The Low Volta

any Hi-MD without a 'D' in the model name would do the RH10 and NH900 would be my first choices, with the RH910 and NH700/800 next... just look around for them (check out the minidisc.org equipment browser for specs) and see what budget you have... also feel free to ask any further questions greetings, Volta

wow, that's vintage man! I always enjoy listening to my parent's collection of LPs from the 60's... including some vintage flower-power stuff ("hair: the musical",etc...), some very nice early dutch chanson/student protest songs (like Jaap Fisher,etc... before it went all 'schlager'-stuff but still was cynical and weak) and a number of Beatles, Beach Boys and Stones records... It's been a while since I played them, as our turntable died a coule of years ago... so after my schoolwork is done, I'll look for a decent replacement so I can record and archive them digitally (I will have lots to do after I finish my thesis ) Volta

For my more documentary type recordings (speeches, debates, conferences, coloquia and my godson's little 'yelps') but also for my interviews (+/- 25 for my masters thesis) I use Hi-SP as well... The quality is more than satisfactory and indeed it uploads nice and fast (so I can start transcripting the interviews quickly... yay ) For music, I'll probably go for PCM if possible, but that hasn't really been tested yet...I still do not have any decent stereo/binaural mics and I do not expect to have much time to look further (or learn to make 'em myself, as suggested by greenmachine) Until now I have only taped a stealth-test (see if I can sneak the equipment in before I invest in something extra) with my mono mic (sounded horrible ) and one long recording (way too long for PCM and I didn't feel like switching discs with my wet hands) off the mixer in the bar I used to work... but I plan to delve into live rec'ing (music) after I finish my writing and think I'll be using the (brilliant but slow) PCM a lot then Volta

- If you buy any of the 2nd gen Hi-MD's (RH10, RH910, RH710,...) the MP3 can be played as MP3's...no need to convert (but read this thread first, as there are some strange things with MP3 playback, though not really crippling IMHO) - 1st gen (NH600, NH700, NH800, NH900, NH1) will have to convert them. This happens on your computer (as the Hi-MD just can't understand MP3 at all) as far as I know (it shows 'converting' first and then 'transferring'), so it will take a while on a mac/VPC I also read this from you in another post: remember that every transcoding into a lossy format results in quality loss, so if you would get a 1st gen Hi-MD and you could go aac->wav->atrac, that would be better quality wise hope this helps, Volta

wow, what great posts... I really love reading views like these... but to come back to one particular question: I was talking about 'uploading' by which I meant the faster than realtime digital transfer of your recording(s) to a PC... and that will never happen (with consumer equipment) you could try to digitally (re)record the music in realtime to PC if you have a MD with optical out (Hi-MD's do not have that) and a PC soundcard with optical in (I do not have these options, so I can't test it)... but I myself do not really require realtime digital transfer/recording of my stuff, 'cause at least for me, the little quality loss of going the analogue way does not really annoy me (but I'm mostly recording speech/interviews) but it is the realtime part that gets on my nerves so for me the biggest advantage of digit uploading with Hi-MD is the 'faster than realtime' and the 'no quality loss' is a very nice 'extra feature'... just try it if you have the equipment... Volta

sorry, my mistake, I should have been more precise... I actually meant "all the ebay mics shown in the link 00rogers provided suffer from the same problem" the one you got wouldn't as it doesn't plug directly into the recorder... as I said, there are decent mics on ebay, it's just not always clear which ones are and which ones aren't Volta

all that reaction is hopeful, but the outright statement of 6 states already that they will let economic purposes (=read 'money') outweigh other rights is simply scary! now this is my kind of civic action it clearly illustrates the surrealist character of the law and does it in a darn funny way too ... hope he gets the hotel! Volta

hi 00rogers, about the ebay mics, they all suffer from the same problem... they are directly plugged into the recorder. That means that they are likely to pick up the noises from the machine itself, which can be very annoying, especially in more quiet settings... I do not know where you live, but if you can import from N-Am (or live there), the Soundpro SP-BMC-2 mics are cheap and according to most ppl who use them, very good... If you have a bit more oney to spend, Core Sound might be interesting... there are cheap DIY-mics sold on ebay that are very good...but also a number of rubbish ones, so it's difficult to know what's a deal and what's a rip-off... greenmachine has posted a number of interesting DIY-methods (if you're handy with a soldering iron)...(if you're interested, just go to his member profile and look through all his posts, you'll find them) my biggest advice: if you want a nice stereo sound, buy some binaural or stereo mics (= same, just different name) that do not plug into the machine directly and with which you can separate the mic elements a couple of inches (like the BMC-2's I mentioned above) for further info, look through this "live recording" part of the forums for other posts (especially by greenmachine, A440,...and others I can't think of right now ) like these: 1, 2, 3 and 4 and feel free to post further questions at any time (the more concrete, the easier to answer) greetings, Volta

no problem, glad to have helped...and I understand your happiness! when they showed me, I was so grateful I even put it in my signature see you around (there's lots more useful stuff in here), Volta

welcome to MDCF wavejockglw, just follow the link in my signature "uncapped thanks to MDCF" and you'll be taken to the thread that explains it all (it is a long thread but my link takes you directly to the sequence once in service mode) hope this helps, Volta

I guessed 1kyle posted this here cause he saw a potential in the NotMD-codes for hackers to develop non-SS up-n-download-software for Hi-MD or something. I just wanted to point out that as far as I understand it, NotMD doesn't use any "access" to an MD, it just records realtime so it will not offer any further insights to ppl trying to break through the SS-monopoly the tagging bit sure is nifty for ppl still using old-school MD, but I really don't see the potential for anyone else (including hackers) Volta

I'm not so computer savvy... but isn't this just a program that manages realtime recording of oldschool (SP) MD's and allows the computer to transfer tags... strangely enough exactly the time an SP'ed old MD can hold at max... so I really think it just "plays" the tracks and transfers the tags correct me if I'm wrong, but I do not see the potential of this pogram... Volta

indeed, I just realized it sounded quite harsh, so I included a statement that I was shooting the message, not the messengers Volta

good question, while this article sure sounds promising for HD- and flash-players, it doesn't really say anything positive about (Hi-)MD... Sony, com'on... "use the format", release DRM on rcordings and market it for what is was meant: recording and as far as I'm concerned, they can do that with a little up-n-downloading application that is completely separate from SS and Connect...just don't ditch Hi-MD for flash ...yuk Volta

hm, no idea actually...have a look at the user manual/faq's of the file recovery to check how it works but the main problem could be getting these back into SS... I hope they will be recognized as belonging to the library... but we can deal with these problems when (or better if) you can recover them... Volta PS: I do think it is as "safe" as any program that will dig into the "darker layers" of your PC can be... meaning, if I needed to recover files, I would use it... but I won't use it just for fun. It was also recommended by another member here on MDCF (I think A440, but don't know for sure but it was someone I sort of trusted)...so I have it downloaded as some sort of safeguard... but I haven't had to use it yet.

does this mean you have a homebuilt PC and not a pre-manufactured one? If so, just mention that to Sony support and they will have an answer for you: "ah, that's the problem, our software doesn't support PC's that aren't pre-manufactured by some big brand"... but then again, here on MDCF there are a number of ppl using non-brand PC's so SS should be able to run... Volta

the underlined words "PC inspector file recovery" in my previous post are a link to PC inspector's (the name of the company) free file recovery software, which can be downloaded from there and the page also has a sort of user manual I believe good luck... Volta

amen to that! This together with Dex's post sums up my views, so no need for me to go over all that again ...but about this: and this these requests irritate me a bit...IMHO these are very irrelevant features. If I want to play games I'll buy a real PSP and do it properly, if I want pictures, I'll buy a real camera and not some halfharted 'extra feature' on something I bought to do something else...you get the idea? One of the biggest problems right now is that Sony doesn't realize the true strenght of the format: recording so do not confuse them with your requests for 'extras'... let them get the main function right first and then they could still churn out multi-use (or rather multi-useless as so often) models... How many ppl do you know that bought the photo Hi-MD? I don't know any that do not already have another one for recording! It's a gadget. "But what if it came on top of all the recording options?"... well then it would make the model too expensive (also for Sony to make) and it would be a right corporate suicide (or the mistake that killed the format or something)... Please ppl, think about it for a minute, I really like the idea of a clear and honest thread stating real consumer wishes for the next gen Hi-MD's but keep it realistic and focussed! Hi-MD doesn't have to compete with the i-puddle (recorder vs. player) and definitely not with your multi-phone... let Sony realize the fact that Hi-MD is in a league of its own: portable, high quality, relatively cheap recording... Thanks, Volta PS: integrating a camera would make stealth recording concerts harder here in Belgium... right now the security pads us down, but only look for cameras, I showed them my NH900 and held my thumb over the rec-button...they looked at it and said "ok, it's not a camera" and let me pass, so see what would happen if there had been a lense on my recorder? *edit: just to make this absolutely clear: my irritation isn't directed at the quoted posters at all... I do understand and do not condemn that for some ppl these features might be important! I just think Sony should get the basic features right before they start working on the extras and as such our suggestions should reflect this.

hope you enjoy your new acquisition! ( I'm not jealous, Im not jealous! ) you can connect the charger to the bottom of the charging stand so it will charge by simply sitting in the stand (at least that's how it works with the NH900) greetings, Volta

welcome to MDCF... 1. only the very first recorders only had one format (sp)... Hi-MD for example spans a whole range of qualities from 48kbps (bad quality) to Hi-SP (256kbps = very good) and even can do PCM (=CD-quality)... drawback is that the higher the quality/the more space is required... so for listening, most ppl here settle for Hi-SP (26kbps) or atrac3 @ 132kbps difference with MP3 depends mainly on the quality and bitrate of the MP3...there are very good encoded MP3's out there, but some bad ones as well...so it really depends BTW, the 2nd gen Hi-MD can play MP3's without converting them 2. the very best feature is the faster than realtime digital uploading to PC of your own recordings 3. digital uploading of SP is impossible and will be for ever... you can however get it onto your PC by analogue re-recording (see this thread) 4. it depends, my NH900 has allowed me to make some priceless recordings and save them for eternity, so it's already been worth its price IMHO 5. I had to send my NH900 in for repairs quite soon after I bought it and got it back fully repaired, but it did take long! (couple of weeks, 5 or 6, don't remember precisely) 6. MP3 is very broadly accepted as the 'standard' (but it really isn't standardised) so that gives more flexibility (like if you ever want to switch to another type/brand of player, etc...) wav (44.1/16) is CD quality so this is very good compared to all lossy compressions, but it takes up much more space... PCM is wav so wav can be used on Hi-MD but there is a very big difference between he codec (=format, like atrac3+, Hi-SP, SP, MP3, PCM,...) and the hardware (like HD-players, flash-players, MD, Hi-MD...), be carefull not to mix those too much, as it gets quite confusing so read a bit more and post more specific questions concening your requirements afterwards... greetings, Volta

they'd call it "copy-safe"... we call it "give us back our rights to our own recordings"-stupid ... but indeed, that would be the problem, just erased them as you tried to upload them again as you were thrying to upload, I guess that you do not have the recordings on the PC anymore ...otherwise use them (and if you only very recently erased them...use PC inspector file recovery to recover them from your HD) nothing whatsoever... noone has yet succeeded in doing something useful with the Hi-MD-data content sorry, Volta

yep, from the same line as the icantstandpuns no actually that was a good one bug!

I would most certainly upgrade to SS3.1...even if you'd get things working... just do a clean uninstall as described here but remember that this will render your library useless (but then again, it is useless now as well) and download the correct version of 3.1 from here perhaps someone knows of a way to save your library, but I don't greetings, Volta

indeed nope, you could make playable MD's through SS (but only at LP2 quality, and fake SP, which is also LP2 actually) but you can't "record" in any format that is understood by pre-Hi-MD equipment with the 2nd gen Hi-MD's (with 1st gen on the other hand this is possible) greetings, Volta

welcome to MDCF Clowster, bad news, those recordings are probably lost forever, as noone has been able to find a way to restore them (not even from the disc as a removable drive)... to see how to prevent further ruined uploads, we need to see what went wrong: - what version of SS are you using (anything <2.3 is unreliable for uploading)? what are your PC specs? what other programs were running? (just read these rules for posting (software) problems/questions and post according to them with the most thorough description of the problem you can give (every detail can count) - have you uploaded these (disappeared) recordings ever before? (Sony allows only one upload and erases tracks if uploading is tried a second time) please post as detailed as possible... greetings, Volta