Justin42

This all seems too bizarre. There is definite pent-up demand for a unit, they'd be crazy not to release it here. I just wonder if demand is so much stronger than expected in the EU and Japan that they can't make enough units to keep everyone satisfied, so they're sending the US models back to help demand in the "stronger" areas? It still seems totally idiotic. Which means, given this is Sony, it's quite possibly true. I really, REALLY want an RH1!!

The MZ-M100 is based on the RH10, which is a discontinued model. Sony is coming out with an MZ-M200 very, very shortly. The MZ-M100's big selling point was that it was Mac compatible. As such, most people just bought RH10's for cheaper (who had PCs, or didn't need computer connectivity). So the model was never in particularly high demand. You unfortunately jumped in right at the generational switch where the old equipment starts getting cleared out just before the new equipment comes in. That said, there is nothing "wrong" with the model-- it's not like they're clearing them out due to defects. It's just "last year's model".

Just to agree with what's been posted.. the RH1 should be a fantastic recorder, but I really think the people most in the market for it are the ones with money already invested in MD as a format. I totally agree that it will breathe new life into the older MD decks-- now that we know we can record and digitally transfer, recording on SP on a deck becomes a much more useful proposition! (I know I can plug directly into a PC for a lot of things but I really think an MD deck produces a very nice recording-- especially as you can use nice RCA cables, any stereo equipment, etc, instead of adapters for 3.5mm plugs) And the fact that Sony FINALLY is releasing a HiMD unit that remembers its settings is fantastic. If you basically want a music player, the RH10/RH910 are excellent units that you may find cheap. They're a bit weaker for recording, but have nice displays and controls for playback. The RH1 is definitely optimized for recording. I'd like to see some tests as to the recording quality between the 2nd gen and the RH1s-- if Sony improved the ADC or anything, or if it basically sounds the same. Or, be like many of us and get the minidisc addiction, and get both.

Wow.. $99 for a DH10? It's too bad the Fry's here in LA are so big/popular, pretty much any good deal is long gone before I hear about them. (and it's not a place I enjoy just browsing under most circumstances. ) I definitely have the addiction. I followed Minidisc pretty intently from introduction on.. I always wanted one but they were way out of my price range til I graduated college and got a real job... picked up my first Sharp 722 from Mobshop (anyone remember them? the more people bought a deal, the cheaper the price got). I liked it a lot (it's still in use as an occasional recorder, and probably will be used even more once the RH1 comes out in the US and I can upload legacy recordings-- I love how the 722 works, still the best MD portable I've personally used). I got an MD deck (the MXD-400) a couple years later when I was building a nice home theatre setup (this may be heresy, but the CD player ROCKS on that thing-- awesome quality for a non-high-end CD player, especially on MP3s! MD sounds fantastic, too). I use it for recording stuff all the time, especially vinyl. Picked up an NH1 about a year after they came out, using some gift cards I got for Christmas. I never entirely bonded with the NH1-- fantastic styling, but the quirks kinda annoyed me. Plus I had the warranty length wrong in my head, and I thought I had a year to return it under warranty (it turns off randomly during recording, always has), but it was really only 90 days... never really bonded with the unit the way I would've liked to, given it was a gift (indirectly, from the gift cards) and how nice it can be. I wouldn't want to get rid of it, though. Just picked up an RH910 with help from this site and love it... although it has some minor issues.. like sometimes it resumes playback properly after being paused or stopped (same track, same play mode, etc), and sometimes it restarts from scratch-- track 1, group 1, not in shuffle mode or whatever mode I was in. :/ But it overall seems to work very well and I really like it (especially the larger display, and the fact it was cheaper so I don't feel like I have to treat it like it was made of gold.. [although I take very good care of most of my electronics]) I've been tempted to snag a DH10P if I see one cheap or maybe an RH10 for the display, but have no real reason to! And I am definitely buying an RH1 ASAP, as I think it'll let me get a LOT more use out of my decks, and I have older SP recordings from the 722 I'd love to be able to digitally download. I'm really excited for it. It's like-- I love the format, never have completely found an ongoing use for it, but will keep buying units til I do.

Interesting, I turned off Disc Memory and the 910's held a charge since Saturday night. I've used it for a few hours here and there and it's only dropped one bar on the battery indicator. Does Disc Memory affect the charging, or could've this been a total fluke? Now that a new one is on its way I don't know what to do. The manual mentions it takes 2-3 charge cycles for full capacity but I've never seen a battery make THIS sort of improvement in just 3 cycles! [i thought only Quick Mode affected battery life?]

Bummer. I contacted Amazon, and they're sending me a replacement unit via 2-day air. I should have it Wednesday. Does "Disc Memory" affect battery life? I know Quick Mode does, but I seem to remember that it should discharge a battery after about a week, not 2 days. Thanks for your responses!

Just another question as I get used to my new RH910. I got it, charged it up, and used it for a few days (fairly light use, 'real life' has been kind of hectic so I haven't had the time to play with the 910 like I'd like). When I took it back out after no use for 2-3 days, it was dead. (giving me the flashing "BATTERY LEVEL LOW" or the like and refusing to turn on) I realised I had forgotten to turn off Quick Mode and turned it off at that time, thinking that would solve my battery problems. So I charged it, put it away, couldn't get back to it for 2-3 days again, and I just tried it again tonight and it's dead again after doing NOTHING. I know NiMH discharges itself after a while but it shouldn't be this fast. Do I need to turn the disc memory off too? Is there some other setting I'm missing? I don't see any "Discharge battery when not in use" options. Did I possibly get a bad battery or unit? Should I just try plugging in a AA (with no internal battery) and see how long it lasts left alone? I fully would be ok if it died after 14 days totally alone but 2 days seems a bit too short for me. I also notice the unit gets fairly warm when charging, but I am not too worried about that since it seems like NiMH batteries do that. [i did do a search and couldn't find anything specifically like this] Thanks for any tips, I'm sure someone will come along and point out what stupid thing I forgot to change. (I did turn off Disc Memory when I started it up on its most recent charge]

I just got a response from MF. Kind of interesting, blaming Sony (when I doubt Sony shipped them discs in a plastic baggie!): Please accept our apologies. Packaging is done by the manufacturer and products are generally shipped exactly the way that they arrived from the manufacturer. Damaged items are ALWAYS returnable. If any of the discs are not functional, feel free to contact us for a refund/exchange. -- I guess I run some PCM recordings, or fill each disc to the brim a few times on a PC, over the next few days to see what happens...

I just received my order for 10 HiMDs from Musician's Friend and am not particularly happy with the packaging-- they just tossed 10 loose discs in a flimsy plastic shipping bag. No packing material or anything (it wasn't even one of those envelopes with bubble wrap on the inside), so who knows what they all went through... I opened one up and it looks ok, but is there any possibility of damage on HiMD discs from being shaken around/unprotected during shipment? (of course they're all tagged "non-returnable" as well) It was a great price but they seem pretty careless about shipping. Has anyone else who ordered from them gotten a shipment like that?

I personally wanted a 2nd gen as I had an NH1 already and while I liked it, it seemed a bit quirky at times. I wonder if maybe it's ever-so-slightly defective and I should've been a bit more active about getting warranty repair when it was available. but that's another story; anyway, I wanted a 2nd gen as they are easily available in the US, with full warranty, and had things my NH1 specifically lacked-- charge-via-USB, standard USB connections, AA battery case, etc. Sure, those are things that the 1st gen had too in different models but the 2nd gen had some nice additions, too. (I like the 5 line screen) I could've bought from Minidisc Australia at the time, or found one on Ebay, but I like having warranties (not to mention I just got totally screwed on an Ebay deal recently so I'm not in a hurry to jump in again yet!).

Since SS3.4, HiMD should allow this, even using an older unit (non-RH1). Did you use a HiMD disc or a normal MD disc, formatted in MD mode, NOT HiMD mode? I think the caveat applies to people with a NetMD unit, who uploaded files to a NetMD (normal-MD format) disc, using a USB cable. Those are the ones supposedly not accessible. If you're using HiMD at all, what you're doing should (and does) work on non copy-protected tracks, on any HiMD unit.

Just wanted to thank everyone again for their input, I got my RH910 about 4 days ago and have been having a blast with it. It feels a bit cheaper constructed than I had hoped, but it seems to work fine, so I really can't complain. Love the sound quality and the standard USB cable it uses. I need to give it a bit more of a "break-in" workout than I've had the chance for but overall I'm quite happy! Hopefully it'll last for a while!!

I had been in the market for the RH910 or RH10 for a while... it seems like they are all over the place. I managed to snag an RH910 for $167 off Amazon about 1.5 weeks ago; since then it jumped, and they've been as high as $203 and low as $175. Amazon seems to change prices every 2-3 days. The RH10 seems to be on a pretty steady climb up at many places. It was $225 universally about 2 months ago, but J&R and a few other places have been creeping back up to $250 or so. (not that you can't find it for $225 or less) I'm wondering, if they're officially discontinued, how many of these units are even still in the supply pipeline, so to speak. Demand may actually be going up as people who don't need the RH1's features grab the older units (or, like me, grab the 2nd gen units for what they're good for-- AA battery pack, spare unit, etc-- while waiting for the RH1s to come out and stabilize in price). I'd say watch prices for a few weeks to get the feel, but be ready to jump. If it's like when the 2nd gen came out, I doubt you'll see the 1st gen around very long, at least in the US. They seemed to vanish fairly quickly.

Thanks for posting this on the front page.

I have both of those checked as well. I think the spam was sent because of option #2, but I haven't received any other email from the board admins about the problem... I do think it warrants a short front page mention and link to a writeup, explaining the board has been upgraded, it might be smart to change passwords, etc.

Yeah, it should all be in the manual about how to format the "old" style minidiscs to HiMD-format. It actually allows twice the recording time doing this, too! Of course, formatting the discs will erase any recordings on it, so be careful. (it won't allow you to "convert" a disc to HiMD, it will erase it so you can start over)

It might be good to PM everyone who got the original PM as to the fact it was a hack and to NOT click the link they provided. I looked (I thought) all over the forum for info and ended up sending some PMs, not realising it was already well-known... I know admitting a hack isn't the easiest thing to do but the info is kinda buried and could lead to some people getting some nasty viruses...

When you get the RH910, be sure to upgrade to SonicStage 3.4 (it's on Sony's site, or there's an installer available from this website). It allows for much more flexibility. You'll just click on the appropriate recording, click the "<-" button (to transfer to the computer's library) and when the file is done, right click on it and select "Save as WAV" (or something like that, don't have SonicStage on the PC I am on). It's pretty straightforward. As far as I know, with the model you currently have, there is no easy way to move files to the PC (you can do it, but it's complicated, and if you're getting the 910 "soon" it's probably not worth worrying about). So, you can't see how to do it since you *can't* do it. [i may be entirely wrong on that point, I skipped the NetMD generation] The 707 is not a HiMD unit, and Sony added a lot of uploading capability to the HiMD line, especially with the release of SonicStage 3.4. The new Sony RH1, coming out "real soon now" in North America, WILL allow you to upload the recordings you are making now on your current minidisc unit. But no other unit will at this time.

Thanks all for your help, I have an RH910 on order now...

Cool, thanks everyone for your opinions. Besides the superficial differences, and remote, there's no internal differences, is there? (like, they both use the [non-HD] digital amp, same basic input/output circuitry, etc?) Sounds like the 910 is perfect for me, really.

I'm looking to buy a "cheap" HiMD unit to use as a player (and very occasionally recorder) to tide me over til the RH1 arrives in the US and the price settles a bit. Plus, I'd like a "backup" that can take an external AA battery for emergencies. I already have an NH1 (although it has the "freeze up on recording" issue that some of us seem to have) so I have a nice remote and everything. I'd like another unit I won't worry about taking out so much as I do with the NH1. I've been debating the relative merits of the RH10 vs. the RH910. Since I already have the NH1 and remote, I am thinking the 910 is the better choice. I also have read a lot of comments about the OLED display on the RH10 dying -- as much as I'd love to have a pretty screen, I don't want to spend the money on a flaky unit. (I am thinking of this as possibly my second to last HiMD unit, before the RH1) I've done some searching but can't find any "long term" reports, other than just people chiming in that their display died or the like. But it seems to me the RH910 is a slightly more "durable" unit, just because it's a bit lower end and uses technology that is fairly reliable (the old LCD, instead of a new OLED). Can anyone who's kept an eye on these things comment on the relative reliability of the RH910 vs. RH10? (hopefully this is OK to post, I've done searches but can't find anything that focuses on long-term build quality [instead of just "this feels like it's built well" on day 1 of owning a new device!])

Massive snipping, but it HAS been confirmed that the RH1 does indeed work with an RM-MC40ELK and initial reports to the contrary were due to lack of time to "play" with the unit. http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?s=&sh...indpost&p=94761

As long as "pro" means "Nice full featured unit" (digital in/out, connectivity to PC, etc-- not a majorly neutered unit) and NOT "$1000 for a $250 unit with a sticker that says pro" I'd definitely be in for a deck up to around $400. Of course, I have a MD deck and now with the RH1's ability to upload SP recordings, I might be a bit *less* tempted to buy a HiMD deck. (although I probably would to get the PCM recording and 1GB capacity)

Being as they have ATRAC Lossless I'd say there is about a 0.0001% chance of ever seeing any non-ATRAC/MP3 codec support in HiMD. MP3 was a *glaring* omission due to the fact everyone used it. But the percentage of people who use FLAC/OGG is so tiny anyway, I can't see Sony putting forth the effort. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it... how many other big-name portable music players support OGG or FLAC? :/

This looks really neat. I do REALLY hope that it has an external AA battery option, as well as a standard USB connection. I'll probably end up with one either way, though. This might be good for the format-- just release one mid-to-high priced model that covers most bases, and see how it sells. I wonder if the array of models (all with some advantages over the others, even the AA ability of the NH600 made it interesting in some uses over an NH1!) turned off some potential buyers. This way, anyone who wants a HiMD unit gets this one, for better or worse. I generally like it. The devil's in the details, but from what we know, it looks like Sony did a good job.