tekdroid

w00t! Nice find. Reading

Volta's suggestion of the MZ-NH700 is actually pretty well on the mark for your uses. It's the best option if: *you want to record from the mic input *AND don't need radio *AND don't want to spend too much It's actually quite a rocking little unit. Is that available in your neck of the woods? IF you don't need microphone input, just stick with the MZ-NH600 and save the money. The choice really should be easy. Why haven't you made up your mind yet? In Australia (at www.minidisc.com.au) the MZ-NH700 costs less than the MZ-NHF800, so, depending on your local prices, it may just be the ideal model for you and your budget 'cause you don't want radio. Of course if Santa brings in some cash, the MZ-NH900 and MZ-NH1 will give you Speed Control ("pitch control"), and the MZ-NH1 will time-stamp recordings automagically (absolutely essentail feature IF date/time of recordings is important to you as it is to me). This feature has been around since the early days of MiniDisc, yet somehow magically disappeared these days in this age of tightening of belts, cost-cutting and troubled, poor, helpless Sony...harr) Keep in mind ALL models come with absolutely HORRID, shrill-sounding earphones. GREAT if the world of stereo headphones is new to you and you have no reference point, tho

USB supplies power to the Hi-MD device (just like a flash USB stick). It doesn't use the battery when connected to USB. Hope Santa brings you your unit If he doesn't, punch him for me

It all comes down to seeing the working prototype, I think. I haven't looked into his design yet. I think if he thinks Sony stole some design of his, he could have a case (of course we know the case is over now, apparently). But if it's anything like "hey, I strapped on this blah blah and stuck a 1KG battery here, and blah blah" well then, that's nothing more than an idea with piss-poor implementation. Of course, if Pavel's prototype is anything like the first Walkman (I haven't searched it up yet) and if it actually is marketable, sellable and convenient, then all my respect to him. Then he might be able to say Sony and possibly others copied his design. But I doubt they did. The feeling I get is he comes across to me as being an ideas man but not much of an implementation man. Could be wrong, though. I personally feel the implementation (design) is what counts, and that's where patents should be given out. Many of us come up with great ideas but piss-poor implementation, and that's where the real work goes in.

hate to be the voice of dissent here, but what exactly did Pavel patent? The concept of portability? Honestly, I think general patents like this hamper the progress of technology (as far as I can tell from the article, it doesn't sound like he actually did much to make a better Walkman (or, shall we say, portable audio device), and it really is a 'general concept' patent - which I think shouldn't even be patentable. I don't think this guy is my hero at all. The ones that deserve credit are those that actually refine and innovate on a technology angle, getting through power supply and size and cost issues, and actually building it. In other words, making breakthroughs on the tech side. That takes a lot of work and deserves rewards. Not general ideas or concepts.

i've heard good things about the Sony MDR-X200 headphones, but personally never tried them. Most ppl seem to be blown away at them for the price. I'm tempted to try them as some nice cheapies to have around.

It's ALL subjective, when it comes down to it. I just happen to think MD is the RIGHT product in certain circumstances - some of these circumstances I can see Average Joe get a lot of use from; saving his little files to, and working on files among different computers without burning software hassles. Each of us will have different experiences with different formats or technologies and we'll make decisions based on our trust/untrust of them. Personally I do almost all back-up on DVD-RAM these days, but if I have to go to another computer, I am not gonna lug big things around. I will definitely just use MD and enjoy the music while I'm travelling there. So I feel a drag-n-drop format is ideal. MD is one a few that I personally trust (I have less trust in music transfers with SonicStage, tho). CD and DVD RW formats I personally use like HDs ie. temporary data and don't trust them for long-term stuff (they've been proven iffy to me..). MD's advantage right now (at least in Australia)? Cheap I'll be the last to recommend it for bulk data archival. Obvioulsy another format or tech would be more suitable in those circumstances. As I say, it's a great complement to CD/DVD. And even (evil) HD Each has their uses.

then you know about IBM's bad particularly bad run of drives and Fujitsu, too? Of course IBM sold their operations to Hitachi and Fujitsu no longer make desktop 3.5 IDE drives. Sure it's a small percentage compared to the drives out there, but I've seen enough of it to personally not trust my important data to them. I see enough RMAs on non-problem (current) models where they fail too. I personally don't put much faith in them. YMMV.

MDfreak, great review. Very easy to get a 'feel' for the unit after reading that. Thanks for the excellent write-up I can't believe Sony didn't give it a tripod mount! Oh well

get the manual here (3MB PDF file): http://www.css.ap.sony.com/consumer/Fn/IMS...ersonal%20Audio

In about 10 years, I've had 2 of my own HDs fail on me (out of maybe 7 drives, daily use). Both times pretty annoying. I still have some oldies going strong (but mostly collecting dust nowadays). Some HDs run fine for years...but there's always this uncertainty with 'em that doesn't sit well with me. And I guess people tend to chuck their systems at me when their HD fails, too. So I guess the bad perception sticks. In any case, I always back up important files to optical and leave the HD to handle more mundane OS and program files that can easily be re-installed / re-imaged.

Hi-MD is a great complement to CD/DVD, I reckon. Simply 'cause it's truly portable and drag-n-drop. So is flash media. And external HDs. Reason why I prefer Hi-MD over some other formats some of the time: * seen several properly-cared-for HDs crash (and die) many times, but not Hi-MD (though some forums posts suggest iffy unit reliability...) * cheap (buying a $99 MZ-NH600 (or whatever) from minidisc.com.au and loading it with 2GB+ worth of blanks is easy and far more cost-effective than equivalent flash prices)* * removable media and I have a long love affair (ahem..) * I love true portability (CD/DVD are a bit bulky, and even MD is looking big compared to flash media nowadays, lol) * I love protective cartridges and the ease-of-handling * useful to attach to a machine you need to work on and change files with without burning CDs or DVDs every change - the files can be changed, added and deleted easily direct-to-disc within the OS. *you can say external HDs are even cheaper (and far faster), but to me they're just not an option for archival due to their random crashyness. I would never feel my data is safe on a HD when transporting from A-to-B without a proper optical back-up. Flash and MD I'm ok with, though. Just a personal thing. That extends to HD-based music players too. I just can't buy them, despite their advantages in some areas, I regard them as temporary (and crash-worthy) storage, at best. It's also nice to bring along 1-2GB of data to a computer with no DVD drive that you need to give some files to (among an assortment of many small files), without carrying several bulky CDs (and where speed of just installing small files is a non-issue). Re: longevity study linked above That study tested extremes. I still have CDs from 97 with no problems, tho today the CD/DVD prices have imploded and I guess it's easier to get burned with bad quality discs, but still, extremes are something I've never subjected my discs to. I've never had one bad experience with optical media that's properly cared for/stored, so maybe my faith is too trusting, but I believe in quality media 100%. I think MD quality is far better than the average CD/DVD selling on the street now, and certainly far better than rewritable CD/DVD (with the possibly notable exception of my lovely Panasonic DVD-RAMs in cartridges, which are truly remarkable...) typo edit

is there a full review with more detail up anywhere?

Hear hear. Pity about that SonicStage aftertaste. MD Data sounds like it might be a fun format to play with if you can get one cheap (with disc). Obscure tech = good geek fun.

I hope you enjoy your unit, but... Being ready does not necessarily mean buying a Sony walkman Or an iPod for that matter (Dopi, as I like to call 'em). Sony, by all accounts, still has serious usability/software issues with their stuff, and as far as I can tell, CD isn't dying anytime soon, either. Even if you have hundreds of mp3s, they can all be converted to CD if that's your wish (and vice versa). It all comes down to your needs. I hope your Walkman meets your needs. And if you buy tracks online, you know people are paying a premium for *less* than what we are getting with CD (sound quality certainly isn't going forward and the resale and nostalgia value of a downloaded track isn't exactly high). But what you do get is pretty instant gratification, but last I checked, the music store wasn't far away, either.

Thanks for the link, btw. Actually thinking of buying a second unit, and now not so sure this model would be the right one. I saw a lot of praise for it in this-model-vs.-that-model threads, but never heard about the buttons before. Anyway, I despise having to return stuff. Thinking the MZ-NH700 might be a better choice, simply because I can't stand basic design faults (or the risk of design weaknesses with something as rudimentary as buttons, at least). (now we return to the regularly-scheduled topic

They say to use SonicStage and not Windows in the manual (all manuals are downloadable, btw). I've never tried it, since all the discs I have tried in my Hi-MD unit are blank and automatically default to Hi-MD mode and I have no use for the old MD mode. BTW, Zip 250 SCSI is supposed to be 2.4MB/s sustained transfer rate. Assuming similar speeds for reading & writing, your current Zip drive will be MUCH faster than MD. They certainly felt that way last time I tried them (though last Zips I played with were the 100MB models). MD is reaaaaaaaly slow. To copy 280MB the other day (as a single file) I timed it to 15 minutes. It turned out to be just over 300KB/s. This was on an old 98 machine in a public library whose hard drive was being hammered a little at the same time. But MD seems to be great for smaller files. And they are convenient and USB bus-powered little drives, and I still regard them as far safer than a HD or Zip. But speed? No way it can compete.

I've heard murmurs of the Apacer Steno range being good for what you want. Never tried it tho. According to the manual for the Sony MCMD-R1, the copy seems to be one-way only (from flash to MD). Also, according to the manual, they seem to specifically mention alkaline batteries (and no mention of rechargeables). I'm unsure if that means you can't use rechargeables? Would be really stupid if you couldn't. Battery life is not hot on this thing, so I guess they only recommend them for semi-decent life before they run down, as opposed to batts with less oomph? Hi-MD is *really* slow at transfers, so a full 1GB would take quite a while to fill - sucking down the battery in no time while doing so. The manual states: Data can be copied about 20 times with a general 128MB Memory Stick using an alkali dry battery made by Sony. Hmm. Sony MCMD-R1 manual: http://www.css.ap.sony.com/consumer/Fn/IMS...ersonal%20Audio Apacer Steno products: http://www.apacer.com/en/products/Multimedia_Storage.htm

That's awful. Hopefully you get it sorted soon. BTW, this is the first thread I've read about stuck buttons (or malfunctioning buttons) on this unit, so I guess I learned something.

Ogg Vorbis is a new format, but it's been out for a little while now already. It's better than mp3. Several manufacturers like LG and Samsung (and others) make portables that play it. Virtually everyone (last I looked) is using it for PC games (to save hundreds of thousands in mp3 licensing costs). Chances are you've already played a game with Ogg Vorbis audio and didn't know it (if you're a PC gamer). Many big-name games use it for their audio. It produces smaller file sizes for the same quality compared to mp3. Or, better quality for the same filesize - generally speaking. In other words, it's technically better. The easiest way to try it is probably by downloading CDex, since it's a CD ripper that has Ogg Vorbis encoding integrated (albeit an older version of the dll). Latest encoders and stuff can always be found at http://www.vorbis.com Quality setting is just another way to choose bitrates, though they don't like to specify bitrates because the encoder can improve with time and bitrates may change. Vorbis is slowly gaining acceptance because it costs manufacturers nothing but development time to implement support (no royalties per hardware or software unit). Nobody really seems to care that it's technically better since mp3 had such a head-start on it and is basically the default lossy audio format that needs to be supported. Ogg Vorbis will not play back on Hi-MD units unless you are playing back as a data file on the PC (like any other data file that you dragged and dropped).

paying CD prices for disposable music in disposable formats with disposable DRM. I'll never understand it. I can't believe people are accepting "less severe drm and higher bitrates" as alternatives to CDs. We are going backwards and actually *wanting* it? Uh, give me CDs. Give me real artwork and a real physical archival medium that I can do whatever I want with, whenever I want, however I want. And don't make me even choose between lossy bitrates. It's all a joke. Good thing there's so little out there worth buying to start with. It's very hard to be tempted.

PCM is the only lossless in your list.

There's something inside me that is busting to know why this hasn't happened yet, but I just accept this as a part of life. It seems so logical, I can't think of any reasons why it's not implemented. To the original poster: Another vote for the RM-MC40ELK; I just wish it wasn't so easy to scratch the clear front plastic (I'm sure it's not the only remote that suffers from this). Legibility in full sunlight as well as darkness is both good, though not as bright with the backlight as some other remotes as I understand, but it seems to be the best of the bunch. Adjusting levels manually on the remote itself (with the jog wheel) in complete darkess (or full sunlight) is essential to my sanity. 3 line display. Need I say more..

will they make SonicStage for Mac? Personally, I doubt it, but nothing's been announced.

http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=2005-11-04 When all investors lose hope in the company and its management