skyther

DivX/XviD are more or less codecs used by end users to rip and encode existing material; from a commercial standpoint it's nowhere near as widely used as H.26x which does provide noticably better quality at equal bitrates, and most players will decode both AAC and MP3 tracks used in either container formats. At higher bitrates there isn't much of a difference between MP3 and AAC, but for low bitrates ~64k-128k the difference is as clear as night and day, which is particularly useful if you're after decent quality stereo audio for rips to share on the Internet or for use on mobile devices, for eg. At the moment MP3 is still by far more popular due to the fact that it already has an established presence among users and the devices that support the format can be found just about anywhere, but in the long run I dare say AAC will more than likely take over. DivX/XviD are more or less codecs used by end users to rip and encode existing material; from a commercial standpoint it's nowhere near as widely used as H.26x which does provide noticably better quality at equal bitrates, and most players will decode both AAC and MP3 tracks used in either container formats. At higher bitrates

Heh it's cool, just thought that looked familiar. Someone gave me an R50 last year, it's in pretty good condition 'cept the battery's on it's last legs and I don't use it much at all heh.

Technically yes, but in a related issue there are slight audible differences between grades and brands of CD-Rs used which seem to imply that error correction and hence interpolation play a much bigger role in transports so I'd be tempted to say there might possibly be a minute difference between normal MDs and Hi-MDs, not that I have done proper comparisons between the two.

Guitarfxr... i swear that was my old avatar i made 4 years ago There are much better options for recording other than iPods... o.O

Bwahahaha, I recently killed my CPU. RIP s939 Venice 3000+ I took off the IHS some time last year and the CPU ran fine until I decided to give it a good rebuild, and while slapping back on the ol' Thermalright I cracked the core by accident. Tried to glue the IHS back and tried to RMA it but they found out ROFL. No dramas though, thanks to AM2 a replacement Venice will set me back like AUD120 which is basically stuff all.

Hmmmm.. sup guys What ad are y'all talking about? Anyway, where's Chris nowadays?

So now everyone's jumping on the Squeezebox/Soundbridge/AirTunes+AE bandwagon eh?

Shhhhh.

Been a while since I bought anything audio related.

Shouldn't this be in 'phones?

This is evolution at work. Thou shalt not interfere. It's not the end, there'll be something else that utilizes minature rewritable optical media soon enough. As long as there's demand and it's profitable enough for someone to make it, it will happen. Sure it won't be called Minidisc, but who cares? MD is old technology, it'll be phased out sooner or later if not now. I bet none of you would buy a car with a design that dates back to 15 years, would you?

I think those times are for playback via the stand speakers.

Joined this sad place (now run by a dork by the name of kurisu =P) when MD.org forums first started, but somehow my first account here got lost through all the transitions.

What does any of this have to do with the context of the thread? We're talking about a BUG, which is completely different from something that was intentionally left out. This is a genuine screwup that Sony made. Obviously if they made an effort to beta-test their products before releasing it into the market we wouldn't be having this problem. So people are paying 300 bucks to be Sony's guinea pigs, how about that? What if I'm recording a bootleg and I want to title the tracks before I forget the names? Having a alphabet set that's missing M N O wouldn't be very convenient, would it?

1280x800 widescreen.

You think EVERYONE who uses MD has a computer?

Errr..... wtffffffffffffffffffomgbbq! (sorry, am I allowed to say that? ) Man I never thought I'd hear anyone say that again... I sure hope that placebo remark about MD sounding better than CD on one of md.org's pages has been removed. Lossy compression means fidelity gone out the window. MD sounding MUCH better than CD is just so wrong. I'll just pretend I didn't read that. Anyway re the coax v. optical issue. Optical is good over long distances because: 1) the latency through fibre is lower 2) signal fade is less, so less repeaters are needed; again reducing latency 3) fibre has much higher bandwidth than coax 4) In the case of harsh environments, ie. as with undersea cables, optical signals remain unaffected by interference Why coax > optical in domestic purposes: Your CD player functions with circuit boards, which function on electrical pulses. With a coax, all the CDP does is to feed unaltered electrical signals straight into the coax out, while optical signals go through a converter, which sends light pulses based on time. The timing on the Tx and Rx ends of the optical path may not necessarily be in perfect sync so that's where you get jitter. Coax just doesn't suffer from this. RF/EM interference in a domestic environment with coax wouldn't be significant enough, just in case you didn't notice how heavily shielded coax cables usually are.

Baaaaaad idea... all canal phones (earphones which go INTO your ears) suffer from microphonics issues to a certain degree. All you'll be hearing are your footsteps while you do your walking.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=23708 Ooooomph. Just a rumour, guys.. don't go all jumping in on it I <3 my Centrino + P4s.

^ It's definately coming back, but there's still room for lots of improvement.

I definately don't agree. Sound - You can find 30+30mW output and quality Wolfson DACs in only 1 portable lineup Build - Plastic vs metal, nuff said Options - iPods come in a wide range of sizes (thumb, mini, full), flash + HD media, Hi-MD gives removable media options in 1GB discs Innovation - The ones who came out with the (touch) scroll wheel + easy-to-use GUI first... I guess they're more innovative?

Confirmed with an optical in/ac in/remote port? Looks like a mock-up picture to me. The optical in is just an empty hole.

There have never been NiCd gumsticks used in MDs AFAIK. Only NiMH gumsticks of different capacites. NC-7WMs have been non-existant since the last century That is kind of a big deal :x It's taking away the space where my 2 dollar coins would otherwise be. And it's not just the size, AAs are darn heavy too. Don't you think sacrificing features for battery form factor is a bit too extreme?

That's the problem here. By setting such a high RRP, it scares customers away even before product consideration. The RRP is sort of a benchmark pricing that all retailers will tend to follow, then give discounts IF a potential customer will bargain. I prefer (as a consumer) companies to go by a strict pricing policy rather than setting a high RRP and letting their retailers adjust the price as seen fit. It saves me having to go from shop to shop bargaining prices for something I'm interested in, as well as giving me assurance that I didn't just get screwed over because some other guy bought the same product from another shop for a hundred bucks less. Apple's strict policies which their dealers have to follow also ensure that I get similar levels of service wherever I buy their product from. Take Megamart for example. Most of their prices are either set at RRP or matched to competitor's prices. They are also usually unwiling to give discounts unless the product can be matched to a lower price. I have an understanding that they buy their stock at cheaper prices vs your local family run electronics store due to the volume in which they purchase, yet they won't create any serious competition. Then there's the actual product value. Is what you get in a NH1 sales package worth the AUD699 RRP?

I can understand the point about demographics, but prices of iPods don't differ by much in different markets. I.E. a mini goes for USD200 which is approx AUD260, add in your GST and importing an iPod from the US would cost you AUD286, excluding shipping. Apple AU sells them locally for AUD299, which doesn't differ by much. Package contents in both countries are the same, apart from product localizations. The primary product is the same, unlike the mess which Sony made with the NH600(D). I support my home market, but I definately believe that Sony AU are ripping us off. Here's a story that happened to me in 2003: A month after I bought my N10, it screwed up. I took it back to the store (Sony Central, same franchise as those in the eastern states), and they told me they couldn't do nuts about it. Told me to take it to an authorized Sony repair centre which would fix it under warranty. When I took it to the repair centre, they said that all MD related repairs were to be forwarded to Sony AU themselves. I had to arrange for it to be shipped myself (shipping + insurance at my cost = utter BS) and they'd take 3 friggin weeks to get it back to me. What's the procedure like when I send my iPod in for repairs? I drop it off at my Apple dealer, their techs do a 5 minute spot check on it, confirm it to be in need of repairs and sends it off to Sydney at no cost to me. Meanwhile, Apple ships them a brand new replacement pod. 3 days later they ring me up to collect my replacement. It's that simple. There are some multinational corporations who look to treating their customers all over the world with equal fairness and others who are more interested in screwing the less fortunate over. I'm really not suprised as to why iPods are selling like burning hot cakes while MDs are near discontinued. It's all about corporate practice.