zerodB

Ah thanks for that... Yeah i use the rehearsal mode on my bookshelf unit to divide live tracks - it's a real boon.

Great pics! And it's really helpful to see side by side comparisons with a unit you're familiar with...

Correct me if I'm wrong, anyone, I don't believe Sony MD portable units have ever featured rehearsal mode.

If you can, post some samples. (I'm a clarinet player too!)

Probably better to go from Real Media -> WAV -> OpenMG (ATRAC3/+), rather than Real Media -> MP3 ... etc... The extra step will result in a futher quality loss. I know it's only Web radio - the quality may not be top notch to begin with, but SonicStage has to decode from MP3 to WAV anyway before encoding in OpenMG format.

I believe the remote supplied with the 600D is the RMC-21, which, if memory serves me correctly, is the same remote supplied with the N510. Since the N510 and N910 are both in the same generation of NetMD units, the remote should function fine. The N910 comes with a backlit LCD remote (33EL or 35ELK) no? EDIT: Also I hasten to point out that recording your MD tracks onto computer from your N910, and then transferring to the NH600d will incur a further quality loss, unless of course, you use linear PCM on the HiMD. Note that SP mode is compressed to begin with.

The MDR-NX1 are purported to be the same thing as the EX51s, (which themselves are essentially the same thing as the EX71s) so, perhaps you might want to avoid them if you dislike the shrill highs of the EX71s. The MD33 are 4-pole headphones, I'm not too sure how/if they work with standard 3-pole sockets.

I don't have em mate, I'm not Sony... i'm not a repair centre either! Perhaps explain what the problem is exactly, and one of friendly & knowledgable posters may be able to help...

You make it sound as if there are alternatives...! Sorry, the news doesn't look good. Here's what the Sony Hi-Fi Net webpage on the HAR-D-1000 has to say: ...I don't know what that means, it sounds as if it has been bablefished from Japanese. It looks as if, M-Crew is designed only to be used with the user account that the program was installed in...

I want an E10!!! But the thought of the internal battery dying on me has always put me off...

Why did you reset the NV to begin with? You can get the NVWriter and PatchWriter applications directly from Sony. Give em a call! You'll have to convince them you're an authorised Sony service centre though.

Sorry to have to correct you Ishii, but some features will be unavailable. You won't be able to, for example, access the units menu and change settings through the remote. Some of the display modes act a little strange, but otherwise all the control functions and LCD work fine.

A lot of designer blanks come in packs of 5 or 10 with different colours and designs - so you got chaos there to begin with! Also check out www.bluetin.com, and www.audiocubes.com, i'm pretty sure on bluetin you can purchase designer blanks individualy. eBay is also a great place - there are always a few people on there selling their MDs and stacks of blanks as they move on to the glitzy world of HDD players.

Bear in mind: A minidisc is removable media - theoretically the capacity is unlimited. Currently, HiMD discs are avaliable with 1 GB space.

Don't forget that HiMD has the adventage of removable media! So if travelling, for example, you and your girlfriend could just swap discs if you get tired of your own music!

Depends. Most units come with an international warranty these days, so you can just take it to any authorised service centre. That said, it might be hard for such centres to get servicing manuals &c if the units aren't actually being sold in aussie stores. Other than that you can send your unit O/S.

JB Hifi stores always stock a huge supply of blanks, and have quite a few portables in stock. At the chadstone store in melbourne, vic. for example, they have all the first gen Hi-MDs, and even a new MZR-900, which they can't seem to get rid of. Most stores also stock some of the sony mics, caselogic MD cases, and also, the CMT-333NT, the only Sony NetMD/MDLP bookshelf currently available here in AUS. That said, the MD displays are dwarfed in comparison the the whole subsection of the stores dedicated to ipod and it's accessories.

You can start by reading the user manual that came with your unit. It's just amazing what you can find out in there. If you don't have the manual for the NF610, try here: http://www.minidisc.org/manuals/sony/sony_mznf610_manual.pdf Here are some FAQs: http://www.minidisc.org/faq_index.html And a complete tutorial: http://www.minidisc.org/manuals/minidisc_training.pdf You may also want to read the stickies in the software support forums for info on the NetMD software.

They can't even spell the name of their own product (MiniDisc) correctly.

Could be anything at this stage... The Simple Burner program that you use for burning ATRAC CDs is different from the MD SimpleBurner, so unless someone here is using an ATRAC CD player, i'm not too sure how we can help. What I can tell you, is that the latest version of SonicStage (version 3.1) can burn ATRAC CDs. The difference between SimpleBurner and SonicStage is that, with SimpleBurner, you had to create ATRAC CDs on the fly, while with SonicStage, you can rip your music from CD to your hard disc, listen to the music on your PC, and then burn an ATRAC disc. SonicStage can also convert your existing MP3s and Windows Media files to ATRAC. Perhaps you should try that... a download link is in the forum somewhere.

I believe Marc's HiMD Renderer (in the downloads section) can convert ATRAC3 to WAV files. Then you could just burn the WAVs to CD.

That one's GOLD!

A mate of mine is a manager in coles-myer... he says Megamart is the only coles-myer enterprise that operates at loss. Not too sure what to make of that one.

Also, IIRC, the MZ-R500 and MZ-R700 can be hacked via the service menu to enable ATRAC Type-R.

Perhaps, but don't forget Sony does a lot more than just portable audio. True, MD is doing comparatively well compared to previous years - hey - it was orignally just a niche market... but in the long run the Sony execs might not see continuing to invest resources into MD as a profitable enterprise, especially given that Sony are doing so well in other areas - the PlayStation empire being just one example - but there are many other outside the consumer electronics arm of Sony. I'll be disappointed if it happens - MD being ditched over a simple cost/benefit analysis. I believe the MD format has a lot of potential, but it MAY indeed happen...