Damage

Lemme see: NetMD only units (usually denoted by the letter D in the end of the model, like MZ-N420D or MZ-NF520D) only allow for downloading from your PC to your MD in LP2 and LP4 mode. I'd just as well stay away from them if I can help it, more on that later. There are still several "last generation" NetMD/MDLP player recorders, the S2 model, the N510/NF610 family and the NF810/N10 family of models. These models have more of the advanced features, such as recording via line-in or optical-in, remote capabilites, AM/FM/TV Tuner, 6-band equalizer, etc. The S2 model lacks any remote capabilites and does not have tuner either. However, it retains NetMD download function and can record via line-in, IIRC. The unit is constructed of heavy duty plastic and is beloved referred to as "the tank" for the obvious reasons. If you're the active type or the clumsy type, see if you can still net this model, <$100 nowadays. The 510 and the 610 is for all intents and purposes the same, except the latter can use the AM/FM/TV Tuner remote. However, the 510 comes with lot more accessories (car kit, a pleather carrying case) for cheaper price. The 510 should run about $100 or less, the 610 $150 or less, provided that you can find them. At the top of the line there are the 810 and the N10 model. 810 comes with the car kit, N10 does not. Both are of full metal construction, have mic-in port along with line in. They have 6-band equalizer and virtual surround thingy (where as the other models do not). 810 has the AM/FM tuner remtoe, the N10 does not. N10 is the smaller and sleeker of the two models, as it should be since it is the top of the line. If you can find them, the 810 should run you anywhere between $200-$250. The N10, probably more expensive than 810 but you could probably find a pretty good deal for it. Finally, the MZ-NH600D functions much like NetMD only players, that you can only download MP3s on it and ripping CDs via SimpleBurner. However, I'd recommend this unit over any NetMD out there for the fact that this is a HiMD unit. That is, it comes with 1GB HiMD Disc, so you can store from 10 hours to 40 hours of music on one 1GB disc (or 2 to 10 hours on one regular MD disc reformatted to HiMD Disc). HiMD units also function as a removable drive if needed in a pinch. Remember that if you want to download MP3s on to your NetMD, you have to use SonicStage or Nero/SimpleBurner method! Neither NetMD nor HiMD can play MP3s natively.

Well, Sony did have a MD camera mockup didn't they? /me thinks it'd be absolutely awesome to have a MD camera with a fairly quick write speed. That'd be enough for me to ditch my Powershot and go with the MD camera. As a side note, MD can keep up playing video files, and I'd assume it could probably keep up recording video files as well. It's just Sony and their wanting such a unit in the market or not that'll influence things to come. I'd think it would be somewhat plausible, since HiMDs do have DRM abilities built it, I suppose. :-|

Damn, I've been found out! No, not the main guy, that's someone else I believe. Quick note, VBs are used not only in business apps (Office comes with the ability to run VB code in its macros, and Access's functionalities can be doen with macros or pure VB code and SQL if need be) but in number of web sites running IIS, aka, the swiss cheese of web servers. One would think by now Java's JIT compilers would be fast enough to run some primitive games, and they do (I recall several emulators running full speed with remotely modern compuboxes). But for 3D stuff, you'd need lot of calls to the GPU, VPU, etc, which Java doesn't really provide. So you're stuck with C++, C, etc. Given the right hardware access calls, I'd wager JAVA can be used (pre-compile anywho) as a pretty decent language for program development. As a side note, I'd recommend Java over C++ if you want to learn Object Oriented programming right, C++ will just rot your brain to death.

My rough calculation: 550 MB DivX File to 1GB HiMD: About 17 minutes and 30 seconds. Using that: (1 MB = 1048576 bytes) 550 MB * (1048576) = 576716800 bytes 576716800 bytes / (17.5 minutes * 60 seconds/minute) = 549254 bytes/second 550 kB/s, or 4400 kbps, or 4.4Mbps, about 1/3 bus speed of USB 1.1 (12Mbps max speed). Sounds about right: Remember, even on a ATA/100 bus, most hard drives can achieve at most 30-40MB/s (vs 100MB/s maximum). Someone could run a SiSoftware Sandra's File System benchmark to get more accurate speed readings. I tried, but I got pissed off and quit in the middle of the test (took too long). In SonicStage however: On the average, a normal song in 256kbps takes roughly about 15-20 seconds. Or, one 60 minutes album takes about 3 minutes and 45 seconds to transfer to a HiMD 300MB disc, give or take few seconds. That's about 16X real time speed, if you want me to put it that way. Compare that with 48kbps transfers. One 62 minute album took about 52 seconds to transfer, averaging about 2 to 3 seconds per track (for 14 track album). I know the math doesn't work out. Trust me, it takes about 10 or 15 seconds for the unit to actually start receiving file. That puts it about 60X real time for these transfers.

The difference between Firewire 400 and USB 2.0 is slight at best. The former has a maximum bandwidth of 400 Mbps and the latter 480 Mbps, or 50MB/s vs. 60MB/s. The likelyhood of any device seeing those speeds are not likely, at best you're going to see half of those speeds (say 25-30MB/s. Remember that your HDs usually achieve bursts of 60+ MB/s, but usually much less, around 30-40 on the average). This of course, varies wildly depending on hardware, drivers, OS, etc (that PCI Firewire card will likely be slower vs. USB on a mainboard connected directly-simplified greatly). Or, in other words, in most cases with most devices, you're not likely to notice that much difference between FireWire 400 and USB 2.0. The biggest kicker thus far with HiMDs is with the optical pickups which has max bandwidth of 9.8Mbps (taken from MD.org faq). Assuming that this is thereoretical maximum burst speed, then overall your MD will achieve anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of that rated speed. So USB 1.1 is more than enough to handle all of the current HiMD duties. This will probably change greatly with introduction of future HiMD generations, but for now, even with faster bus speeds, we're not going to see any benefits because of the optical pickup's speed. Perhaps using USB 2.0 or Firewire would give you better latency, perhaps not.

Remember that the new HiMDs are backwards compatible with NetMD/MDLP. For about the same price you'd pay for the N10 (say, $250-$300, probably cheaper but go with me here), you can get the NH900, which will come equipped with HD-Digital Amp--that itself should be more than enough to justify the purchase of those units if the ancedotal evidence are true.