1kyle

I see that Sony are releasing some Car Radio units with USB Any idea if the USB will be compatable with HI-MD --if so this would be a great alternatitive to finding radios with AUX in . I currently have a Kenwood older unit with MDLP but a nice NEW Radio with a comapatble USB connector would be great. It would have to be a SONY I suppose as it would need to be able to convert the ATRAC(3) files . The sales "Spiel" on this one says it does play ATRAC but usually knowing the basic ignorance in a lot of sales staff it would be great to know if anybody on this Forum has tried one of these (or similar). http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/524760/art....html?srcid=867 Cheers -K

Just messing around with SUSE 10.2 and the beta version of vmware workstation version 6 -- fixes USB mount problem and allows USB 2.0 amongst other things. SS 4.2 runs 100% perfectly on workstation in a Windows VM. To avoid the overhead of running a VM (and another copy of Windows --however since the VM BIOS has pretty standard features you can "poodle fake" Windows into thinking it's running on the same machine even though you are running it on different machines -- avoids the Re-activation problem if you want to test different features on different machines) I was wondering if anybody had got SS worling via WINE. In theory it should be do-able as WINE actually uses the Windows Binaries. It's actually quite amazing what WINE can run --amazed people have that much time to spend doing that sort of stuff but I'm glad they do as we can all benefit. Cheers -K

Here's an interesting test I plug the Optical Output of a CD player (quality Marantz Gear) into the optical input on my jbs980. I record in SP (legacy) on to a MD in the MD deck. I also plug the Optical OUT of the deck into a HI-MD RH1 and record at HI-SP 256, 362 and PCM. The Deck is just acting as an "Optical Pass through" although I accept there might be an extra D/A step (or even 2). The MD deck is top notch quality so I wouldn't expect any signifiant degradation in the extra D/A step(s). Doing it like this allows me to concurrently record to a MD IN the deck AND record "Optically" to another device at the same time so I don't have to do 2 "Real Time" recordings for testing. Now playing the SP recorded disk into High End gear with speakers using the optical output of the jb980 deck into the optical in of my amplifier gear sounds FIRST CLASS -- Maybe if you were hard pushed to it you *might* be able to tell the difference between the CD and the MD. It's difficult for me to tell as I know where the recording came from. I can only imagine what an optical HI-SP output must be like -- What a miss here SONY. It's difficult to get true optical output into a high end piece of gear without using a computer as I can't think of any HI-MD units that have an optical output. So the quality here will depend not only on SS but your HARDWARE as well. Often Computer gear has relatively cheap components installed like bottom of the range CD writers and HIDEOUS sound cards and systems that make the old fashioned "Ghetto Blasters" sound like a high quality classical Symphony Orchestra like the LSO (London Symphony Orchestra). Finally you have to plug the ANALOG output of the RH1 into an amplifier to test it --whilst VERY VERY good indeed at HI-SP this is still not equivalent to an Optical output going in to the Optical input of a serious quality amplifier. As I don't have any Optical OUT on the MD players (RH1) I have to use the analog out for playing through the high end audio deck. All 3 codecs sounded first rate (PCM, HI-SP 352, HI-SP 256). Remember these disks were recorded OPTICALLY. Making a CD again from the PCM file uploaded to the computer sounded identical to the original CD (as it should with decent gear). I came however to the suprising conclusion that SP recorded Optically was actually the better than any of the HI-MD codecs including PCM on playback but that could be due to the fact that the play back quality of the jb980 with optical ouput is far better than the standard analog output on the RH1 good though that is. However analog output into High end gear with HI-MD recorded at 352 and even 256 won't disappoint. It's still surprising to me that legacy SP via optical out and in still sounds the best -- maybe I'll keep my SP disks around for a while yet. In a studio where you can get the PCM into other gear then I'd suspect this would be the best and probably easy enough to hear in that environment. However on the road you are going to have to rely on using headphones or plug in to analog gear and in these cases where you don't want to upload to a computer HI-SP @ 256 is your best bet unless you have legacy gear where good old "SP" is still fine (60/74/80 min discs). Nothing I've wriiten here disappoints me about the RH1 except lack of optical output. For recording on the move or even as a playback device the RH1 more than satisfies. Cheers -K

Any Copy Protected AUDIO CD (at least in the EU) is ILLEGAL. Strange as it's normally the OTHER way around. Any product sold as a CD has to conform to the original patent still controlled / owned by Philips who have never requested this "Feature" (Copy Protection) be added to audio CD's. The relevant standards and patents can be seen -- called something like The Red Book. There are other standards and conventions for DATA CD's, Video CD's and mixed content however pure AUDIO CD's must still follow the redbook and be DRM Free. If you see any "Bog Standard" CD's that are copy protected get a refund as these are not valid CD's. The only part of a CD that can be protected legally is an extension whereby some of the TEXT can be copy protected - but this is irrelevant these days with access to CDDB / FREEDB for the music titles. SACD iis another matter. What is actually quite interesting now is that after the initial corporate Greed shown by Apple in refusing to allow other players access to it's music formats is now making an 11th hour desperate plea to the music industry to start relaxing some of the irksome DRM issues --amazing what happens once a company's sales have matured sparking fierce internal debates as to where the next revenue stream comes from. Even Bill Gates ha said current DRM restrictions are too consumer unfriendly http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6182657.stm Apple's plea for easing DRM restrictions http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6337275.stm However Warner is still kicking it's heels. There's always one rubber a--hole in the pack. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6344929.stm anyway if you want to keep DRM free music then don't let the CD die --keep buying a few to keep the format alive. Cheers -K

Actually you'll probably get a much better effect and certainly more satisfaction by using superior headphones rather than fiddling about to get a really measly 0.2 db (if that) improvement in volume. I think I'm with Volta on this on "the Placebo" effect. Why ALL units weren't made standard at +0.5mw +0.5mw I don't know --- There's actually nothing in the EU directives about mandating a volume limitation anyway. The EU Commission (I know from personal experience) wastes a lot of time and money debating totally pointless subjects but the volume cap has actually never either been on the agenda or passed in any EU wide legislative body. I wouldn't risk damaging the unit for this measily improvement in volume. Cheers -K

The older Kenwood's which USED to be available in Europe and USA also did MD --MDLP only however -- There was a cable you could get (I posted this between 6 mths a nd a year ago) which would also give you AUX in functionality (didn't have a standard AUX in on the front panel). Mine is still working fine but I'd love a HI-MD car unit. I can't rember the model as I'm half drunk in Spain at the moment. Great to see Kenwood making MD products again after they had stopped in Europe a while ago. Cheers -K

Why not do the following (you only need to use 1 recorder as well). 1) Put the Legacy MD's into the RH1. 2) Upload to PC (now allowable). Convert to WAV if the original was SP recordings - done in the transfer via SS. 3) Now download to HI-MD You can edit the tracks or whatever in SS to give them title names. This is bound to be quicker than using analog recordings. You can delete the stuff from SS afterwards if you don't want to keep the recordings on your PC. If the legacy stuff was Net MD LP2 / LP4 you *might* still be able to upload it to PC provided you use the RH1 recorder -- I'm not too sure about this as I only ever downloaded LP2 / LP4 and never actually recorded in this format. Should be easy to try it. I have a feeling also that using SS 4.2 with the RH1 there are a lot less restrictions on transferring music (both to and from a PC). No probs whatsoever however if the recordings were SP. If you can't use the RH1 for LP2/LP4 upload to PC then analog real time is your only choice. - I'd still upload into a computer (via Total Recorder ) as it's much easier to edit the tracks and give them names on a PC than fiddle around using the RH1. Cheers -K

Most people have a Mobile Phone these days If you have a Motorola RAZR (or similar) the phone charger included with this phone also charges up the RH1. (The reverse is not true however -- the Sony Charger won't charge the RAZR phone). Incidentally the Car charger unit also works for the RH1 as well as the RAZR phone. Some other Motorola phone chargers might work --look for the "Mini-USB' plug on the end. The Phone charger is smaller and lighter than the RH1 charger so IMO it's a no-braner just to take that charger if you have the RAZR type phone. Cheers -K

For starters http://www.silicon.com/hardware/storage/0,...39119040,00.htm Cheers -K

Actually there IS another OS out there which is FREE and IMO just as good (if not better) than VISTA --LINUX. 3D Graphics / File manager, VM capable, Free Open Office zillions of FREE Multimedia applications. We don't all have to surrender to M$. Cheers -K

Sometimes I get the impression that the whole of the EU commission behaves just like NERO playing the fiddle (or whatever stringed instrument was available when he was Emperor) whilst Rome was burning. They have a whole slew of problems to deal with but what do they come up with as a priority - they seem to be interested in forcing future CD's to carry DRM protection. Apart from the fact that the CD format patent is 100% owned by Philips who have not requested this in any form whatsoever and that CD sales are declining anyway who really is pressing for this stuff. Applying DRM to CD's would kill the CD stone dead as currently it's the only legitimate way to obtain unrestricted uncompressed WAV music and to distribute it as well. (OK you can get some with special software from Music download stores but these usually come with all sorts of irksome restrictions on copying to other devices etc. etc.) I'm totally against Piracy but any technology that stops you listening to Music you've PAID FOR or COMPOSED / CREATED YOURSELF on whatever device you please should be outlawed. Cheers -K

Hi all For the life of me I can't see why Car Radios are STILL being manufactured which play CD's. Almost every radio I've ever seen recently incorporates a CD player - something I've NEVER used in a Car. Apart from the bulk of the CD's and the usually not so good stability problems even a unit playing a FLASH DRIVE or USB connected card reader would be better --and it should be made a CAPITAL OFFENCE (or at least deserving a public a FLOOGING ) not to provide an easy FRONT ACCESS AUX IN on the front panel. I never did like CD's in Car radios --the silly changer units you had to have in the boot / trunk of you car and the whole idea of loading up a number of CD's in the boot before you started your journey to me was a total NO-NO. MD would have been 100% perfect for Car Radios. --Luckily I still have my old kenwood but only SP/LP2/LP4. I'd have loved a HI-MD unit but that doesn't seem to be appearing. A flash card reader unit or at least an AUX IN would be fine --forget about CD's for cars -- Dinosaur Technology. I wonder --do any of the people who design Car Radios actually ever drive. Cheers -K

Also good (very good) but still not up to the Bose QC3. Remember also that the quality of the recorded music is also a factor to bear in mind here --note I mean RECORDING Quality - not CONTENT as everybody has their own personal choice in Music (--I wish some of the travellers on London's Undergound system would remember that too -- but with the Bose I'm isolated from hearing 55 Ipods all playing different music at the same time). The Bose will find ANY defect with your music so record from a good source at the highest bit rate consistent with the capacity of your music player. For highly compressed music at lowish bit rates (anything lower than 192 kbps is a waste when considering Bose QC3's) then other phones will yield a much cheaper and satisfactory solution --however once heard at their full potential you'll LUST over these --Quality is just staggering. (At this price it ought to be --but it doesn't let you down. On a long plane trip --pure heaven --an even if you watch the in flight movie these have a double stereo plug in for the plane's audio system. Infinitely better sound than you get with the standard nasty phones for watching the movie. Cheers -K

I'm afraid the RH10 was a real DOG in terms of recent MD's especially as the RH1 which came out just a little later was so good. The only thing the RH10 had going for it IMO was the screen -- but if you just want a player only I'd get something like a tiny LEXAR which has a REMOVEABLE SD card (or MMC card also works) as well as 256MB internal memory and has a great display as well. These can be had for about 50 GBP (or if you can afford the really great but wallet bursting Bose QC3 noise cancelling headphones - you will get one FREE). Plays MP3's and PCM and you can use programs like Windows Explorer for transferring music (both ways). Works on Linux as well --nice apps like Hydrogen come into their own. If you want to stick with SONY the nice new NW706 series of players are brilliant --use SS in the normal way. Size of these is like a typical cigarette lighter, they look really snazzy and play MP3's, Atrac (and Atrac lossless), AAC and WAV. Display is good as well. I'd seriously think about "junking" the RH10 if I were you. Almost ANY MD unit is better with regard to build quality and ruggedness. Cheers -K

Optical uploading needs to be done in Real Time (slow) -- and you'll probably have to re label your music etc. As the poster says it's easier (and quicker) to do it using an RH1. Cheers -K

Hi there to boot from Minidisc -- make sure your computer's BIOS does allow USB device boot. USB boot (not counting external CD drives here ) can be in one of two formats -- HDD (Hard Disk) which means your external device needs to have a partition table and a disk boot MBR (sector 0 etc) or as a FDD (super floppy) which does not have a partition table or a hard disk MBR. To get MD to boot you have to choose which method your BIOS sees the MD --FDD or HDD. (USB CD/DVD's present no problem. Bog standard CD's / DVD's are handled just as if they are internal drives so booting is not a problem with these). Mine says in the boot menu (Press F11 to get boot menu when you start up your machine\- might be different on your BIOS but F11 seems quite common on desktop Bioses) USB - RMD - FDD SONY Hi-MD WALKMAN select and boot. To create the OS on the MD you need any of the "Flash device" boot utilities out there --the computer treats the device as a USB key device. Some BIOSES will see the MD as a USB HDD device -- if yours does that then it's easy just format your MD like a HD and create your bootable OS on it . Ensure you create an MBR on it. Try installing any distro of Linux on what the computer sees as a "Removeable Hard Drive". You can tell if your BIOS sees the MD as a HD as you'll see in the menu something like USB -- HDD SONY Hi_MD Walkman If like mine it's a "Flash drive" then you need to do it a bit differently. It's treated as a Super Floppy without partion info or a Hard Disk MBR. (You'll see USB -RMD -FDD if the Bios treats it as a Flash drive rather than a USB disk drive). Read the following for a decent intro on this stuff. http://www.marlow.dk/site.php/tech/usbkeys The best way to start is to create a BART PE disk -- a windows recovery disk that will boot ENTIRELY from the flash drive even if your hard disk(s) are totally hosed up. Cheers -K

With decent "Upscaling" DVD recorders now cheap and commonplace most consumers won't feel the need to go out and buy either a BLU-RAY player / recorder or the Blu-Ray movies themseleves,. In anycase SKY in the UK has a very good HD (High Definition) service and you can even download (legally) HD films via fast broadband if you are a suscriber so as I've previously posted in the past this type of gear has appeared just too late to be a significant player in this market. However an enhanced "MD" recorder which also records Video would be a useful use for Blu-ray discs provided the machine could be made small and portable enough. For any sort of archiving mass use of tiny flash cards IMO aren't really an option --at least not in the short term (next 5 - 10 years). I'd certainly find use for something just slightly larger than a current MD player to be able to record a few hours of High Quality Video as well as uncompressed sound. I'd find it also great to be able to say have 5 - 10 movies on a single disk at standard DVD quality --that would make the plane flights between Sydney and London a lot more enjoyable. I think this is the ONLY future for BLU RAY. As a mass consumer home entertainment device it's not going to hack it especially with decent "Upscaler" DVD players available in Supermarkets such as TESCO ("Buy one and get one Free") at around 50 - 80 GBP a pop and recorders such as Panasonic at around 120 GBP (incuding built in Freeview TV tuners - terrestial digital) with HDMI and component video giving at least 720p and 1080i. Most of the current Cheaper "HD Ready" TV's won't do 1080p yet but Joe Public probably doesn't care as you really need TV's bigger than 40 inch to get the most from true 1080p even when you CAN find content. Upscaled 720p or even 1080i looks fine to most people on typical LCD TV's say 32 inch and under. The video quality of most domestic / consumer video cameras IMO is absolutely HORRIBLE especially when viewed on large plasma / lcd TV's. Cheers -K

These aren't in the same league as the Noise cancelling phones. Of course they are better than the standard ear bud phones that come with your player (but almost anything is). Senns are excellent --and these are excellent value but it's like comparing a Ford Fiesta with a top of the line Merc. Both do an adequate job -- but I'd take the Merc any day.# Now if you upgrade to Noise cancelling Senns (PCX150/250/300) you will probably be totally amazed if you've never used noise cancelling phones before --but these have the external battery which can be a bit of a nuisance with wires etc. Travelling in busy airports with rediculous amounts of security means you have to look at things slightly differently. Messing around with extra cables isn't on and some of these so called security "Gorillas" they employ at airports have an IQ of about 3 and haven't a clue about the extra battery compartment on the Sennheisers. When you switch it on and the red light appears they get quite nervous. I agree with you that probably for 95% of people reading this board the Senns would be more than adequate --but for the Ultimate I'd still go for the Bose QC3. Cheers -K

Hi all --just put down here a few items preferably electronics / computer gear which you found really excellent or a real dog (MD or otherwise) Stinkers - MD RH10 (could have delivered a lot but failed on nearly every count) Windows NT (precursor to Windows 2000 and Windows XP. This version of Windows was so bad it was popularly called Windows Neanderthal or Windows No Thanks. Any Sony Ear bud or in ear phones. Pretty well any Computer Sound system I've ever heard from simple speakers to modern surround. They always sound too Boxy and "Boomy" for me --basically they sound like an overblown "Ghetto Blaster". Stonkers - MD RH1 (far exceeded what I expected from it) Flash player NW S706-F I was always sceptical of these until I tried this one. Beautiful tiny NH10 NET-MD from many years ago (if only Sony had made more of MD then and without the hideous music copy limitations - even of your OWN music). Even today this unit still looks fabulous. Class act. Wharfdale speakers - still one of the best even after all these years. Philips X62 computer -- a Marvel of useful engineering with 11.5 inch screen and really portable. Bose QC3 noise cancelling Phones -- pure heaven on London's undergound system where normally you are competing with 100 different people with Ipods playing at full volume in all their tinny excruciating cacophonies. These phones cost the earth but what a treat. Money well spent even if I have to eat "Roast Hind Leg of dog" for the next few weeks. Cheers -k

AAL gives me around 16 CD's on a 4GB flash player compared with around 28 - 30 using standard Atrac3 @256 kbs. It's a moot point whether on this type of player being listened to on the move with typical phones whether it's actually worth using AAL compared with 256kbs however plugging the (analog) output into a high end stereo system does yield a significant improvement. I'm actually quite impressed with the quality of Atrac @256 so I was really trying the Lossless as a test. The size of the file should in theory be the same as it is on the PC (it's transferred without change apart from the encryption algorithms). BTW battery life on the flash player is fine even when playing Atrac Lossless -- I've used it every day this week and the battery still shows 3/4 full. A few minutes plugged into a computer USB will re-charge it quick enough anyway. SS exhibits an irritating feature in that if you transfer Atrac LOSSLESS from your library to Atrac 256 kbs (standard) it will create the lossy files on your computer so as well as conversion you get the converted files in the library (which you can delete however). Seems strange to me that SS doesn't give an option of "deleting tempory / work files" after transferring music to the device. I'd like to see Simple MD extended to handle these types of players. Should be easy enough as all the encryption etc must be just the same. Cheers -K

I travel quite a lot on planes and one thing I've been looking for just doesn't seem to exist (until now) that is. A PORTABLE quality noise cancelling set of phones. I've tried the Sennheiser PCX 150 -- very passable but when the noise cancelling is ON you get a slight hiss and mobile phones can cause interference. They also don't fold and you have to carry the separate battery holder so wires are always getting tangled. For a cheapish introduction to Noise Cancelling phones these are good however if you can carry them adequaly without wires dangling all over the place. I've also tried Sennheiser PCX 300 (new replacement for the PCX 250). This DOES fold and is well worth the 40GBP more than the (quite satisfactory) PCX 150's and 20 GB more than the PCX 250's but still a bit of a hassle with regard to portability. Then I discovered BLISS -- but at a price so unless you've got decent Bank accounts don't even THINK of buying these. Bose QC3 (note NOT the QC2's which were big and bulky). These really work -- I'd say on a plane you can hardly hear the engines and you'd have to remove the phones to listen to any announcements. Integral (re-chargeable) battery so no external battery / amplifier piece to carry around. You get a spare battery as well with the standard purchase. Batteries last around 20-25 hours per charge. Phones fit over the ear and are very comfortable indeed. The cups twist so you can store them easily in a jacket pocket --they are not ear buds but the size is manageable easily enough. These phones will find ANY defects in your recorded music so unless you have high quality (high bit rate) music you could well be disappointed but with decent sound these are STUNNING. We are talking around 450 USD or more here so they should be top rate -- and they are. To those who can come up with this type of money -- pure listening bliss --and the noise cancelling really works. In London you won't be able to get these much cheaper as you can only get them from BOSE itself. However if you want to try these out and you are in London (even if you don't have the money to buy them) pop into the Bose store on Regent Street. Very friendly and knowlegeable staff. (Picadilly Circus end of Regent Street -- so if you get off at Oxford Circus on London's tube system walk down Regent Steet towards Piccadilly Circus - opposite direction from the BBC which is in Langham Place) and the old Regent St Polytechnic (now Westminster University) . Repeat again -- these phones are pure bliss (but at a price). Cheers -K

As a Recording Medium its future will continue for a while yet. But for people who just want players there are now quite adequate and passable alternatives. For example I got a FREE Lexar player when I spent a ludricously large amount of money on the Ultimate set of phones --BOSE QC3 --absolutely stunning (at a price). Came with the headphones. This Lexar player can RECORD (at PCM) as well and has a REMOVEABLE SD card as well as its internal memory and has quite a nice display. Music is also Drag and Drop -- you don't need SS or whatever. It works even with a 4GB card (although you have to format this in Windows with a 64 kb cluster size as the normal maximum with FAT16 is 2GB. This seems to get round the problem of the 2GB limit). Sony has some quite nice flash players too --the new NW706 series are quite nice although non-removable storage. Had I got the Lexar before buying the Sony I wouldn't have bought the SONY --but remember the LEXAR came FREE with my BOSE headphones - so I'm not disappointed with the Sony either. I DO like the convenient size and portability of MD's. I doubt that I would ever keep drawers full of SD cards --too small and difficult to keep track of. However transferring 1 or 2 MD's to a flash player sems to me an OK option. A slightly larger capacity disk say up to 4GB giving around 25 CD's at high quality seems to me ideal. Any larger than that data management and retrieval becomes a pain - as you can see quite clearly with a lot of Ipod users spending more time in searching for songs / creating playlists than actually playing the music. For me it's easy -- I like Classical Music so I can load up the player with a few classical CD's and then jusy play them through sequentially. I've got a feeling there will be at least one more model after the RH1 -- sales of this unit have rather surprised everyone. Cheers -K

I uninstalled completely SS 4.0 and then re-installed 4.2 again. Transfer speed sems to be fixed now. Maybe something with Windows, conversion algorithm or whatever However it's fixed. Cheers -K

Unless there's a need for you to upgrade to SS 4.2 I'd suggest sticking with SS 4.0 Transferring SS 4.2 music seems to take AGES (and this is without conversion -- ATRAC Lossless ===> ATRAC Lossless on the device (Sony Flash Player). The only advantage I can see is that 4.2 supports the nice little Sony NW706 and 606 type flash players and will transfer Atrac lossless direct to the players (which also play this format). For MD transfer I'd stick with SS 4.0 Cheers -K

Hi SUSE 10.0 / SLED 10 / Open SUSE 10.2 all work fine with SS running on a Windows VM as a guest OS using VMWARE (either the commercial Workstation product or the free server -downloadable from VMWARE's site). Note SUSE 10.2 has a little problem in that the USBFS is now taken out of the kernel by default due to security issues. Other distros will probably follow suit. This means you could have a potential problem connecting the MD (USB device) to your Windows Guest VM unless you compile the kernel with the USBFS option. (Only - currently applies to suse 10.2). BTW the new flash players from Sony (NWS706F 4GB) play Atrac at various bit rates (of course) HE-AAC, MP3 and Atrac Lossless so this might be a better option for a player. ATrac lossless keeps your tags and you also have Uncompressed music in a reasonably lossless compression format which you can convert to other formats later if you need to. Cheers -K