Qwakrz

Time to get out the iPaq screen protectors and cut them up again to fit my NH1 (did it for my P800 mobile phone).

Had this on a PC once, Sounds like a poor USB interface, try the following (in order of time & cost) 1. If you have a VIA chipset motherboard then install the USB 1.1 (and USB 2 if you have them) port drivers from here & Motherboard drivers from here 2. Buy a USB hub (must be powered type with mains transformer) and plug that into the USB port & then the Hi-MD into the hub. (gets around power problems, this is what fixed the problem for a friend) 3. Buy a USB add in card.

Try converting the MP3 into a WAV file using something like winamp, or use nero to make a CD Image of the file in audio format & then use Daemon tools to copy the image into SS. This will get around the conversion problems in SS If the problem persists then it is likely to be the MP3 that is encoded incorrectly.

I have the NH1 unit that has on output of 5mW. I usually listen to it at a volume of 8/30 and occasionally 12/30 into my sony in-ear clip on headphones (little over the ear clips) All I can really say is visit a shop & ask for a demo. Take along the headphones you will use most often & plug them into the remote so that the setup is as if you were using it (Also take along some SP & LP2 tracks on a MD if you currently have one, make the SP recording via optical if possible) Because all the lower units have the same output I would suggest the following Try one in the group if you are looking to buy within that group (e.g if they dont have the model you are after) MZ-NH600,700,800 (All the same ouput of 3mW & all have same amp) MZ-NH900 (Uses HD amp but only has 3mW output) MZ-NH1 (Uses HD amp but has 5mW ouput as no euro version) Personally I would look at bying the NH1 from the internet as you can get it for cheaper than the NH900's RRP and it is a much better unit.

Ok, time to clear a few things up It is IMPOSSIBLE to change a disc while the unit is in the cradle, hence why I think sony dropped the USB feature on it. The external battery case is simply a case to carry a spare Li-ion battery around in, it does not connect to the unit in any way. There is NO external battery case that plugs into the unit. Li-ion is the only power source away from the cradle & USB port. The only (current) way to charge the unit is to place it into the cradle.

hmm My R900 uses NiMH batteries & not lithium. Can you post a link to the batteries you have purchased as you should have got Sony NH-14WM versions (as originally supplied).

I find myself using LP2 for all my recordings on my Hi-MD. Reasons are 1) It provides a lot better sound quality than Hi-LP 2) I cant hear any errors on the recordings (Unless I listen REALLY closely) 3) Good trade off of file size to quality Personally I think $ony were stupid not to include Atrac3+ 128K One thing that is missing in SS is the ability to choose the encoding of the file thats put on your Hi-MD (If you have a Hi-SP and LP2 encoded track I would like a choice). e.g. encode all your files off of CD in Hi-MD, when you copy the files over it asks "Copy files in Hi-SP or re-encode into LP2, LP4 or Hi-LP". this would be the icing on the cake if it did the encode & did NOT store the files anywhere.

If I read that correctly, You were trying to transfer audio tracks from the N1 to your PC If that is the case, the N1 CANNOT transfer files in that direction. It will move a marker to say that the tracks have been checked in but the file will not come with it. The only MD's that will do that are Hi-MD's running in Hi-MD mode, they will NOT do it in NetMD mode. It is possible that SS2.1 thought it was transfering the files & so deleted each one when it was done (the same as checkin normally does).

Ok it arrived about 15 minutes ago. These are my first impressions of it & the Sonic Stage software (I have used before but It's missing a really annoying feature which I would love to be put in). Ill try and put something up in detail about it later. Its small... It really is small. Much smaller than my R900 (even though they are about the same size, its just a visual type small) Sound - O M G, I had a SP recording I did a long time ago of some string & brass instruments. Using the same headphones (sony in-ear type but the ones with a hook over the ear) I can say its alot clearer than anything I have heard (N707 & R900). Oh and all this "Volume wont be loud enough till I can get 300TW from it" I cant listen to the unit above 8 or it begins to hurt. Transfer times are about 3 or 4 times quicker than my N707, and that is nice to see. I though I was transfering some songs I have in LP4 mode, then checked & realised I had transfered Hi-SP versions. This leads me onto SS. I really wish you could get this program to record in Hi-SP and then convert on the fly (without saving) to a format of yor choice (In my case LP2, Hi-LP or LP4 as YOU want to), I know that is transcoding but occasionally you want a song in a lesser format to fit on a disc & at present it transfers in 48kbps or the format that is compatable. I know its capable of tracking more than one encoding of the files as I have Hi-SP and LP2 for the same album (for NetMD & Hi-MD) what I really would like is to just tell it to put the LP2 files on the Hi-MD disc instead of it defaulting to Hi-SP EVERY time. Rant over, Hope that someone can feed this back to Sony for me & would love to see it in SS2.2 Ok, time to read the manual & let it charge up (came with 6h left on the gauge) BTW the Hi-MD compatable 80 minute discs are a nice yellow with gold trim. Look nice and "Snazzy".

I even think Hi-SP is J-Stereo., meaning only SP & LP2 are ture stereo. It depends on how much weight the encoder allows to the joint signal as to how well the stero image sounds. If you remove the joint information you get mono (obviously) and if it is poorly encoded you get a swimming sort of effect (LP4 & Hi-LP). Sony had a choice of keeping a really good stereo image and producing more noticable artifacts in the mono stage (you'll notice the mono ones more) or loosing the stereo image and keeping the mono one clean(ish) (not noticed as much, causes strange stereo effects) Oh and even lossless encoders us J-Stereo to reduce the file size, as long as enough of the stereo signal is kept, it can be re-constituted correctly

Recording in realtime from a source (I.E. not using USB) should give you true SP. All Hi-MD units are advertised as having Atrac Type S so should produce all the same features as their Net-MD / MD cousins (I.E. Atrac R recordings in SP, Atrac S playback) If not, Sony have lied & its not a small one like the transfer of recordings.

Personally I wouldn't bother with the looping for 24h, if it is a memory problem that is causing all your trouble it should show itself very quickly, just let it do 1 or 2 loops If you were looking to check your system for stability after building it then yes I would do 24h but not in this case.

Ouch, what do you use to move it around, a forklift? :laugh: (Yes I know its a typo but it was still funny)

Thats the only problem with buying mail order, it usually arrives a day late Mine is tracked on a lorry doing the rounds atm, I am up early so as not to miss it. Let us know what you think of it after you have had a play

I think its the NH600 units that dont come with a blank disc (prob same reason they dont come with a battery, remote, power adaptor........ $$$$$$)

I run SS2.1 and SB on my AMD 64 3000 system & have no problems. I have XP SP2 installed with DEP set to the highest level without problems. If it is a new system, it may be a ram problem as I know AMD CPU's are very touchy about ram. It may be worth running a ram tester on your system once to see if any errors pop up (even a single bit error will cause problems). Appart from that have you updated the motherboard drivers etc also may be worth looking to see if a BIOS update has been reported to fix your problems. Which version of XP are you using with the 64 bit CPU. If its XP64 you will NOT get minidisc to work as the drivers are only available for XP32 (standard version of XP) and you cant use XP32 bit drivers on the XP64 OS.

I cant believe it. I have waited so long to see a R900 next to a NH1 & then, on the day my MH1 will arrive to replace my R900 you put the picture I really wanted to see on the web... Oh well, it looks very nice & mine should be here in a few hours (I hope) PS How did you keep your R900 so clean, mine has no lettering on the front & looks like it has seen better days (but still works)

The MZ-NH1 has finally been released in the UK, Dabs had stock of them yesterday afternoon and they have dispatched mine atm (stupid me missed the delivery this morning). You might not have to wait much longer.

I MISSED THE DELIVERY MAN!!!!!! I have a card that says they attempted to deliver a parcel to me today (while I was asleep as I am a lazy student) & they will attempt delivery tomorrow. DOH. I could have been playing with my nice new toy :wacky:

Well actually its now 9 I couldn't wait for Amazon to pull their finger out so I have paid the extra £20 for dabs to ship me one I have an order & have been allocated stock. I am hoping to see it on Thursday (although if its tomorrow I will pass out with shock) Get them while they last -edit- It now reports as dispatched... I was half expecting it to take a few days to arrive but it may well be here tomorrow I am sorry but the wait is finally over, they have arrived.

Nope, it does not. That picture was an early BETA from Sony, a good 4 months before release. Sony changed the spec's of the unit just after these were shown to the public.

Hmm, so where are they for everyone else in the UK?

That remote is the main reason I am waiting for the NH1 to be released in the UK I have emailed sony about an expected release date for it but am yet to hear anything.

All Hi-MD units can act as very slow data drives. You basically get 1GB of space & can split that between music & data files. Also sony have no current plans to release any other Hi-MD units other than portables at present, they want to "Test the water" but releasing the portable's first might be a good idea.

(photo shows SS with the record options for my NetMD, LP2 = 132kbps, LP4 = 66kbps, No Atrac listed) Original SP MD used Atrac and can only be recorded via inputs on an MD unit, MDLP used Atrac3 (as now used in NetMD. Pesudo SP is transfered from OpenMG or SS to the MD in LP2 mode & transcoded into original Atrac, something like that.) & HiMD can use Atrac3, Atrac3+ or OpenMG PCM Atrac was never offered as a transferable encryption from PC to minidisc. If you needed SP, the PC would send the Atrac3 encoded file through a transcoder (I dont know if it was on the PC or NetMD) to generate a fake SP Atrac file to allow for storage on the MD for compatability. Some time ago $ony said that to increase the quality of the LP4 they had to switch to sum & difference encoding (Mono & Stereo parts) but that LP2 still used seperately encoded channels for Left & Right as the quality was good enough. What I was trying to get at is the fact that if sony would allow it, it is possible to use the encoding engine for LP2 to allow double the time as it encodes the 2 channels independantly from each other, LP4 does not, it uses sum & difference. Because of this, encoding in mono will not bring any benifit to the available length of timein LP4. (This point should also be valid for all Atrac3+ formats) BUT SONY DO NOT ALLOW THE ABOVE so it is a mute point. Link about using Mono with LP2 here : http://www.minidisc.org/mdlpfaq.html#_q69 Link about MDLP Atrac3 formats here : http://www.minidisc.org/mdlpfaq.html#_q58