arrived today and it seems to work fine and sounds good, but there's one problem. OK, first of all usable space is only 961.9MB (where did the rest of the freekin' 39.1MB go?), which I can live with, but there's a snag. When transferring PCM tracks from SonicStage 4.2, the machine acts funny. When I get just past 800MB of music on the disc, the Walkman gets into some form of continuous loop and gets stuck, it sounds as though the disc keeps spinning and the laser is trying to come off it's track. I either have to pull all power and switch it back on to get the disc back then clean up what was already in there, or let it run forever and a day then it says the disc needs to be reinitialized and wiped. What is going on here? Has anyone else with an M100 or RH910 come across the same thing? Do the RH1 and M200 pull this stunt as well? On the most part it works great, but seems to have a glitch. I'll cry if I have to send this thing off to be serviced. HELP PLEASE! As always any and all input is appreciated. Thanks guys, James.