nengland

Aw, I share the bad feelings with you. =( I was on vacation in Japan and picked up an MS702 as well. (despite my japanese dj friend consistantly plugging a kenwood. ANY kenwood) It died a sad and common UTOC error As tbdoah recommends, it might be worth to just find another player/recorder. I replaced mine with an SR60 (Sharp) from minidisco and haven't had a problem with it so far despite it being Sharp.

My less than optimistic sense... Sony is not going to adopt this too soon with their lesser Hi-MD still not yet even out the gate. I was wondering though, if TDK is developing the medium could Sharp/Kenwood/etc pick up on this w/o licensing through Sony? (and get some mp3 on the sly??) What a bastard Hi-MD is at only 1 gig and a weak codec needing a high rate for anything decent. Something this cool just makes me hate the lil red head all the more...

Seriously though, what are the chances of Sharp/Kenwood and the likes making MP3/Ogg on the MD format? Is this being realistic? It just turns my stomach to think of having to either reencode my music collection for something of lesser quality or needlessly reencode it at a considerably higher bitrate just to correct for the inferior codec. How dorky 1Gb's a great number, but when the codec requires a higher bitrate for something that's already a relatively smaller storage than similar mp3 products... I loved my first MD-recorder. I picked it up on the streets of Akihabara and spent the rest of my trip to Japan in a music craze, but in the end I learned that it didn't matter what was in my pocket so long as it sported a cool remote and sounded good. It was just kinda a cool sidenote that the MD format was a bit exotic... It just makes me sad that the offering isn't as cool as it should be. Really though, do people think Sharp/Kenwood etc are going to pick up where Sony hasn't even bothered? Is there really a chance in oompaloompa hell for an OGG/MP3 MD player? (sorry for the rant...)

Varuca: But Daddy! I want a golden Hi-MD now!! Mr. Salt: You'll get your Hi-MD soon enough dear. Just as soon as it's got something better than ATRAC3plus. I promise, love! Varuca: But Daddy, I WANT MY OGG/MP3 Hi-MD NOWWWW!! (break to singing oompaloompas)