MDX-400

It's for those moody people, lol. Like you know different mood, different colour? haha. Or for those that get bored of the same colour backlight on a monochrome LCD. For everyone else there's full colour LCDs, lol...

LOL I was tempted to say the same thing!

. I disagree but only a little bit. With Hi-MD you're probably spot on, but for standard MD units I think alkalines will last longer. While recording is a higher-current function, playback (with a modern standard MD device at least) is very low current. Hi-MD may be a different story, of course. Alkalines start to drop off in capacity perhaps at disharge of .5C or greater I'd say. Whereas NiMH can take a discharge of as much as 2C even more and still [demonstrably] retain their capacity at said load. Since NiMH AAs are getting up there (most reputable brand AAs are at 2500mAh on average) I would not be surprised if you were able to get nearly the same amount of playing time on a freshly, fully and properly charged NiMH AA as an alkaline. But it is more likely the alkaline, in playback on non-Hi-MD portables [with the exception of older equipment with relatively poor battery life] will outlast the NiMH cell. But I'm speaking of just the AA alone and none of that even really explains the original question... Why would the "sidecar" (as it seems it is being affectionately referred) allow for more battery run time than playing with the internal until cut-off and then using the sidecar until cut-off? The answer, I speculate, has to do with the cut-off voltage and the power curve of NiMH and alkaline batteries... The answer that the AA charges the internal battery is correct, IMO, but this is a much longer explanation... You see an NiMH or NiCd cell typically holds its voltage steady, even with significant load applied, and continues to "hold" it's voltage until the battery has literally "run out" of capacity. At that point the voltage sharply drops and that is the end of your battery life. Now it isn't quite as drastic as I make it seem (because otherwise we'd have no battery indicators, obviously) but when compared to an alkaline, and for general understanding, that is what you have to keep in mind. Now an alkaline has an entirely different discharge curve. It begins at a higher nominal voltage than an NiMH cell, but it doesn't hold that voltage. Instead it smoothly and steadily declines (well under say .3C discharge lets say) as its capacity is used. [it's too bad I can't do a drawing here or I'd give a rough idea with graphs, of what I'm talking about.] So while the NiMH simply drains and cuts off, an alkaline slowly gets lower and lower in its voltage until it reaches the point where the device cuts off. Now, in lower current applications in particular, there is obviously an area/period of time where there is going to be voltage supplied by the alkaline that is less than what the NiMH would provide by the time it went flat--where the NiMH sharply dropped the alkaline still has voltage, albeit low voltage, remaining. So here, a low current device can continue to run for a short time until the alkaline's discharge curve reaches cut off. Now you might be wondering where I'm going with this... Well if you think about it, the alkaline in combination with the NiMH will stop the cut-off of the MD unit because of its discharge curve. The batteries are not operating strictly in parallel I do not think, for Sony must use some kind of circuitry that regulates the charge between the batteries otherwise you'd end up with a lot of leaking batteries or worse. What the net affect is anyway, is that the alkaline with the NiMH pretty much stops that abrupt cut-off you'd get with the NiMH alone and then you capitalise on that little bit of voltage that would be beneficial in the alkaline to a better degree. But if you could combine the two you end up with power going into the NiMH from the alkaline and therefore maximising the total capacity of both batteries in terms of the time voltage can be maintained above the terminal voltage of the MD unit in its current operation mode. So you are taking advantage of the higher voltage of the alkaline and maximising its potential as well as the characteristic of the lower voltage of the NiMH and it's tendency to take charge from the originally higher voltaged alkaline. In the very shortest terms you are taking two battery chemistries and using the benefits of both at the same time.

Yeah it's retarded. Copy-protected CDs have perverted the SCMS standard and for no reason. These CDs have their SCMS bit set to copy-inhibit as if they were a digital copy already made from the original (which they aren't). Honestly I have NO clue why they do this. The majority of music piracy happens with computers which don't even bother with SCMS to begin with. The additional copy-protection measures they put in are often defeated as well, as you pointed out, with programs like EAC. But why they have to go and do that with the SCMS is far beyond me. I just don't get it. Like who runs a music pirating operation (or gets their pirated music) by using home audio digital recording equipment (i.e. MD equipment, home-audio CD-R units, etc.)??? Plain stupid. The only thing the perversion of the SCMS does is prevent legitimate copying of music people have already purchased, under fair use.

Packard Bell actually exists still? I thought they'd have been bought out/gone bankrupt by now. And if they were bought out which company would continue to use the Packard Bell name which has a terrible reputation? LOL. Anyway the 16 colour LCD backlight is no big deal, I'm sure you can find many devices with this. Colour change backlights have been on car head units and cellphones (older ones since they're all real-colour now pretty much) for several years. In fact most of them can do thousands of colours, not just 16, by varying the shades of each basic colour very subtly...

I'm really hoping you have a problem with your optical pickup and not your OWH (overwrite head) because if you used all of the discs in there and you have an OWH problem that is erasing your discs? Then you may well have done the equivalent of an "Erase All" on all your discs! This is because the OWH has been known to fail in some units in such fashion that any disc you put it in it will blank the disc. Usually it happens when you try to record but I've heard of situations where it happens by just inserting the disc. Definitely you will need to pick up another unit (since it sounds like that is your only one) to see if it is just the pickup not reading the discs. Now if the discs have been blanked by your N505 because of an OWH problem then don't completely freak out, because the content can be recovered with TOC cloning, however you pretty much need a deck that can do TOC cloning to do this. There are a few portables that could do TOC cloning but not too many. Also not all decks can TOC clone. But I think it is more likely the discs are fine and will be read okay once you put them in another MD unit.

There's like 2 or 3 shows like this that are on US television (or were on at least). It's interesting at first but then it gets dumb--which is probably why I don't see any of them on that much anymore.

Yeah that's quite interesting. The S1 was designed before Type-S (MDLP playback enhancer) was invented/implemented in MD equipment. My guess is the ATRAC IC for the Type-S units was pin-compatible with the previous generation's ATRAC IC chips. When they ran out of the old ICs they simply started using the new ones in newly manufactured S1s which would then give them the Type-S functionality as well.

There's also this, which you can use if you have a Sony HU with UniLink control in your car and a Sony portable with the remote port: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=11309

Hmm not really a just bought more like a couple weeks ago, but kind of inline with the "exam" mention above (but a lot more expensive) $325 in Ontario Law school application fees ($175 + $75 per school) Application for 2006 entry. plus ~$140 in LSAT registration fees. School, even when trying to get in, definitely ain't cheap! Anyway someone wish me luck!

Hey I'm sorry that I can't give you a solution to this problem but I remember a very similar problem occured with another user with a Sony bookshelf unit. I recall that many people (including myself) had suggestions for him but I don't know if he ever got to a solution. You might try a search to see if you can find that thread. I don't know if it was the AH10 he had, but I do remember this very same problem encountered by someone before.

Wow, them's some expensive hoses! Are those just silicone replacements for the factory rad/heater hoses?

I'd definitely go with that first part number. They both appear to be the same thing, but the first one comes up at ~$38 and the second one at ~$112! I've seen this with several units from Sony that have an internal Li-Ion cell. For some reason there are always two listings and one is like a third the price of the other. I remember on one unit it was the part that came up as "CAN/US" as being more expensive despite the fact that the parts are going to be identical save for some of the markings/text on the cell casing...

LOL, considering it's taken them this long to support Mac at all, I don't think they're going to have any focus at all on Linux...

^Exactly! One thing you guys need to know about retail sales is that product knowledge trails a far way behind the person's "ability" to sell stuff. I.e. Sales experience is what gets people those jobs--it is like that at pretty much every retail place. It's good if you know the product but if you know nothing about electronics but have a lot of sales experience you'll get hired no problem. That's just the way it is, and yes it is retarded. They don't care whether you know product A from B, just that you can sell both products to the same person when they need neither of them It's the old "sell a refrigerator to an eskimo" type of thing. Here's a "fun" thing to try yourself. Make up a resume that puts in very little sales experience but points out lots of knowlege of electronics and that kind of thing. Make up a second one with lots of sales experience, having nothing to do with consumer electronics at all. Then apply for jobs at places like Best Buy or Future Shop or whatever you have in your location--heck even the Sony Store. See which one gets called for an interview, lol.

Wow interesting unit, I didn't even know this one existed prior to this!

I was pretty much going to say the same as what Damage has said. When you [MusicBringer] say you use your "HiFi" for playing your music, what exactly does that mean??? I realise the good ol' term "Hi-Fi" is one used in England and everything, but it really doesn't say much if you're looking for suggestions to increase sound quality output. If you don't already have these, on the non-PC side of it, get yourself a good HT receiver and some good speakers. A decent HT receiver will provide pretty good D/A conversion and all you need is a digital stream from your PC from a decent soundcard (even onboard sound can provide this on newer motherboards). External D/As are mainly something for elitists and like Damage said your money is likely better spent elsewhere, particularly if we're talking about listening to MP3-type music files because speaking about audiophile gear like an external D/A and MP3 do NOT go in the same sentence. Usually from a PC you will want to use an optical (Toslink) S/PDIF connection instead of coax. Coax is technically a better connection method (as it has better bandwidth than toslink) but with PCs you're dealing with a lot of RFI/EMI interference and such from the various computer components and the power supply. Therefore using an optical cable to connect the PC to the receiver is usually the better way to go in such a connection. On the PC side of things, if you are feeling your PC is getting a little slow these days, I'd follow some of the suggestions given above by other members. IMO the Athlon XP was never a very good CPU anyway (I'd rather a P4 Northwood over any AXP) and at only "2000+" that doesn't do you any better. Something like a new machine with an A64 CPU (the A64 is a far better CPU than the AXP was), perhaps around 1GBof RAM, and maybe a 300 gig or so HDD, would fit the bill. Again, with modern PCs the better motherboards will have an onboard sound solution that will have an S/PDIF output which would likely do you fine. Also the onboard video offered on a lot of motherboards will also suit you fine since you don't use any graphics-intensive programs (i.e. games). You should probably look into an SFF (Small Form-Factor)PC because these will be nice and small, quiet (in many cases), and would probably be best suited to you from what I can see.

The main disadvantage of going with NiCd instead of NiMH is that the highest rated NiCd AA (1000mAh) is only about 40% the capacity of the higest rated NiMH AA (2500mAh), meaning you'd get 2-3 times the play/record times with an NiMH AA. However you would have to use a separate NiMH charger--if you have other devices that you could use NiMH rechargeables in, then it wouldn't be so bad to pick up a low-cost slow charger and some batteries.

Really? Wow. I bought mine off eBay too. Only I bought 3 at a time. IIRC, when I sold the two that I did (and I still didn't charge as much as $25 I don't think) I ended up essentially netting the left over one for free

Actually the MD units are usually rated at 3V which is what the concern was about. I don't know about the new Hi-MD units but the older non-Hi-MD units mainly came pacakaged with transformer-type AC adapters. The float output from a 3V AC adapter is therefore above 5V and as you explained (very well I might add ) which is why the original person thought that 5V from the USB was okay. There was a concern that since the transformer adapter would go to closer to 3V under load that 5V constant (from the USB) is too much. However that just isn't true because of the fact that I described above--the newer MD units have a degree of protection--if they are overvoltaged they display a warning on the display and lock out the power to the unit. Actually I'd say it was a pretty darn good breakdown!

So the software *only* works on the "M" units? Isn't that a bit stupid? Do the "M" units work with the PC and SonicStage or are both units "slaved" only to their own platform/software? Seems mighty ridiculous that Sony would do something like this; though I would not put it beyond them, not at all

You can download these free of charge as .pdfs from Sony. Or are you looking for actual, original, printed copies?

Yep that information is correct. Someone else already provided pictures showing the backs of those units. Looks like they have 2 optical digital inputs but no digital output. Can probably be modded for optical out somehow but you'd need the service manual. I'm sure it is hard enough to get one of these things right now, nevermind an instruction manual in english and really nevermind a service manual in english!

Pretty much... This has been discussed not too long ago on another thread. Funny though because a search for "Hi-MD car" doesn't really get you anywhere (it doesn't show the thread I'm talking about at least). And simply searching for "car" does nothing either (neither does searching for Hi-MD) because the string "car" is too short So I guess the original poster can't be faulted for not searching haha Anyway, yeah, it doesn't seem like Sony has any plans for making a Hi-MD car unit in the near future. I think they'd only do so if this generation and the next generation of Hi-MD units are still selling well. If not I think they'll be more concerned with whether to continue the format altogether than on whether to make a car deck. In the meantime Sony has planned to release a UniLink-to-remote port Walkman adapter/controller to have control over walkmans through Sony car HUs with UniLink changer control. However they have been taking their sweet time releasing it! However another company, Connects2, has decided to release their own version of the same adapter and it is available now at a price of $115. It provides both the aux input facility and control/display of pretty much any Walkman that can also use the RM-MC40ELK remote 100%. It was really intended for the HDx series units but it will also work with Hi-MD walkmans. Here is the link to the thread discussing it: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=11309&hl=

By "grouped recordings" do you mean actual Group mode or just recordings from different CDs? If it is the former, SP doesn't even support group mode, only the LP modes do. Furthermore not even every MDLP capable unit supports group mode either. If you just mean recordings from different discs, then yes I'm pretty sure you can still do the faster-than-realtime record on just certain tracks. The MXD-D3 is a little dated though (well considering Hi-MD all the decks are really) but the D3 only had ATRAC 4.5 and did not support MDLP. The D4 onward supported ATRAC3/MDLP. The D40 and newer (as well as the D5C) supported ATRAC Type-R, though the D40 and D5C reverted to ATRAC 4.5 when recording at faster-than-realtime. The only deck that seemed to be able to record ATRAC Type-R at 4x was the D400. It also had ATRAC Type-S (Type-S, however, was really only an enhancement for ATRAC3/MDLP playback and nothing else). I guess if you are going to be doing only SP recordings and only doing them at 4x then you won't really get any benefit from the D4, D40, or D5C. The D400 would benefit you in using Type-R at 4x, but I guess that isn't that big of a deal. If you can find any of these decks cheap though they all fit the bill really. The D3 might be cheaper so that may indeed be your best bet.