aeriyn

I was under the impression that you were not supposed to let Li-Ion batteries completely discharge... I will, of course, follow your directives. ^.^

The MD HandyCam used a 650MB MiniDisc called MD-VIEW. I've seen them occasionally on websites.

Kurisu, since you're so into the Auvi units, maybe you can help me. I've been wanting to buy one of the Sharp MD player-only units for a while, but I'm a little confused about the digital amp thing. Everyone says a lot about Sharp's Auvi units and their 4-pole headphone connectors. So what's the deal though? What makes having separate terminals better than having a common negative? Also, what happens if I use a pair of headphones such as, say, my EX71s, that have 3 poles? Will it work? Or will it sound like crap? >.>; btw I like my EX71s and don't diss them like everyone else seems to. I must know before I spend money. Especially since I have NO IDEA where to find earphones with 4-pole connectors.

It's called the SonicStage WAVE converter, or some such rot. What it does is it converts any analog/microphone recordings done in Hi-SP mode, or 256kbps ATRAC3plus, into linear PCM .wav files. It does not let you get your linear PCM recordings off, which strikes me as bizarre and retarded, since why else would you want to record uncompressed audio unless you intended to edit it or burn CDs with it? Sheesh. Sony likes to give us what we want with one hand and then take it away with the other hand. >.>; Tsk, tsk. Hi-MD could've been a great product... and I'm sure this will help it out. I think.

MiniDisc is a proprietary format without a standard file system. It cannot play anything other than ATRAC or ATRAC3 without major changes to the unit design, which I might add, Sony seems very unwilling to do. For a unit with a backlit remote... Sony MZ-N10, Sharp IM-DR580, Sony MZ-N1... (to name a few) Or you can purchase a backlit remote by itself from Sony's part replacement center (RM-MC33EL), or from Minidisco. (Minidisco carries the RM-MC11EL, which does not have the group skip buttons and the LCD is upside down). Either way is expensive. Also, using one of those backlit remotes will remove your radio functionality, since only that remote (RM-MC34LT) has the radio button and I believe that square dongle on the remote cord has something to do with the radio, also. If you want to have a digital music player without having to transcode your music (MP3 -> ATRAC3) then you need to get a hard drive player, a flash memory player or a CD/MP3 player and one not made by Sony. Currently, all MD devices will not offer hardware MP3 support (and neither will other Sony digital music devices). iRiver has a nice hard drive player with a pass-through backlit remote (as well as a backlit display on the main unit) which I have my eye on. You might want to check those out.

Hiya! Well, let's see. Hi-MD recorders WOULD enable you to record in uncompressed linear PCM format... but since there are no Hi-MD decks released yet, there would be no way for you to take your music off the MD digitally. (Since the recorders do not have optical outs). I would recommend one of the plain Jane MD recorders. Personally I own a Sony MZ-N10 recorder, and I love it to death, but the battery life, even with the external battery, is not very high for recording. The Sharp IM-DR580 is much better on battery life for recording/playback, and it is a really lovely unit (I want one! T.T) but it lacks an LCD display on the main unit for monitoring recording levels. However, I believe it has automatic recording level adjustment for microphone recordings. Don't quote me on that, though. Anyhow, I recommend each player. The N10 and the DR580 both have loads of features and are really solid units. I'd say the Sharp is a bit better for your purposes (with the longer battery life), but without an LCD on the main unit it might be a bit tricky to monitor recording levels on the remote. I hope this helps! If you want to look at more models, you should check out the equipment browser on http://www.minidisc.org.

I own a US model Sony MZ-N10. The powergrid draws off the Li-Ion first, until it is completely exhausted. Then it draws on the AA formfactor battery in the detachable battery case. The manual is very misleading about this. But trust me, I've done this before (when recording away from home I often toss on the dry battery pack). Unlike the MZ-R900, the N10 uses one battery, then the other. Because of the difference in voltages between Li-Ion batteries and alkaline dry cells, the unit has to draw off the Li-Ion first (since it's at a much higher 3.7V) then it switches to the AA when the Li-Ion is exhausted. The R900, with it's 1.2V Nickel Metal-Hydride "gumpack" cell, the voltages are much more similar, so it doesn't have to do any sort of electronic switching to use a different voltage cell. At least, this is how I believe it works. I could be wrong... But I know that the N10 uses the internal battery first, then the external pack second.

Bah. Why does Sony do this? They have a good product and they mess it up in favor of their second-rate record production company. Sony needs to learn that they are a first-class consumer electronics company which SHOULD be their #1 priority. Not their lame record producing section. I'll stick with my N10, kthnx. Maybe Sharp will release an Auvi Hi-MD unit... By the way, Skytherx, you must really like iPods. Ick. They sound great and all (once you ditch those horrible stock 'phones) but... ugh. So ugly. And big. And weird-shaped... Yeah, yeah. I don't like them. |8|

Well. I've had this problem with some of my music (not all, mind you). When you download an MP3, you really don't know how many times it's been encoded and decoded. I've got some that sound so clear I'm sure they were ripped directly from a CD. And I've got a few songs so filled with artifacts that I'm almost positive it had been ripped, encoded, decoded and encoded again, probably changed format a few times... etc. The problem with MP3 to ATRAC is that SonicStage is going to decode the MP3 into linear PCM and then encode it into ATRAC. More compression artifacts will be introduced. This is most notable to me in LP4 mode on my MZ-N10, or in ATRAC3plus at any bitrate other than 256kpbs (with my friend's atrac/mp3/CD player). Also, be of the understanding that even if your Bjork song says it's at 192kpbs does not mean that it was always at 192kbps. People can burn MP3s to CDs and give them to their friends, which will in turn rip the songs and perhaps encode them at a higher or lower compression rate. However, the quality is going to degrade with all this compressing and decompressing and recompressing. So even if you switched your 192kpbs Bjork song over to 256kbps ATRAC3plus, it's still going to sound WORSE than the original file, because it had to be decoded back to linear PCM waveform first before it could be encoded with the ATRAC3plus compression algorithm. The "worse" probably would not be noticeable, but then again it might.

To keep compatibility with all your units, I offer my humble opinion. ^.^ Since you can record in true 292kbps ATRAC with the MZ-N10 (although not via NetMD, but only with the "old method") and all the discs will work with your older equipment (as long as they are coded in SP mode). I recently purchased an N10 to replace my aging R900 and dead-as-a-doorknob N505, and I'm quite pleased with the results. I don't know for sure, but I think that maybe if you used an old-formatted 80min MD that you might be able to record in LP2 and LP4 mode, but not SP mode... So I'd say N10. I made the same decision recently, and I'm happy I did. First-generation new products are always buggy, anyway. When Sony releases a Hi-MD unit with a little more battery life than the NH1, I'll take it.

I used to have an N505; when recording via NetMD or the old-fashioned optical method, it's always good to remove whatever battery was in the recorder and replace it with a fresh one. (Or use an AC adapter if you're lucky enough to have one.) Sony tends to exaggerate their battery life figures, and I noticed that NetMD transfers seemed to kill AA formfactor dry cells in a hurry.

I used to have an N505 that had a messed up keyboard, but I never had the T MARK problem. Anyhow, to remove unwanted track marks, look in your N505 manual or download the manual from minidisc.org and read the part about Combine (deleting track marks). That should help you get rid of that unwanted track mark.

I don't know if this will help, but if you're not using a voltage adapter for Japanese electronics on 120V house current you may have damaged your units. Since Japanese house current is 100V @ 60Hz, it's close enough that Japanese units will work on US house current (120V @ 60Hz) but I've heard that some people have had Japanese electronics that were damaged by being used on 120V without a converter. Conversely, the Li-Ion battery in your MZ-N10 may have reached the end of its useful life, in which case you'll need a new one.

I recently purchased a Sony MZ-N10 brand-new and have been having some confusing issues with the Lithium-Ion battery. It seemed to exhaust very quickly (according to the battery gauge on the display). I've never let it run totally dead, but I recharge when it hits one bar on the four-bar battery status display. It never seemed to take longer than fifteen minutes to charge. However, last night I read in the manual that even after the charging lamp goes off, the unit is not fully charged. So I left it on the stand overnight while I slept, and the battery life seems to be much stronger now. Does the MZ-N10 come only partially charged from the factory? Or do I have a wonky Li-Ion cell? I'm aware that environmental conditions (such as the hot summer heat) can impact battery life, but I wasn't aware that it could take 24 hours of LP4 playback and cut them down to around 5 or 6 hours...

Is all your music in the OpenMG format? If so, I don't know what else you can do. But if all your music is also in MP3 format, simply delete all the OpenMG files, uninstall your old versions of SonicStage. Then install SonicStage 2.0 and import all your MP3s and other music files back into the database. Sure, it'll have to re-encode everything into ATRAC3, but that's not a real big deal. Just takes a bit of time.

Erk... Scrap that idea then. I use that feature too much. >.>; I bought this MD unit in expectation that it HAD a backlit remote (since the picture on Sony's website reflects that) but... grr... False advertising, yo. /dies Oh well. I'll just wait till the NH1s come out. ^.^

Thanks a bunch. I don't know what functionality the RM-MC11EL remote has either, but all I need is the basic ones (play, pause, stop, skip track forward and back, skip group forward and back and the sound preset button). I never use the radio function and I always access the menu from the unit itself rather than the remote since the remote cannot access all menu functions anyway. Mainly what I wanted to know is if the connectors were compatible and that the RM-MC11EL would actually work with the MZ-NF520D. Since ya answered that, thanks a lot!

Okay. Does the MZ-R900 remote (RM-MC11EL) work with the MZ-NF520D recorder? I ask because I hate the remote that came with it (RM-MC34LT) and I want to kill it. I'm always hitting the stupid radio button and interrupting my music, and it's not backlit, and it's big and cumbersome. Thanks.