bobdibest

To me it looks like the unit cant be connected to the usb whilst in its stand? Is this correct? If thats the case, yet another near miss for me im afraid!

I agree with highlandsun with regards to sony electronics/music/entertainment! but i think everyone except sony see whats wrong!!! Never mind they seem to win when it comes to gaming, until Apple release an ipod gaming system HLOL, anything is possible!

I have to agree, I love MD, it still has life but only if sony listen to the customer. How about a 'PSP' which has no gaming functions just the screen size and disc drive intended for HiMD for music, picture and video playback (and obviously recording via a computer)? that would be sweet! Essentially a HiMD walkman that is the size of the PSPs screen! If Sony don't add video playback before Apple they can almost sit back and watch the format fail! Ill say it till it happens, Sony need a HiMD/UMD hybrid disc drive for recording and playback of both formats. Have a bottom range model for recording and playback thats cheap with no colour screen and intended for those who have PSPs and wanna burn UMDs to playback on the PSP, then a top range model like the one mentioned above intended for those without a PSP who wanna watch movies, view pictures and listen to music on HiMD (and UMD if they desired) Plus its only in the last year or so MD has slumped in the UK before that I remember all my university friends having an MD walkman!

I fear your right thats why ive stopped spending money on MD, which is ashame because i still find them fascinating and wonder why Sony made such a bodge job of a great format! such is life, think i could run sony better, well at least their Walkman department anyway!

I agree MD is far superior as a storage medium when compared to CD and DVD! CD/DVD corrode over time where as MDs will not! They are also protected from the air by their casing allowing a longer shelf life!

Blueray MD makes sense, its clever but it probably wont happen! Noone is sure as to whether bluray or HD DVD is going to win the format war and the technology is still quite niche and equipment large. Bluray recorders are huge (size wise) at the moment and expensive, very expensive. Throwing a bluray MD drive on the market would not only cost a fortune to implement but a fortune to buy, and it would probably be the size of the old MD recorders. However a bluray MD data comp drive would make sense, who cares about size then ay?! Its not aimed at portability!! Anyway Sony can squeeze 4 gig onto the HiMD at the moment, so why not just implement a HiMD high capacity drive, sign up a few large companies to add one as a standard drive in all new comps and get the ball rolling on this format! If they dropped the patents or lowered the cost of reproducing the media more companies would in cos even a 1 gig removable disc as easy to copy to as a floppy (and faster), smaller and more durable than DVDs and CDs and with the added option of portability music and video wise, HiMD would then make sense! But it wont happen, so for now ill stare at my E10 still bemused by how small it is, and wait for MD to flourish or die because im fed up spending money on MD! Ill buy into hard drive technology for now (even if battery life and reliability are lower)!

Thats what I need a cheap external/internal HiMD storage drive, but unless this drive is below the £50 mark i wont be buying it. Furthermore if the RH10 doesnt come with a decent remote ill be waiting for gen3 HiMD which are bound to support MPEG and AVI, have bigger screens to target an audience who want movies but dont want a PSP and may even become UMD hybrids! the possibilities are endless, one thing I do know is that Sony will keep adding to it so we keep buying it!

Why don't Sony just do what any normal company trying to further one of its inventions do and comission a HiMD drive on all computers it makes, as a freebe drive like DVD is now and suddenly cheap storage solution!!!! As easy to write to as a floppy disc (altho faster) and as cheap as a floppy with the advantage that flash memory is expensive and 1gig is a lot more expensive! Come on isnt it obvious? a loss leader if you like!!! Make it a dual HiMD/UMD drive and get Dell/Compaq/eMachines in on the game and suddenly people have these cheap removable discs that can also store audio/video (eventually - connect will have movies) playable on PSP and HiMD walkmans and also jpeg and i suppose 2006 will see mpeg support! fantastic a format that finally works!!!!!! come on sony get with it!

There are a lot of posts on here, but what seems glaringly obvious and what I would do if I wanted to become a big time competitor in the portable audio market would be to make the whole walkman range compatible with WMA and WMA-encripted files directly so that online shops like mycokemusic.com and napster to go are compatible with walkmans, as well as sonys connect. Make it aac-compatible so that itunes works with walkmans and ur on a winner. The latter might not be possible but Sony does work closely with Microsoft so wma and encripted wma compatibility would be a step in the right direction. A player that is online store independant as opposed to one that only used that companies store, i.e. the ipod and the walkman range at present would sell in my opinion. Secondly sony shot themselves in the foot by restricting MD liscencing technology and preventing other companies from making brandless mds without paying a fee etc etc. If a data md deck had turned up as a standard in all computers much like the dvd drives did MD would have replaced floppy discs and no doubt have slowed the cd-r/pen drive revolution. MDdata2 discs came out back when the only high density disc was an expensive zip disc! Maybe sony should take note, loss-leaders like that make formats successful. If Sony starting relations with dell/HP/Compaq etc to put a hi-md drive in all computers as a standard then Hi-md as a data format would take off incredibly fast, add mpeg support and you have a cheap portable film medium as well as music! COME ON SONY GET TO IT! and i have to agree, why one earth someone didnt realise that Hi-md could have been used in place of UMD in all PSPs so that prefabircated games and movies could be bought on the format as well as blanks for your own music/pictures/movies you have a format about to make a huge come back. Sony doesnt learn. pre-recorded MDs went no where as have SACDs. Im sure the UMD discs which have compressed films but sell at DVD prices will do the same thing! why buy them its a waste of money. Hi-MD and UMD should have been made to work in PSPs and new Hi-MD-walkmans so that the format could be furthered fastest. (Obviously a UMD game would not be expected to work in an md walkman but u get my point)!

they all said wot u need a mobile phone camera for! its 4 theconvenience of having a camera when sometimes u wudnt otherwise. u watch 3rdgen with have video playback and probably bluetooth to share pics!!!

Thats a very good point, if i put mp3s on my minidisc via drag and drop as data will they be playable, or do they have to be copied via sonic stage 3.0 to actually play back? i suppose the same goes for pictures, can u drag and drop them and have them viewable or does sonic stage has to be used to make them md viewable?

i dont understand why it says 4h 30 min on a 1 gig disc and 5 hours on a normal 80 min disc. but ill find out once i buy one :-) anyway the official sony site does state u can directly add mp3s from 32-320kbps and mp3-vbr without conversion! i think the 128kbps is just an idea of recording time on 1 disc because 128 kbps is just an industry 'near-cd' standard!!! dont take everything too literally

i agree with most posts on this site, 3rd gen hi-md will probably have larger screens, better cameras and probably capability to take and view films, most probably because the walkman phone (w800) and the PSP can both do all that already. I wouldn't be surprised to see 2/4 gig discs too but as with all technology there is never a good time to buy and hi-md is evolving so fast its pointless waiting to see what sony will announce in 2006. So ill buy this year, i stopped myself from buying 1st gen because i know sony wud change the format somewhat!