GyroGearloose

I've been doing a lot of ripping lately, and once in a while, the stupid LG drive refuses to eject the disk. You can play the CD, but software eject or pressing the front panel does nothing. It's not a specific disc or action that causes this. It just happens. Quitting SS has no effect. Rebooting sometimes works but sometimes I have to use the eject hole.... The worst part is the CD can play the disc, pressing eject just causes the CD to see the disc as being re-inserted. Has anyone else seen this? (Don't ask me to replicate this, I just yanked the drive out of the PC and threw it agaisnt the wall. There's no excuse whatsoever in 2004 for a CD drive to behave like this and I don't want any part of hardware that refuses to acknowledge a user request. CD drive firmware is not climate simulation, folks. You get an interrupt, you service it....)

The Canadian version is the 600D. It has a remote port. I shoved in the remote from a Sony Discman, and some of the buttons worked with a different function (eg STOP == CUE FWD), the display didn't, but the backlight lit up. I guess some enterprising person will figure out a way to adapt/make a remote to it. Until Sony sells it as an option. I used to hack around hardware, but now I'm far too lazy. (Do it all day at work, it gets tiresome) If you take apart the unit, you'll see the locations for the optical jack and microphone jack. Also you'll see how thick the case is compared to the innards. I still can't get the claimed battery life. I get the feeling it's quoted for repeating the same tune out of memory with no headphone attached. Either that or I got a lemon, or my Hi-MD disc is very heavy and hard to spin....

1) I'll try other types of battery but the unit and the box mention only 1.5V cells. I don't have any NiMH AA cells to try with. I have some prismatic cells from my other unit. (JVC XM-P55, good unit) 2) No curiosity eh? :smile: I've always suspected those ugly casings to contain mostly air. 3) Not my point: the PCB has location for parts that line up with the holes. Maybe if we know which parts to add, and how to modify the firmware, we can get the extra functions to work. It's absurd to release the same product with different specs in different countries. I smell lawyers at work here. 4) The Hi-LP mode sounds pretty good for Walkman duty. On the street, in the bus, etc... I don't really notice the extra hiss and distortions. ('vocoder' vocals for instance). But in a quiet room, forget about it. But then that's not the intent of a Walkman. But yeah, 256k sounds very good, even on DDD Karajan classical recordings. Good job by Sony here. But I'd like to know why there's no 128k atrac3plus. I'm off to read the FAQs I guess. 5) I don't think the capacity is going to be a factor, but rather the price. It's fairly slow after all. The sound quality of the headphone amps on all MD portables I've used has always been superior to MP3 units, I think that's because MD equipment has always been made by audio companies, and MP3 players by computer companies.

Hi, I just bought a 600D in Montreal. The things that bother me are: 1) Battery life is FAR away from what is claimed by Sony. I've tried various alkalines including Energizer and Pure Energy rechargeables. The most I can get with a Hi-MD and Hi-LP is 6 hours. What are other people's experience in this regard? 2) Taking the unit apart reveals the innards are far slimmer than the bulky plastic body. Is this Sony's way of differentiating between the lower end and higher end models? I don't like walking around with a 1/2 inch of extra air inside the unit... Anybody out there want to make a mold for a slimmer vacuum-molded 'mod' case? (and a different battery...) 3) The body has two indents that look like extra connectors can go there. The PCB has component locations for things that line up real nice with those holes. Where can I find more info on this? 4) The new ATRAC3plus codec sounds very good at 256k, but the 64k mode is fatiguing. There are audible artifacts that can be ignored because it is a Walkman after all, but after a few hours of listening to the same music with the same headphones I used before with my old-school MD, my ears hurt. Anyone else get this? 5) In the price range of the higher end models, what's the 'plus' that Hi-MD can offer vs. iPod, Gigabeat, Riot et al.???