Swordsage

Hey there. Sorry I'm updating you guys on this so late... been a crazy last few weeks. Anyway, I went over to Radio Shack and got their contact cleaner. I followed the instructions and sprayed the contacts on the unit. Yet the remote still won't work with it. I've sprayed it several times since, but no dice. I've played around with the idea of wiping the contacts after spraying, but I just don't have any sort of q-tip like tool that's small enough to fit in, plus I don't want to damage things any further. I guess this may mean that the contacts may have to be bent as the wizard suggested (sorry for confusing your words earlier), though I'm not sure how they would have been bent out of alignment if the remote had almost always been connected. Maybe it's just that my contact cleaner sucks?

OK.. so I need to get some contact cleaner. I guess even if the remote is always connected to the unit. air is going to get in there somehow. And all metals end up oxidizing in some form or another. I am a bit afraid of trying to bend the connectors though. I have no idea how far they are supposed to be bent, and I really don't want to ruin this thing,

Ok... I have a model MZ-NH3D that I've been using as my main player. It's been working just fine for a while now, but recently it's been having problems with the remote. For the last week or so I've noticed that sometimes it wouldn't register button presses, or the screen would even go blank. It then got worse yesterday, when it stoped working with the remote altogether. At first I thought it was the remote itself, and didn't mind too much since I had spares... however, it didn't work for the spares either. And every one of those remotes works fine with my RH1, so it has to be something wrong with the NH3D. Does anyone have any idea what it could be, and how I can fix it, if able?

I'll definitely look up those posts. Any info I can get on making good recordings will be greatly appreciated. I do need clearing up on something though... you said my Hi-MD recorders record ATRAC in Type S, and the JE520 records in Type R, and you said Type R is best for SP. But you also said that I would be better off recording in SP with my Hi-MD units, which seems to be a contradiction. Or did I misinterpret you?

Ok, at the behest of my wife and you guys, I decided to nab it. It ended up being $70, and included 41 blank discs, though it didn't have the remote. Oh well. Because I have a rather basic stereo system (just a 3 cd/radio/double tape player/recorder thing), I don't really have a feasible way of recording anything off of it, though whatever is playing from the deck can easily be heard through the auxiliary connection. Well, I'm sure I can set it up so I can record from the stereo, but it will take some finagling. In the meantime, I plan on making sp recordings with my portable units for home playing. The one SP disc he gave me to test the deck sounded great from it, so I'm hoping discs made via my computer will have similar results, despite not being recorded from the deck itself. I'm a bit confused about the ATRAC 4.5 designation though.... exactly how does it line up with the timeline of development in regard to the other file formats? Anyways, I don't regreat my purchace, and it will do as a home md player/recorder until I save up enough money for (or the price comes down on) those Onkyo Hi-MD decks.

Ok... I just found someone nearby who wants to sell his MDS-JE520 minidsc deck and several blank md's for $75 Flat. Now, normally I'd say it was a no brainer: go and buy it. I'm just wondering if I really need it. I already own a MZ-RH1, and a MZ-NH1, among others, and am pretty much converting my cds to minidiscs with those units via my computer. That's pretty much what the deck is designed for, but if I'm doing this with the other units, wouldn't this be a waste to get it? Or should I be using the deck more often for this, despite not being a Hi-MD model? I did hear that the decks tended to make some high quality recordings anyway. Plus there's always the thing about backing up equipment. And I can always use more blanks. Should I nab this deck while I can, and risk not using it often, or just let it go?

I agree that for all intents and purposes, MD is dead, but I still voted for it to be revived. Not just because of my love for the format, but there are some reasons that I think are viable. One, despite the fact that great strides have been made in solid state/flash memory players and recorders, we STILL have CDs, vinyl and even CASSETTES (though blanks) being sold. The latter two don't have a large following of people using them, but there are enough to justify them being put out on the market. I feel the same can be said for MD, particularly if one takes a look at the sales going on in sites like Ebay. Two, it's still a dependable format. From what I've seen, soild state versions of playing/recordable units are still prone to failure, either by units breaking down, and/or memory problems. Granted, this is improving, but considering that even to this day I can take a minidsc out of my player, throw it on the ground, pop it back in and it will still play, and they can last for a pretty long time in storage, and today's tech can't really match that, that says a lot. You have to be careful storing audio files in memory sticks, hard drives and such; one misstep and everything is gone. DVD and CD archiving are better, but they're still prone to scratching. This is the main reason why my albums and songs, as well as old lectures, interviews, and speeches I've recorded, are all backed up on minidisc. Three, the demand is still there. I'm not naive enough to think it's a huge demand, but there is enough of us out there to support a niche market. And considering how cheap it must be to churn out blanks, there is no reason to think Sony or another company stands to lose a whole lot of money... provided they market this correctly. That is, of course, the rub; they haven't done this well in the past. But if they are selling to a group of people who are already bought on the idea, and they do it right, it can make them some money. And word of mouth will attract a few more customers. I'm confidant in that last part, since I still turn heads whenever I pull one of my recorders out, and new people show up here from time to time. So the spark of interest is there, just waiting for someone competent to fan into flames. I'm not saying this could be easy to do... or that we have a chance in hell of ever seeing it happen. But it could be done.

Funny, I actually went this route, though I didn't go for a netbook. I actually went with a used Dell Inspiron 1501 with a 64bit Athlon x2 Processor. I figured that was more than enough to handle running a program like Audacity, and I was right. I also decided to stick with using XP as the OS, though considering that Win7 supposedly has an "XP mode", that might be a decent option. I haven't heard about this though, so i can't say for sure. Honestly, I suggest that you get your hands on a used laptop instead of a netbook if you want a dedicated portable computer ti work with your MD stuff. You'll be spending about the same amount of money, but you'll be getting more for your dollar. There are some decent place online to shop from, and Dell in particular even has a site dedicated to un-bought and refurbished laptops sold at greatly reduced prices. Peronsally, I'd recomend getting either a Toshiba or an IBM/Leveno, but Dells aren't too bad: I'm using this Inspiron simply because it was a hand me down that lasted it's owner 3 years with little problem... AND it was bought from the refurbished site, so that says something about how well it's been keeping up. But I wouldn't get a netbook, unless it has decent processing power AND enough harddrive space to hold your music.

Oh my gods... and I had just bought a rh1, nh1, and a nh3d. I have to get some money together....

Thought I would give you guys an update on my SS situation. I finally got the chance to go with my plan on using a laptop specifically to interface with my minidisc units. I formatted the drive, reinstalled Xp and all the relevant drivers I needed, and then got around to installing SonicStage. Just before I did though, I decided to install 3.4 instead of 4.3. Result: no problems whatsoever with my mp3 files. SS can read and play them without a hitch. Considering that my wife had installed SS 4.3 earlier on her own laptop and had the same problems I did, I'm tentatively concluding that the newer version just doesn't accept mp3's at lower bit rates. I could upgrade to 4.3 on the laptop to make sure, but I just got things working ust right, and I don't want to risk screwing things up on the one machine that I'm dedicating to my minidisc stuff. THen again, considering that I might have to replace the harddrive, I might upgrade just to find out once and for all. Anyway, thank you guys for all your help; your advice did help inadvertently with other things. Now, if only SS accepted flac...

I guess I should ask: what would be a good mike to use with the RH1?

I know the adapters are interchangeable, and when my new nh1 and nh3d get here, I'll use one of those as the "universal one" for all the other units. I just wish I had one now for my current units that use it. On a happier note, the RH1 finally showed up yesterday, and so far I'm loving it. It doesn't just look good, it sounds good. And even though I know some people don't like the mike that comes with the m200 version, so far it's doing right by me. I did some test recordings with it, and it's so far, so good. And it turned some heads at work as well. It's times like these when I remember just how cool the minidisc really is.

Heh... I have to tell my wife, otherwise she's just going to keep asking me where I got the new toys from. At least she doesn't nag me about it, and actually likes the tech overall. There are some more things I wanted to add to my gear. I still have yet to own a deck (and not sure which one I should nab), and of course I need to add more blanks to my already growing collection. One thing I wanted ask though... is there any kind of alternative to the AC-ES608K ac adapter for the NH1? the one for the unit I plan on giving to my friend is broken, and I need to replace it. However, next to no one is selling one used, and Sony is asking a ridiculous amount for a new one. I tried using a standard universal ac adapter, but that just ended up melting. So is there any kind of alternative, or do I pretty much have to keep hunting for a reasonably priced AC-ES608K?

So I finally got the extra cash I had coming to me for some time now, and decided that it was time to upgrade my md portables. I already own two MZ-NH1's (one that still records, the other only plays and I don't trust my skills with a soldering iron) and an MZ-NF610, but I've always wanted to get a MZ-RH1 ever since I first heard about them, and I finally had my chance. However, while ordering this (in the MZ-M200 version... those tend to be cheaper than the stand alone RH1's for some strange reason), I also noticed some fantastic deals on Ebay for some other units. So I ended up getting: - 1 MZ-RH1 (MZ-M200) - 1 MZ-NH1 (I was giving my older working unit to a friend who needed it for recording purposes, but I knew I'd missing owning one that still recorded - 1 MZ-NH3D (It was going for $250!!) ... so yeah, I think i'm set on HiMD units for now. Though my wife is going to roll her eyes when they show up at the door (still, the NH3D might change her toon, considering how gorgeous it looks). So, did I go a bit off the deep end, or what?

Oh gods, that would be a horror. Still, this is Sony, so I wouldn't be surprised. Considering from what i heard about SS not having its own native mp3 codecs, the problem could be myfault... though to be honest, I'm not too convinced. I installed the k-Lite codec pack a while back in order to watch avi files, and it has the ffdshow audio codecs. Still, I'm pretty sure I had done this way before SS started having these problems. If it turns out it's ffdshow that's the culprit however, I might have to start digging around for another codec pack.