jamesdstark_

I'm thinking of selling my dual-din car stereo, that plays MDLP and CD's. Also has some cool graphics and eye candy it's a neat unit. I'm asking $375 obo, before I list it on ebay.

It's great that the Hi-MD recorders are USB plugnplay universal storage devices no driver required. So you can just plug it in and drag mp3 files over. Too bad it won't play them that way unless you transfer using sonicstage into Atrac format. But wait, couldn't someone make an MP3 player that reads Hi-MD media, just like a MP3 CD player? That would be a dream come true... no more $#%&$ sony software to deal with.

I thought removing my mouse from the USB port might help, but it didn't.

I have a NE410. When I connect the usb cable it says "PC-MD" on the display. After the first song is transfered from RealOne and it crashes, the display says track 001. I've tried doing one track at a time, but if I try to add any more tracks it just crashes immediately and doesn't work. It seems to crash while trying to do a TOC edit, because from what I understand this is what it does at the end of every track. I'm not running through any USB hub it's hooked directly to my PC. I don't have any problems using other USB devices. I'm running off a fully charged AA battery, I'm assuming this isn't a problem because I don't have a power supply. Since one wasn't included with my unit, this shouldn't be a requirement for netmd.

I finally decided to try some NetMD transfers with my NE-410. I have spent the past 3 hours trying to get less than one hour of music onto an MD. First I tried using the sonicstage software that came with my portable. Everything seemed to work fine until I started the transfer, then sonicstage just closed during the first track copy. I then installed the updates 1.5.5 and 1.5.5.3 which didn't help at all, just wasted a lot of my time in the installation process. I then tried RealOne which I was hoping would work, but it doesn't. It successfully gets one track on the MD, and then closes while trying to copy the second track. I have no idea whats wrong, needless to say this is very frustrating. Is there an updated NetMD driver I need? I am running WinXP with service pack 1, maybe there is a compatibility problem there. This seems to be more trouble than it's worth, I guess that's the general concept of NetMD it seems?

I finally found an MD player for my car that I find acceptable. However I can't find it anywhere for sale. It's a kenwood kmd-671r. I would also be interested in a kmd-673r which is the same except it is MDLP compatible. I've checked ebay for a while but still no luck. Maybe someone here knows a source?

It just so happens I'm moving towards the same setup. I am a live electronic act, and instead of bringing all my gear I'm going to do most of the backing tracks on MD. I have an MDM-X4 4 track which is one of the only minidisc players with midi. I haven't gotten to the midi functionality at this point, but it is possible to sync it with sequencers. There are also 2 assignable footswitches. I'm unsure what options are available, I'm sure at least play/stop. One unfortunate aspect is the lack of an "autopause" feature. For instance after each track if it would autopause until you hit play again it would make life a lot easier. an MDS-E10/E12 has this option but has no midi. You can hook upfootswitches to the MDS-E10/E12. The Sony MDS-DRE1 also has an autopause feature and footswitch. It can also assign songs to 8 pads that you can just hit and it will play the corresponding song. I have mine for sale on ebay now if your interested. I switched to the MDM-X4 because it has a built in mixer which is a nice convenience, and also for the MIDI.

I am interested in getting this unit, but can't seem to find out if it has a backlight for the display. None of the specifications I can find say that it's backlit, but I'm hoping it is because thats something I need. Anyone own one of these and can tell me? Also does the AA battery "bulge" out the back or is it square? Thanks

It's absurd to think the MD is obsolete or going out. This has been said constantly for the past 10 years MD has been in existence, and MD's presence only becomes stronger and stronger. MD is actually the simplest recording medium there is, one of its best features. You put in a disc and press record, there is no configuring or setup or software required. NetMD is another issue which is plagued with the typical complications when dealing with PC's. In critisizm of IPODS and similar devices, having 100's of hours of music in a device at one time isn't necessarily a good thing. I find it becomes harder to decide/weed through what to listen to and I end up not giving a lot of tracks a chance. However if I only have a few MD's with me I find my experience much better because I'm limited to my options. That might sound absurd but its true. This comes after living with a 200 disc CD changer in my home, and a computer MP3 player in my car with a 10gig drive, all of which I've gotten rid of. I prefer dealing with albums in a real physical disc I can hold, rather than navigating through a virtual realm such as an ipod interface in folders. I find my real life experience with my music a lot better this way.

I think i might have to go die-hard-core MD and just get a plain non-MDLP unit. I had my eye on a Becker Mexico Pro MD 4937, but I was discouraged because it wasnt MDLP and could only be used with a becker cd changer. But it looks so cool I think I'm just going to get it. It's flip-down face, but maybe if I'm luck it will auto-eject when I flip down. Thats my annoyance with it is you have to hit one button to open the face, and then another to eject which seems redundant.

Actually you can easily fit 2 lines of display and a slot for an MD on the face there is plenty of room. The key is to use smaller character height. I used to have a home-built mp3 player in my car which had a 4x40 display, and it was only 1-din sized and the text was still really easy to read. After using that going back to MD with only an 8 character total display is rather irritating. I'm aware nearly all modern car audio decks that have an "analog" style control are actually digital in nature. I still want a true analog volume control, maybe I'm the only one who sees this is better. Because you can adjust in the finest increments, as well as change the volume as fast as you want. All digital knob controls I've used only adjust so fast no matter how fast you turn the knob. And the volume increments aren't very fine, usually a maximum of 30. And finally having just a dot on the knob which shows the volume level is so much more elegant than having it display on some graphic on the screen that only shows when you are adjust it.

I want a IDE MD drive that you can write both data and audio to. In addition what may seem outrageous, but some way for the same drive to actually print labels onto a minidisc, particularly the small front label. Special minidiscs could be made that could be printed and erased on the front edge of the MD case. My biggest frustration is I have the label on the front edge always peel off, and they are hard to write on because they are so small. Also actually making labels from the computer can be a huge inconvenience. First you have to load the labels in your printer, then get it all lined up right, and getting the edge label on just right can be somewhat precarious. Its really only effecient if your doing a lot of minidiscs at a time, which is almost never the case for me. For printing I think 1 fixed font of at least 16 characters would suffice, just B&W. I'm sure this technology exists, maybe its too expensive but I think it would have a lot of alternative uses. It could default to print the title of the MD onto the edge of the disc, which would be the ultimate convenience.

Fabian, try melting-pot.com. they have a few japanese car MD players. Unfortunately there is no consolidated source that i've found listing all car MD models, besides minidisc.org.

The current choices for MD in the car are pretty sad, particularly cosmetically. I was excited to hear about the new Sony MDX-CA790X, but when I took a look I was sorely disappointed. It seems Sony has adopted a super cheap LED style display rather than dot matrix. I saw the unit only had 8 characters for the title, and aparently no place for the "group" title even though its MDLP. My dream machine for the modern MD user: 1. A line displaying the "group" (8+ characters) 2. Another line to display the title (10+ characters, dot matrix!) 3. ANALOG KNOB VOLUME CONTROL PLEASE!!! Its the most efficient. 4. no flip-down faceplate to insert MD. I want putting in a MD to be a one step convenient process. To me convenience is the whole appeal of MD. There is plenty of room on the face for the slot, after all they are MINI discs. 5. Simplfied classy appearance, all black with only 1 color of illumination, ideally selectable colors to match the car's. None of this "extreme cyber" look, makes me want to vomit. 6. Graphic EQ. Ideally the unit would have a large dot-matrix display that could be used for the graphic EQ when not displaying the titles. Also remove any "loudness" or other cheesy sound functions. I'm not holding my breath for all this, even though I don't believe I'm asking for anything extrordinary. In fact I think my desired features are rather conservative and obvious. Unfortunately it looks like sony has taken a more "portable" approach to car MD, including car kits with some of the newer portables. Thats something I will never do because its too much of a mess with all the cables and fumbling with the minature portable. I guess I'll keep dreaming for now, until someone who designs these in-dash decks gets some sense.

not many have variable speed without changing the pitch. The MDS-DRE1 has speed and pitch but no keyboard input. I hear the quality is bad when you change the speed on this unit, I don't know about the quality of other MD units with this feature. Another model is the MDS-E10/12 which I'm trying to get hold of, but its expensive. It has variable speed, PS2 input, and is 1U rackmountable. costs $467 new which is beyond my budget right now.

i meant mdlp not netmd.

I've search minidisc.org and my choices for a netmd car deck are pretty sad. I see that sony is coming out with some new portables that have car kits, but i dont like fiddling with that stuff while i'm driving i want a nice in dash minidisc player. The problem I have with most of the car decks is they are so ugly, as well as having poor displays. I would like a long digit display that showed the "group" on one line, and at the same time the track name on another with at least 12 characters. I find the Xplod models to be absolutely hideous. In addition they have a cheesy looking led readout with only 8 characters. I also hate how so many have the flip-down face to insert discs. This is so absurdly inconvenient. I currently have a cd player in my car like that and i hate it. my only real option i've found are japan models, and i don't relish the idea of not being able to get all my fm channels, as well as paying $1000+ for the units. I'm at a loss at what to get unless someone comes out with a new car mdlp player.