tekdroid

Personally I see great potential for the more crafty here to start making their own soft leather or fabric quality cases for these devices. With perhaps just a plastic window for the display and a nice cut-out for the controls. Plastic on plastic just sounds like a cheap n nasty (and scratchable) solution for Sony to be selling for such a high price (to me).

It's less critical of a point, but I still feel the discs are not as robust with translucent designs and the non-forgiving elements (heat, etc). I guess I favour practicality above all else. I'll give you this: it's easier to spot a foreign particle that has entered the case with a translucent design, so it ain't so bad, I guess If the cases are anything like the cases they used for pre-recorded MDs, perhaps I've seen 'em. But still, too big for practical portable use. Would be nice to have some small completely sealed cases. C'mon Sony, it's time

If I can just critique the blue discs for a second: Things I dislike: -fingerprints: check -blue-coloured paper (in the protective case) for writing illegible titles on* (wtf?): check -translucent kiddy design to let light through: check -very small stickers to stick on the face of the MD: check *one side only, but enough to ask: why? Colour co-ordination? Another general note common to all(?) current disc cases Oldskool MD cases, you know the protective case they slide in? Well, the part where you put your finger(s) to grab the disc, right? On the oldskook disc cases you'll notice the 'cut-out' wasn't so huge. I think this is advantageous, for the following reason: All the current disc cases that I have seen (Color Collection, blue Hi-MD, etc) have a huge 'cut-out' area so you can grab the disc very easily to slide it out. This 'cut-out' area actually actually makes the 'sliding shutter' area of the MD far more susceptible to dust, since it's not covered completely by current MD cases. In the old MD cases, the shutter area was covered by the old cases, exposing this critical area of the discs to a LOT less dust. Dust and other foreign particles far more easily get on the sliding shutter part of MDs in more recent cases. If you leave your MDs laying about somewhere collecting dust, chances are some will fall in this sliding shutter area. Now guess what happens when you slide your disc in? The shutter slides open over that dusty area and dust and other particles very easily enter the disc when it closes. If you're not careful to inspect your discs for dust each time, there's a very high chance of dust getting into the disc cartridge - which isn't good, obviously. Ever since MDs came out, I've wished for an (essentially) completely sealed protective case for them (must like old cassette cases or CD cases, preferably without the crackable plastic or easily-busted hinges). I haven't checked out or seen the 'huge-box' container of first-gen Hi-MDs, but if it's a completely sealed design, it can't be that bad (aside from the size). Ideal discs for moi? -leave no fingerprints (so don't have a gloss ultra-shiny surface) -are non-translucent (honestly, I know there's a disc in there...) -light-coloured (to not heat up in the sun so much) -have old-skool protective cases with smaller "grab it" cut-outs (sealed cases would be ideal, though - and you could carry it in pockets and whatever and not worry about lint and other stuff getting in) -have practical (and white) large disc stickers for writing on -have paper inlays for writing on that are actually white on both sides, not printed blue

iSonicStage should be a hit!

Stand and adaptor All that item gives you is the equivalent of a regular USB port. The MZ-NH1 only charges on its cradle with adaptor, and doesn't charge through the power provided by a regular USB port (that's only used for operation of the device, not charging). So it's down to how Sony designed the device.

It's my understanding the magnetic head actually touches the disc.

excellent info, thank you. It seems I mis-read the comment about the cable in the cnet review. What I'd do for a cheap flash recorder with 1GB+, linear pcm and drag n drop, with excellent recording characteristics. They would sell like mad to people hitting these forums.

Some reviewage of your unit: http://www.mobilityguru.com/2004/08/26/mp3_players/ http://reviews.cnet.com/iRiver_iFP_890_256...30889082-2.html Can't be recognised as a drive under Windows without a driver. Proprietary cable. Proprietary software. I thought Sony were bad http://www.iriveramerica.com/prod/ultra/800/ifp_890.aspx Headphone output is more than adequate, tho 18mW! AA battery is also something I'd like to see more of in flash players, so that's definitely a plus. Linear PCM recording is another thing I can't do without that Hi-MD gives. Promising, but not quite there for my uses.

via computer of course To get vaguely back on topic, if Sony see demand for new players in the Japanese market, I think new recorders can't be far off.

http://www.audiotstation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29726 I finally got off my butt and searched it out. I read in this thread that a dry battery is recommended and that rechargeables are not. Hmm. I have no idea if it's true or not. Sony's manual for the MZ-NH900 states dry battery, last I looked. No mention of the risks or suitablility/non-suitability of using rechargeables in the battery add-on.

http://www.minidisc-canada.com/shopexd.asp?id=675 (with mic input) You do indeed pay too much for your blanks, but these are not entirely fair comparisons, either. The MD unit is a high-quality recorder, first and foremost. iPod isn't. iPod does do other stuff, though. Apples & Oranges, really. They do share some traits (playback of music), but both are very different machines. I think it would be more fair to compare with Sony's flash and HD-based units since they have more in common with equivalent iPods. depends on the video's bitrate, format and resolution. I've played vids downloaded off the net from MD. No super-resolution highly detailed stuff, though. Likely won't cope with those.

Seen this yet? http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/nano.ars/3 My only complaints with their "testing" was that damage was being made to the iPod without flexing/stressing the unit as you would if you had it in the back pocket of some tight jeans or something and then sat down (flexing/bending the unit with the curvature of your butt). Their "sitting down" tests claim to have put it on a wooden chair and sitting on it - on a (presumably) flat surface. Pretty uneventful, as you can imagine. Still, it's all good clean family fun to see things destroyed and dissected. That's page 3 of the review, but read the rest for some good info you'd probably want a future Hi-MD model to have (then again, maybe not if it jacks up the price - bring date/time-stamp back on lower-end models Have we had any "MD gets destroyed" threads yet? Detailed autopsies? Or visited their places of birth - the factories? That's some stuff I'd love to see. Only seen a few pics of opened MDs here and no factory tours. Hard to imagine MD coping with a car rolling over it

What's a NetMD?

Another vote for the MZ-NH700. Especially at the prices they're selling for now, and the pretty remarkable battery life with a high-capacity rechargeable. The prices now are so low (the Australian-sourced units, anyway) that you'd be mad not to pick one up if you can

Yes. MD simple burner is for quick-n-dirty transfers from CD to MD. Each CD should only take a few minutes to transfer. MD Simple Burner allows you to choose from the following bit-rates to fit more music on one MD. PCM (identical to your CD) Hi-SP (most people can't tell the difference between this and CD, especially on a portable) Hi-LP (lower quality than Hi-SP, but still might be good enough) 48kbps (lowest quality, but still might be good enough) The bitrates (along with the maximum minutes you can fit on a standard (cheap) 80min MD are below: PCM = 28m:47s Hi-SP = 158m:40s Hi-LP = 627m:52s 48kbps = 843m:08s A 1GB Hi-MD will store roughly 3 times as much music than a regular MD (listed above), so get them if you really need to store lots more albums per disc. Yes. Simple Burner gets album names off the 'net using its integrated GraceNote CDDB, but you can change/create folders (groups) and change Artist and Album info in Simple Burner if you want. You can also erase discs and tracks, too. It's the easiest way to get CDs to your MD. Once you get your unit you'll be able to scroll through with the jog wheel and search by artist, album, track, etc. So you'll be easily able to find what you want.

Heh. You've got me wondering how you'd react to a free iPod now

w00t! Congrats Load that sucker up with tracks! Click on Downloads in the top right of your screen. Now, click Programs on your left. Find SonicStage 3.3 there. Alternatively, you can go to Sony's page and download and install via their web installer (or just download the web installer from the same place here). If you want no-fuss CD-to-MD transfers, get MD Simple Burner, too. But SonicStage is needed for it to run it anyway.

Since when was painting plastic silver considered tasteless? (silver that will inevitably start coming off, with enough wear..). And gloss surfaces that are very easy to scratch and fingerprint? You don't like these? Haha. I agree They are shocking. Get a real recorder Straight up I will tell you the button placement (and size of buttons) on the MZ-NH1 is just not right - I really dislike the notion that 'looks' somehow mean worse functionality and have never subscribed to that design logic. I knew this going in, though (I'm very fussy about ergonomics) but the unit offers me features the others don't. The only advantage (to me) with this model's main unit design is: *controlling it in your pocket with your thumb is easier with the side "5-way Control Key" (but I can't imagine many using that when travelling when they have the remote - I certainly don't). On the desk: The 5-way control key is just annoying to control with 'cause of it's placement. Another case of using the remote again. The MZ-NH1 pretty much relies on the remote. It's a 'feature' of its design The battery cover on the side I don't find a problem with when I press the buttons on the side. It just sits there and can its flatness can be be felt easily in the pocket and easily noticed on the desk, if that's how you control it. The remote is, on the whole, quite usable (and has the most detailed display). The other buttons on the main unit (MENU, GROUP, TMARK) are just small and poorly-designed, if you ask me. I need more surface area on my buttons (and more logical placement and surface area, and more tactile feel, ideally). Each Hi-MD model has its strengths and weaknesses in the design department. But none of them are anything special to me. The MZ-N10 (main unit) that you had looks closer to my ideal of unit design & functionality than any current Hi-MD model. It's a shame that it's not a Hi-MD model, though.

http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?s=&sh...indpost&p=76390 That's an alternative way of installing with the web installer, but it's a bit more involved. I'm uncertain if that will help you, but it might be worth a shot. It has never failed me, and because I like to keep files on disc (and have had problems with the offline installer here), I always use this method to install SonicStage with absolutely no problems. But if I had to suspect something now, I'd say it seems to be a registry problem of some type. But that's only a guess. Seems to require some troubleshooting..

Cool. TrojanHunter is the only one there not free, but a good one to get rid of nasties and then just uninstall. Looking normal to me. It starts downloading the Sony files, with no Windows updates needed. I'm assuming the web installer errors out just like the offline installer?

OK, try something for me. When you start Sony's web installer for SonicStage 3.3 (not the integrated installer found on this board), can you tell me the name of the component which starts downloading first? It will show up in a list on the left-hand side. Better yet, make a screenshot of it, so we can see each of the listed components it has determined you need. Reason I ask is the web installer will determine what (if any) Windows components you will need before the Sony files start getting installed. This could give us hints as to what's going on on your system. You can press Cancel once seeing the list, or you can see if the web installer will work for you now. I have actually seen problems with the integrated offline installer on this board (3.2 version). I haven't tried the integrated 3.3 offline installer here yet based on my bad experiences with the 3.2 version, which would always install OK, but the Hi-MD device would never be detected in SonicStage, depsite it being seen in Explorer just fine when SonicStage wasn't running. The point is, the offline installer might be giving you issues where the web installer might not. In the meantime, if you're not sure your system is 'clean', you can try cleaning out your system with programs such as: Spybot Search & Destroy http://www.safer-networking.de Lavasoft Ad-Aware http://www.lavasoft.de TrojanHunter http://www.trojanhunter.com Grisoft AVG http://free.grisoft.com (if you currently use antivirus, uninstall your existing version before installing this one) ...remembering first to update the definitions before scanning for problems in each program. Good luck!

C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Temp Make sure you close down all opened programs and delete all the files in this directory (where 'user' is your username) Might just be just some crusty temp files interefering with the extraction of the install files. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=8071 Steps 1 to 4 under "How to properly reinstall NetMD/Hi-MD". I know you've gone here before, but doing every single step is very important. Not just backing up, uninstalling all the stuff listed and deleting the directories listed there but also the registry stuff: ---- Going to: Start then Run and then typing regedit. Hit Enter. Now navigate down the yellow folders, step-by-step, to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Sony Corporation/Sonicstage right-click and delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Sony Corporation right-click and delete ---- Can't be stressed enough. No damage will happen if you only do what's described there. Those steps (all of them, 1 to 4, inclusive) should give you a 'clean slate' to work from. Now, if that doesnt work, it's possible your system is suffering from something else, but work from there and see how you go. Double check and triple-check you're doing it all right.

Nice. FWIW, I prefer the term AA add-on. I have read in some posts where they warn against rechargeables in the add-on attachment (either on this board or audiotstation.com, don't remember). Interesting. I always assumed it would be fine with a rechargeable but remember some murmurs about it possibly being 'risky' for some reason or another. U better be joking *prepares a list of why he likes his NH1*

After playing with the NH700 recently, I have to agree. There's something re-assuringly right with the AA and the simple LCD display, to me. It also feels re-assuringly solid (and chunky - in the nice way) for a plastic unit - which is, in part, a nice side-effect of accomodating for the AA battery in the design. Just don't expect huge battery life with their bundled 700mAh rechargeable battery - definitely get your own 2300mAh or greater rechargeable AA battery (available almost everywhere economically now). From what I've read the OLED display on the MZ-RH10 is not good for viewing in sunlight, too (but I guess the standard LCD on the NH700 is bad at night without a torch, so it balances out, I guess). Being able to buy a long-lasting AA rechargeable for a fraction of the cost of a gumstick is great, though. And just carrying more spares than you'll ever need. Especially since the AA-sidecar on the MZ-RH10 isn't recommended for the use of rechargeables. This kind of kills any longer running-life appeal if you despise buying throw-away batteries (from an environmental and/or cost perspective). metal, if you can get one for cheap from Canada or whatever, I'd do it.

nice, let's hope there's more competition in this price range and lower. Gonna check out the samples later since I'm out the door now. (btw, sorry about quoting your whole post in my reply) Happy Holidays