michi

This is in Australia. An NHF800 costs $598 here (Australian dollars, that is), and the iRiver H 320 costs $627. (And I got mine for $600 anyway.) There is still a pause when you stop a recording. For a short recording, it takes maybe 3 seconds. I just did a 10-minute recording via the built-in tuner (at 320 kbps). After pressing "stop", it took 6 seconds for the file to be saved. That's good enough I think, at least for my needs. It has autosync and auto-track mark. You can set the length of the pause for auto-track mark. Fair enough -- the final word hasn't been spoken yet, I agree. But I'm blown away by how much I'm getting with the H 320 at the same price as a mid-range Hi-MD player. As far as value for money is concerned, I think it's simply no contest. Cheers, Michi.

No, I just tried it. It's stereo recording, and you can select the quality at 40, 48, 56, 64, 80, 96, 112, 128, 160, 192, 224, 256, or 320 kbps. Cheers, Michi.

Yes, I did a bit more research and found the iRiver H 320. See http://www.iriver.com/product/info.asp?p_name=H320 for some details. (I know that this model isn't available in the US just yet, but I expect it won't be much longer.) The price is the same as for a Sony MZ-NHF800. For that, I get the following key features that (in my opinion) run rings around anything Hi-MD can do: - 20GB hard drive - 2" 260000 color LCD screen with backlight. (I don't know what resolution -- the specs don't mention. But it's quite good, probably in the 160x160 range or so. Very bright, and very easy to read.) - Both USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 ports. - Digital in and *out* via USB pors. - Built-in lithium polymer battery with 16 hours battery life in playback, rechargeable through USB connection as well as with the included power adapter. - External battery pack for four AA batteries included. (Battery pack clips to the side of the unit.) External batteries can optionally be used to charge internal battery. - Built-in FM radio 20 settable channels (can record from radio). - Both line-in and line-out connectors. - Built-in mono microphone. - Supports MPEG 1/2/2.5 Layer 3, OGG Vorbis, WMA, ASF, JPG, BMP. - No issues of any kind around copyright protection. I can move recordings straight onto CD or any other medium. - (Simple) remote control included. - Comes with carry case with belt clip, USB cable, USB host cable, earphones, extern, line-in/out cable, external lapel microphone (mono, with clip). - Acts as USB host adapter, so you can transfer image files from a digital camera directly to the player without the need for a PC. Can view images on built-in screen. - Doubles up as portable external 20GB hard drive for computers. - Works with all versions of Windows. No driver required for Win ME, 2000, and XP. - Firmware upgradable for new codecs and features. - Only a fraction larger and heavier than an MD player (62.1 X 22 X 103mm, 183g). In summary, the H 320 is a much more versatile and useful device in my opinion, at the same price as a Hi-MD player. Cheers, Michi.

So, having (almost) decided to by a Hi-MD recorder, I'm having second thoughts, after reading all the reviews about the limited upload capability. Unless I'm a technically savvy user and know how to capture a .wav stream on my PC, there is no way to get the music I've recorded with a microphone from Hi-MD onto a normal CD that I could play on an ordinary CD player. (I *am* technically savvy, but I don't like having to jump through the extra hoops -- it should be easier than this.) As a musician, the recording capability of MD is the only thing that interests me. (I need high-quality and portable recording. And I need the ability to give those recordings to people on CD.) Given that the recording capability of MD is the key advantage it has over HD players, that made me wonder about the life expectancy of MD. Suppose someone builds an HD player, say with a 5-10GB disc, that can record. What happens to MD then? My prediction is that MD and Hi-MD will be dead as a door nail the instant someone makes an HD player that can record. After all, why would I still bother with MD then? With a 5-10GB hard drive, I can record tons of stuff before I run out of space on the player. And, having recorded tons of stuff, I can then effortlessly transfer the recordings to ordinary CD-ROM, at a cost of cents each (not dollars each). Moreover, the CD-ROMs will play just about anywhere in the known universe, whereas mini discs will play, well, only on MD players (and Hi-MD discs only on Hi-MD players). And, if I really want to pack a lot of stuff onto a single disc, say, for archiving, I can use DVD-R and get 4.7 GB onto a single disc (or 8.5 GB on a dual-layer disc). And doing this is still much cheaper than getting the same capacity as MD or Hi-MD. So, what life does MD have left? It appears to me that it is very little -- the first HD recorder will wipe out MD for good. Thereafter, bye bye MD... Cheers, Michi.

I'm not all that interested in taking a Hi-MD player (or any other portable player) around to listen to music on the go. For me, there is only one reason for the purchase: I want to record sessions of my own music and listen to them later, for example, on the CD player in my car, and I want to give copies to friends (none of whom own an MD player). I also want to record sessions with my music teacher and rehearse them later and, again, I don't want to necessarily do this using the Hi-MD player, but the CD player in my home stereo or my car. The recording capability of the MD is the *only* reason I'm even considering the medium -- if an iPod could record, I wouldn't even think about MD. Mark my words: the first company to produce an HD player that can record (and doesn't stop me from easily passing on my own recordings) will blow the MD medium out of the market for good. Never mind the limited storage capacity of a hypothetical HD recorder -- it's irrelevant. Long before I fill a 20GB hard drive, I'll link up with my laptop and copy recordings to CD-ROM, or DVD-R, or whatever. Considering how much Sony have invested in creating the Hi-MD technology, it is stunning to see how blinkered they are. Restricting me in the use of my own recordings is stupid even from Sony's perspective because it restricts use of the key advantage that MD has over HD players. Some people at Sony really must have rocks in their heads... Cheers, Michi.