pata2001

Same thing with iPods, you have to use iTunes (although there are 3rd party hacks/programs) to transfer music. Some other DAPs also require software (eg. WMP). At least Sony HiMD/Network walkman are recognized as UMS device, unlike some DAPs that are MTP devices, which only work with WinXP.

Yes, the iPod earbud foams would fit. You can buy those earbud foams at radioshack (US).

-I use PC for temporary storage and transfer, but I rarely use my PC for actua listening. I don't have a good PC speaker. -Primarily Lame 3.97b2 --preset fast standard, Atrac HiSP+LP2, and currently experimenting with OGG -q 3.

OK, I don't understand why poeple are so fascinated in defragging MD/HiMD. It's been discussed a couple times, long time ago. It's not woth the wear and tear of your unit. It's like defragging a floppy disk. Can you do it? yes. Is it worth the time/wear and tear? No, unless you just don't like your unit anymore.

No

I would vote for iAudio or Samsung, if they actually support OGG properly. Even though they claimed to support OGG, OGG files cannot be played gaplessly on their units. That's like saying MP3 support but VBR MP3s cannot be played.

Read my sig.

Since the end point is a PC, then why don't you just record the LPs to your PC directly to WAV? It saves money, time, headache (dealing with sonicstage) and also preserve quality. Just plug-in the analog out of the hifi system to your sound card's line-in, and record away. No DRM to worry.

When HiMD is gone, I'll be using iPod with rockbox, since for now, that is the only other alternative for gapless playback on a currently selling device, not a discontinued/no-longer-available device. Oh, I forgot about the PSP, but it's too big.

Well, then explain the delays. This is just a fun speculations, just like those market analysts popping up every couple week or so predicting what the next iPod will be. We're speculating about the reason for the delays, not about how Sony will market the RH1. Even if Sony will only market RH1 to pro users, then why does Sony take its time to release the product? The only reason that makes sense to me (other than sony won't release the RH1 in the US at all), is the neutered firmware, since it will take time to switch the assembly line. Software (SSCP4.0) is ready. Manual is ready. Hardware design is ready. Packaging design is ready. What's holding it then? You can see the marketing brochure from Sony USA, and there is no mention for uploading legacy recordings at all. As for it might be hurting sales argument, "screwing the customer" is Sony's middle name, with countless of history notes of Sony in the past. Regardless of the market of the RH1 is intended for, the RIAA will not be happy, and we know what the music industry arm of Sony has done in the past on the electronics branch. Sony neutered US D-NE20 firmware to disable kanji capability, so it is not impossible for them to switch assembly line just to do something stupid. We'll see. But isn't it fun to speculate? There too many iPod rumors, but no Sony ones. The difference is that Sony did release the HD5 officially in the US. It was available from Sonystyle, at Target, Fry's, CompUSA, etc. The NW-Axxx was never even mentioned in Sony USA website, although it was presented at a show (I forgot what show, CES?), and Steve Jobs saw it too. Yeah, if I was a Sony exec, I would just streamline all product lineup for all countries to have the same lineups. It's a waste of time and money to micro adjust product lineups on every different region of the world. Just translate, copy and paste Sony Japan product page, simple. Not only that, it saves money on the assembly line since they're only making/packaging 1 version of each product, not multiple versions just for specific regions. And here we have Sony crying foul for loosing money and the portable audio market. Go figure.

What is the earbud model included with the M100? E808 or E931?

Let's play market analyst: 1. We thought the delay of the release might be due to Sony USA waiting for SSCP 4.0. Understandable, so Sony can skip SS3.4 for the RH1. However, SSCP 4.0 is out already. 2. Toshiba is delaying the S30 release in the US because they're waiting for WMP11 to be released. Sony updated the NW-Axxxx and E00x to support WMA. Maybe Sony is switching to WMP, and probably also the reason they didn't release the Network Walkmen in the US, yet? 3. Apple is gearing up with Nike, and with it, new firmware for iPod and new iTunes. Also, the rumor is Apple going to sell full length movies via iTunes. At the same note, Sony updated the new Network Walkmen to support AAC, albeit no fairplay DRM. Coincidence? The video iPod and PSP have similar support for video (both H.263 and H.264). Maybe Sony is waiting for this? Nothing to do with the RH1, but hey. Let's see if the rumor flame spread quickly. If you read the RH1 manual, it does mention North America, although it can refer to Canada only. So, back to my "market analysis," Sony USA must be gearing a new assembly line to neuter the firmware (c'mon, will the RIAA stand still with those uploading feature?), or they're not going to bother with the US market. Heck, sony USA did not even release the NW-Axxxx and E00x, while Canada got both. Sony flash players (E1xx, 4xx, 5xx)were quite popular (the fact they're even available at Target and Bestbuy), so if Sony USA skipped the E00x, maybe Sony USA gave up on the portable audio market in the US altogether. Gotta keep the music execs fat and happy, right? On a more positive note, there is an RH1 spec for download at Sony USA: http://www.iq.sony.com/srvs/DocsConnect/do...d=70537&DL=true Note there is no mention for uploading legacy recordings, only this: Remote is 38EL , and earbud is E808 So much for being high end, no E931.

Yeah, we wish. IMO, Sony USA would probably neuter the US RH1 instead. Just look at the lack of Divx capability of Sony's latest portable DVD player, while the same exact model in Canada supports Divx. The music and movie industry still hold a tight grasp on Sony USA. The delays must be that Sony is switching the assembly line for a neutered firmware on the RH1 (eg. disable uploading feature, disable ELK remote compatiblity, etc). If Sony USA is thinking of "re-marketing" the RH1, then we should at least see some hints of US press releases or ads somewhere. Maybe Sony is not even releasing the RH1 in the US. They don't even release the NW-Axxxx and E00x players in the US.

- The optical zoom will make the unit much thicker. - Battery life is already poor on the DH10P. Adding a more powerful flash light will make it worse. - Data transfer of HiMD/MD is still too low for a real-time video capture. Just look at how long it takes to save a picture on the disc. Besides, there's the battery life issue. Yes, but aside from advertising, Apple did deliver the product as advertised. The iPod is easy to use. itunes is far more user friendly and useful than any other software jukebox out there. iTMS' fairplay DRM is much more lenient than other online legal download services. So, blame it on Sony execs that cannot think smarter than iPod fanboys.

Anytime you break the large file into smaller files, regardless of codec/procedure, you're risking screwing up the gapless. First thing I would do is take note of the time index of each track. Then convert the MP3 into 1 big WAV file, and create a CUE sheet (.cue extension) in relation to that WAV file with the time index for track marks. (Sample CUE sheet file: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:CueFile.gif). This will retain gapless (as you never break the file in the first place). With Daemon Tools (freeware), you can mount the CUE sheet and windows will think it's an AudioCD. It will have track marks based on the time index you put in the CUE sheet. Now you can run sonicstage and rip the virtual AudioCD to your desired Atrac bitrate. You MUST rip to only 1 bitrate in one go to preserve gapless. Ripping each track individually will break gapless. Ripping in different bitrates will break gapless. Some old links to discussions about MP3 and gapless: http://www.audiotstation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21789 http://www.audiotstation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=30199

MP3 won't fade, unless all electronics manufactures are bought out by the RIAA. It's de-facto standard in digital audio, just like AudioCD won't fade anytime soon. As for sound quality, at 128kbps and higher, MP3 and AAC are still on par. The latest Lame MP3 -V 5 can still pack a punch in ABX tests. The only way I see is if we go to 64kbps and below, which HE-AAC is a better solution than AAC. Too bad not many devices and software support HE-AAC yet. Even iTunes doesn't support HE-AAC, despite Apple bringing AAC to the masses with iTMS. I don't see any signs of the RH1 in the US. Is it even coming? Why does it take so long? SS CP 4.0 is released already. Does Sony USA hire monkeys to make marketing decisions? That is if they even have a marketing department in the first place. I'm just afraid that the tight grasp of Sony music in the US might affect this. Is Sony USA decided to neuter its DVD player's Divx capability vs Canadian version, I can see Sony USA neutering the uploading capability of the RH1 in the US, or not releasing it at all. That might explain the delay since they have to re-program the firmware and switching the assembly line. So monkeys may be smarter than Sony execs.

Let's see the DH10P for example, $500 MSRP. Who's going to buy that if you can get a 60GB iPod for $400? Let's face it. If Sony had had put the DH10P's MSRP at, let's say, $200, I'm sure it will attract more people. When the street price reached ~$250, many people are getting the DH10P (including me). Sell it at $99, and I'm sure it will a bestseller. Advertising would had helped too. Yeah, I pity the engineers. Their excellent designs are overshadowed by stupid top execs who cannot even do marketing properly.

To counter this: 1. Why didn't we get the uploading feature SOONER? It's been a complaint ever since NetMD was released. 2. Why aren't there any decks? It's also been one of the most desired device from the enthusiasts. 3. Why are we still using Sonicstage? Sure, it's been a great improvement since OpenMG jukebox, but if Sony even read major reviews from magazines/newspaper, most of the complaint would be on Sonicstage. IMO, the RH1 has many great features because Sony would probably not invest any longer in the HiMD/MD technology. Look at how they scrutinize the DRM on early MD and NetMD, Memory stick (Magicgate), SACD, then UMD and later bluray. The only reason I could think of that Sony relaxed many of its previous restriction on MD/HiMD would be that they are going to abandon it. We won't see the Sony we hope for until it cuts off the music/movie industry arm.

My wish is for Sony USA to stop acting like a bunch of racists, and release US HiMD units unmodified from the JP version, including the ELK remotes. Sony USA needs to accept reality that kanji is not the source of all evil. As for the list, I voted for a car unit. It's too long overdue, and even more desirable since Sony couldn't care less in supporting seamless/gapless in AtracCD car decks.

Do you think they will care? Any email you sent to Sony is probably just going to an auto-reply bot.

I fail to see any benefit of AAC support without fairplay (iTunes) DRM, unless Sony can support HE-AAC.

You "can" use a mic on a line-in, but it has to be a self-powered/amped mic to be usable. Unlike a special mic-in jack, a line-in jack is not powered, so using a regular mic will yield very very low volume.

I still have a celeron 1GHz, Radeon 32MB (the original Radeon), 448MB RAM, runing win2k for 1 to 2 days non-stop running Bittorrent, and it's perfectly usable and stable. My main music PC is an AthlonXP 1700+, 768MB RAM, Radeon 9000pro 64MB, and I don't see any problems with it, except for winXP itself that will hiccup sometime.

Unless you're using Vista, 1GB is still the sweet spot. Going from 256MB to 512MB, and 512MB to 1GB will show significant improvement in performance. However, there are plenty of benchmarks, inlcuding gaming, that show diminishing return or negligible increase in performance going from 1GB to 2GB. Yes, photoshop does require a lot of memory to run, but there are plenty of freeware simple applications (like Picasa) that will do just fine for simple "touch ups" and doesn't require as much as memory like photoshop. Simple windows tweaks will reduce your memory requirement in the first place. Using windows classic visual, not using wallpaper, disable animations and visual effects, stop programs from loading in the start-up folder and registry, etc will give you free performance boost. Now, Windows Vista is another story. To be able to use Aero glass, you might want to start with 2GB in addition to a DX9 video card with at least 128MB video memory. 1Gb is still the recommended spec for Vista Premium Ready PCs, but you know how Microsoft goes. Who thought 640KB should be enough for anybody...

The 7900GT is capable enough to run any current games at acceptable frame-rate at 1024x768 with everything turned on. If you're experiencing slowdown, make sure you have the latest driver. Not many people can afford $400-$500 just for a video card. I would start learning how to optimize/tweak your windows environment, driver settings, and game settings to mazimize your performance instead of wasting money to replace your 7900GT. Also note that F.E.A.R and BF2 are not the GPU killer anymore. your 7900GT will run them just fine. The current GPU killer is Oblivion. I myself just upgraded from radeon 9800pro to X850 pro. CPU is AMD64 3800+. I would have stick with the 9800pro if not for Doom3 and Quake4.