samplehunter

If you're able to do this, you will be the new god of the HiMD users. ...or propably shot by Sonys secret service

glad to hear that I'm not the only nh900 user with the navi button problem. you're right, it's quite annoying when you have have to use it. It takes ages to even change the record mode. in rec-pause there is no navi menu so chances are higher to set in to the right menu, but you can only setup a bit recording-stuff here. You also can change the recording mode only between HiSP and HiLP while in rec-pause. To change to PCM, you have to stop and go to the menu again WHERE THIS F**CK**%$§ NAVI-MENU POPPS UP. Aaaargh! I've tested it in the Service-Mode. There is a tool to test all knobs and keys. if you press a key a counter counts up and the display shows the pressed key. The NAVI Button definetly has sometimes bad contact. if you press it down slowly the counter counts 2-5 pressings sometimes. I wanted to have it exchanged in the shop where i've bought it, but (as you also might have experienced) when i wanted to show this error it worked properly all the time.

You mean, because there is a FAT-like File System on the HiMDs instead of a simple list of Positions of an ATRAC-Stream (TOC) on the old MDs. Well, TOC-Cloning isn't possible anymore, but if you i.e. turn off the power while writing a file to a HD or Floppy, the File seems not to be written but the data can be restored from the lost chains in the FAT. (except the last cluster which may not have been marked in the FAT) But Harddisks and Floppys usually don't have that f***** DRM/Encryption thing. The other broblem is, even if you could restore the sectors, and store the data in this big .HMA file the Header may mismach. and -thanks to DRM- you won't even know if something in the hidden area of a HiMD was not written correctly. That would be the reason why the unit wants to (re)format the disc. I think only the Sony guys who know the file format and have access to the keys for decryption can restore the data on a HiMD (for now...)

AGC is only done on the analog inputs. if you record from digital this means unity gain. they only didn't spend a own menu item for this. The manual level is only useful if you have a already digital signal from a weak source or if you want to fade out/in a digital recording. I've tried it with the spdif out from a digital mixer. with "AGC", the levels were the same. with manual level i thought unity gain was at 15/30 and 30/30 is about +12db.

Custom bitrates would be fine, yes. But I'm rather dissapointed from the quality of this atrac3+ codec. I've tested all available codecs with some of the official EBU-Test Signals for lossy audio codecs (I think a link to these files was at minidisc.org) These signals are not (only) some synthetic waveforms to stress the encoder but also signals from natural instruments like a harpsichord, a glockenspiel (is it called this in english) and also a sppech sample. I found this quite useful because recording a single instrument is a not so irrealistic task one could do with this units. The original file are uncompressed PCM-Wave files of course. the harpsichord sample for Example gave quite strange results: At 256k (Hi-SP), the atrac3+ codec sometimes sounds a bit grainy in the sustain phase (I think, the a3+ codec is a bit new and the sony guys still have to tweak the parameters a bit. Sounds like the window size is a bit too small or the transitions between two windows are not smooth enough) At 64k (Hi-LP), it has (very) little less high frequencies but very smooth sound(!) with atrac3 LP2 this sample sounded the best for my oppinon. atrac3 LP4 - well, forget it. I haven't tried it with the atrac SP mode because you cannot really transfer in this mode. (I think sony knows why they didn't realize the original atrac codec as software...) This sample tricks many encoders because the waveform has very soft high frequiency parts but these are very important to recognize the sound correctly. Don't even try to encode this sample with the crappy wma-encoders :-) with the speech sample you can hear the graininess of the Hi-SP mode very good while the Hi-LP mode with 64k is absolutely perfect for speech (well, dry speech without reverb). here you will hardly notice a difference from the uncompressed original. For normal music the Hi-SP mode is ok and for recordings with the unit i normally use this mode (or PCM) but for transfers i prefer the LP2 mode because it sounds quite good and is about 3-4 times faster tha the Hi-SP codec on my PC. Well, I miss the REAL atrac codec on Hi-MD...

When you transfer something to the recorder it will use the anti shock memory as a kind of cache. So the PC can transfer faster at the beginning. these bars indicate how much data has still to be written from the buffer. if the bars are more and more disappearing the whole rest of the data is already in the recorders memory and it should be save to disconnect the usb cable. this is a useful feature if you transfer PC-Files, too.

I've tried it once, but never again. The music was not destroyed so far but due to the physics of MO-Media, it even took ages on my nearly empty Hi-MD. I tried it with the defrag utility of Win2000 and have aborted it after about 15 minutes but the drive was still acessing and acessing... It has locked my entire system until I have disconnected the USB cable. Well, it was just for testing... kind of defragmenting a CD-RW or something. These media just isn't made for things like this. Even if the media was fast it could only defrag the physical files itself but the tracks are all stored in this single file like some tables in a single database file or the files in a zip file. So you will have the same problems as with a database: the logical fragmentation IN the file, which can only be defragmented with a utility FOR this file. So we will have to wait until sony comes with a "Hi-MD Music defragmenting Tool" Well, chances for peace on earth seem to be higher than this