WaywardTraveller

Please, oh PLEASE someone tell me where I might be able to get my hands on the FR-N9 in Canada...or somewhere I can order it from??? peace WaywardTraveller

http://www.minidisco.com/home-pro-car-home-car-md.html Anyone buy one of these? One I finish travelling I'm DEFINITELY thinking of scooping one, but was wondering if anyone already has one who can offer comments/opinions? peace WaywardTraveller

To be quite honest, this entire discussion thread has been recurrent since, oh, what - the 1990s? I don't know much about the market dynamics of (Hi-)MD...everyone knows that Sony could have done a LOT more to market it - i.e. make some COOL commercials, and hey - what would have happened if we saw people using minidiscs in movies or something? But I think MD is destined to be at least a niche market. Before everyone starts naysaying and foretelling doom, keep in mind that (ok, well, as far as I know) MD is HUGE in Japan and fairly well-established in Asia in general. There are still LOTS of units out there, thus a market certainly for media and (perhaps downsized?) new generations of units. I've so far "converted" a couple of people to the format...my bro's gf bought a cheap NH600 and I got my audiophile friend to buy an RH910...both are perfectly happy Yes, living in Toronto I've found it difficult to find a lot of Hi-MD stuff (they sell the castrato version of the NH600 here - namely the 600D) - but this must be said - the Sony Store staff in Toronto are IDIOTS. First they tell me that I can order ANY Sony product whatsoever and have it delivered to ANY Sony Store in Toronto for pick-up; THEN when I take them up on this offer to try and get a battery charger one guy hands me a card for this "authorized Sony accesories dealer" in Toronto that is perfectly useless! Some of them don't even know what MDs are - they ask me if I'm REALLY looking for mini-DVD discs! They're probably all right if you wanna buy a plasma-screen TV or something, but apart from the mainstream stuff I could get more intelligent advice from FutureShop... Dear Sony - it wouldn't take much at ALL to market MDs if we focus on the clear advantages over MP3 players. Make the right commercial and there'll be a distinct upswing!! Hell, why not directly attack iPod by making a commercial with a direct comparison between one person with Hi-MD and one person with iPod, ending with the iPod person's unit getting pickpocketed? peace WaywardTraveller

Hello, After trying out the new ATRAC3plus bitrates, calculating for my own use the amount of music that will fit on different length MDs with these compression rates, I thought these figures might be of use to those of us who are tinkering with the balance between quality/disc space. the figures below I produced by: 1. Taking the amount, in MB, for an 80min disc for each compression rate as per SS (using the Import CD dialog box) 2. dividing the MB by the no. of min to get a base figure of MB/min. of recording time 3. dividing the disc space in MB by the base unit to get a rough figure of the total recording time in min. 4. hacking a couple of minutes off to err on the side of caution Based on my experiences with close shaves vis-a-vis recording space, I think it might even be better to cut a couple more minutes off to make sure you can plan accordingly. Anyways, my figures are below; I majored in lit. and not math, so corrections are welcome! ATRAC3plus 352kbps: ------------------------- 1GB: 6hrs. 22min 80min: 1hr. 52min 74min: 1hr. 45min ATRAC3plus 192kbps: ------------------------ 1GB: 11hrs. 40min. 80min: 3hrs. 30min. 74min: 3hrs. 13min. Hope this helps someone. peace WaywardTraveller

Sorry for asking this as I think someone else has raised this question already - but after 16 pages of posts my mind begins to glaze I have just updated to SS3.4, and first of all, a big THANK YOU to Sony for continuing to show us (albeit a bit slowly!) how much potential Hi-MD really has. Never owned an MP3 player or iPod and never will, now. BUT...I have found that .OMA files I've recorded previously with SS3.3 are now useless - I can't play them because SS3.4 returns "Cannot play back this track. Do you want to connect to the Internet and download the license for the track?" (and these were files of music that I already own!). Even if I click Yes it fails with "Cannot load the rights information for the selected tracks. The file format might not be supported by SonicStage (0000010d)". So now, unless I want to root through box after box of CDs, I have more or less lost some music grumble grumble peace WaywardTraveller

Well, I finally decided to bite the proverbial bullet and purchase the BC-7HT from minidiscaccess.com - two, in fact, to make sure I have a reliable backup charger that can be sent to me in a worst-case scenario. While I'm on the topic, I bought them from http://www.minidiscaccess.com and found the service to be quite friendly and reliable - they even saved me some $$ on postage. And to answer someone else's question re: the internal charger - the only reason I don't use it is for portability's sake - sionce I'm travelling, it's much better to carry a handheld worldwide-voltage charger than a cord and AC adaptor that won't necessarily work in all countries. peace WaywardTraveller

Neither of the BC-7DC2s I got lit up when plugged in...I didn't have the time to waste seeing if they'd charge, but I took it as an ill omen. MDC later got back to me on this and told me it appears they got a defective batch, and that they'd refund my money. Stay tuned for my upcoming thread...where oh where can I find a worldwide voltage gumstick charger in Toronto? peace WaywardTraveller

Ahh, yes...JB Hi-Fi...they must have loved me, since I was the guy who would go in and buy 20 Hi-MDs at a time! peace WaywardTraveller

I second metal's comments. I tried bargaining this guy down, but he seemed to know that his was the best price in Hong Kong (which, as far as I could tell, it was). All I can remember is that the photo shop in question on Hankow Rd. was selling a silver Rh910 for roughly $250CAD, which is about the same as you'd get it here. It was definitely the best price I saw for it in Hong Kong (I saw RH-10s for pretty expensive prices at some of the more prominent electronics chain stores). peace WaywardTraveller

Ok, I'm a bit confused. If by moving .OMA files you mean the files created by SS when you convert, say, MP3s or WAVs, then they are normal computer files and you can copy them anywhere you want. A directory of .OMA files will import into SS's database simple as pie! That's the only place I've ever seen .OMA files per se - on computer. peace WaywardTraveller

There was a photo store (Eden? it had a white and green sign perhaps) on Hankow Rd. in Kowloon which had a silver RH910 for a very, very good price - roughly what you'd get it for in Canada at Minidisc-Canada. I'd have got it, but I was worried about getting slammed for duty fees or something. All I can tell you is that said photo shop is on the east side of the road. Good luck! peace WaywardTraveller

I still say the best price is in Australia, where they're AUD4.25 from minidisc-australia.com Barring that, here at a Canadian FutureChop or BestLie they're about CAD10-11...Minidisc Canada seems to have the best prices, although has anyone in Toronto checked at Pacific Mall? peace WaywardTraveller

Contrary to what several people have said, I don't mind SS at all...my only major gripe with its functionality is that database changes seem to be real, real slooowwwww sometimes (although my running Win98 and/or not compressing/optimizing the DB might have something to do with it). Dex has referred to the gapless issue before, but I've noticed that the only way I can ensure a gapless album recording to MD is by using SB...it's very iffy with SS, and I read somewhere in these Forums that it depends on the sizes of the files and whether or not the song is saved on an even number of sectors...or something? Uhh, don't quote me on that last part.. But thanks to everyone in this thread for the useful info...didn't occur to me that SS might rip slightly higher-quality recordings than SB. peace WaywardTraveller

The title says it all. I ordered the BC-7DC2 dual-gumstick battery charger from minidisc-canada.com...twice. The first time I got a beat-up unit with scratches all over the outside and connectors in the charge slots so bent out of shape one pair didn't even make full contact with the battery! The plug was loose and flimsy, the lid came off with the slightest sideways pressure, and - needless to say - it didn't work. The charge lamps never came on, no matter what I tried. I sent it back and the kind people at MDC sent me another one - a new model this time, but it still just plain don't work... I've tried batteries in one/the other/both slots in various working wall outlets, but nothing works. I miss my old BC-7HT! Has anyone else had this problem with the 7DC2? peace WaywardTraveller

Oops...sorry for the delay, but here are some pics of the HD212pro 'phones (click for full-size): This is a shot (somewhat out-of-focus..sorry) of the HD212 can area. At first I thought they'd be a bit small for the ears, but when you put them on they're quite comfy: [attachmentid=1297] A basic shot of the HD212s, with my hand to show scale. They're quite lightweight! [attachmentid=1296] The HD212s also have a pretty long cord, but with a twist tie or something you can bundle up the excess and carry it in your pocket. As you might be able to see from this pic, the connector is silver, not gold (for those of you who care): [attachmentid=1298] peace WaywardTraveller

Ahhh! A fellow tape user! Only I was forced to do it for my RH10 after I dropped it once and broke off one teeny weeny piece of plastic on the inside of the battery slot! So now my door won't close all the way; still works, only I need a piece of ugly masking tape on the same spot where yours is to keep it completely closed. peace WaywardTraveller

Err, umm, never mind. I Googled my error and found that the DLL in question belongs to the Xing MP3 Encoder/Decoder. I uninstalled it (making sure the DLL was deleted) and everything seems to work fine! Object lesson: sometimes Googling your problem can lead to the quickest solution! peace WaywardTraveller

Hello, Happy New Year to all of you Unfortunately, I'm now having a problem wtih SS3.3. The last project I did was to rip a 15-volume music set on to MD at 352kbps. Since I'm on Win98SE (yeah, yeah...no use in updating when you're on the road!) there were a few crashes, but more or less everything went off without major hitches. Now, though, when I try to import MP3s and convert/transfer them at once, I don't get a nice polite error; I get an illegal-operation shutdown window with: "OMGJBOX caused an invalid page fault in module ASMAUDDECFF.DLL at 01e7:0f938bc7" (I can provide all the information if anyone wants). So what did I do? I uninstalled and re-installed SS3.3, deleting the OpenMG modules through Add/Remove Programs. What now? Re-installed over the web...same error. If I convert my MP3s to .WAV files and then convert+transfer the WAVs, everything seems to work fine; it's just that I can't seem to deal with converting MP3s (although I can still PLAY them in SS3.3!). I am sure I was able to convert MP3s on-the-fly before, but am unsure what I did to render this unstable. In the hopes that someone can/wants to help me with this, I am giving as much info. as I can below: OS: Win98 SE, Athlon 900mhz, 512MB RAM, USB 1.1; outdated version of Norton Anti-Virus is ALWAYS disabled when running SS (did I mention I've been gone from home for 2+years? ) I've used SS3.3 interchangeably with my RH-10 as well as an NH900 and NH800 without previous difficulties. Hell, I even plugged in my Sharp IM-MT880 NetMD, which only made it look for and install a new driver, but this was before the NH900 and NH800 and had no apparent difficulties. Right now I only hook up Hi-MD units. If anyone can shed light on this so that I don't have to batch-convert my MP3s using CoolEdit, I would greatly appreciate it! peace WaywardTraveller

So I thought I'd share this recent surreal episode I had with my RH10. Just tonight I wanted to check out some 352kbps archival recordings I made. Dug out the RH10, took out the old album (a NetMD NoMeansNo collection) and put in the Hi-MD (a Music Of Islam album). Now check this out...I press play, and what do I see on the RH10 display screen? ALL the data for the NoMeansNo song I was last listening to! Now, this is weird...but it was far, far weirder that the NoMeansNo song was playing through the headphones, even though the Music Of Islam disc was in the unit!!!!!. I pressed stop and took out the MoI disc. Looked out the window to check for flying pigs, pinched, then punched myself to make sure I was awake. Yep. Went back, put in the MoI disc once again, and now everything is playing just fine and has been ever since. Now, my theory is this: since I dropped it a little while back a small piece of plastic inside the battery slot has broken off. Everything still works perfectly, except that I need a little piece of tape across the latch to make sure the battery connectors stay in place. Perhaps the NetMD was still buffered somehow in the unit, and maybe some power blip or lapse in connection caused the unit to just play the buffer instead of reading the new disc? Maybe the fact that the first disc was NetMD and the other was Hi-MD had something to do with it? Since all is well now I'm not concerned...just wondering if anyone else had had such strange experiences? peace WaywardTraveller

I think it's great for all the situations where you want to record and can't get to a computer. As someone with quite a bit of limited-edition and hard-to-find punk vinyl, I can just plug my record player into a preamp and the optical out directly into my Hi-MD to archive them...no need to mess about with .WAV files and the time it takes to clip them, sort them, etc. etc.... peace WaywardTraveller

Yeah, I was wondering about that...would it kill Sony to include even a single piece of paper with some of these basic functions explained? It would, after all, help us get more out of their products... peace WaywardTraveller

So after a bit of a revelation with the MC40ELK, I thought I'd post an independent topic for those of us who want to know how to change EQ settings without having to dig in one's pocket, waist pouch, etc. for the main unit. I am hoping this is more or less the same for all users of these remotes; but just in case, I am using my RM-MC40ELK with a Hi-MD MZ-RH10, and my RM-MC38L remote is connected to my MZ-NH900. Thanks to bland10000 for pointing me in the right direction in the first place! MC40ELK: to change your Custom EQ settings, hold down the Sound button for a few seconds; you will enter a menu of your Sound settings (you can scroll through all available sound modes with the jog dial). Select Custom1 or Custom2 and push the jog dial. You can then change any of the bands (selected one blinks) by rolling the jog dial up and down and using the FF/RW button to move between them. Push the jog dial in again to save your changes. In case you hadn't already figured it out, you can only change your Custom settings and not any of the preset modes... RM-MC38L: Hold down the Sound button for a few seconds; you'll enter the same menu of all your sound modes. Use the FF/RW dial to scroll between modes; the display will alternate between the mode name (i/e/ Heavy, Pops, etc) and the EQ settings for that mode. Again, you can't change the presets but when you get to C1/C2 (Custom), push in the FF/RW dial to edit the bands. Use the Volume knob to increase/decrease values, and use the FF/RW dial to move between bands. Push the FF/RW dial to save your values. Edit: After swapping remotes with units, the remotes seem to work in exactly the same way regardless of Hi-MD unit. Anyways, sorry if someone has already pointed this out; hope this helps someone out there. peace WaywardTraveller

SWEET! This does indeed bring up the EQ; using the jog dial, you can then select from any of the Sound settings! To those of you who own the 40ELK and didn't know this (like me): to change your Custom EQ settings, select Custom1 or Custom2 and push the jog dial. You can then change any of the bands (selected one blinks) by rolling the jog dial up and down and using the FF/RW button to move between them. Push the jog dial in again to save your changes. If only being wrong was always this rewarding! peace WaywardTraveller

Do the 2nd-gen Hi-MDs support VBR MP3 playback? I'm sure it's been discussed elsewhere, but since I usually rip straight from my CDs or convert my MP3s (yes, that's right....to me ATRAC/3+ sounds better ) I don't usually listen to MP3s on my RH-10. I know the bitrate issue has been discussed a hundred times and will be discussed a hundred more...but to me there's a world of difference between 48kbps and PCM. Now that I have good 'phones, I can even hear the difference between 132 and 256, although I use both a lot depending on the artist and how much I wanna fit on one MD. I find, though, that the best way to distinguish between the two is to make a mic recording - songs don't always make good benchmarks. Although you can't mic-record in 48, you can with 66...and it's good for voice/spoken-word recordings such as meetings and lectures, but when I tried out my mics in a coffee shop all the background noise was "smeared" (i.e. blurry-sounding) while the voices came out fine. With PCM and 256kbps, everything is much more in-your face; for me, stereo separation is also much more robust with the higher bitrates (lower bitrates make everything sound like it's canned/boxed lol). peace WaywardTraveller

Gumstick batteries are kinda pricey...but 3rd-party ones aren't so bad. 1GB disks are overpriced in Canada...so get 'em from Aus at 4.25AUD a pop Phased out? How many years have they been saying this? MZ, I'd like more info. if you have it. You mean the build quality has gotten complaints? Having owned the BC-7HT myself, I have nothing but good things to say about it - get a universal plug adaptor to go with it and you're happenin'! It's never failed me at all - the only gripe I have is that Minidisc Canada doesn't have it...so I was gonna try the BC-7DC2, since I can then charge two at once. peace. WaywardTraveller