lamewing

Any pics of the unit? Thanks.

Lovely to see we are getting the A-series players (but not the A3000) 9 months too late and no E00 series or A-6xx units either. grrrr. So, has Sony given up, at least here, in the U.S.? Do they have another HDD DAP in the works? Sony keeps recreating the DAP for each "generation". There is no continuity (no to mention different units for each region) with their products. They killed the lovely pocket vaio after less than a year, the same to the HD5 and now the A-series (flash at leats) is being put down. I would hope that Sony is able to rebound and at least compete as 2nd place with their Walkman equipment, but they are going to have to basically create a player that has the same lack of restrictions that the new MZ-RH1 has (ie. none to speak of). They won't do this folks say. Ahem, look at the PSP. Drag-and-drop mp3 support, no software needed. Album art, ID tag support. All there. AND, the PSP still provides ATRAC support via Sonic Stage (if that is your bag, baby). Heck, add in player-to-player music transfers!!! THIS is what Sony needs to do. They need to understand that the average Joe on the street is not the enemy. We are not the ones pirating all the software and music. So what if we share a few songs off between our players. I think I have shared maybe 18 songs via my DAP players. Heck I gave more cassette/minidisc mix tapes away when I was younger. What I am trying to say is that the DAP is not the typical vector for trading music...if you even do this at all, so why even play the DRM restriction nonsense in the first place, ESPECIALLY when that is one of the main reasons why your DAPs don't sell so well? EDIT...While others state the color LCD isn't needed on a DAP, I disagree. Video, I don't really care about, if it is added, with no strange restrictions, that is fine I guess. Look at the Pocket Vaio and the DH10P. Both had great color LCDs that allowed the user to view jacket art, but moreso than the iPod. With these players you can browse and choose your music based on the jacket art versus using the silly menu system. This is how we all used to find our music, by the Vinyl/CD cover, so why don't we have this option on the most current models?

Hey, at least they sold it in Canada! We never saw the A-series flash players here in the U.S. We still have the bean and the E-507 (Core Model - whatever). The new E-series...no sign of them at all, but ooooooooooh, we are getting the A1200 9 months late when it no longer matters. /sigh Sony has no clue what to do here in the States. They cannot get past the NEED to be 1st place, when it is obvious that for the foreseeable future Apple owns the U.S. market. Sony could pretty eaisly take 2nd place with a solid and CURRENT line of players (and advertising), but no Sony would rather just dump products that are 1 or 2 generations old on us. Grrrr.

Hey, It looks like minidisco.com just updated the look of their website. I think they did this today (Sunday). Can anyone else confirm this? What do you think? EDIT: It seems that there is a live inventory on the equipment being sold. ie. there are 29 MZ-RH1 units for sale. Joe

I found this website as a member of www.minidisc.org's forum...I think!

Yep. If have two iPods, one FW the other USB 2.0 and are filling it with 40GB+ of music, then YES, the FW will be faster than USB 2.0. But how often would you be filling the entire HDD with music? After the first time, most folks are going to add a few songs at a time and then the speed difference will be negilible.

Right off the bat, the RH1 wins if you want legacy uploads. The up and downloads are also faster with the RH1, compared to the NH1. It also has a mini-usb jack on the unit. The battery also charges via USB (nice). The RH1 does a good job with mp3s (if that is your bag, baby). The RH1 CANNOT display track names on the display, but only on the remote. The RH1 has nifty rubber feet on the bottom, giving it the appearance of a tiny deck-like unit. The NH1 has a nice LCD display on the unit and feels a bit sturdier in my opinion. It needs a proprietary cable for transfer versus a standard mini-usb cable. The NH1 won't charge via USB and instead needs the cradle. NH1 shows how much time til fully charged. I haven't been able to get my RH1 to do that yet, but then again, I have only charged via USB and not from the wall. The button placement on the NH1 seems better and it can 100% support the 3-line remote, while the RH1 is a bit more limited...someone stated earlier about 90%. My 2 cents worth. Others here are a great deal more elequent and knowledgeable than I. Joe Oh!!! I just noticed that the RH1 doesn't have the blue HiMD badge on it anywhere.

Yep, I agree, and should clear up what I mean by "cheapy feeling" as well. I started with a Sony MZ-R70. Solid Aluminum (front and back). After than I owned the R900, R909, and Sharp DR7. All of these MDLP are made from aluminum and felt very sturdy. I tried the NetMD units. I bought a MZ-N1 and was turned off by the plastic feeling magnesium body. Ick. Back it went. The N910 and N920 were sturdy aluminum as well. The MZ-S1 was an exception as it was truly a TANK. On to HiMD. The NH1 is a nice unit, but does feel a bit too light - magnesium again. The EH1 I bought a year ago was great. I am interested in trying out the NH3D since it is aluminum as well. The DH10P - I tried it and LOVED the LCD, but the camera aspect really was a downer. Same unit without the camera would have been wonderful. The RH1 is almost a keeper. It is too light and too plasticky on the sides. I see it's best use (for me) is as purely an "uploader" as I use MDLP/NetMD recorders to record my classes. It is worth $330.00. Maybe not...probably not. If I had years of old legacy recordings, then the RH1 would be a nice find. For fun, what I would like to have seen was a unit in the shape of the N910, with the color LCD and all the benefits of the RH1. It seems that Sony might have done better by making a deck that had all of the RH1 capabilities (even a small bookshelf sized deck), but hey....what is done is done.

Not a software problem as the problem occured on the unit itself. It would combine about three tracks (with a full battery) and then just choke giving me a error message. At that point I could no longer upload them to SS. Others here did mention that they also had they same problem. I wonder if it is specific to the NH900? I did try this with my RH1 and cannot recreate the error.

You are right here. It makes no sense that Sony hasn't offered Mac compatibility for transfers, up and down, yet. Of course after see the fiasco that was the Connect software when it debuted, it might be simply too much for the Sony programmers to write decent software for the Mac...especially considering that Mac users are very vocal about good and bad software.

I think it feels cheap because it is made of plastic and magnesium, making it feel awful light for a recorder. Also, the body doesn't have a true "clamshell" design like most of the other MD units. I guess this is why the door doesn't feel as sturdy, but at least it does make a solid "clunk" when it is closed. It seems we will never see a true metal battery door though.

I bought an EH1 from audiocubes last year. The converter isn't included, but it is "needed". You really don't need it for use in the States, considering the variation of voltage from our sockets....buuuuut...I would use a converter just in case.

I am glad to hear it is working well for you. No, my NH900 worked wonderfully, unless you make multiple recordings and then try to piece the tracks together. Others mentioned the same problem. The solution was to upload everything and then let SS do the rest. Unfortunetly, once you get the error, then uploading isn't an option anymore.

I took a closer look at the body casing (after it cooled off...those UPS trucks get hot here in TX)and you are right. The top/bottom are metal, and probably magnesium, as the RH1 seems much too light for an aluminum body. It is disappointing that the sides are plastic. I guess I am still stuck on the tank-like construction of the old R900/N900 series recorders. Nonetheless, I didn't mean to say the RH1 was badly constructed. I am not fond of the little battery door, though. The unit is faster on transfers. I tried playing a music video (Traveling - Hikaru Utada) from my DH10P and it skipped, but the RH1 was able to transfer the data fast enough to play the file. Nice. It still isn't up to true USB 2.0 speeds, but that is to be expected. I guess we will never see HDD transfer speeds. The ability to do legacy transfers is nice, but I really don't have much use for that. I guess I could use my R900 to record and then eaisly upload the tracks (classes at university) to my PC. Heck, my RH1 would never need to leave the house. Hmmmmmm The true mini-usb connector is a dream come true. I don't know why Sony didn't make use of this on all of their recorders (NH1, DH10P..??) as it really makes the unit more useable. I didn't realize that the unit charges from the USB port. NICE. Again...WHY did it take Sony soooooooo long to provide this feature. My only "real" complaints are (and I knew this going into the purchase) 1. the lack of full support for the 3-line remote, especially considering there is no title information on the unit itself. Actually, I can live without the title info on the RH1, but the remote support should be better. 2. the lack of an external AA battery case. But I guess many folks might use the RH1 purely as an "uploader"??? 3. The use of that dang LIP battery. It would have been nice if Sony had gone back to the use of NW-14 type gumsticks. Overall, a nice unit. Will I keep it? I really don't know. I might just return it and look at a different HiMD unit. Nice unit (very nice), but I don't think I will truly take advantage of all the features. Too bad there is no color LCD (ie. DH10P) and a true scroll wheel (R900/R909/N910/N920).

Hey folks. My RH1 just arrived and after opening it I am concerned regarding the material of the case. It seems if the case feels like it is made of plastic. Am I wrong? Please tell me that is the case. The case isn't aluminum. Might it be made of magnesium? Thanks.

This sounds good on paper, but the HiMD units (at least 1 gen) have issues with combining tracks.

BE VERY CAREFUL about splitting tracks with at least the 1st gen HiMD units!!! If you record several file and then try and fuse them into a single file on the unit you can eaisly damage the recording and then be forced to "upload" the file via line-in on the PC (Yes my battery was full). I have had this many times and end up getting an error stating the files cannot be fused. Then I tried to upload them (expecting to use Sonic Stage to make on large recording) and SS said NO...files damaged or something to that affect. Why did I make track marks...because I didn't quite trust the HiMD to make LONG recordings without problems. I NEVER had this problem with my MDLP units. This might not be a problem for the 2nd and 3rd gen units, but my NH910 (multiple units) had this issue.

I think the RH1 is a fine player, but I do admit that I am confused as to why Sony would choose to remove full support of the 3 line ELK remote from their top-tier unit. The NH1 (and some of the other 1st gen) could use it as well as the DH10P (and other 2nd gens?) so it really makes no sense to neuter the RH1 in this aspect. I don't care so much for constantly looking through my tracks, but it would be nice to have the option to scroll through them to find a particular song. I have felt this was since the days of the R900/R909/R910/N910/N920 units. I LOVED the little scroll wheel on the units - and NOT the iPod knock off - scroll wheel on the front of the HiMD units. Of course my personal choice would be to include the color LCD from the DH10P on a unit like the RH1 - with the ability to turn it off in the menu and only use the remote to save battery power if you wish. Overall, the ability to look through the music based on album art was unique to the DH10P and the Pocket Vaio. Even the iPod doesn't offer this great feature (if Apple did offer it, I probably would bite!!! Are you listening Sony?). The camera aspect was worthless due to a low-end camera. Think of another camera unit with a GOOD camera, line-in, mic, etc. I would love to have carried a DH10P on a trip, taking photos and making voice notes as I took photos. Too bad Sony missed the boat on that one. In the end, I chose the RH1, simply due to the construction....metal body wins everyday. This is the same reason I bought the Cowon X5L over the iPod....metal body. After being raised on the Sony and Sharp units with sold alum. and magnesium bodies I cannot use a recorder/player with an easily scratchable face, and this so included the A-series HDD players. Don't forget that you can record in PCM mode and just play the recording while recording it to WAV on your PC/Mac via the line in on your PC. It is slow, but it will still allow you to get the recording on the computer. If you do this, there is no DRM of any kind. But the portables don't have optical out, so the sound quality won't be quite a good and it will take real-time to do this.

Oh my! So is this Sony's answer for the States? "We can't be number one, so we will just take our toys and go home?" Seriously, is Sony just going to give up on the U.S. completely? So what if they cannot be the top performer. They could at least sell the units on their website (at a fair price) for the Americans who want them. If they don't want to invest in the brick-and-mortar stores...that is their loss. It is very clear Apple has won the hearts and minds of the American public, but to basically ignore us (not releasing the A-series HDD and flash players in the U.S.) and possibly ignoring us in the next round of units as well. If this keeps up, I may just give up on Sony and just buy an iPod myself. Of course if the PSP was more solidly built, had an internal hard drive, and was marketed as more than a game machine with multimedia capabilities (or is that reversed!?!) then maybe I would at least have a Sony option at this point.

USB 2.0 may be supported, but that doesn't mean the unit will take full advantage of the speed of USB 2.0, merely that it is "compatible" with USB 2.0. That is like saying the earlier MD units were "compatible" with mp3. The speed restraints have everything to do with the write speed of the optical block, which just isn't that fast compared to a HDD or USB 2.0 flash units. I would like to see true drag and drop of music files to the unit - with playback.

No, the shuffle doesn't erase itself when plugged in. If you have iTunes set up to reload a group (random for instance) when it is plugged in, then sure it will change the music out, but no, the act of plugging the shuffle in doesn't erase it. Also, the shuffle has a different chipset and sounds fantastic compared to the other iPods. I have NO IDEA why Apple isn't using that chipset in its other players. Yes, the NH1, NH3D, DH10P, EH1 and RH1 use the same LIP battery.

I am not really impressed. If Sony opens the format so that it can be used by windows media player, winamp, iTunes, etc. then they will have really taken a step forward. At the moment all they have done is allowed use of their format with...dum dum dum...their software. Come on Sony, take the final step and truly OPEN up ATRAC to everyone.

Yep, they say IN STOCK, so I went ahead and ordered one. Whew, that is quite expensive. Maybe I should have gotten two NH-700s.

And Cowon (iaudio) does well with its players in the foreign sector, while Sony finds itself languishing in many markets. Sony USA is wrong then.

See, I have a problem with a blanket statement like that. I owned three iPods: a 1st gen 5GB, a 2nd gen 20GB, and a 4th gen 60GB photo model. NONE of them broke or had ANY issues whatsover. NONE of my MD units ever had a problem either. What am I saying? I am saying that if you were to (probably) give your minidisc player to your friends they would likely have broken it within a year as well. One thing folks need to take into consideration is that the number of broken iPods seems larger due to the popularity of the product and the large number of iPods sold worldwide. Do I have an iPod now, nope. I have two Cowon DAPs and I am waiting on an RH1 for recording my language classes/practice sessions. Oh, I have a MZ-N920 as well.