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mangizmo

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Posts posted by mangizmo

  1. As Sony still market a Hi-Md unit in the UK...and I think there are still units sold in Japan...is it reasonable to assume that support for SS will continue for a few years yet ?

    I am worried about a future update of windows rendering my equipment useless

  2. SO – I’m probably not the only one. I’ve gone to a more convenience-based solid state media player with buckets of storage

    Well I have tried other devices, but I just cant give up on my Hi MD players, I even like SS !!!!!

    My son has a Sony 8gb flash MP3 player, but it uses Windows Media Player 11, and I just cant get the playlsts organised, also, I use a Hi-MD player in the car for audio books, it uses an AA battery...BIG advantage , and it wont get stolen, for audio books @ 48KB/S I can get 45 hrs on a disc...so I still genuinely prefer Hi-Md to anything else that I have tried to date, recently I bought a used NW-A1000 (6GB), I replaced the battery, its not bad, but I much prefer my MD players, so it will be a while yet before I reach the place that you are at :-)

  3. Well as a long time Minidisc user and user of Sony MP3/Atrac walkmans, after trying to use Windows Media Player 11 to upload a few audiobooks to a new NWZ-A818 flash walkman all I can say is "come back Sonic Stage...all is forgiven"

    See...I dont use my portable devices for music very much, I am a huge consumer of audiobooks...It is essential that I can easily create playlists for sometimes a hundred or more tracks on an audiobook...if they get out of the correct order...the book listening experience is ruined

    SS 4.3 is really good at this for both Minidisc and my battered NW-A1200 Atrac/MP3 walkman, for all the complaints about SS, in the end it evolved into a pretty slick piece of specific sofware that just works pretty well

    Problem with these new Sony devices is that the Sony hardware is superb, but WMP 11 attempts to work with so many different devices, and it tries to be too clever...I have given up and gone back to my SS compatible devices

    IMO, the fantastic little Sony NW-A818 walkman is essentially useless for my purposes...I just cant be bothered to struggle with WMP 11

    I guess we are never satisfied, everybody complained about SS, but I think its really good now.....now we are stuck with Windows Media Player...I downloaded Sony Media transfer for walkman ver 1.2....its useless, Sonic stage was a sophisticated product in the end that was designed specifically for Sony products.....I like it !!

  4. what version of ss directly supports .m4a files? i didnt know they were supported at all.

    I bought a piece of software called "sound taxi"..it converted the files no problem

    The cheapest version is very slow, I bought the next one up which converts 6 tracks at a time...it all worked OK

    what version of ss directly supports .m4a files? i didnt know they were supported at all.

    Version 4.3 seems to support m4a...I havent tried it, but I think so

  5. The battery life is totally great, I think this is a lovely unit, at first I didnt like the idea of a gumstick battery and a charging station and a propriotary USB cable, but I find the units just so nicely designed and slick....I think they are brilliant

    One of the boxes had a sticker on the front which sais "was £199.99...NOW ONLY £99.99"...and I bought it for 19.99 !!! plus £3.50 postage

    I will use it every day for hours (I drive for several hours per day) ...I listen to audiobooks and some music in the car via an FM transmitter, I find MD very reliable, I like SS and it just works for me...my wife also uses MD extensively, something about removeable discs...she can deal with that, she knows where she is with is

    ironic that as PCs became more powerful and SS was refined and Hi-Md was introduced....MD works as we always wanted it to...it was discontinued (virtually)....love MD and I love the NH1

    That brilliant!

    Out of interest what is the battery life like? I've read that the Li-Ion batteries only last for three or four years whether they are used or not, and these must be getting near to the end of their natural lives.

    If they're still ok, it's even better because you'd have had to spend around £40 just on two new batteries, so in effect you've got the machines for nothing.

  6. :pleasantry::pleasantry: Just picked up TWO brand new MZ NH-1 Hi Md units...boxed and complete totally brand new for £19.99 UKP each plus £5.00 postage...ie £45.00 total for two brand new ones !!!.....both with that funky remote as well... I am pretty pleased with that deal :give_heart2: ....I love E-Bay, it was a big retailer, and I dont think they knew one md player from another...so sold them off cheap

    here:

    http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...N:IT&ih=016

    despite saying "refurbished"...they are both clearly brand new....bargain !!

  7. I'm noticing a scarcity not just of Hi-MD units, but of all MD units. It seems like only 4 months ago an eBay search for minidisc would bring up about 10 pages of hits. Just now I got only 3 pages, and a lot of the items were accessories and discs. I wonder if all of the dabblers have already moved to iPod, and us junkies will have to fight it out for the dwindling stock? I'm very tempted to add another one or two units to my reserve. What do you think?

    Just picked up two MZ NH600s for £60 each (always found the 600 OK for my requirements and it seems reliable enough).....they are definately getting harder to find, I think grabbing another might be a good idea...but who knows ?....I now have 4 Hi-Md units...so I should be OK

  8. Thanks Avrin...that is all very helpful information, Happy Christmas

    Get a full download here: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?s=&am...st&p=117697 (don't forget the separate drivers download), burn it to a CD, and be safe. It seems that these versions do not need the SONY authentication server while installing. But they WILL need it in case the key on the computer is damaged for some reason, and in case you a restoring the library from a backup. So, un-DRM all your files as soon as possible, and use simple copying to back up your library. This way you'll be free from any trouble. At least until some Windows update renders SS unusable. In this case install Windows under some Virtual Machine (WITH USB SUPPORT!!) without the update, and install SS there. You may actually use VMware Server under Ubuntu Linux (and, possibly, under other Linux versions) to run Windows and SS. More info here: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showt...8.

    And SS42 actually IS much better that any other versions. Download it, unless you need Vista compatibility, in which case SS43 is the only option. Well, download both (don't forget that the drivers are different), just in case you'll have to switch to Vista someday.

  9. New versions on SS are as close to D&D as need be. You bring your songs in, push the button, voila, songs are on your unit, seems ok to me

    Bob

    Yep I agree, I love SS, but what I mean is the software is soon to be discontinued isnt it ??

    So in a not so long time, how are we going to use our Hi Md players ?......I assume that we will have to keep hold of a copy of SS....a free standing installing version as I can see Sony dropping the download option soon also...thats whats worrying me, the latest versions of SS are really good IMO....of course we all have much better PCs these days , so thats another reason why SS seems so much better

  10. The one from Currys has been available for about 6 months now. It's a great concept, except for a few bad points:

    1) No way to title tracks i.e. no keyboard input, so you have to use the remote

    2) You can only backup/restore the entire HDD content to a PC 4 times in total. It also verifies the whole procedure via internet connection. So not totally DRM free in my opinion.

    I believe it can play and record Linear PCM, Atrac, and MP3. Maybe if the price dropped another £100 I would get one. The one with the minidisc slot I would buy in a heartbeat if it was made available in the UK.

    I agree with your opinion on the price...£100 less and I would have bought one today....wow, theres one with a MD slot ???....not in the UK though I will bet...same as you, I would buy that unit without hesitation....the system looks good though...I still "may" get one

  11. I would say do not worry about software, worry instead whether the flimsy NH600Ds can last you 5 years.

    Yes I guess thats a good point, the 900(I think its called) we have (the one with the AM/FM radio in the remote) seems alot more robust

    Go on then, can anyone recommend a really robust latest gen Hi-MD (MUST take an AA batt), for me to look out for, the 600 I just bought was only £35.00 with two 1GB discs thrown in which was great....but I agree, even though the 600 works OK...its not that nice a unit to use, and it may not last too long I suppose given the use they get here

    Thanks again

  12. :scratchhead: Hmmm, just bought yet another RH600 Hi-Md on E-bay, that means we now have 3 plus a 900, making 4 Hi-Md units in total

    We (myself, my wife and my two kids) all use Hi-Md non-stop....mainly for audiobooks, but also for music etc etc.....do we have any problems with this, Sonic Stage works with Vista right ??

    Unless I am missing something, does that mean that I can expect to be using my players for say...5 more years??...we like it so much and we are all comfortable with the format......If Sony are still selling the RH1.....does this mean that support for SS will continue for some time yet ??...what about all those ATRAC only units, are they now scrap ??

    Whats the position as you guys see it ??

    Thanks in advance Vaughan

  13. Have just recieved yet another Hi-MD player (we have 3)...I happen to be quite happy using Sonic Stage, I know how to make it do what I want and I think its OK

    Just had a horrible thought, read somewher that Sony is ditching ATRAC, SS now supports Vista, what happens after that ??, (that could only be a couple of years)...any opinions, have Sony made any commitments in this regard?...thanks

  14. We listen to alot of Audiobooks in my family, my wife is not one to change for the sake of it, and she likes and understands minidisc, and we all use Hi-MD (my two teenage sons also)...why...because it works, I am well versed with Sonic Stage...and I actually quite like it, we own two NH-600s, and a 900 also, I have just bought another NH-600 on E-Bay, that will sit connected to the line in on our kitchen minisystem

    I use a NH-600 in the car with a FM transmitter through the stereo...I drive 800 miles per week and constantly listen to audiobooks non stop which I download from Audible.co.uk..the routine is, download the book which has DRM, I then record the audio in realtime overnight, and convert to MP3...no big deal really, note these books are often 20+ hours long, I store the MP3 on a hard drive, and burn the audio to Hi MD for myself in the car

    I have tried MP3 players, and they are not all they are cracked up to be, the good ones are expensive and have internal batteries ...Hi-MD is cheap, reliable and we like it....just hope the software is supported into the future...transfer speed is a bit slow..but not too bad really, and the discs are bomb proof

    We will continue to use the format as long as we can get the hardware

  15. :angry: Big companies operate in strange ways dont they, Sony radically improve the MD format (ie Hi MD) and come close to what I have wanted all along.....and then virtually drop the format, and now finally Sonic Stage 3.4 has come out, and for my purposes it is great, stable, better inteface...I actually now quite like it,particularly as I can now import whole folders and subfolders efficiently using the music source button.....and I am sure that now it is finally sorted, they will phase it out in favour of the connect software, which will almost certainly be buggy and take ages to get right

    Why do they do it ????

    another thing, I bought an HD5 hard drive player as soon as it was released, only 9 months ago, mainly because it had a removeable battery, it is great, it sold quite well I think, it had good write ups, so what do they do...discontinue it for the new range with a fixed battery after 6 months ....why ???, the product life is less than even the standard warranty, the HD5 with Sonic stage would now be a great package, but we have something different now with connect...why...why....why

  16. (I still feel that these Radio manufacturers should fit a front AUX in as standard as there must be a HUGE demand for this feature and it's not difficult to Engineer it in).

    I agree about the aux in, loads offer a complicated set up for an ipod....talk about doing it the hard way....however, I have just bought a really inexpensive Sony head unit from Halfords, apparently from their new range (they had 3 different models)

    This has a dead straightforward AUX IN socket for a standard 3.5mm jack plug and a really good MP3 CD player with autoresume and all that stuff

    Why dont more manufacturers do this, now I can just plug my MD player (or anything else for that matter) straight in

    Thanks for the Kenwood tip, I have passed it on to my brother who has exactly that problem

    Vaughan

  17. Vaughan - 2 things:

    The reason they may not play on your RH-910 is not because they are too low a bitrate but because they are MPEG 2 Audio not MPEG 1. (The 2nd gen players play only the latter but from 32-320 VBR/CBR).

    Secondly to force the conversion to Atrac 48 what you need to do is the following. A bit frustrating I know but...

    Select all the tracks and using the Convert Format option convert to 48K. What you then need to do is go to the properties of the first track go to the last tab (File Info). You will see 2 files, the original MP3 and the converted Atrac. Delete the MP3 file and then use the arrows at the bottom to go to the next track and do the same for all tracks. Then when you transfer it will have to transfer the 48K. If you want to save the originals make a copy of the MP3 tracks in another location before deleting.

    The reason it always transfers the MP3 file by default is that SS thinks it should be playable and sends it to the unit, but because hardware-wise only MPEG1 is playable you get the CANNOT PLAY error.

    Thanks for the reply Ok I have just tried that on a couple of tracks and it seems to work, it is a bit of a pain, but I suppose it will get me where I need to be.....why have the mighty Sony made such a botch of what really needs to be a straightforward operation, I mean a non-techie type person would just give up !!!

    Thanks again...I still like minidisc despite everything !!!

  18. :( Can anybody tell me if there is a way around the following: I have alot of lectures (speech) in 32KB/S MP3 format, I want to transfer them to my Hi MD (MZ-RH910)...not too much to expect from an audio player these days is it ??

    Unless I am missing something...if I transfer the files "as is" ie in MP3 format, the MZ-RH10 wont play them as the bit rate is too low (can not play error message), although they are transfered to the disc o.k

    Never mind...this is annoying, but I will just have to convert them to ATRAC 48KB/s....a bit long winded but I can go with that, now heres the really unacceptable bit....I cant do it on the MZ-RH10...it will transfer only in MP3 @ 32KB/S which it wont play, I can see no straightforward way to get it to convert to ATRAC and put the audio on the disc....I can do it on my friends MZ-NH1, because that doesnt even attempt to play native MP3 so SS converts it to ATRAC automatically.

    The options SS gives me are 1. transfer as is (no good in this case)

    "Specified BIT RATE (if the original bit rate is lower than selected, then files will be transfered at their original bit rate)....the brackets are a quote from the S.S dialogue

    If what I am trying to do is not possible without a load of hassle...then I am afraid I have to conclude that minidisc deserves to die...please tell me its just me being dumb

    Regards vaughan

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