pata2001

MD/HiMD does not have any transfer problems from different PCs, since they don't need to be authorized. Also, there's simpleburner. Sony seems to confuse people with the so called "Atrac Audio Device." The E99 is probably the last network walkman to be free of these problems (plus it can play all the new Atrac3+ bitrates just fine ). I hope they can do better with the new connect software. Nobody seems to learn from Apple. Everyone put bells and whistles on their hardware, but nobody thinks about the software, which is why the iPod+iTunes combo kick everybody's butts in terms of user friendliness.

Yes, aparrently the RH10/910 cannot utilize the 3 line display of the 40ELK fully. However, the DH710 does! The DH710 menu system is similar/based on the 1st gen units, and it can utilize the 40ELK to display Artist, album, and song on the 3 lines. IMO, this is another oversight of Sony. Sony just cannot make 1 thing right at the get go.

IMO, as an end user, with the fact that most Sony devices can play MP3 natively now, the only advantage left for Atrac is gapless. Sony needs to: -Bring Atrac support to ALL audio playback capable devices. This is to ensure the widespread use of Atrac. -Lossless! This is to make Atrac usable as an archive codec. Apple has apple lossless, MS has WMA lossless, I think its time for Atrac lossless too. This is also to resolve the quality reductions in transcoding, since Sony devices only support certain codecs and bitrates. (Eg. If you rip your CDs at 320kbps Atrac3+, the quality advantage is pretty much useless since you have to transcode to lower bitrates anyway as not all Sony devices support the new bitrates). If we have lossless as a source, transcoding won't be much of a problem (other than it takes more time).

There are features that existed on the 1st gen, but overlooked/absent on the 2nd gen units. 1. Fully utilize the 3 line display of the 40ELK. C'mon, is this so hard to do? 2. Again, on 40ELK. When browsing using the scroll wheel (without going to the Navi menu), the tracks are listed without the parent group's name. This makes navigating somewhat difficult, since you can't tell on which group you're on. 3. Have the unit remembered the last display setting. Currently, simply stopping playback on the unit will revert the display to the default. Sony seems to not doing things "right" at the start, but trickling "fixes/features" on the consecutive new lineups. So maybe the HiMD units we "wanted" are probably the 5th or 6th gen, if the format can survive that long.

Yeah, that's what sucks with SS3.x. Luckily, you're using XP. Download a program called Applocale form Microsoft (just do a search on their main page), and run SS3.2 under applocale using Chinese setting. Sony really needs to move SS to unicode.

Note that you can still use the regular MD blanks with HiMD. You can format the regular MD blanks into the FAT filesystem that HiMD uses, and you'll get additional capacity. However, a HiMD formatted discs cannot be played back on old regular MD units. If your GF won't use her old unit, than 2nd gen units are good, plus they can playback MP3s. Depending on your location, colored RH10s (notably blue and orange) can only be imported from Japan though.

This is 1 useful feature that was not excuted properly, making it harmful for consumers. Sony should have done this IF they are going to use the Li-ion battery for the units. Charging the NiMH gumstick like this is definitely not healthy.

The DH10P is a downloader only. It doesn't have a line-in jack, and probably not what your GF wants, since it requires PC to put music in it. Assuming you want to go HiMD, there is 1 important point: Does she still want to use her old MD unit? 2nd gen HiMD units cannot record to old legacy MD format (SP/LP2/LP4) anymore, although they can still playback old legacy MDs just fine. If she doesn't need to use her old unit, than pick either the RH910/RH10. Both have line/optical-in. RH10 has OLED and more expensive. If she still want to use her old unit, then you have to find 1st gen HiMD units, since they can record old legacy MD formats. NHF800, NH900, and NH1 all have line/optical-in. Problem is, they are getting harder and harder to find.

Wow, Sony does go an extra mile, and more, just to make things more difficult for end users. I guess there's a reason why Sony priced the M-series an extra $100 (aside from the mic and E931). Now, does the M-series works fine with windows though? (downloads and uploads)

Your audio quality is only going to be as good as the source, in this case, the 128-192kbps MP3. You will NOT gain any quality by transcoding to higher bitrate. In fact, you are loosing quality by transcoding a lossy format to another. 2nd gen HiMD can play MP3s natively, so just use the MP3s. There is no point in transcoding to anything. If you must transcode (ie for playback in older HiMD/MD units), I would go with LP2. Converting MP3s at those bitrates to HiSP will only waste space, and you gain nothing in return.

Sony parts store is a ripoff. Go to audiocubes and you can get the 35ELKU (note the U at the end of the model number) for the E10 for $65. The 35ELK/U is 2 line, and kanji capable. http://www.audiocubes.com/category/Audio+A...isc_remote.html

I would go with the infamous Nero + simpleburner option. This is similar in burning MP3s to CDs, but doesn't involve burning actual CDs. You just making images of the "CDs" in your hard-drive, and simpleburner will rip them much faster (since it is in your hard drive). What you need: 1. A burning program supporting burning an ISO image or somekind of image format. Nero does this (it uses its own image format), and it decodes most MP3s just fine. Burn those MP3s to an AudioCD image. 2. Use an image mounting program like Daemon's tool (freeware) to mount the image, so Windows will think it is actually an AudioCD. If you have Nero already, it comes with Nero image drive that does just that. 3. Start simpleburner. It will think the mounted image is an audioCD. You can title them at this point. Then start ripping. Sure, SS3.x is getting better, but for simple transfers of music, why not just use a simpler program, simpleburner.

Where are you at? And are you willing to import or not? If you're in the US, locally, you're choice is limited, only the Sony EX71SL (can be found online around $30). If you're willing to import, check audiocubes. Most Japanese version of earphones/headphones have short cables. My fav is Sony ED31SL. Careful, there are fakes out there.

First of all, Lame will cut off the high frequency unless you specify it not to do it. -V1, -preset standard, will do a lowpass of 19000Hz, which is actually correct per those graphs. Preset extreme has a lowpass of 19500Hz. To disable this, you have to add -k after the presets on the command line. This will disable any lowpass and lame will use the whole frequency band. Of course, this negates the purpose of music compression (to ignore/compress frequencies that are not hearable by most people), and you'll end up with a bigger file, or a lower quality MP3. Oh, and you don't need any fancy equipment. Just decompress the MP3 to wav, and use EAC to do a spectrum analysis, It will display the same cut off on the 19000Hz frequency range.

MD/HiMD units are considered as consumer electronics, not computer devices. Consumer electronics get replaced each year with models that have more/better (or fixed) features. Just look at DVD players, going from standard, to progressive scan, to MP3 and JPEG support, etc. Most major electronic companies (Sony, JVC, Pioneer, etc) won't just do a firmware upgrade unless the flaw is major and plenty of consumers are complaining about it. They prefer consumers to purchase the new models if they want the new features. All we hope is later production units will get a revision update/fixes.

That is a hard choice. If you can live without legacy MD recording capability on the unit, the by all means get the RH10 for its OLED display and MP3 playback.

In the past (NetMD units), people prefer units with optical in because that's the only way to get true SP quality recordings. Today, with HiSP, that won't be much of a problem anymore. Some people still prefer the higher end units because they have mic-in, which is crucial for those that do field/live-recordings, and the only $50 difference is worth it to get the RH910. If you will only going to transfer AudioCDs to your HiMD via PC, then IMO the DH710 is probably a decent unit. 1 thing I notice is it uses the older type of menu display (similar to 1st gen HiMD units), while the RH910/10 uses menu display more similar to Sony's HD walkmans. And yeah, give us a review, and some pics if you can.

"Microsoft-flavored DRM technology will be a feature of Pentium D and 945" To me, it's more like a FLAW than a FEATURE. IMO, this won't deal with MP3s (unless the RIAA gets their dirty hands on it), but more with MS trying to prevent pirate copy of windows. All they need now is a driver and/or some protocol in windows/windows update to verify this hardware DRM to validate the legitimacy of the OS. As for "consumers don't like DRM," look at how many people are using iTunes/napster music service. Let's face it, the majority of consumers know nothing about DRM. Sure, a few will complain here and there, but the majority will just use it without knowing the true disadvantages. That's why it's important for us, who can realize how bad DRM can be, to educate our family and friends to stay away form DRMed anything.

There's no need to import one if he's going to get an ELK remote. All you need to do is some registry edits to enable kanji display on the ELK remote. Besides, foreign version of the RH910 doesn't include a kanji remote anyway, only a non-LCD remote.

As far as I know, the units, especially US versions, cannot display kanji at all. You need remotes that have ELK at the end of the model number. However, note that Sony Japan only design them to display Japanese, meaning although it will show most Chinese characters that are available in Japanese kanji characters set, not all chinese characters are supported. Furthermore, Sony USA does its best to prevent US units to display kanji by disabling kanji support in US install of sonicstage (you have to do multiple registry edits to enable it). Search the board for them. There is an additional region setting edit in the registry for HiMD units in addition to enabling multi-byte support. As for the remotes for the RH910, you could get either the 35ELK or 40ELK. Note that although the 40ELK has 3 line display, for some reason, it seems the RH910 won't show 3 line info (artist, album, title) like the 1st gen HiMD units. It will show track#, time, and the last line will togle between the artist/album/song title. This is a major drawback for Sony USA, as Apple, Creative, iRiver, and even Dell, allow kanji support on their MP3 DAPs.

I don't think it's even available anymore at Sonystyle USA. It's been replaced by the NW-E407/507. The E407 is 1GB, has OLED, built-in LiIon, and currently has cheaper MSRP ($180) than the E99 ($200) in the US. The E507 is an E407 with an FM tuner.

-Most HDD based MP3 players won't have remotes included, let alone a backlit LCD one. The only one I can think of is the iAudio M3, which is getting phased out for the newer model, the X5. -iRiver and OGG? Only the older players H1xx and H3xx support OGG. The H10 and its variations won't support OGG, and iRiver said they won't support OGG anymore. -Not many MP3 players can record. And those that can, the quality is questionable, albeit they're getting better and better. kalo: You can purchase the remote for your NH900 from Audiocubes. The cheapest one is probably the 33EL.

You should be able to adjust the EQ. Push and hold the sound button for a couple of seconds.

This is what happens if your installed version of SS does not match with the setting for non-unicode program in windows, and this is your first time connecting the device after the upgrade. For example, I have US SS, and changed windows non-unicode setting to Japanese. If I did this before SS install the drivers needed for the device, it won't recognize the device. I have to switch windows back to US/English, connect all the units one-by-one (network walkmans, NetMD, etc) for SS to recognize them and install the drivers. Once this is done (SS has the necessary drivers), I can switch windows back to Japanese, and everything is fine. This has to be done with every upgrades, since the upgrades will uninstall the previoius version of SS. In short, if this is the first time you plug-in the device for that specific version of SS, the version of Ss has to match your windows non-unicode program setting. How dumb can Sony be...

Well, to find that one out, you need a Chiness SS install. It should be in your SS CD included with you HiMD unit. To get it, uninstall your current SS. With SS removed, change the non-unicode program setting in windows (assuming you use XP) to Chinese. Restart windows. Put in your SS CD. When it starts, it will ask which region you will use SS. Pick Asia/Chinese/something like that. You won't be able to install SS anyway if you pick a region that doesn't match with your windows setting. SS should install regularly. I assume the menus will be in Chinese, since with the JP install, all menus is in Japanese. After all is done, fire up regedit, find the same registry keys.