pata2001

I've never have any car CD deck, properly installed and secured, skipping due to road condition.

Yes, I was going to post this too. This is awesome. 96khz/24bit recording to boot! And, MSRP is only $399, cheaper than the RH1 considering you're getting 4GB storage built-in already. http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/19/sonys-p...uality-to-layp/

Nothing special about this. You just moving files around. In order for the Atrac file to be playable on minidisc, one still has to go through Sonicstage.

With storage being a non-issue nowadays, I back up all my Audio CDs to WAV, mainly to save time. For track info, I have them on a .cue sheet. Lossless, although useful for some in certain situation, imo is a waste of time considering 1TB hard-drives are on the cheap nowadays.

Yeah, I used to use it extensively when creating mix audio CDs since my car CD deck can read CD-Text. This is way before MP3 CDs. 1. It's from 2002. 2. A person in that forum already have some sort of explanation

OT, but I don't think Sonicstage can read CD-Text. I know I used to rely on another software (I think it was CD-Text manager or something) to manually copy the CD-Text info into Sonicstage's database since SS cannot read it off directly from the CD. No.

Digital means 1s and 0s. Assuming there are no other factors (scratched CDs, error correction, etc), the same 1s and 0s are being transferred under all above situations, so how would they differ? Answer, no, they're the same. Now, on the other hand, the way the optical drive and the software handles errors might differ. In the end, ripping on a PC with EAC is the surest way to get bit perfect copy.

Wouldn't it be easier if everybody just sign up for free Skydrive account (25GB), upload whatever they have, and share it? Then anybody can download them, mix them, with no degradation in quality, no waiting for shipping nor worrying about cost, no compatibility issue, no risk in the media lost in the mail, etc. The content remains the same, and actually becomes more accessible, instead of being caged in the cliques of MD users only. Point to the video, that's why the author uploaded it to youtube instead of recording it on beta tapes and mailing it to individuals, so it can be enjoyed by a lot of people.

never mind.

Err, more like a legacy leftover. The PS3 was developed and released before Sony decided to cut-off Atrac outside Japan. The PS3 doesn't even support Atrac Advance Lossless, something that you would think they would add if they're still "pushing" Atrac.

Not news because it's false. There is not even a setting for 292kbps SP Atrac on the PS3. Period. The only bitrates available on the PS3 are Atrac3+ bitrates and LP2 (132kbps Atrac3).

Anybody who is concerned about quality will use a secure CD ripper like EAC. It has a quite steep learning curve to configure, but it's the gold standard of quality CD ripper. Rip the CD to WAV using EAC, and simply have Sonicstage encode the WAV to whatever Atrac bitrate you want as needed. Pretty much, although I can argue whether it is really convenient or not.. I think any recent NW series Walkman (Japan only models, as usual) do support playback of AAL natively.

There are 2 components of AAL, the lossless part, and the lossy part. When you rip to AAL, Sonicstage will compress the audio into AAL, AND an Atrac version based on the bitrate you choose. When you transcode the AAL audio file into another format, Sonicstage does NOT transcode the lossless version, but the Atrac lossy version. This can be easily observed when you rip from CD to AAL and picked the lowest Atrac bitrate (eg. 48kbps). Any subsequent transcoding done to any Atrac bitrate will only sound as good as the lossy part (in this case, 48kbps). This made AAL pretty much useless for an intermediate lossless source, unless you have devices that can play AAL natively. If your target is LP2, for best result, is to rip in AAL + 132kbps. Or simply rip the CD to WAV, encode them to LP2, backup the WAV somewhere and delete it from your machine to save space. Anytime you need re-encoding, simply encode from the backup WAV file.

The failure of SACD/DVD-audio has little/nothing to do with iPods. Those formats were introduced before iPods are even popular, and were never popular to begin with. Why? DRM. People want to listen to their music anytime anywhere with whatever device they want/have. SACD/DVD-audio doesn't allow that. People don't like having a restrictive media, let alone paying a premium price for it. People thus chose an already established format, the plain Audio CD. Plain old Audio CD is not-restricted, compatible players are ubiquitous, and cheaper. If the recording companies allowed SACD/DVD-audio to be copied easily, had manufactures making the hardware and portable payers for cheap, and release tons of selection on the format, the story would've probably been different. Claiming that the buying public skipped SACD/DVD-audio just because they "didn't give a crap about the higher quality sound" is an ignorant statement. It's more like SACD/DVD-audio didn't give any discernible advantages over plain old audio CD for their price. I have yet to see an ABX test showing the "higher quality sound" of SACD/DVD-audio over standard Audio-CD, other than obvious differences like surround/multi-channel sound or bad mastering.

1. It's not even out yet in the US. It's only out in Japan (NW models) and Europe. 2. The price is prohibitively expensive. Everybody knows that to compete with a major player (the pricing obviously targets the iPod Touch), you have to have a product that is a lot better and cheaper, not the same price. Also consider the state of the economy today. 3. Reading from the early impressions, it's nothing special outside the OLED screen and the so-called "sound quality." All the other features/lack of are disappointing (poor internet browser, limited video capability, no gapless playback, no lossless support, some awkwardness of the UI, slow transfer speed, etc). One have to think whether it's worth the asking price or not. For the same price, the targeted competitor, the 2G iPod Touch is the better value for many, considering it's an actual mobile OS platform, and it will get major improvements with the upcoming 3.0 firmware, namely stereo bluetooth, before the Sony even officially ships in the US. The Sony X series is just a standalone MP3 player with tacked on wifi and internet. Heck, it doesn't even have bluetooth, something that Sony was heavily promoting on the previous lineup. Then, there's the iPhone. Sony could've used the same "S-master digital amp," and simply make a cheaper regular audio player, without the touch screen and useless wifi/internet browser, and price it to compete with the likes of iPod nano/Zune/Sandisk, etc. IMO that would be a better move and value. The X series is just another sign how out of touch Sony is with the market. Edit: Looking at the manual excerpts at Sony Insider, it seems the X series use capacitive touch screen (the manual said it won't work with gloves/stylus/finger nail). Interesting.

Backup is useless if you cannot restore it. Would you have a HiMD reader 50 years later? I'm sure in 50 years, one can still buy an optical drive to read CD/DVD.

I don't like stickers on my electronics. They cheapen the product. I assume that most of us, including me, removed that MP3 sticker the minute we opened the box.

Microsoft has been offering VirtualPC for free, although one would have to provide a separate XP license. XP mode is pretty much the same (VirtualPC + XP), but a bit more streamlined into the main OS (7). Also, XP mode is only available in Windows 7 pro and up, not on Home Premium (the version that will be more commonly pre-installed on home PCs) or below. XP mode requires processors that have hardware virtualization feature (Intel VT or AMD-V), something to be aware of since many older and low-end machines have processors that don't have this feature or have BIOS that doesn't support the feature.

1. Sony NW series, which are Japan only models. Also, I believe Sony cellphones in Japan still support Atrac. PSP and PS3 also support Atrac. 2. With the more recent version Sonicstage, yes, there's an option to disable copy protection, and you can copy the files to as many PCs/devices as you like. I don't think there's a way to transfer between devices though, unless you re-record/transcode. 3. Yes, but it's old, and only used LP2 and older versions of the other codecs. I have not seen one using Atrac3+ and/or using more recent versions of other codecs. 4. Only in Japan. 5. You can find plenty of portable players and cellphones that can record via their built-in mics. Good for basic voice/lecture recording, but no way near MD in terms of quality/capability. There are plenty of devices geared towards pros with excellent features and quality, but they tend to be pricey. IMO HiMD still holds a good value for a good quality consumer-grade portable recorder. 6. Sony's obvious next step is AAC (Sony co-developed AAC). 7. RealMedia? I hardly see anybody use RealMedia anymore, but I think the last time it had any support for Atrac was for LP2/LP4 (Atrac3), a looong time ago. Never use Real for ages, so not sure about now. 8. Atrac uses CBR, constant bitrate. So filesize should be the same if both have the same bitrate. 9. I assume you're using SP discs/classic MD/NetMD, not HiMD. If they're recorded from mic/analog line-in/optical out, best bet is to buy an RH1 and upload them as WAV to your PC. If they're tracks encoded with Sonicstage and transferred ala NetMD, then there's no way to "backup" those. Just don't delete the tracks from your PC, and/or make sure you rip without copy protection.

The Zune is only reliably gapless with WMA. The result with MP3 is hit-n-miss.

As you said, the example you pointed out is not what I said, but then let's see what your reaction towards me, even to the point of asking me to leave: But hey, like I said, I'm just giving out information, and try to provide a correct one if I read something that is incorrect, not injecting a thread with self promotion of personal garage sale

Oh really? Want some proof? If the program is intel app (not universal binary), then it won't even be compatible with PPC Macs and 10.3. I was replying to the OP, and you're the one jumping in trying to discredit and bash me. Looks like you're the one who's looking for a debate. You haven't explained why you're reiterating that the software run on Leopard, which it does, and I never say it didn't. And did I even talk about flash based recorder here? Ah, and you apologized to the OP, and yet went on and on bashing me. Again, I simply want to provide information, a correct one, not misled people to satisfy self fanboyism to the point of stating incorrect info.

Do you even read your own post? 1. Who says HiMD transfer app not running on Leopard? Do you even read what I posted? I said it still runs on Tiger AND Leopard on intel Macs because both OS have Rosetta. I'm running it right now on my intel iMac with Leopard. Obviously if you're on PPC, there's no issue. Are you smoking something? I was discussing Snow Leopard, 10.6, not Leopard. Do you even know what you're talking about? I can see where you might be confused due to your raging fanboyism. Sony stated, as you have quoted yourself, that the software is only supported up to 10.4. That's it. Does it mean it won't run on Leopard? Obviously it runs just fine, as I use it myself. Nobody says otherwise. 2. Like I already said, I am still using HiMD, and even propose the OP to not having issue with HiMD on Mac if the OP doesn't have any plans to upgrade. The only negative thing is you, spouting nonsense unrelated to the discussion. 3. Yes, this is a minidisc community forum. Who's bashing MD in this thread? I was discussing the compatibility of the HiMD transfer software, and you jumped in spouting nonsense trying to flame me. OMG, this is just too funny. Is this how the MD community has become? I apologize to the OP for this. Obviously my point of discussing the software compatibility on Mac OS has been misunderstood by a fanboy. I can already guess what Guitarfxr will do. He will search some old posts that I made, do some cut & paste quoting, trying to paint me as an MD hater bashing MD, obviously not related to what we're discussing in this thread. Your cue Guitarfxr.

Have you used the Mac MD transfer software? I have. The reason it still works now on intel Macs is because Tiger and Leopard have Rosetta to run PPC apps. The HiMD transfer program is a PPC app, not universal binary. If you actually read my comment, I'm commenting on Snow Leopard, which may not support PPC anymore (the beta versions are intel only), and who knows whether Apple would keep supporting Rosetta or not. If you read Guitarfxr copy & paste job, technically Sony doesn't even support the software on Leopard (only supported up to 10.4). But hey, it's your money, and as long as you don't upgrade, you're fine. Just keep what I said in mind when you're buying a new intel Mac with Snow Leopard. Think if it's worth it spending that much money for something that may not even work on your next hardware/OS. Of course, I could be wrong, Apple might decide to keep supporting Rosetta. However, looking at recent Apple's decision to drop technologies like Firewire and the fact that beta version of Snow Leopard is intel only, I won't be surprised if Apple decide Rosetta is no longer needed since most programs are available in universal binary. Obviously you can run windows on intel Macs, but then Sony doesn't support Sonicstage anymore. Vista compatibility is a hit & miss, and Sonicstage is not even compatible with 64bit Vista. Let alone Windows 7. Because I like to provide information, not misled people just to satisfy your fanboyism. Obviously you didn't even read my comment, since I was commenting on Snow Leopard & Rosetta, while you're copy & pasting irrelevant info. I didn't tell the OP not to get HiMD, I simply provide the information so the OP can make an educated decision whether to jump into the format or not. I myself still use HiMD too, for its purpose.

Think about this first before jumping into HiMD. The HiMD software for Mac is PowerPC only, not universal binary. Although it should be fine for you now since you're using a G4, if you're planning to upgrade later, Snow Leopard will be intel only, and who knows whether Apple is still going to support Rosetta or not. Without Rosetta, you won't be able to run PPC apps anymore on intel Macs.