Qwakrz

AFAIK this has been tried. The problem is there is a code stored on an unaccessable part of the disc that is used to encrypt the data on the disc, if you copy from one disc to another then it will refuse to play on the new disc. I think this code is also re-generated when you try and copy data back to the same disc so even this does not work. Sony's only way to backup a disc is to physically have all the files in SS, either as a copy of the one on the Hi-MD if it was a live / line-in recording or as the ripped tracks.

It uses a custom sony connector not a mini-usb. Stupid $ony

Things I would like to know. Top of the range units (both with & without camera) can they take AA cells & have an internal rechargable battery Can MP3's be drag & dropped Docking station, does it have USB & power... God I hope it does as my NH1 is getting to be a pain. and the main one, please ask this if nothing else.... Can we expect a firmware upgrade for the first gen Hi-MD's, if not can we trade them in. The 2nd gen is what Hi-MD should have been in the first place realy.

That Li-ion will not fit in the NH1, the + terminal is on the wrong end. The Sony's have both terminals down one end. Would like to see if its possible to fit it though, a bit of electrically conductive paint might make it connect as long as the battery actually fits in the player, also its alot more capacity than the standard Lip4-wm

I agree with Valder on this one, personally I think some parts of sony don't even know who's in the next office.

I think you'll find its from the cheap PSU's they are now using with the NH1. I have moved mine into another room as it is an annoying whistle when it finishes charging. I still leave mine plugged in overnight but the whistle does not annoy me now (2 walls and a floor level between me & it)

Just remember that due to sony's great use of DRM, you will not be able to copy the music in ATRAC format from one PC to the other, you can try and use the backup / restore feature but it is not ideal. OMG / OMA files are encrypted with a key that is stored on your HDD, if you reformat or reload SS you need to make a backup of your audio BEFORE you re-format or you will loose everything.

Yes ROM, I would agree with you but, if you look back through some of the earlier posts in Hi-MD section you will find that shuffle does affect playback of the unit, it may be that the unit stores the shuffle information etc in the buffer memory and as such is not able to buffer as much data & this causes the skipping. SlowMo, try and put the MD in a backpack or around the waist, basicly somewhere that is not jolted as much as your pocket, previous posts have stated that putting the unit in a thigh pocket caused excessive movement that was enough to cause dropout and skipping.

NH900 is Ni-MH, NOT Li-ion. This battery does need to be used for a few cycles before it shows full capacity (same as most batteries) Also Li-ion should not be fully discharged, HOWEVER most electronic equipment using Li-ion takes this into account and will shutdown before that point is reached with the battery so it is safe to run it till the unit swithes off, just dont try and force it to go any further & re-charge it asap.

I had this happen after I installed the Creative suite for my new soundcard. I ended up uninstalling the creative media center & it all started working again. What have you added recently?

The article you saw was an April Fool's joke that some nice person put on a web site. I would love Sony to come along and make it real though as they described a way to remove atrac from the unit, replacing it with MP3 playback only.

The problem is that the disc cannot be written to any faster. A reformatted 80m disc has a transfer rate of about 5Mb/s and a 1Gb Hi-MD disc is about 10Mb/s (Notice they are Bits not Bites) Hi-MD is faster than netMD as that has a transfer rate of about 3Mb/s (approx half Hi-MD's reformatted transfer rate as the disc spin at the same speed but store twice as much approx)

Deafplayer, use the NH900 for a few cycles of the battery and that should bring everything into line. It is possible that the Ni-MH was almost fully charged when you connected it up & hence thats why it only breifly shows charging, just leave it to charge up for a while (I leave mine on overnight).

Only way to upload from MD/NetMD is to use an audio cable and a program to record the line-in on the soundcard. Digital recording via USB is NOT available of MD/NetMD's.

It pulls from both at the same time, they are connected in parrallel within the unit. This also has the advantage / disadvantage of charging the internal Ni-MH when the external has a dry cell in it.

Its because I believe sony did not store the DRM info about the recording on an old style MD disc. To protect copyright they did a blanket "No Copy" on any MD tracks (SP, LP2, LP4) Because Hi-MD formatted disc's can now store the details of any copy information $ony allows the recording back of some files that were NOT originated on a PC. Simply put, no remedy in the future.

Phish, SB & SS recordings are marked as ones from the USB socket, USB recordings are not meant to be copied back (Sony DRM stuff) and you will not be able to do what you want. If they originated from line / optical in then it would be ok Your 2nd point is the same reason. Sony will not let you copy back any audio that was recorded by USB, it expects the original to still be available on the PC and as such deletes the file from the Hi-MD without transfering it.

Yes, you are right in that the time window for the long blocks are 4 times longer than before to allow better compression ratio's however they have also shortened the short blocks to allow for better music "atack" reproduction (short transient bursts). Block sizes are explained in the link you supplied & I will endevour to find the link to the info (but its late here). I would settle to say that Atrac3+ will produce alot better reproduction than Atrac3 at the same bitrate. Sony, give use a 128K Atrac3+ bit rate please.

I agree partly with Rombusters. However the paper for Atrac3+ states that shorter blocks are used to handle transients in the music better, giving a much richer sound that better suits live recordings (or something to that effect). Personally I think that Sony wanted a nice "It really will record xxxxx hours at near CD quality" and have pushed it a bit to far. Sony give us freedome over Atrac3+ bitrates

The best advice I would give is pop along to somewhere that has a Hi-MD unit (600, 700 or 800 as they have the same output and amp) and listen to some music with your headphones you will use. This would give you some idea of what the output is like. If you dont have any minidiscs, the shop should have some or take along your CD player and use the Hi-MD to record a short piece to listen back to. (Non EU 600's dont record from an external source, only a PC). BTW, the max volume for the unit is 30 on the guage & I do use in-ear headphones. Personally you should be ok with a non EU Hi-MD, I know I am.

Block error rates (as far as I can remeber) are to do with the data readback from the disc. BER is the number of errors that occur when a read / write is done that had to be corrected by the first level of error correction. Usually does not involve the more complex 2nd stage of error correction as long as the number of errors are low. All optical media has an error rate, even perfectly recorded original stuff.

Alot of people that buy the 600 unit, I believe, like to listen to music the way a friend of mine does. We can hear the track he is listening to through a double skinned wall & that is with a set of in ear earphons that he likes to use. I dont hold out much hope for is hearing. Personally I like my NH1 & rarely go above 12 on the sound meter. This would probably equate to about 18-20 on a UK NH600. Get a set of good earphones that are sensative and it should be fine.

Personally I think Sony have got the Hi format bitrates all wrong. Should have been 256K, 128k, 64k for the 3 modes (or even 256, 96, 48) this would have been a much better arangement as most people still seem to use LP2 as its a good compromise between quality and size. I use Hi-LP for some albums that I will be taking with me on long trips, mainly where I will not hear the difference due to background noise. Sony.... PLEASE give us a choice of Atrac3+ bitrates & not just the 3 we currently have. 320, 256, 160, 128, 112, 96, 64, 48 would be nice to let US select the quality of our music (I still use 48K for audio books after passing them through a band pass filter).

Use a program like Nero to make an image file (choose image recorder from the recorders tab), then use something like Daemon tools (www.daemon-tools.cc) to mount the image. SS thinks Daemon tools is a real CD drive & as such the image is a real CD. Works a treat & I use this for my MP3 albums as it saves me entering all the details (most of my MP3's are V1 and short titiles)

You can get them for any portable music device. I have a small egg type FM transmitter that plugs into the headphone output on my NH1, allows me to listen to it in the car (MP3 player in the car but not used that much now)