PaulBennett

Thank you Kuri. Here we are several years later and I again have the same problem, not having used my R900 in the last year. (Been using my Digisette) Having the knows question / answer still in the database is greatly appreciated.

I can't remember how I was recording mp3's from my computer to the pcLink to the R900. The R900 works fine. The pclink optical cable emits red light when the MSMedia Player starts. XP recognizes the USB - MD device as working properly. New or old disks, >Record > light blinks but MD says "No Signal" Please cure my 'senior moment'. Do I need the Sonic whatsis program? I recently removed it for space reasons... If it is necessary where is the link to download it? Foolish me quit using my MD player waiting for the HD-minidisk to become available but they are still impossible to get around here because of demand. Then my gumsticks went bad. If it isn't one thing it's another but I refuse to get an xPOD. Thank you

Door in my R900 won't stay closed, so I use duct-tape. Lost a battery this way so I bought some metal hydride spares. My Sony CD Player also used gumsticks (2). I carry spares on trips and need to charge them beforehand. Anyone have experience with the gumstick chargers on eBay which are advertised as NiCad chargers? Cuz my sticks are NiMH I'm concerned about the charge rate. The sellers are in Hong Kong. I've bought from them before... the sellers are OK but their English is about as good as my Cantonese on technical issues. Anyone have experience fixing the battery door which won't stay shut? ?? Big Q is regarding charging NiMH in NiCad charger. ??

Three times now I have taken my MD to live events. Using Sony R-900 and Sony lapel mic and shirt with pocket. Three times now the MD has partial recording of something. It works well at my desk but somehow placing the MD in my shirt pocket something wrong gets pressed, and earlier tracks get erased or overwritten. What settings to you use: Record from End. ?? Then how do you prevent accidently starting and stopping the MD for the next 10-20 minutes? Lock doesn't seem to prevent this, only the last recording. Maybe. Donno. Shirt pocket? Is there a neck-strap pouch which works best? For reliability, I have resorted to using my digital camcorder which works flawlessly where allowed, but I got the MD for it's size convenience. Perhaps I'm just meant for big buttons and displays which don't need glasses to read.

Obtain a mixer such as the Behringer 602 or 802. This will allow you to adjust your various inputs for balance and also provide the proper level to your line input. These units are $50 - $100 used. You need the mixer anyway, why not solve your problem with it.

Oh contraire. A properly designed plug-in mic isolates the recorder noise. I and many other have applications where a mic cord is NOT an option. I am seeking input from others who have used a mic without incurring the noise. The mfgr/model and even it there is a difference between md models. The task is making the application which Sony touts, work, NOT revising the application.

I don't have a mental picture of the mic or operation you just performed. But it is more likely that in your soldering process, something got overheated as opposed to the replacement wire having different properties than the original. Perhaps internal plastic became distorted.

With the mic plugged directly into the MD and set on low sensitivity, level Auto or Manual and recording live music, the MD's internal disk noise gets recorded at an annoying level! Sounds like a wheat combine. Normal or not?

Just bought a Sony ECM-DS70P microphone for my R900. With the mic plugged into the MD and set on low sensitivity, level on Auto and recording live music, the MD's internal motor/disk noise gets recorded at an annoying level! I've proven the noise source by switching over to the the supplied extention cable and placing the mic in close to the same position near the MD. The noise then goes away completely, so I know it is being transmitted physically through the plug support. Is this problem normal with the plugin microphones? I know many concert goers use microphones on cables but I wish to have a compact cordless system. I don't want to trash the concept if it is only a bad mic. And if I have to live with a cable system, I'd prefer a better microphone with is available for $10 more.

Pocketless T-shirts are my thing. I have many ear pieces but none have cables long enough to reach my pants pockets where I place my minidisk. And long cables just get in the way. The arm band which Sony furnishes is worthless. What have you found to hold the minidisk (or CD-Walkman for that matter) with strap around the neck and having a pouch or ?? Ideally would be blue-tooth wireless...place minidisk in pants pocket and ear piece in ear...no wires. But thats not out yet. ???How do you handle this situation???

I tried using Mozilla for almost a year but it presented lots of problems where web designers have used advanced features and optimized pages to IE. I soon started switching back and forth but keeping the 'favorites' updated was a real hassle as well as the damn fight between them as to which is the primary browser. Then I went to using 2 pc's (I already have 2 monitors) with a keyboard/video/mouse switch. There just is not one best way. Thanks for the suggestion though. The real solution lies in the (forum) software writers awareness. By using the H1 H2 etc, rather than specifying a font size, things work great. Many forums and web pages do this but strangely Microsoft Front Page does not follow Microsoft guidelines in this regard. Such is life. But do this, measure the screen area, then measure the area set aside for communicating the message, and calculate the pctg. As I sit here, I have 260 sq inches of display area and 25 sq inches of text box to work/read. That's why I love dos and I used qemm for multitasking and multiple program display. I'm a nut about enhancing communication, not glitz. And this is all fleeting anyway. Ten years from now half of us won't have pc's. Internet communication will all be built into your satelite cell phone which is part of your wrist watch with a probe into the nerves of your wrist. Seems other half or us will be living in caves as leaders are taking to doing, or perhaps avoiding the advancing glaciers and the greys from Pluto or just to avoid the taxes.

What is your favorite sandwich? Your mom says you got that wrong, redeem yourself...have the HiMD's hit the tables in Shinjuku yet?

When the board is barely readable now you make changes to elliminate forum readers with older eyes. Some forums go out of their way to use software which follows the MSWindows mandate of enabling View>TextSize>Larger because they know not everyone has youthful 20/20 vision. Not an insignificant number of us must use a magnifying glass, 19" monitors and 600x800 resolution and squint. My world changed after losing my good retina leaving a damaged one. I've been on (arpa) internet since 1978 when there was only one font...yet only in the last two years a crop of youngsters suddenly insist on doing the 'Bible on a pinhead' thing for each webpage. Since the ink is free and the tools are bountiful, why not focus on enhancing communication rather than adding barriers. Thank God (big G for the big Guy) that the trend of black backgrounds has reversed. Try reading dark blue font on black regardless of size. Just hope that war stays won. If you've read this far, the is rant over...turn the music back up. Traveling to Japan regularly, I used to get my Sony product info at the Sony building on the Ginza in Tokyo where a dedicated group would gather with their favorite vinyls on the 3rd floor where Sony's latest was on working display. Anyone else BTDT? Incidently, there was an area of Tokyo called Sonyville with combined living/work buildings where Americans/Aussies worked at less than minimum wage (foreigners were exempted from Japan's min wage) doing translations for Sony's instruction manuals because Sony wanted manuals which were correct technically and grammatically. Now American companies contract foreigners to write instruction manuals in broken English. Duh Does anything ever improve? You think I'm done? Well my doctor does...to be continued later in next life.

Boy am I releived you aren't driving with a blind fold !! Minidisks are actually much easier to insert than CD's or casettes. Assuming use of the right hand, place middle finger at rear, in the hub. Rotate the case until the write-protect is felt (located) in the upper right corner. Holding the MD with thumb and pinkie, push/slide the minidisk into the MD and snap the case shut. Blindfolded! I rarely need accomplish that olympian feat while driving since I get my act together while the car is stopped. And given the MD holds such great length of music I can make several trips before the need to change disks. CD's go in upside down and you need to peek at them...cassette radios are oriented different...if you have 3 cars, they will all be different, so positioning the casette doesn't help to know how to insert it. Minidisks are the easiest of all! But I would like a voice readout of song name. Huh Sony? Huh? And if you have trouble answering the cell phone while sipping your mocha and suddently have the urge to change disks, I hope you have Geico, you'll need it.

What are you trying to say? Three years ago when I paid $300 for my R900, the US dealer was charging $8 for minidisks. Down the street I was able to get minidisks for $50 for a box of 10. That's U$5 each for the math impaired. Some time back, I lived in Rio Janiero and experienced 100% duties on everything not made in Brazil. Cassettes aren't about to dissappear. A high percentage of new cars in the US still come with cassette-radios. Not all but man. My son-in-law just paid U$25k for VW, the CD-radio upgrade was U$500 which he didn't get so he uses an RF modulator to place his walkman onto FM. Cassettes are a Phillips thing and they aren't ready to give up yet the pennies they still get on the various patents. Before that happens, DVD's and hiCD are likely to obsolete CD's. DVD burners already are breaking the $100 barrier. Prices vary with the times and place but differences tend to dissappear. What am I trying to say? Anything you don't need gets cheaper. Seems like you have a good life there in the down under land of the silver. I realize you are upside down with only gravity holding you onto the earth but don't buy that 3rd world stuff...there is only one world and we are all here together.

Let me know where you drive so I can avoid your blind-folded driving.

This is partially a reply to Berky: Berky wrote: Don't know where you got that silliness. The minidisk magnetic track is recorded with saturated magnetic digital, not magnetic analog information. And when using LP1 mode, the magnetic track of the minidisk holds virtually the same 0's and 1's as the non-compressed digital information on a CD. And even when using a reduced quality compressed digital source such as MP3, the minidisk doesn't suffer the analog noise problems associated with all analog recordings. If that speaker system has optical digital input and your MD has optical digital output, you would have a very nice bookshelf music system. The advantage of optical digital coupling vs wired digitial are dubious but relate to power supply isolation and switching weaknesses. (clicks, contact problems and cost)

If the original poster is still around, I'm curious why you wouldn't purchase a Sony MD? Personally, every piece of consumer electronics I bought in the last 10-12 years is Sony for the simple 2 reasons, interface problems are elliminated and now that Sony has been cured of greed and price-fixing, for me they have the highest quality at a reasonable price. But I would never own a Japanese car because of features, quality and a few other reasons. Fortunately we do have choices and everyone's reasons are different and as I said, I'm curious about yours re: Sony and their MDs.

Right. RadioShack had the $0.30 power plug adaptor for only $5. Remind me to get some RadioShack stock.

Good to know...I'll light a fire under them. I chose the SoundFeeder SF-100 spcifically because of the car-power feature. I go through $20-30 small batteries / month as it is. If if wasn't for CostCo's Kirkland batteries I would be in bad shape. (badder) Thanks

I just purchased an FM modulator to play my R900 in the car thru the radio. ebay $20. It plugs into the cigarette lighter and powers the MD BUT... of the 5 adaptor plugs which come with the modulator, NONE is small enough to fit the Sony MD power input connector. Radio Shack shrugs their sholders WalWart 3v cemetary has an unlisted address Where are lil' bitty power plugs available? Sony CD Walkman use the bigger size. Help, please. I'm tired of listening to Michael Savage and need some guitar music.

I woud use a clear refrigerator/freezer zip-bag and some duct tape (optional). Even though it would solve the cord situation, and I must emphasize here, DO NOT get the large bags and put your head inside with the MD. The plastic bag allows easy access to push buttons and even could hold spare media and are inexpensive.

I put mine in a shoe box with the other 'lip stick' remotes from my CD Walkman. What good is another cord? Someday I hope they have a wireless earplug so the MD can go into a back pocket (or in a holster on the opposite leg as my self-defense holster)(gosh I can picture a mistake already) and be forgotten for 5 hours instead of having a cord (or two) get tangled in everything. New idea, a wireless ear implant. (quick get my patent atturnie on the phone) (Am I getting paid for this?)

What is a T-board?