mmp64

"SONY:If you cannot pay the wages to keep your people happy or give us (your paying customers) the support to fix a flawed platform them dump SS and ATRAC and lets get back to some old favourites like MP3." That is exactly what they did.

I use Winamp.

Not my auction, but thought someone might be interested. http://cgi.ebay.com/Sony-Portable-MiniDisc...1QQcmdZViewItem

Actually, I have no problem with your post. Good luck.

I think the consensus on this board is that "old school" SP (292K) recorded in real time trumps HiSP (256K). Though that may just be for sentimental reasons.

Unfortunately, the software is mostly rubbish - at least for music. As has been noted elsewhere, it does not know what a playlist is - not even standard .m3u formatted playlists. So right now - I'm using three applications to manage my player - Winamp (for Playlists); MediaManager (for Video), and Napster. It's great that the app is flexible enough to support all of these apps.... (I can even "rent" audiobooks from my library and send them to the player using their app - it is so "un-Sony")... however - it would be nice if MediaManager at least did playlists.

I've transferred several videos to my player using the ImTOO DVD ripper. Actually, the iPod profile works - though I modified it slightly - my settings are: Video Codec is MP4, the video size is 320x240, Bit Rate is 512, Frame Rate is Auto, Audio Codec is mpeg4aac, Audio Bit Rate is 128, Sample Rate is 22050, Channels is 2, and Disable Audio = False. Good luck.

http://www.imtoo.com/dvd-to-mp4-converter.html

RE: earlier question of how exactly to do this - all you have to do is import the podcast into SonicStage, then transfer to your device like any other song. If it needs to be converted to ATRAC, that will be done automatically by the software. There are advanced options for selecting the default bitrate. If you have NetMD, I would use LP4, if you have HiMD, I would use HiLP (64K) (which is much better than LP4).

Even a few years ago, before MD was essentially dead, Sony support was pathetic. They are just too big.

You can import almost any MP3 file into SonicStage and transfer it to your MD. If you have an older MD, it will be converted to ATRAC. If you have a newer unit that plays native MP3, it will transfer directly. Of course, for the most part doing Podcasts with an iPod is much easier - if the Podcast you want to listen to is available on iTunes, it is pretty much automatic. But before I got an iPod, I did listen to Podcasts on my MD units.

I doubt very much you would notice a difference if recording at HiSP.

New iPod SQ really isn't that bad if you don't use EQ. I still prefer Sony. Actually, I prefer the old Minidisc SP to all other Codecs. But I do have two iPods, because they have their purposes.

Atrac3+ 64 (HiLP) is by no means close to the quality of a well-encoded MP3 at 192k. Really, I would compare Atrac3+ 64 to a very poorly encoded 128k MP3 at best. Can't speak to AAC. Sorry. BTW - I have a NW-HD1. Beautiful device, with awesome sound and battery life. Unfortunately, the little navigation button broke, so it doesn't stay on consistently.

Yes, I think you are correct. It could go on for another 10 years - until the various devices begin to die out (which I suppose is already happening).

I don't think ATRAC is a superior codec. I think Sony makes superior hardware.

Agreed. By trying to control everything, they gained nothing. Even though I knew this was coming, it is still hard to believe. Look at supported formats. http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores...552921665203467

If I had to guess, I would say that further development of the Codec is dead, but that they will continue to support SonicStage or equivalent in Japan. In the States, I would think we have seen the last release of SonicStage, save possibly for patch releases to plug security issues.

Meaning, if he recorded them in NetMD they wouldn't transfer...

Well, this topic has been done to death, but Sony is only making one unit now. They stopped making them because no one was buying them, for a whole bunch of reasons. It may actually be better this way, if they continue to make at least one good, powerful unit targeted at the hobbyist market. The vast majority of people have no interest in live recording, or real-time recording, and wouldn't know how to do it even if they wanted to. Most iTunes users don't even know how to change the default import settings, let alone what to make of some of the crazy crap Sony hoisted on consumers with ATRAC, NetMD, ATRAC3Plus, etc. etc (in terms of understanding the difference between each version, which unit could play what, etc. etc.). As a playback unit for the masses - MD is sorely lacking compared to most DAPs in terms of ease of use, transfer time, support for playlists, etc. etc. They just want something that looks cool, works relatively well, and sounds decent. And that is what the iPod does. As far as battery life - I don't really think that is an issue any more. Most iPods get 15-20 hours of playback per charge, and batter longevity seems to be 2-3 years or more. Plus there is the whole issue of accessories. Actually in terms of eBay - you can get a good quality NetMD unit for $20-$30. There aren't that many HiMD units for sale, because they never sold that many.

Battery life on a Hi-MD unit is about half that of a NetMD. I would highly recommend either a MZ-N505 or a MZ-NF610. I've had both of these units for years with no problems (the NF610 has a radio too, built in to the remote) - battery life with one "AA" is 40-50 hours at LP2. On eBay, as of this morning (Saturday 8/11) there are 8 MZ-NF610s for an average price of $30, and 10 or so MZ-N505 for around the same price). Again, I'd get the MZ-NF610 - has a radio and more features than the 505. I understand what you are saying about buying from someone on the forum - but you'll have to wait for something to show up here, vs. eBay where you can get something NOW.

I don't think Sony makes any money supporting ATRAC on a device vs. MP3. Record companies make money selling vinyl, or they wouldn't do it. In fact, it probably costs Sony more money to support multiple Codecs per device. I know they have licensing agreements with a couple companies - Sharp is the only one I can think of - but that really doesn't matter much any more, and certainly not in the States. The future of ATRAC depends on how long Sony keeps the one remaining MD unit alive, I would think. Does anyone know what the flash recorder unit uses?

Sony is an easy target - I'd be surprised if half of the writers that bash Sonic Stage and/or ATRAC and/or MD have ever used any of them.

Yes, I know. I was talking about having a UI to do the kinds of things that iTunes does.

That is an interesting idea which I've thought about before - thught not as a complete replacement for an PC-based application, but rather as a "mobile" version. I think it would require a very good touch-screen interface, and/or something like a Palm or Nintendo DS (with a stylus) to be effective. Also enough processing power to handle a potentially large database. One issue is that we seem to be moving away from massive hard drive-based units to smaller flash units (in terms of having one's entire music library).