Jermz

Simple Burner comes with most NetMD players... if you didnt get that CD for some reason there are a few places that still may have it availible for download. As for uninstalling Easy CD Creator, there really isnt a need to do that, as far as I know Nero and Roxio can co-exist... if anyone knows differently speak up.

Thats fine if AAC sounds better... wonderful... but a MP3 isnt going to sound any better when played back as a MP3, you would have to re-encode your MP3 to AAC and thus create a more lossy sounding recording. I know your gonna say a MD just does the same thing with NetMD, but truthfully it doesnt. It plays back the MP3 track and encodes the audio as ATRAC... sure its not gonna sound better than it did before as a MP3 but its better than re-compressing a compressed file.

MP3 is MORE WHAT? I dont get how people complain about how much you have to go through to get NetMD to work(really... its not bad at all you just have to have a brain), yet this moron outright says that MP3 requires tweaking to get better sound quality... and even if you find the right encoder, set the proper bit rate, and find the best compression MP3's still sound like crap compared to ATRAC. You simply have to hear it to believe it and here in the US there isnt much of that happening. IF Sony was smart they would set up side by side demo's of the iPod and any of the NetMD players, after one listen no one would want the Mac "bar of soap".

HERE WE GO AGAIN... Lame GUEST coming in here and spouting MP3 crap! Lets see... RioVolt... isnt that ... why yes it is... a GLORIFIED CD PLAYER! Which just LOVES to suck batteries... Duracell loves these things, 2 AA batteries and you get 20 hours of play back on a normal CD and MAYBE 2 hours on a MP3 CD, yeah I owned one of these pieces of CRAP! There was of course the 500 model with the built in battery... that lasted a whole wopping 5 hours after 12 hours of charging.... wow... that is one fantastic unit there... can't imagine why you would perfer MD over that... ?!? SURE you can get 12+ hours on a CD, BUT YOU CANT LISTEN TO THE WHOLE THING WITHOUT 10 batteries!!!! 56 hours on one AA battery with a MD, and thats an understatement.... I have run my MZ-N505 for way more than 70 hours on ONE battery... Can we start hunting down scared simple minded guests that have no idea what they are talking about for the simple pleasure of telling them to shut up and get out?... after all this is the MINIDISC FORUM... if your interested in MD thats one thing... but to come in here bashing MD is just weak!

Thank you Bazirker for understanding what I was saying here. NRen2k5 I can say what I will about the quality of MP3 because I have used almost every encoder out there and the result was the same on all of the HDD players I have owned. I have been using MP3 technology before it was mainstream, before Winamp, and way before anyone knew it was going to destroy the record industry. I have used every commecial encoder and underground dev project trying to find something that still sounded like a quality recording... but If you ask me MP3 sucks the soul out of music regardless of how you go about encoding it. So when I do my transfers to MD I usually go directly to the CD. The ATRAC encoder does a better job than any MP3 encoder out there in MY opinion. Finally, if we went into an iPod forum, I can almost guarantee we would be banned and the post would be delete before you could get outta the forum :twisted:. 8... you're a pure user man! MD was made for people like you and me!

Why is it people think they can come into a MINIDISC forum and start ranting about iPod's? We all know the iPod is just a glorified plug in and play hard drive. It has a battery life equivalent to my cell phone battery (we all know how reliable those are). Sure its sleek and trendy, but so are XM radio receivers. Generally when your talking to someone about iPod's or someone brings up an iPod topic its because they are a simple Mac user. They cant grasp the complexity or potential of MiniDisc. There must be something that brainwashes users of Mac's, I swear, they are the only users more fanatical than MiniDisc users that I know of. Ideally I would love to see the moderators ban more posts that create these mudslinging arguments about iPod vs. MD. Let me rap this up before I really get on a rant. I have owned 4 solid state hard drive MP3 players. Nothing AND I MEAN NOTHING compares to the quality of sound my MZ-N505 puts out (even in LP2 mode). There isn’t a player out there that offers as much flexibility, reliability, and cost effectiveness as the most current MD units. I don't see why people are willing to drop $500 USD on an iPod (especially non-Mac users) when MD units that offer more than the iPod could dream of offering are available for $200 USD or less. Sure it has its catches, like no direct audio uploading, and the fact that you have to use a few work a rounds to really utilize MD to its full potential, but if your not a Mac user you have to do that anyway with an iPod, and as a gentle reminder... most PC's aren't equipped with a FireWire port, so if your not the technical type your just asking for trouble going with an iPod as a PC user. SO PLEASE no more iPod posting... its making me ill!

Thats me above.. I was so pissed I forgot to login...

NERO is terrible at giving accurate times for the images. I have had a 160 minute image work with Simple Burner, and then there are times that I get "Not Enough Room" errors with images as small as 150 so who knows whats really going on... All I know is I can put my music on my MD with out all the OpenMG hassle, good enough for me. 8)

No, a key is NOT needed for this installation of NERO. ALSO NERO ImageDrive is going to create a "dummy" CD-ROM drive with a letter on your system. MOUNTING that drive is the same process that many UNIX/LINUX users are familiar with. So when you MOUNT the image you are loading it to the drive for the OS to read. AS for a dummies guide, thats what I am attempting to do with this post, so any questions are more than welcome. OH BTW... I have found that images that contain more than 6gig or 300 minutes of audio will generate an error code 1500 when you attempt to mount the image in NERO.

This is way better than T-station...

MD IS THE ANSWER! Had the music industry paid attention 10 years ago they would have nothing to cry about today about how they are getting ripped off. They wanted to save a few cents and continue to produce CD's. BIG MISTAKE, and now they are blaming the consumers... sorry... I don't buy it. My opinion is that MD should replace CD as the media of choice for the music industry. I have delt with several MP3 players and they are all the same... THEY SUCK... I will NEVER turn on MD simply because it is the answer.

Well Mel, hope you got a really good warranty... because you are a FOOL! Moderators... can we get this post kicked, it seems this is a MP3 player propaganda post, we dont need that here!

MZ-N505 or one of the newer Type-S models when they come out. OR if you want something rugged go with the MZ-S1 S2 sports MD! I don't think we will see another sport MD for quite some time.

If you are looking at the gold MZ-N505 for $130 USD it does NOT have a microphone input on it, but it has a line in. If you have a powered mic or a battery box that can boost the signal to line-in volume then you can record anything. Its a great player for the price. The MZ-N707 which is $200 USD has a mic port built it, but I have heard that the amp isnt that good so more often that not really loud recordings are very distorted. IF you use headphones instead of a microphone and plug that into the mic port of the MZ-N707 that will provide a way of capturing really loud recordings. Keep in mind a GOOD mic for a MD runs around $70.

I bought my MZ-N505 from Best Buy for $130USD. I was well worth it, even though I knew I could get it cheaper, but I had gift cards. Pretty much any retailer that is listed on minidisc.org or minidisct.com is reliable from what I have read because I was going to buy online.

I would read up on the 10gig Ipod... I have heard from several sources that the hard drive in those is un-reliable at best. The drive is a miniature HD so its not really solid state and contains way too many moving parts. Anything below the 20 gig model could have issues and cause you to lose your whole collection if it crashes! I SWORE by MP3 players until I got my MD, I would NEVER go back to a MP3 player now. The battery life is amazing, the media is DIRT CHEAP, and the quality is UN-SURPASSED by anything. I am actually considering re-ripping my entire music collection (3974 tracks) from CD to ATRAC, because after hearing the difference it would be worth all the time to do so.

I know a lot of users are having issues with NERO and some of the bundled CD's that came with burners don't even have ImageDrive on them which you need. Poloroid used to host a full version of NERO for download... but I guess so many people hit it they decided to take it down... sorry people, if someone has it and would like to host it please let me know so we can put the link back up here... ANYWAY I cannot remember if ImageDrive was a listed option when I installed that version, but it was there, after installing NERO search for the word "Image" and you will find "NeroImageDriveInst". This is the installation for ImageDrive. So now hopefully a few users will stop using OpenMG and just use the NERO - Simple Burner method that works the way things should work. IN CASE YOUR CLUELESS ABOUT THE STEPS FOR DINO'S METHOD 1.) Open NERO and create a new Audio CD. 2.) Click the new button on the right of the window. 3.) Click the button at the top of the screen (below the toolbar) that says Choose Recorder. 4.) Select the Image Recorder and click OK. 5.) Add the files (MP3, WAV, CDA, WMA, RA) you want to put on your MD. 6.) Click on Write CD under File on the toolbar. 7.) A window will open up, click the Write button. 8.) Another window will open, save the .nrg image file to the desktop, or where ever you wish, it is just easier to find it on the desktop later. 9.) Click Save and NERO will begin writing the .nrg file to your hard drive. This will take some time depending on how many tracks you added. 10.) Let Nero finish and exit Nero. 11.) Open Nero ImageDrive. 12.) Click the button with the ... and select the .nrg file you created, SEE WHY YOU SHOULD PUT IT ON YOUR DESKTOP?!? 13.) Click the Load button. If you have AutoInsert Notification turned on an Audio CD will play. This is what tricks Simple Burner into thinking that you put a CD into your computer to rip audio tracks from. 14.) Open Simple Burner and select the drive the Image was mounted to. You should know the routine from there. I havent figured out how to title the tracks in NERO and have those titles recognized by Simple Burner. There are programs out there that will title the tracks, but I haven't used any of them because its not that time consuming to title the tracks by hand in Simple Burner by selecting the track and hitting F2. [Edit by moderator: iceeedtea] Before you install Simple Burner, make sure that you have a working, functional copy of SonicStage 2.0 [sonicStage 1.5/OpenMG 2.2] installed on your computer. Simple Burner requires key components of the previously stated programs to function properly. Downloads Simple Burner 1.0: Link - hosted by my-minidisc.de Link - hosted by MiniDisc T-Station Nero Burning Rom: Link - nero.com Please note that the download from the official website is a trial version. Do not post keys to the software on this board, or you will be banned. DAEMON Tools - a good alternative to Nero ImageDrive: Link

OR go here... its NERO 5.5 look for the link below the Software Download header http://www.polaroidmemory.com/support/supp...rt_download.htm

Whats wrong with using the NERO/Simple Burner method?

Maybe we should break these hacks up into seperate posts by unit? ANYWAY... I wanted to know from MZ-N505 users how successful they were, what firmware they had, and what working features were gained both with and without remote and what remote did you use. I would love to gain PDM if possible, so the hack is tempting. ALSO does anyone know of a way on the 505 to make Shuffle Repeat the default play mode? Could this be hacked some how also?

Exactly how do you transfer titles the correct way using the NERO ->SimpleBurner Method? Every time I select Audio CD... and input all the text fields and check the box in the CD Title tab... so what gives? Any suggestions or reasons why the titles are being so difficult?

I have been thinking about getting a MD for WAY TOO LONG, I keep procrastinating over which model because I am having trouble justifing the extra cash for the mic input on the MZ-N707 vs. MZ-N505. So I have more than a few questions from owners of these units... Some people say that the mic input is crap on the MZ-N707 and that you would be better off amping the mic to a line in on a MZ-N505 and saving the cash. Any opinions? I have often thought that if I like the MD format enough I will eventually own several players... so picking up an older MZ-R700 (in that AMAZING green color that none of the newer players come in :cry: ) for just recording might be a solution. The more the merrier right? PLUS what kind of equipment would I need to pre-amp a mic for input to a line in on a MZ-505, and how much would that cost? OR is the input on the MZ-N707 good enough without dealing with all the pre-amping stuff? AND FINALLY... would I just be better off with a SHARP, most people say that they are poorly supported (even more poorly supported than SONY) but the SHARP units are far superior to the SONY units. Any truth to this? THANKS A TON!

yup... AVLand shows it... http://www.avland.co.uk/sony/mzr500/index.htm

Thanks for the info everybody... much appreciated!