Rumz

Right. I don't have any trouble opening albums, my processor is quite a bit slower than yours (Athlon XP 2100+) and they open right up. Of course, I have not imported an extensive number of albums or music, just a handful to test it out. CDDB takes its time to find out what CD I just put in my drive is, but that's the same with other programs that use CDDB. saabye-- as far as the SP that it sends to MD, you can only send SP audio to normal MD discs. You cannot send SP to Hi-MD formatted discs (1gb or reformatted standard discs). I did test transfers of WAV files to NetMD in SP quality and what it did was convert to LP2 first... I don't know why Sony won't build in Atrac type R encoding into Sonic Stage 2. So high capacity discs won't work in your old units anyways... if you really want high quality use Hi-SP or PCM.

Negative. There are basically three classes of MD / Hi-MD units these days: -Recorders: these have a jack for inputs, usually a line in/optical in, sometimes a mic in as well. Sometimes they also have USB ports. All Hi-MD recorders should have USB ports, some older regular MD units do not. Hi-MD recorders include the NH1, NH900, NH800, NH700. -Downloaders: these don't have the ability to record on the unit itself (no audio inputs), but have a USB port for downloading music from a PC. Hi-MD downloaders include the NH600D and the NH3D (which will be released in Japan). -Players: These don't input of any time, not even USB. They only play back, no recording or downloading of music. Hi-MD player: EH1.

Actually according to MDFreak's findings (MDCenter.nl) I don't think you can record in regular SP, LP2, or LP4. Those are only available, AFAIK, through Sonic Stage when in NetMD mode. And SP will likely be the same story as with current NetMD units-- it's LP2 quality somehow badged as SP for playback on SP only players. So yes, it'll be compatible with your current head unit... but you'd have to settle for 132kbps quality sound. If you don't plan on making any discs that DON'T need to be compatible with the car head unit, then I'm not sure there's much benefit in getting Hi-MD, as the 1GB media is not backwards compatible with older players (your head unit), nor is Hi-MD formatted media (regular MD discs formatted to the Hi-MD format. Basically your only option is to record as a normal 74/80 min disc, which is the same as regular NetMD and non NetMD units). When recording on the main Hi-MD unit sans computer, the only modes available are Hi-SP, Hi-LP, and PCM (better than SP 292kbps). I guess all doubt will be removed in a few weeks, no? With regards to WMA, I do believe Sonic Stage will allow you to transcode to the Atrac formats available therein (Hi-SP, Hi-LP, Lp2, lp4, etc).

Yeah... also, another thing to consider is that there is a format war brewing. Not the media format as far as discs, hard drives, memory, CDs, etc. go, but a compression codec war. Mp3s are fairly ubiquitous, yes-- since anyone can make mp3s easily and for free However Apple is making a splash in the digital music market, pushing their AAC (mp4) codec. Meanwhile Sony appears to be gearing up to push its own Atrac3plus format. Once upon a time it was only a MD file format, but for the last couple years it's been available to use on Network walkmen and Sony CD mp3 players as well-- it's no longer just an MD thing. The reasons, I think, that MP3s are still around and will continue to be around are that a) like I said earlier, it's already ubiquitous, free, and easily accessible, and they are for now DRM free which makes sharing and pirating a breeze, which I felt was really the draw to MP3s in the first place before Mp3 players existed. Ah, I remember the old Napster days Back then I'd just burn CDs with mp3s or record them onto MD.

I haven't experienced any dropouts, but I also haven't pushed it to the 90 minute limit. I usually just record optical in from a pcdp to WAV in order to circumvent copy protection, which means usually only 60 minutes or so of recording. It's not to say that MDs are perfect at recording, but they certainly are less apt to have problems -- they are not as much like computers as MP3 players are. When all is said and done, since Hi-MD will probably do auto-track marking like it's predecessor MD, my iHP may not be doing any more wav recording...

Hmm... while some MD units are pretty thin, I'm guessing that most Hi-MD units (except the NH1) will be thicker than the iHP-120. The two units (Hi-MD and iHP) are just different shapes-- both fairly tiny and easy to pocket, IMO. The iHP is a bit longer than an MD, but it's also not as wide... and approximately the same thickness, again, unless you go with an N10 or NH1.

I've used both the iRiver and MD. I think you've stated your major con for the iRiver-- while it is small enough, will let you record uncompressed audio and simply drag and drop the audio files to your PC (as it acts as a data drive)-- one of the drawbacks for you might be price, you'd have to buy at least 20 gigs to get the mike preamp. Now, I have the iHP-100 which is 10 gigs and does NOT have a mic in/preamp, so I can't comment on the recording quality of the iRiver. Drawbacks of the iRiver for me-- recording in WAV is limited to a certain file size, I'd have to double check to see what the limitation is, but somewhere around 700-800 MB per recording, I think... maybe 80 - 90 minutes. Also, compared to MD the time it takes to save that one track and start on the next track is a bit long-- this may not be the case on other hard drive recorders, but none that I know of are as small as you will want. I'm told that if you record in MP3, though, there are no such limitations on how long a recording can be. 320kbps mp3s should be suitable to burn to CD. Another problem would be the battery life, but I'm sure you could get perhaps 3 or more hours of recording out of a single charge. With MD you'd at least have the option to have spare batteries on hand. Hi-MD will solve a couple of these issues-- for one, a Hi-MD unit will be fairly small and you can get one with a Mic input for quite a bit cheaper than an iRiver ($250 or so for the base Hi-MD model with a mic in). You can buy media as you need it, and it's kinda nice to have your recordings on disc. Hi-MD will let you digitally upload (as long as you're on a PC) so you're not stuck with realtime or quality loss. I also think MD has a proven track record in the portable recording market. The iRiver is definitely worth some consideration-- it will upload files faster and those files will be easier to edit. It remains to be seen how difficult it will be to edit Hi-MD recordings on a PC that are uploaded digitally, though it should be fairly simple to burn them onto an Audio CD. I guess I would recommend you wait until Hi-MD comes out to see how it performs and to have a few of our questions answered. To me, recording on MD feels more slick and natural, so I prefer to make recordings that way. It's hard to say what I'd do in your situation, because I'm already a little biased towards MD and find it a bit more simple and user friendly to record with. Both are good options, and in the end it might be a matter of how much you want to spend. If you have any questions about how either type of unit works, let me know... I'll do my best to answer your questions, having used both. And I apologize for the wordiness of my response

The only word we have thus far is that if Hi-MD does well in the portable arena, we'll likely see some decks follow. I guess time will tell... I'd like a Hi-MD deck as well, eventually.

kurisu-- no word yet from Sony USA as to whether the NH900 actually will have an HD digital amp? (not that it matters with the delay and all :wacky: )

I'm not 100% sure if recording in Cool Edit Pro2 will give you a perfect digital dub-- I guess it depends on if your soundcard introduces any white noise into the background (I suspect this is what happens when I record from my MD Deck's optical out to my PC's optical in via Cool Edit 2000). However, if you upload the recorded track via USB (no in realtime but as a data track -- omg file), then burn the omg file to CD, you should have a perfect digital copy of your recording. You could then, if you wanted, rip that CD to wav for further editing.

highlandsun-- which Hi-MD model are you looking to get?

Made a few more phone calls... this is what I was told: Onecall.com: according to their p.o. - they should recieve them approximately May 3rd. Datavis.com: available sometime in April. Minidisco.com: April or May but they heard it was delayed and don't expect it until May... they didn't indicate any official word from Sony so who knows how accurate that is. Meh. Seems like it's up in the air, I'll cross my fingers that etronics gets it in April. I guess my assumption all along has been that it would show up in the latter half of April, and May 3 isn't far from the end of April... I just hate waiting! hehe....

Yes, typo... the text actually says Sampling RAGE, rather than sampling RATE. At least, that's what I'd call a typo. Anyways, it's not really a "waiting list", per se, but you can go to etronics.com, do a quick search for the model number of the unit you're interested in, go to it's product page, and on the product page is a link that says "e-mail when available", after which you'll be prompted for an e-mail address so they can notify you when it's available. No prices on their site yet, so no pre-orders and no "line". If they were taking pre-orders, there might be a line :smile: As it is, it's just a first-come first-serve type of deal.

These questions have now been answered by the folks at MDCenter.nl. http://www.minidisc.org/himd_mdcenter_news.html Here's the basics, what I've gleaned from the write-up as well as my conversation with one of the MDCenter team (MDFreak): The units themselves can record the following in real time: To old MD media, not reformatted to Hi-MD: SP, SP Mono, LP2, LP4 (so yes, you can record on a non-Hi-MD formatted disc in either real time on the unit or by sending it LP2 / LP4 tracks in NetMD mode in Sonic Stage) To old MD media reformatted to Hi-MD format, as well as 1GB Hi-MD media: Linear PCM, Hi-SP, Hi-LP (no mono) (SP, Lp2, and Lp4 cannot be recorded in real time to Hi-MD formatted media. However, LP2, LP4, and psuedo SP (LP2 badged as SP) can be transferred to Hi-MD formatted discs). In short, new Hi-MD units can function such that the discs they produce are fully backwards compatible with older MDLP units.

Good idea. If a couple other dealers echo this information it would be more likely to be true, eh? I'll try etronics tomorrow-- I just called and their offices appear to be closed.

Ugh, hate to say it, but this is looking more and more to be true. I called buyriteelectronics to ask when the NH1 would be "back in stock" (since their site only said it was out of stock, heh), and the lady I spoke with informed me that it hadn't be released yet, said she'd see if she could find a release date, put me on hold, then came back to tell me that Sony had pushed release back to May.

My bet is that the best deals will be had online anyways. Even if you *don't* intend to buy online, go ahead and visit an e-tailer that has Hi-MD units listed, and sign up to be notified when the unit becomes available. At least then, if you don't buy online, you'd know when to check your local retailer. I'm currently signed up with etronics.com to have them notify me when the NH1 and NH900 become available. Hope it's not too long! (Yes, I can't wait.)

Do we know if the color schemes for these units will be identical in Europe and North America? I remember there was, what was it, a silver and blue N707 that was a Euro unit but not sold in stores in the US? Or am I mistaken?

No problem, kurisu. Are you the one responsible for the changes in the site's design/color-scheme? You or whoever did it deserves some praise-- much nicer atmosphere The old color scheme was so cold and generic. This is much friendlier. Back on topic, I agree about the circus. While there are some things I'm fairly certain about (probably partly because I want them to be true, heh), it's anybody's guess until we actually get these things in our hands, huh? I do hope the specs on the NH3D are wrong as far as dimensions go. If I'm going to buy a 'downloader', I want it to be thinner than the thinnest full-featured recorder!

I would hardly call the E10 a "normal" sized player. The E10 was a special edition player engineered to be the smallest and lightest, but at a cost, I think. Still, my Sharp DS8 is 12mm thick, so I understand where you're coming from-- I would say that it's a fair standard for how thin MDPs should be. Give Hi-MD some time to mature-- 13.5mm isn't bad for a first generation. We'll have to see what Sharp and Panasonic can do, and then see what Sony has to offer a year from now. On a related note... I just noticed that the NH3D is a fraction THICKER than the NH1. What gives? Do we not have accurate specs yet or is there a reason why this downloader is thicker than a full featured MDR?

One of these days I'll try out an iPod so I can more objectively comment on this debate. For now, I do have an HDD player and yes, even though it typically gets 14 hours or so of battery life, that's still a gripe of mine that it uses a Li-ion battery that must be charged (love using AAs with MD). 20-40gigs is dandy for those of you that would not fill it up-- but myself, I would find running out of space on an HDD player more inconvenient than having to haul around a "box" of MDs (meh, how about an MD wallet?) and yes I would run out of space on an HDD unit. The sound quality debate-- whoever threw FLAC and WAV into the debate, well seeing as we're talking about Hi-MD and not regular MD... Here's my 2 cents. Battery life is going to be even worse if you're playing wav files on your HDD player because it's going to be reading from the hard drive more often. This also puts more wear and tear onto the HDD-- but in general I think we have yet to learn just how detrimental listening to wavs on an HDD player would be. I'm not sure what the point is anyways... surely there's a codec that you can use at a high enough bit rate that sounds "good enough" for portable use, no? In any case, if you must have lossless, Sony does let us have Linear PCM now-- I'll be interested to try an Auvi 1-bit digital amp + Linear PCM Also, it's true-- the iPod easily has a more powerful amp than any MD unit I've ever seen. MD may be loud enough for many but the power of the amp doesn't necessarily equate to volume as I've noticed it also equates to the quality of sound reproduction. I'm tempted to say I'd still take an 8mW auvi amp over the 30mW iPod amp, but that's just because I usually like some EQ and also haven't had a chance to try the iPod yet. Bottom line is what others have said-- both players have their merits and it really depends on your own style/preferences. I'm leaning towards Hi-MD, though, for it's versatility and for Atrac3plus encoding at 256kbps-- better than mp3 and aac, I would wager...

The copy of SS 2.0 I'm using now does NOT have unlimited checkouts-- it still tracks how many times it's been played, checked out, etc. It also tells me I have 3 checkouts (not sure if checkout is the exact wording but same thing) remaining on an OMG track. The help file indicates there'll be cd burning for VIAO computers so I would think you'd still be able to if you were before, unless you need a special copy that comes bundled with your VAIO. Otherwise CD burning does not seem to be included with SS 2.0 for non-VAIO computers. Granted, this *might* change with the introduction of Connect. Maybe not, though... Sony will want us to buy their network walkman, Hi-MD, or Atrac3+ cd player in order to take our Connect purchases on the go... lame.

Well, if it makes any difference, in using SonicStage 2 thus far I've noticed that when you go to convert a file, one of the options is "Wav" (PCM). not that that means it'll allow checkouts per-se, but it's not impossible I guess.

I suppose if you had an MD unit with a wireless remote or headphones that you could do one, that way it could be completely sealed... how much the case would interfere with the signal to the wireless remote I have no idea. Yeah, what is the point of the waterproof case? You'd have to have some waterproof headphones too I'd think...

Still, it's funny how we're so in the habit of browsing the t-board and discussing that we're signing up here to tide us over while the t-board is down... Dang I hope there's no serious loss.