doclloyd

It would be great if they actually provided a list of "hey, here's what's new with this upgrade." Like most every company that releases software. I remember hearing about an upgrade to Connect for the fall. I guess I'll have to take a look into it when I get home today.

Hi All, As a casual fan of classical music, I've always struggled with knowing which compilations/labels/etc. are good and which may not be. To this point I own a total of 3 classical albums (one Vivaldi given as a gift and 2 Mozart CD's). I guess the question is obvious: what are your opinions on good classical labels/compilations? I'm looking to expand my music collection in this arena and would appreciate your thoughts on the matter. Thanks. EDIT: Can a moderator move this to the right forum? I think this belongs under the Main "off-topic" forum. Thanks.

Lookin' pretty good! A quick two minute recording from the MD, copy to PC and WAV conversion works wonderfully for me. WMP did not complain about the wave file for me either. Excellent work!

OK, so here's a question from someone going from lithium ion to NiMH... how close to the end of a battery's charge is it safe to recharge? One bar on the display? Two bars? I have a NH900. Should I deliberately kill the battery by playing a disc continuously once in a while?

1) You can get to DOS via the "Command Prompt", which can be found under Start->Programs->Accessories for 2000/XP. 2) I suppose the application itself could be wrapped inside a script that would call it with each filename to be converted. Perl or something else (maybe Windows-based) should do.

Works here for me... got the same error right at the end, but it's cool so far. I can email the log file from the conversion if it'd be useful. Man, times like this make me wish I knew something about programming on Windows.

I am in the planning process of backing up any necessary data off my PC and reformatting my Windows partition on my desktop. I currently have a 11GB sonicstage database that needs backing up. I have a drive where I can back this data up while I reformat the main drive. My questions are: * What process did you use when "moving" the database? * Was it seamless? Any issues? * I also have some tracks via Sony Connect. Is the deauthorization/reauthorization process a problem? I will be contacting their tech support as well to make sure my bases are covered. * Do you run the "verify" portion of the backup process? Is it even useful? I'll appreciate any caveats I should watch out for. Thanks in advance.

- Easier ability to create new playlists I've never used iTunes at any great length, but from what I've heard, it's pretty good. - It's sort of geared toward Simple Burner, but allow LP2 directly from MD->CD. - More support for other audio formats, maybe via a plugin system. Stuff like ogg, mod/xm, etc... - Easy searching of my own library of tracks. (OK, so a search function shows up when in "view all tracks" mode. Kind of useless most of the time. - Easy ability to move my library if my hard drive fills up and i need to upgrade. - SS 1.5 (I think) had very simple visualizations. It'd be nice, but kinda useless, to have those back. - Multitasking support (already mentioned). Allow ripping of CD in background while transferring other tracks to MD or browsing the Connect Store. - I'm all behind the transcoding (the converting Hi-SP to LP2 to MD) on the fly and not leaving any files behind in the process. This would ideally be nice for mp3 files too. Then they wouldn't be slammed for wasting all this space. - Brighter colors. Sounds cheesy, but overall, the app is dark and doesn't stand out. - Queue for files you want to transfer to MD/NW-HD1. This may be useful if you want to setup a disc/playlist, but your device isn't nearby (who knows why, but anyway) Maybe there's more, but that's all I have for now.

- IT manager for a marketing/ad agency... was formerly a programmer (PHP, Perl, MySQL, Linux stuff...). I still dabble when need arises. - Not a doctor of anything, though I've seriously considered becoming a counselor. - Occasional reader of books, though I wish I read more often. - (former) writer of poetry, though those days are farther and fewer between. - Frequent reader of tech/geeky info site (slashdot, howardforums, this forum) - listener of mainly electronica/club/dance music, but have been known to own the random cranberries or dido album :rasp: - Only person I know (other than my bro) who's 1/2 Chinese and 1/2 Czech - MD user since 2001 (started with the R700) - I actually frequent a gym usually twice a week, but get the random 3rd visit if I'm really motivated. So, there you have it.

For my less than one week of time with Hi-MD, so far I think I'd like to stick with LP2... a good portion of my music on my computer is already in that format (for my N10). However, I'll look into Hi-SP as well. One thing I would like to see is the ability to use MD Simple Burner to copy a CD to a Hi-MD disc, but encoded with LP2. It's possible via SS, so why not Simple Burner?

The Hi-MD supports transfer of more data to a Hi-MD formatted disc. It now transfers Artist, Source (or Album I suppose) along with title. Maybe this is what the service rep confused ID3 with. I haven't paid much attention yet, but it could be that imported mp3's with ID3 info have some of this mapped to fields in ATRAC3/+ files.

That's just fun. Really brings you back to the days when tape was the only realistic option for many of us, if for nothing else but cost.

I'm ok with waiting until they are more readily available, even here in the States. I've read that Sony charges a lot for shipping from sonystyle.com. Minidisco isn't carrying discs yet, nor are any local electronics stores yet. I have a good amount of regular MD's I can convert to Hi-MD format to tide me over for a while.

I am in the same boat as jadeclaw... the fact that a standard 80min MD (when formatted to Hi-MD) can fit 2hr 20min of Hi-SP, that's great! Right now, I use LP2 for most all of my needs. Now, I get the same capacity, but with higher quality.

Jimmix, have you tried transferring any itunes aac files (self-ripped or itunes files) to NetMD?

Minidisco called me yesterday to confirm my order... hopefully it's arriving next week. They said their shipment was arriving today or tomorrow. Then I can finally start playing around with this new Hi-MD stuff I've been reading about for months now.

I am, but through minidisco.com. When I ordered it, I had a promo code for $20 off orders of > $200. So, even with shipping, I'm saving at least $40 off of Sony's price. Even so, this is VERY exciting that their site is finally showing these as available. I can't wait (but this world still forces me to.)

Jimmix, this option is available when you're transferring tracks to MD (and presumably any Sony device). It's an option under a button between the left and right portions of the transfer window. I'd explain it better if I were at my home computer right now.

Earlier today when browsing sonystyle.com, I saw a mini-ad for the NH900. I think they change out that stuff every hour, otherwise I'd point to it. Of course their site doesn't say it's available yet (why not allow pre-order?), but thought it was interesting that an ad for the 900 was in circulation now.

Did you order these from Sony USA? Also, have you ordered any NH900's? Any word on when they are arriving for you?

Maybe after the price comes down (or the next gen version has more features) I'll consider one. What would be cool, though it doesn't really work in the use of a HDD player, is having a SimpleBurner type app that would let you directly copy CD's to your HD1 instead of to the PC first.

Like Ryzir said.. basically any file you store on your PC can be stored on the Hi-MD. Documents, spreadsheets, pics, video clips, text files, etc....

Did this double-up your DB size or did the "conversion" actually get rid of the .omg files and replace them with .oma?

Thanks for the review. Quite interesting to hear you got it already... makes me really want my NH900. I don't have the library you have setup, but the fact that your library transferred so quickly is nice to hear. Was it over USB2? How do you sync the device w/SS? I'm assuming it's just like transferring tracks to MD. Not syncing per se, but choosing what you want to put on there. If I think of more questions, I'll post later. I wish I could justify spending the $$ on it. Any chance you could post any pics?

I guess that could help explain why I've never had problems burning Audio CD's. I have a Sony CD/RW drive, but a home-built PC. I've noticed that they took out the "Beta" version of SonicStage when 2.1 was announced. Is the theory now that anybody is supposed to to be able to burn Audio CD's, at least from tracks that they've purchased off the Connect Music store? For kicks, here are all the module version numbers I have after upgrading to 2.1 (found in the about SonicStage section under Help): SonicStage : 2.1.01.06290 SonicStage Add-on for Connect : 2.1.00.06071 OpenMG Secure Module : 4.0.00.05270 MagicGate Memory Stick Device : 4.0.00.06170 NW-E2, NW-E3, NW-E5 and NW-E8P : 4.0.00.06170 OpenMG CD : 4.0.00.06170 CD Walkman : 4.0.00.06170 Hi-MD : 4.0.00.06170 Music Clip, NW-S4, NW-E7 and NW-E10 : 4.0.00.06170 HDWM : 4.0.00.06170 Net MD : 4.0.00.06170 EMD Plug-in: 1.1.0.84 Playback Plug-in : 1.0.0.53 CD-R Writing Module(ATRAC CD/Audio CD/MP3 CD) : 2.1.00.06071 Px Engine: 1.6.14.507