Davew

I cannot agree with you more aeriyn. If anyone else is thinking of getting one, can you answer me this please: why?? I would very much like to know how many of these sony have actually sold worldwide, and what sort of percentage of their total MD sales that is? whatever we say about them, sony are not stupid. they know how to make profit. surely they would not have contemplated producing that if they didn't think they would be reaping it in?? I assume people have bought them for the uniqueness and the value of them, like diamonds for example? just my opinion though!

my god! 1300 quid for portable!! :ohmy: I have seen it before on minidisc.org but never took a closer look. It better had be hand crafted out of solid brass with a palladium finish!!! doesn't seem to have many features, but of course, that is not the point :laugh: we are talking style and audio quality here! if you have one anybody, does it scratch really easily, like the iPod?? BTW i don't want to get one, am just curious! Dave

Tell you what would be good, is when a service manual comes out for the NHF800 and you could find how to hack it to give it more play modes like the NH900, the display supports Program mode for example, but you can't use it on the 800. ...what do you say, sorry? 'why didn't you just get a 900?' dunno really, I just liked the 800 better. Plus i'm not really bothered about the extras, it was just an idle thought about the hacking. It's my new toy, I couldn't...... :laugh:

yep, if that's what I remember from the multiple sheets of paper that came in the box. the many cores are there for our euro guidelines. may seem odd to you, but i suppose it's fair enough, if it cuts interference. Also the guys in brussels have now outlawed all our nasty killing chemicals....bah they have no sense of fun :laugh:

I don't have a 900, but looking at the user manual pdf it seems like you can't charge an external battery using it. It looks like you can't plug the AC adapter into the device when you are using the external battery, is that right kalo, or am I wrong? If you go to http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MZ-NH900.html and look at the Battery life section at the bottom of the page, in the 'Recharge' it only has a time specified for the NH-10WM gumstick. Which also makes me think that you can't recharge the external AA. Dave

the OMG files are encrypted using a method that requires a key on your computer to decode them. Presumably once the key is gone, there is NO way of retrieving the unencrypted file, even sony could not do it, that is the whole point of the encryption in the first place. It cannot be undone without the key. am I correct on this guys? I think pethunia is absolutely correct, the whole process should be made simpler for the average user, and if not that, at least *clearer* by sony, so people are aware of the many many pitfalls that are out there. you see, if you know about it and know what to do, you are *usually* OK! Yes! people should flood sony with complaints about their unplayable OMG files, even if they know full well there is nothing that sony or anyone else can do, then sony might take some notice like you said! Dave

yeah, the backup tool. Hmm. as i've posted somewhere else, you have to be aware of how much HDD space it gobbles up. As it saves an exact copy of all your files in the library (OMG and non-OMG ie WAVs and MP3s) you need to be careful, but unfortunately, if you are going to be safe it is a wise evil.

If you are using a line cable to record, you need to clamp them around the cable in the way it says to comply with our EU standards. The supplied USB cable (uk) has already been clamped, as has the remote cable, and also the AC power adapter that has about 3 on it! Dave

I hate to say it but that is what they made the sonicstage backup tool for. I'm really sorry this has happened to you, it is worse than losing the files because they are so tantalizingly close. thumbs up to OpenMG again eh?

yeah I always use the remote when I can, i think the layout is very good, It's quite big though, but at least it seems robust! and tho I would like it if I could press the 5 way stick to pause, whenever I use the stick I always change track when I don't mean to because the recorder is on its side or something confusing like that! yes, I agree Bad design sony. Dave

yeah me too, I only know about two people who have minidiscs and they want to get iPods or some other hdd player instead. my 800 is the only himd player ive ever seen in the flesh and ive never actually heard anyone else even *talk* about himd! yep, so its quite hard to be a guru! Dave

what i mean is, that pressing the stick could make it pause as well as the pause button, but only when you're playing music, not in record mode or when you hold the record button. just thought it would be useful, that's all!

hmm yeah, but you could still have the pause button there, I just think that when you're not in the menus, it would be useful to give the stick the pause function. It also has the bookmark function if you hold it down for a couple of seconds, but I can't really see any problems with that, since when you're just playing something normally, nothing at all happens if you press the stick, so why not use that spare capacity??

Hi The 5 way control on the nhf800, and probably the 700 too: When you press it, it has the play function, does anyone know why sony have not given it the pause function as well? It's a real pain when it's in my pocket and i'm not using the remote, to pause it quickly. cos i'm searching around for the very small pause button and it would be really handy just to press the stick! I think they might not of made it do pause too becuase you could accidentally pause it when you're changing the volume, but i think that is definately an acceptable risk! what do people think?? Dave

This is all very confusing An important question that will help us understand what sony are doing is: After you have converted your music files to Atrac, can you then drag the OMGs onto the HD1, or do you have to use SonicStage for that too so that it can add them to a sort of TOC (like the HIMDHIFI on a HiMD disc) ?? Dave

If you take a look at the 800's remote plug, you can see it has 6 contacts on it, two of them are above the main section and only the 800 has the notches in remote jack to accomodate the plug. Hope that I have explained that clearly :smile: Dave

Hi have just read an article in the Guardian about the NW-HD1 (It has finally arrived in the UK) It says "Sony will soon upgrade the software to allow MP3s to be ported directly to the player" I assume they are referring to the firmware in the HD1? An update to SonicStage would not provide native mp3 support?!

wouldn't surprise me...

Yes, they promise these things, that's because they go around taking out HiMDrenderer, eh jadeclaw?! It's sony. and that's all there is to say

cheers jadeclaw, I didn't know that. That will come in handy if I'm connecting to speakers etc. hmm 27 will remember that :smile: thanks again, Dave

The only things that the 800 do not have are: Program play mode (though you can use bookmarks as a sort of program mode, and it remembers it becase of disc memory) Line out, you only have headphone out. speaking of headphones, if you were to get the UK version (I don't know if this is the same for all versions) get some better headphones if you ever want to use the player without a remote. The headphones supplied have a cable that is about 20cm long (I'm not joking), plus they hurt your ears after a while! I am very pleased with my 800 despite these things :grin: Always happy to help, Dave

yes, even your very own legit recordings are encrypted and will only play on your system. Basically you are stuck with them until sony release the converter (don't hold your breath, you can forget about the sony converter materialising in the near future)

you can't drag and drop atrac files onto the 800 from the explorer, you have to use SonicStage. :whatever: Same for uploading, which you have to very careful about cos you can very easily manage to upload and it sometimes wipes them off the MD and then you find that it hasn't actually uploaded them at all! So watch out! Navigation on the 800 is good (well, I find it good) you can browse your tracks by group (which are like top level folders), by artist, by album and by bookmark (you can bookmark your favorite tracks on a disc, then only play them. Plus if you have disc memory turned on, the player will remember your bookmarks for that disc!) The play modes on the 800 are split into two parts: Main Play mode: You select Group, Artist, Album, Bookmark or Normal. Then it only plays tracks from that category (you select the artist etc) (You can set main mode from the menu on the Remote, or by pressing the Navi/Menu button on the recorder) Sub Play mode: This affects in what order the tracks you selected in main are played. For these modes you can turn repeat on or off as well: Normal, One Track only and Shuffle. There is also 'A-B Repeat' which lets you select a start point and and end point within a track and plays that bit over and over. :cool: Hope this helps Dave

Batteries: The 900 has a gumpack but also a battery case so you *can* use an AA battery. The 800 uses a bog standard AA battery only. that is the definitive answer because I have one. 700: AA battery 600D: AA battery It says: "Rechargeable NiMH AA formfactor battery (NH-7WMAA)" for the 800, 700 and 600D but that is just the name of the AA supplied. Dave

thanks for clearing that up jadeclaw, I'm not too hot on exactly how the MO disks work! But i still maintain that is was a lot faster to burn my big file to a CDRW than send it to Hi-MD! by the way, I asked sony about the wav converter the other day, and I got a friendly reply: "Although there is currently no software available from ourselves that will allow for the OMG files to be altered there are currently plans for a software tool to be developed that will allow this" Well, lets wait and see, notice how they're not commiting themselves to anything! since I use my Hi for recording, It is a much needed tool for me. Don't know why I've never tried marcnet's way, will pop over there later to have a look! Dave