tekdroid

Tell me about it! LCD = essential for in-the-sun stuff. The OLED is praised (rightly so) for less than optimal lighting (which most probably record in). An ideal would be a hybrid display that monitors ambient light and changes accordingly, but until then...

hardcore! You have more units than most retail outlets sell in a year

If the units are essentially the same, wouldn't the buttons on the MZ-RH10 and MZ-RH910 be the same, too? Might be just a case of luck (or more use) that the MZ-RH10's buttons are not working like new? General question: Is there any evidence to suggest MZ-RH10's display is less reliable than LCD? So far I remember reading one thread where the OLED died. Is there a general trend that they're failing after some time or...?

The AACS licensing agreement (that every hardware manufacturer of HD-DVD and Blu-ray and PC video cards, etc. must agree to) has in it the mandatory phasing out of analogue outputs in the coming years. The idea is to pretty much let the studios decide what you can and can't do with (encrypted) content you buy. AACS is in itself, encrpted content. On their website, of course, they talk about it "enabling" and "making possible" high definition content. Pure rubbish. http://www.aacsla.com/home Forget fair use. Forget using analogue outputs to display content in high res, let alone make a copy of unencrypted content. You will not have permission. And after a few years, you will not have the outputs. Anyone supporting these two formats is supporting the companies who are going to screw them over completely, bit by bit.

So there is an advantage, after all.

They're only famous to the few who have used them Hi-MD units with a MIC input can record in Linear PCM (ie. just like CD. ie. with no lossy compression). Linear PCM recordings from a high quality MIC input in a portable for a (relatively) cheap price are generally unheard of. If you want the absolute best quality for the buck, Hi-MD is the way to go. Buying a unit with no mic input? Audio can also be transferred to Hi-MD in Linear PCM (CD quality) from your computer, too. Hi-MD units can also record from optical sources (as well as the obligatory LINE IN).

Maybe they did, and got an iPod. It IS possible Unless they use their dopi to record and think it's "the best!" For the average person, it's all about safety in numbers and word-of-mouth recommendations and visibility, and that's how most of the market moves, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on whose side of the fence you're on). Congrats on the grandkid

I never grabbed this (or perhaps I did but can't find it?). Does anyone have an alternative download source for the AVC version of this interview? Rapidshare seem to have deleted it.

dunno if t0fler did, but I have checked those stores and I can tell you those Panasonic capsules (or equivalent) don't seem to exist here. As if live recording on the cheap was some ultra-niche

Have you tried a different brand of discs? In my experience, older Sony walkmans were generally more unreliable than today's MDs. Tape path needed cleaning, occasional chewed tapes, perhaps the occsional drop-out when playing back, tape slightly out of alignment would cut treble response (and rewinding and fast-forwarding sucked). Comparing roughly equivalently-priced portable gear to portable gear, of course. Sony The CCD problem was a Sony manufacturing problem. Everyone who's anyone in digital cameras was affected, because they sourced their CCDs from Sony, as you probably know by now. http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_...0051005/109314/ http://www.imaging-resource.com/badccds.html I think two bad apples in a row can get anyone cursing at the (apparent lack of) quality in today's gear, but I think many things have improved, too (as well as some going backwards in the name of cost-cutting, no doubt). Keep MDs dust-free and try replacing Memorex discs with some other brand and see how you go.

But it doesn't have AA batteries! (or a jog wheel, or 3-line d...ahh, nevermind)

WHEN there is a replacement; agreed. *Small portable with good battery life, on-the-unit editing and good playback capabilities (inc. SpeedControl on higher-end units). *Linear PCM 44.1KHz/16bit recording/playback - minimum *Robust (and relatively cheap) removable media *MIC inputs, etc. *Recording from multiple sources, including optical. I, for one, don't see a complete replacement for a Hi-MD portable (a device with all these features, that is) on the horizon for at least 2 years. Not in the price range, anyway. Very few companies have the smarts and marketing to bring out a proprietary removable disc format, let alone nail those other areas. I think we will see many non-Hi-MD devices that do SOME of these things, or do some things better, but not all of these things. Not at the price. This makes any argument about what the masses are using and which way the market is headed irrelevant (to me, anyway). Current Hi-MD devices (especially at discount prices) are brilliant value for money, and as long as they last, will be used for years to come because it will be a while before features like this are matched elsewhere. The future I believe there is a huge market for a killer 5GB+ removable disc format that addresses MD/Hi-MD's failings: 1) speed 2) storage capacity 3) negative DRM experiences of MD/Hi-MD (which really linger for a while, it takes a lot of work to change negative perceptions). I think there's a huge market as long as whoever introduces the format knows what a person expects of the format (ie. no stupid restrictions, working much like CD-R) and delivers. But I don't believe we'll ever see a truly unrestricted format from Sony, even though I am certain they have 'enhanced Hi-MD' technologies in the lab, ready to be released at the appropriate time (they probably don't wanna can Hi-MD just yet, seeing it was intro'd in 2004). I'm sure it makes far more business sense for them to milk the market (and strengthen the Hi-MD format) as much as they can before introducing a new format.

I was always thought this 'dropping-MD-in-Australia' thing was quite premature and they'd re-introduce. Nice news if the price is right. I wonder if it will be a small shipment to satisfy the crazies or largish and dedicated to Hi-MD for the long haul? Interesting. I think Sony are waiting for the (absolute bargain) MZ-NH600 and MZ-NH700 models to sell out here first

First of all, bit of a surprise since Sony hyped UMD so much. "But next week, Sony Computer Entertainment executives will begin making the rounds of the Hollywood studios to discuss plans for making the PSP able to connect to TV sets." Sony is an entertainment company first, hardware second. If this isn't proof of it, I don't know what is. Does it cost a lot to add TV-Out? Nope. Is there a significant technical barrier? Nope. Does this feature come standard with virtually every other portable multimedia player and is expected and found to be extremely useful to Average Joe? Yep. Right now Sony have too much competition from no-name and big-name manufacturers giving the customer what they want for portable movie-watching, while Sony hardware continues to take orders from the entertainment division - and continues to give the customer no flexibility. Every day these no-name companies (and some household names) are getting richer while Sony sleeps. The competition More open formats. FLAC. Ogg. Xvid. TV Out (of course!). Yet Sony continues taking orders from the division that continues to butter its bread. We can't expect change until management at Sony stop this piracy paranoia. We can't even copy MiniDisc to MiniDisc directly. It's 2006. Sony Electronics is weak and fearful.

check back in when the novelty wears off

not sure, but all these things are coming to be 'cause of stricter laws in EU and elsewhere. They've become a part of doing business globally. The box itself, being cardboard, is part of the whole waste reduction thing, too (which started about 10-15 years ago). I still remember almost everything coming in polystyrene by default before then. Of course we still see enough of the stuff these days. Anyway, it's an industry-wide movement to source less environmentally damaging components and materials to sell in certain markets. As for power consumption, any differences would be minimal. More environmental impact would be made on heat losses through the AC adaptor, total charge time to charge the battery, etc. than actual power consumption comparisons of any units, I reckon. The materials used to make the units and the energy consumption and environmental impact of chip fabrication and plastic manufacture (etc) would be interesting to know. I think they'd play a far bigger role in environmental damage. Also integrated batteries versus removable often means that the unit with integrated battery that no longer holds charge is thrown out by many when Average Joe gives up on it (helped by high costs of battery replacement (if any) and lower costs of better model available in the stores). Case in point: Nano's soldered-onto-mainboard integrated battery. So things like that are doubly wasteful and just add to landfill. Which probably brings us to reliability, which is probably more important (environmentally speaking) than all of them put together. Since a reliable product can delay the landfill step by quite some years...

The article says: Why the MiniDisc failed to gain popularity is something of a mystery. It's not a mystery at all. We witnessed ultra-restrictive NetMD for years and Hi-MD was very restrictive until just recently. Early models behaved well and were well-featured. It's amazing how the article never mentions horrible Sony software and restrictions yet only talks about pre-recorded content. One word? DRM. Another? Crappy software. More restrictive hardware than the early MD recorders. High prices. Combine all these...and there you have it. No mystery at all. Sony's basic techniques would later be adapted and refined by the MP3 format. No they wouldn't. MP3 was developed independenly of Sony (as was Philips' PASC). The difference is nobody in power at Sony (and Philips) believed in the power of the internet and changing hardware landscape would shape future formats. Instead of their own tech becoming the 'standard', they sat on their butts and now they pay millions each year in http://www.mp3licensing.com fees instead of having their own lossy compression technologies out there and collecting royalties from other manufacturers. Oops!

minidisc.com.au pricing spoils me. I would start to consider one at about US$200. But the unit is actually better than I initially thought, but it's a damn shame about the lack of AA. To me, it would be 70% more desirable with that simple addition (and I would be ecstatic if they made it standard, and not an add-on). A little more bulk wouldn't concern me. The MZ-NH700 (budget, cheapppppp, still selling cheeapppp) spoils me rotten for power, and it's hard for me not to smile about the AA capability (which I would love to see on every unit). It's rightness, people. ...and the MZ-NH1 spoils me in almost every other department (date/time stamp, SpeedControl, metal construction, etc). Price drop

now that's interesting. So they sped up the optical drive? Twice as fast is certainly a lot more livable.

Car deck? Sure, why not. Would I buy? Nope. And wasn't there news about Sony pulling out of some of their car audio stuff. I seem to recall their was in one of their investor relations thingies. I could be going senile, tho. Full pro deck? I'd take a cheapish mainstream one anyday. Generally, inner geek says yes to a deck, but 'average joe' side says: 1GB discs loaded one at a time? Seems... antiquated. It's 2006. Give me more, maaaan. Average Joe expects more. Especially at home, where longer listening sessions are probably more common. We can do better than one-disc capacity. Dual slots. Excellent recording flexibility. The ability to simply copy MD to MD, and chop-n-change, make compliations from MD to MD, like double cassette decks. That should be the focus of a deck. 1GB of playback is ok, but certainly can be beaten by lots of things nowadays. So the focus should be on extremely flexible recording. Load your friend's MD, copy it. Load your own recording and back it up. The ability to play 2 MDs back to back or mixed can still be there. Forget about DRM comletely. Use the format as average Joe expects a recording format to work. Much like CD-R on the PC, except with far more flexibility (as we know). I'm not a fan of overpriced so-called audiophile decks. Make something COOL that uses the format the way it was intended for the Joe User market, and market it at the masses. Of course we all know it's too late

Not even close. DVD-RAM uses radically different materials and construction (not to mention write strategy) to CD-RW. CD-RW isn't even in the same ballpark as DVD-RAM.

Pretty much the only thing I disagree on. I love the MZ-NH1's recording light and miss it when using my other unit. It's a very good indicator things are working at a glance (and a good "glance-at-it" indicator of louder level activity), and a great way of seeing disc access on the computer (Windows Explorer tells you a file is copied but the MD is still writing, for example). Given MD's slowness, it's also a good way of seeing disc activity on lengthy writes when the Explorer copying status dialogue is hidden by other windows or whatever as you're working. Current draw of the thing is negligible. It's much more of a hassle to stare at a small LCD (or whatever) to see disc activity than view a quick visual indicator like a light. So my respects to the light!

good points. I have particular aversions to: 1) integrated, non-replaceable batteries 2) reliability of hard drives Unfortunately we're seeing quite a bit of both in HD and flash devices from Sony and others. All they seem to care about is the unit living through it's warranty. After that, it's not their concern so they don't seem to want to bother. It's nice to see removable batteries in all MD models. Dunno what you meant by "Also, in order to use the iPod, you have to convert EVERYTHING into their proprietary format, which makes it very difficult to use with anything else." I think the iPod isn't any more closed than Sony's ATRAC on MD. Given the way ipods play mp3s (without making them sound worse than their native format, like second-generation Hi-MD units do), I'd say Sony is worse in that department. Portables using blue lasers! Yes please.

Chance of that happening: almost nil, because they are not Sony formats, basically. Even though these formats are technically great and there are no prohibitive royalties associated with them, as there are with mp3: http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/ Leave it to the Cowon, LG and Samsungs of the world to add support for these formats. The companies who are hungrier to go 'one-better' than the dinosaurs too interested in pushing their own dying formats

For a while there I was thinking the DPC: Variable Recording Speed was something else entirely (related to recording, not playback). Thanks to those who clarified that for me. SpeedControl, I think Sony call it. Great feature, IMO. ozpeter, yeh, somehow I neglected to mention the main live recording features everyone wanted. Of course these are the main reasons to get this model. I think I was fixated a bit too much on the new design. Like you, I'll be interested in this model as well, but only at the right price. Would be interesting to see if Sony backtracks on their pulling out of the market here. Now that they seem to have actually listened to their userbase, it seems absurd to not be selling Hi-MD here, but this is Sony