tekdroid

both sides of the disc are used in MD.

OK cool! It would be rude not to accept your exception I'll get in touch with Wiz (found out the hard way you have PMs disabled ) Unexpected and appreciated. Thanks!

yeah those exact thoughts (recording remote) went through my head. It's just weird how in its exasperating death the remote ended up doing what it always wanted!

The good news! I have overcome my fear of RM-MC40ELK dissection. The bad news! It took the death of the remote to do it (more on that later). The good news! It's quite easy (with a bit of force and a bit of care) to open her up after you have unscrewed that single screw, so you can clean out dust, etc. If you are the type of person annoyed by that spec, you know what to do (and you know who you are!). The bad news! The MZ-NH1 - the model this remote came with - is lost without this remote. Seriously hampered. No, another remote won't enable all her features. While the MZ-NH1 spends her life looking understated and simple, inside there's not much there. She's very much in need of someone to discover all her features. Ah, such is the price of minimalist vanity. The good news. * Remote died before unit has (Hi-MD unit is still living. Yesssss) * We have some quick pics? Observations * The scroll wheel seems to be made by ALPS; if you remove the scroll wheel it says ALPS on the back (not pictured). * the white bit behind LCD is the backlight bit, which shines the light through the LCD glass. I'm sure someone could mod this to make it brighter * I have been through hell with this remote, and giving this remote the (controlled) hell I did, I had some darkish bits in my display caused by sun(light) damage. ie. when backlit, some areas had bits that were uneven (ie. darker). Anyway, the white backlight bit I mentioned...well that part on my unit was slightly scorched by the sun (brown spots on the white panel). The fix? Simply wiping the brown spots off. Hooray, no more darkish backlit areas on the display. The bad news? A full dissection and put-her-back-together did not fix her up, despite these discoveries. The problem was? Let me tell you the tale: *cue harps* The remote's behaviour can best be described as: WEIRD. VERY VERY WEIRD. Let me provide a summary (?). 1) unit seems to want to record (yes, record) every time the remote is attached. ie. you just attach a remote to a unit (any unit) and it will turn the unit will wake up, acting like you pressed a button, (I had no stuck buttons). Scared it would wipe a disc, I disconnected the remote, took the disc out and write-protected it. If you inserted a protected disc, it would flash PROTECTED constantly. If you had a low battery , it would do the NOT ENOUGH POWER TO REC thing. Basically, I confirmed it wants to record every time you attach the remote to it. Other remotes? Work normal, as expected on the same units! 2) the STOP button - every time I pressed it - acted as if it were record, too. I kid you not. 3) at one point, (though it only happened once) the track forward and back buttons controlled the VOLUME (I am not kiddnig you). Crazy! I know how this sounds, but all this happened. 4) at some points you could see about a million different menus flash up every second and repeat constantly. Obviously something was digging into those menus but it sure as hell wasn't any physical button or wheel. 5) scroll wheel would only work when you pressed down on it. But here's where it gets interesting... randomly... like about 2% of the time... the scroll wheel went back to working just as it always has. But it only happened 3 times or so... 98% of the time (and up til this point) no more workee unless pressed down. Absolutely no response to scrolling (yet scrollng it would still turn the backlight on!... sometimes). Yeah, I know...weird. Now, before this, over the past few weeks, I did have the remote once or twice not responding to next track or previous track, or PLAY... from memory. I sort of scratched my head at that, but thought nothing of it, really. So anyway, this crazy remote made itself known today while I was minding my own, listening to some music in Group Playback mode. Group Play ended like normal and I pressed PLAY by feel again, like I normally do... and there's no music. I looked at the display and it was... to my shock, in either REC or REC PAUSE mode (!). Pressing stop was useless, as mentioned. Conclusion And so with all said and done, time for a new (expensive) remote...which I am not exactly enjoying having to buy. Anyway, goodbye MC-RM40ELK, we shared some good times, my friend. Rain (!), scorching sun (!), cold... ahh the memories. Thousands of KM on bike. Crazy recording sessions. I guess this is the end *sniff* Love, MZ-NH1 & tekdroid. Saturday, 7th March 2009.

A lot of it is down to trial and error regarding settings. Your ear could tell you more than what we could regarding what you want to achieve. How are you finding the Windtech MM-18? Man, those furry accessories sure do cost. This is without going in to Rycote and others.

I think it takes more than promotion. The thing was slow, very slow. CD-R was big just a few years later and much cheaper to build and compatible with millions of players. MD Data also had limited capacity and was relatively expensive to manufacture, too (actually far more expensive to build, and it is still is now compared to flash-based players, regular CDs burners, DVD burners, etc). While it gets points for cool, it's debatable what a big advertising budget would have achieved here given competing storage formats of the time(s).

ah but is it cooler than 32GB of pr0n from the private server on SD card?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MD_Data

There are ways to modify the laser output in Service Mode firmware settings (to compensate output as the laser ages, etc), but just speaking for myself, I haven't gone into that area yet. I'm pretty sure I read some topics on it in the past. Another possibility is the magnetic head not making contact with the disc properly causing recording to fail. Head cleaners may fix this, but as far as I'm aware, every time someone has tried a head cleaner here, nothing has been fixed

You're hilarious.

Do you think there's a good reason to stick with the constraints of optical discs for portable recorders in 2009? If so, I'd be interested in your thoughts.

100 songs is not bad, I wish I could fit them losslessly on one Hi-MD But you know where all this zapping started, don't you? Those new-fangled CDs started it all. Track selection! Programmed playback?! I could hardly believe my eyes. Then, digital presets on the radio! After that it was all downhill. Nobody appreciates music nowadays. Zapping back and forth with no respect for the broadcaster's wishes. Back in my day we used to be huddled around the wireless as a family. Those were the days. Stories, drama, music, variety...we had it all on the wireless, and none of us turned out bad or were so easily bored like the kids nowadays! Now, where was I? Oh yes, the cost of medicine is outrageous. Back in my day we... Damn kids, get off my lawn!

Sony's current MDR-EX300 and MDR-EX500 might fit the bill. My PSP and DS are made in China My clothes, too

After reading about Hi-MD bugs years ago and finding this again, I am curious if there is a definitive Hi-MD Bug List sitting around the deep halls of MiniDisc.org, waiting to be read; a single thread where all the bugs of various generation units are listed and can be tested on our unit(s).

There will always be comments by those who don't appreciate or use the strengths of a particular technology and/or device. MiniDisc's is editing, recording from multiple sources, remotes, sound, removable batteries and media, etc. Lots of these are overlooked in favour of sheer storage capacity, video, colour display... often because this is the main draw to these users. Each and every one of those devices has advantages the other doesn't have (as well as disadvantages). I don't regard it as good evolution if my needs are not being met by a device efficiently. There are reasons why dedicated devices like electronic dictionaries, dedicated calculators, wristwatches and so forth still sell well; they do their main tasks with great efficiency and meet the needs of their users better than devices with all-in-one-itis. Now, it's quite possible many people probably favour converged devices as 'good enough' most of the time, but if your needs deviate slightly from that, or you have particular usability criteria, highly converged products like those to the right can be less-than-ideal in several areas. Personally I find non-removable storage and batteries the hallmarks of a disposable society. I also find the modern non-use of remotes in favour of look-at-it-to-change-a-track devices is going backwards, among so many other design compromises in today's highly-converged devices. Those negative MiniDisc comments...some of them are justified, others are just 'cause some don't genuinely find value in the format, and others are totally ignorant. I'd like to think lots are DRM-related. All good fun to see how others comment on MiniDisc on non-MiniDisc related sites.

Remotes. There's a tactile experience I really care for. Rest of Sony's range is weak sauce when it comes to blind usage, not to mention basic informational LCDs. This is without going into the rest of the industry, which feels totally outclassed in this department by this obscure little format Yes there are small players that can be used as a remote, but it just isn't the same.

Yeah yeah, tell that to the judge

If it were me, I'd simply save up for a Hi-MD and proper mic, unless you're just stuffing about experimenting for fun and not much else. I love my MZ-NH700 almost more than life itself some days (tacky silver-painted plastic construction and all).

No, it's dual headphone outs, specifically marked with two headphone symbols with a 1 and 2 next to them. I have scanned a page in the manual:

Wonderful gesture. I'd take it if I didn't already have a silver MZ-R70 sitting here...uhm, just sitting here ...which was given to me. The guilt would kill me I like the unit. If she were a PCM beastie, I'd be truly in love with her. Dual headphone outputs. When will we see those again, eh. A nice lil' unit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi-MD Basically you'll need a Hi-MD unit to upload digitally through USB

I love the NH1's sound; what earbuds/headphones are you listening to it with? With some of them, no doubt it can sound too bright compared to regular models without the HD digital amp; it's a question of taste and your headphones / earphones.

http://www.alesis.com/protrack USD$199 http://www.guitarcenter.com/Alesis-ProTrac...047-i1434674.gc Guitarfxr should be banned for hijacking this fine, wholesome Hi-MD topic 2.5 hours on 4xAAA sounds limiting. PCM-D50 is on another level, really...not to mention it does higher bitrates. I'm assuming mics are worlds apart, too. Still, interesting add-on for a product I don't own

I've gotta say the tactile part of it means v.little to me. I like that they are different, shiny little discs, and that I can piece together, more or less, how they work on a physical level and kind of enjoy that, but that's where it ends. * The fact that they make noise is a nice novelty in this age, I'll give you that, but not ideal when recording and I could do without the mechanical complexity of the units. * I don't like that putting media in is something you probably couldn't trust to your 4 year-old. * I don't really like that dust and humidity / condensation is more of an issue with the units and media. * I don't like that the magnetic head makes physical contact with the disc. * I think it's genius how they made it all happen when nobody else could do something like this in a portable, and they are quite unique, but that's where it ends for me. What I like is that I can separate music from the unit, keep it offline in bits, but I don't like that those bits are a mere 1GB and that same 1GB limits recording lengths, especially when doing PCM. I enjoy the same removableness with flash media in my digital camera, tapes in my video camera, memory stick in my PSP, etc. I would hate for them to be tied to the unit, non-removable like so many disposables nowadays. Batteries; it goes without saying I hate non-removable batteries that limit the life of perfectly good electronics to their own limited life and don't allow easy swapping whenever and wherever you are. I dislike battery-charging appendages. I can't stand downtime charging and can't stand batteries that cannot be removed. To this day have never bought a portable unit of anything without the ability to swap out a battery, and never will.

I find the clips pretty good. You don't have a shirt pocket where these remotes are ideal, really. With no pockets I do the "at the neck" clip-on routine, which can be sort-of-secure depending on what I'm wearing, as long as I'm not being too crazy.