PDOG58

exactly right.

A car deck with a combined Hi-MD/CD player would absolutely rock! I mean, a plain Hi-MD deck would be fine, because I plan on putting most of my CDs that I listen to onto MD, but if I am traveling with someone who has a CD he/her would like to play, it weould be nice to have a built in CD player. i know they built them for regular MD, so I pray they make one by around Christmas. I would LOVE to take christmas money and go out and buy one.

I think Sonic Stage 2.0 is great. I downloaded it about 3 weeks ago and it has worked flawlessly for me. Any word as to what extra features will be released with 2.1? I pray some sort of an export function so I can edit stuff I have recorded.

See, the thing about digital radio is it really isnt going anywhere fast. I am here in Chicago and I think only 2 stations are broadcasting digitally and I havent heard of any that will be any time soon. I guess it is a hard choice. I havent had a walkman in 2 years and I was going to by one, but when I foound out there would be a Hi-MD player with one I thought "let's kill two birds with one stone".

I am taking a look at buying either the MZ-NHF800 or MZ-NH900 when the come out and I just cant decide. THe 900 has a lot of options, but it doesnt have the AM/FM tuner i would like. On the other hand, the 800 has the AM/FM tuner, but i loose the charging cradle and the extended battery life (all the other functions the 900 has are really of no use for me. I dont need the digital pitch control, digital amp, or line out function). Could I possibly buy the 900 and buy the AM/FM tuner seperatly? I would like your opinions. thanks for your help!

Where would that be? The option doesnt currently exist in the SonicStage 2.0 that I have. Either I am not seeing the export option (I dont have a Hi-MD device yet), or it is a function that is added when you get a Hi-MD device. I have a vested interest in this because I want to record a lot of stuff of the radio and then go back and edit out the stuff I dont want. It is so much easier to edit when you can see the wav as opposed to using the divide function on MD.

Actually, if I remember right, it has something to do with copywrite and pirating. Appernetly, they think that if you cant take a track from a CD to MD and keep it in CD quality, it will reduce piracy. I say that is crap.

You can record via Mic/Line-In in PCM to the MD and then upload THAT song to the computer. But you can not upload PCM from the computer to the MD.

Jimmix, I have been sayin what you said since basically the first day they announced that Hi-MD was coming out. Some agree. Some Disagree. Personally, I think Hi-MD is a VERY flexable format that SHOULD replace audio cassette. I love your comment about how MD should be considered a media rather than just another audio compression format. I never really thought of that before. That is a really great point. I'm gonna steal that idea if you dont mind. :laugh:

With most of the Hi-MD set to be released in July, i think it will still be a while until they release decks and car systems. My COMPLETELY uneducated guess would say somewhere around Christmas or Mid-Jamuary is when stuff like that will hit the market. you need to see how regular Hi_MD sales are before that happens. Although, I go by a little differant opinion. If I were Sony, I would have released a full arsonal right away. That way, Hi-MD might sell faster if they saw a WIDE variety of option. I am getting Hi-MD as soon as it comes out with HOPES that they will later release a car unit. That is really why I want Hi-MD. If they dont release a car unit, then it will make me VERY upset.

Thanks for the help Jade. It's gonna suck now that I have to convert 70 WAV files, but oh well. On a note for others: what I did was, after I converted the WAV files into ATRAC format, i went into My Library and deleted the WAV files and REimported the OMG files so the program recognized they were ATRAC just to keep it clean.

I have a lot of .wav files of stuff I have recorded off the radio burnt onto a CD to save space on my computer. I want to bring them back onto my computer in ATRAC3plus format in preperation for when hi-MD is released. But, I cant find a feature in SonicStage to convert files. I know you can take existing files on the hard drive that are in MP3 or WAV and creat an album, but to the best of my knowledge it does not actually CONVERT them to ATRAC. Am I missing something? Can I convert the WAV files on my CD to ATRAC on the computer?

I am praying for a car deck to be released so there after. If they do, I am ALL over it. It would just top out my dream. I am getting the 800 once it is released and I want a car deck to go with it. It sure would make driving to Iowa from Chicago easier.

I record a lot of talk radio or listen to comedy CDs. Given it's not so great sound quality, would you judge that the lower bit rates would be good for talk? To me, I would record talk at a lower bit rate and then record music higher. A side comment on that: With Hi-MD, can you put differant bit rates on the same disk, or does the disk have to all be at the same quality?

From an audio listening test that I read, ATRAC3plus @ 64Kbps is actually BETTER than MP3 @ 128 Kbps. So, I can only imagine how nice 256 would sound. http://www.sony.net/Products/ATRAC3/tech/l...test_report.pdf

I would like to add a 5th point as to why MD is so great compared to CD or DVD. 5) Re-writeability. With MD (much like old floppys), you can erase data and write new data very quickly. As apposed to CDs and DVD rewriteables where it takes several minutes to erase the entire CD.

I totally agree. My fincee is big into geneology and has a hours of interviews with relatives on tape. I am going to be converting all those interviews onto MD as soon as Hi-MD comes out. Plus, I cant even begin to imagine all the other uses I may have for the format especially since it now can be used as removable media for computers.

Let me clearify what I meant when I made the comment about it replacing cassettes. There is no doupt in my mind that CDs will be around for a long long time and that cassettes are as good as dead. To me, the problem with Cds are that it isnt always easy to record directly to CD. A lot fo people like to record stuff of the radio or have something portable to record news conferance/interviews/ect. For this, CDs are not always the best option. MD has the ability to do all this, plus it has the added advantage of removable media. Something that a lot of "hard drive" recorders do not. So what you put on a MD can be moved from place to place easily. No matter how great CDs and DVD-As are, there is still a need for media like cassettes. ANd I think MD should be the replacement.

THanks for the help

CHicago Area and I dont want to really spend much more than like $30. Hence why I would like to find a place looking to liquidate

Do you guys know anywhere where I could get a cheap MD player/recorder? It could be either the orginal or the Net-MD type. I will eventually get the new Hi-MD when it comes out, but I also need the lower end one for class work. I dont want to pay a ton and I dont really like buying off e-bay.

Heck, even if it were recorded at a higher bit rate, you can still fit 7+ hours on a single MD. In radio, that would be invaluable.

CDs/DVDA and media like those will be around for a long time. I think that if Sony handles this properly, Hi-MD should replace audio cassets. It is far superior to cassettes in amounts of hours you can fit on a disk PLUS it offers random access of songs. If I were Sony, i would really push MD as a format to replace audio cassettes. I know for me, it will.

I think Hi_MD decks would be usful EVERYWHERE. Especially in the corporate world. I am a Radio Broadcasting student and to me, it would be invaluable to a radio station. I know the radio station I listen to still records its live talkshows on DAT and regualr audio casset. A single 4 hour show requires 2 DAT tapes. With a Hi-MD deck, you could record an entire DAY on a single Hi-MD mini disk at a qualioty of 64kbps. And from what I have read, ATRAC3plus at 64kbps is near perfect. This would save the station TONS of money. Personally, I am a multimedia coordinator at my church and I would LOVE to create an Audio Archive of all our services. With a Hi-MD deck, I could get 2 months worth of services on a single MD. Talk about inexspensive and space saving.