clonmult

I'd almost recommend any - I've done plenty of running with my MZ-N510. Battery life is fantastic, totally joggable, remote is handy (always on top of the tee-shirt). I've heard mention of a "fits all" arm strap being available, although haven't bothered looking. I tend to record in LP4 - sound quality isn't that important where I tend to use it (in the car and running).

I had a friend check with contacts at sony a little while back about Sony staff discounts for MD decks; not much of a discount as it turned out. They did confirm that new decks were "coming soon". Which was pretty irritating, still went for a 510, does all I want, the price was right. One possible bonus - prices of N10/910, etc may come down soon. Then again, plenty of places here in the UK are still overcharging for the 505 and 707s.

1. Nope - OpenMG/Sonicstage only support LP2/4 - Atrac 3. 2. See point 1, no Atrac1 encoding possible. Unless you do real time PC audio out to MD audio in. The best way around the check in/out is the Imagedrive/Simpleburner trick. Search the forum. And the sound quality - if you take a 128kbps MP3, and convert it to Atrac (264 kbps), you will NOT improve the sound quality. May as well go to a 132kbps Atrac3 file. Depends on the bitrate of the MP3s you are working with - try LP2/4, play them back, see what you like the sound of. Heck, if I were to put my MD through my home audio (Stax electrostatic headphones), I'd reckon that SP would be the only acceptable form. But, as most of my stuff is played in the car (noisy) or whilst running (too busy wheezing away), the sound quality isn't *that* important.

I think it says in the N510 manual about the limit - its something ridiculous like 2k. I hit the limit, so had to abbreviate track titles and artists names something chronic.

Is that via home or work internet connections?

LP4 is joint stereo, in EXACTLY the same way as MP3 encodes it. On most regular pop music, you can't tell the difference between "true" stereo and joint stereo. I'll try and put my Ali Demeola guitar stuff onto Lp4. I doubt it'll cope.

In the UK - shop around. Don't pay anything more than 100 notes for the N510.

SCMS won't get in the way of a d/a convertor. All that SCMS will do is stop a target deck (if that target is SCMS enabled) from recording via a digital source. If you take a SCMS source, put the digital output through (any) D to A convertor, you'll just get a regular analogue output. The digital output is a regular 44.1 (or 32 or 48) kHz 16 bit PCM encoded digital audio signal, with SCMS code in it. Maybe you need to check out the D/A convertors, and see what they do with the (2?) SCMS bits.

You should have checked out the specs before hand - nowhere on Sonys documentation does it say that it allows upload of audio from MD to the PC. Caveat Emptor, that sort of thing. Yes, it would be nice for MD to directly accept MP3s, but Sony have invested a huge amount of time and effort into Atrac development, which is what MD has ALWAYS been based on (Atrac is older than MP3, at least at the consumer level). MDs are about 150-160 meg per disc. MD is generally a more flexible and portable solution than any HD based player, but it depends on what you are wanting.

There are quite a few pics of the 510 around with "Type R" on the front - they must have been pre/early production models.

I've had the same problem; the UIlib install doesn't make any difference.

I can't agree with that comparison - I've always found LP2 to be better than 128 kbps MP3, regardless of the codec. Then again, I've been to plenty of hi-fi shows and gotten into arguments with people over the merits of various systems. I personally prefer Atrac3 to MP3 - its been in active use for a good bit longer, and its really matured into a good codec, especially with type S. Anyhew, in answer to your question, nope, no such options with Atrac.

Atrac is a very mature codec, more so than MP3. The problem you are having don't sound like they're down to problems with Atrac though - its more likely to be the 410s settings (bass/treble), combined with headphones. My 510s headphones are okay, but if I put my old Aiwa HP-V99s on it, it sounds hugely better. I hate to say it, but you maybe would have been better off spending a little more and getting hold of a 510 or 710 - maybe type S is much better sounding than type R decoding.

I do like the 510 D-pad; and seriously disliked that on the 710. But you're right, using the remote kinda nullifies any such preferences.

The UK MZ-N510 is supplied with a 700 mAh NiMh battery. Search around and you can get 2000+ mAh batteries, which will give a hugely better battery life.

So Sony cables are non-standard? Wierd - my Samsung digital camera appears on the PC (which implies that something is working) with the Sony cable, but it won't transfer. Just tried it with my cheapy webcam, with the Sony cable. Its okay. Darned strange. Ignore my previous comments then. Maybe its something with the Samsung camera then? Do you only buy sony kit? I wish Sony would do a digital camera with a MD drive in, instead of the stupid Mavica-CD unit (too bulky, and 3" CD-Rs are too expensive).

Wondering if there are any restrictions on the number of groups on a disc - I'm putting together some stuff on a disc, day by day, adding groups. Not many on it so far, but wondering if I'll hit any problems with group counts.

The physical connections are the same on a standard USB cable and a Net MD cable, for sure. But try using the Sony Net MD cable with a digital camera - it won't work. Try it the other way round, a standard USB cable with a Net MD player, that won't work either. At least, it doesn't work with my Net MD and digital cameras. Which is probably why Sony say that Net MD may not work with USB hubs. Sony have frigged around with the pinouts on USB.

Ditto with what mAjEsTiC said - MD plays continuously. The Mansun album Attack of the Grey Lantern plays straight through on the original CD, and the MD copy plays exactly the same.

I'm transfering stuff using Nero Imagedrive and Simpleburner, and our admins won't open any ports for anyone no matter what. I'm definitely a happy bunny with the player though - its rocks.

Note that the Sony Minidisc players (or at least my 510) DO NOT use standard USB cables. Sony have messed about with the cable connections, effectively converting a standard spec item into a bespoke one, which is a pain in the back end - I've always got to keep 3 different USB cables with me now (standard USB, mini USB and the MD usb cable).

My archaic PII300 laptop transfers via simpleburner at the hugely fast 4x rate.

My favourites were normally TDK SA Chrome tapes w/o any noise reduction, fantastic sound. Problem with adjusting the bias on the WM-D6C was that it had to be done with screwdrivers, with the back off .....

The Maxell is one of the Metal Vertex tapes - Black case, gold effects on it, looks awesome, sounds fantastic. The Sony tape is one of their first "Metal Master" tapes, which is similarly awesome on sound, and was much easier to setup for the Pro-Walkman. Catch is that its a white ceramic composite shell, and it shows up dirt/dust too easy .... and it has been too heavy (!!!) for use in some car stereos I've had (they couldn't eject it!).

I have to admit to seriously disliking MD and DCC when I first heard them years back, although that was comparing two new technologies to absolute top-of-the-range CD and vinyl playback on top-end amps and speakers, so it was a bit unfair .... But now, I've found that MD has evolved into a seriously well put together media and codec. LP2 can sound quite good, and LP4 is easily more than suitable for use whilst running/cycling/in the car. Its definitely come of age, and I sure hope that Sonys next range of portables can push the product further.