BobS

MO technology has been around far longer than MD. The reason it has lasted is the reliability of the media. Sony's claim is probably based partly on this history. I have used 128 meg MO disks for backups that have been repeatedly used for over 10 years. I know this does not directly translate to MD's MO, but the technology is very similar, the MO layer being a lower temp. MO material. I would think it very difficult to wear out a disk, far more likely the recorder

Many cases for Nintendo GameBoy Advanced work very well. MD recorders are about the size of a GameBoy Advanced. For a small case to clip to your belt, Minidiscaccess and Minidisco have very nice leather cases with belt hooks. They come in sizes for MDs with AA batteries or units that use the gumstick batteries.

Of course pre-recorded HiMDs could be made. Cassettes were made for years. Just use a mass duplicator on a regular HiMD discs. They would not be pressed, as most CDs (and original pre mastered MDs), but many small labels use CD-Rs. This would be the same thing. Only with 94 minutes of CD sound, room for documentation etc they could offer extras CDs do not

Sony has many CD players that support ATRAC3. They use SonicStage, just like MD. You can use the same bit rates you use on MD.

Yes, very true. Seems many today listen to the technology rather than the performance. A great performance on an LP is better than a mediocre one on DVD-A

You will not hear any difference. Optical cables transmit data, that is what digital audio is, data. As long as you do not get dropouts their will be no audible difference. It is just a bunch of numbers.

I would expect the problem occurs when you are in HiMD mode since the PC cannot access the disk in MD mode. Checkdisk can run on a HiMD but it takes a long time and will post errors even on a good disk. Better off not doing it. If it did fix a file, your audio would probably be lost. If you use a disk in HiMD mode for data only, you can also format it in FAT32 which will help in storing more small files on a disk. HiMD looks just like any other USB storage device. Do not try defrag, you will wear your MD and it will take a very long time. You will also gain nothing since MDs have buffers to take care of audio file fragementation. I have found my JB920 deck will erase a HiMD format original disk and convert it back to an MD format disk with no problem.

I have seen this happen if the disk was not blank. Erase all tracks and if you have menu set to advanced you should see it

Sony is bailing on many consumer electronics. I am a shortwave listener and Sony has discontinued almost all of their shortwave radios. Many of their other lower end consumer items are just rebranded items

Does anyone know of an LCD remote that will work with the MZ-B100. This unit has an analog type volume control. I know some Sony CD remotes have analog volume controls but am not sure which may work with this MD recorder.

Philips had a good reason for developing tape, backward compatability. Cassette was still very big in 1992 and all DCC units played analog tape, and did it very well (they used magneto-resistive heads to read analog signals). Dolby B was on all portables, Dolby B and C on all decks. Auto reverse was required on all DCC decks (you could not flip over a DCC tape) and the full servo decks moved tape quite smoothly and quickly. Later decks had "turbo drive" and would move tape very fast with smooth stops.

Thanks. I still have a working Philips DCC-170 (and 2 Philips decks). The sound of DCC was considered to be excellent since they were introduced. There was also a version of the DCC-170 (the DCC-175) with a computer interface, you could edit the audio directly. The 1/8" inputs and outputs on the DCC-170 are combination units that supports analog, optical and coax. Yes, all 3 on both input and OUTPUT. You can play an analog cassette and use optical out to record from.

Yes, everything is there. I believe that is set in the remote. I would expect there is some way to tell the remote it is North America to get all four bands. It would be set for Japan to receive Japanese FM, 9KHhz AM spacing and turn off weather and TV

I bought the one from MiniDisc Access, I believe those are Austrailian units.

I got one of the MZ-NH700s and it works well with the Tuner remote from my MZ-NHF800

Why don't you download the manual for the 910 and look it over. The information you want should be in there

How long did you leave the battery out ? You may want to leave it out an hour or so. Sometimes it takes a while for the circuits to drain, capacitors can hold a charge a while.

Radio Shack used to have just a splitter also. You might check with them

Optical (as in CD-R and CD-RW) is NOT the same as MO. CD-R (and DVD-/+ R or RW) are dye based and do have and unpredictible lifetime. MO is a different technology and much more stable. Minidisc is MO based,

Flash cards are also not archival. The data is NOT permanent. It is generally recommended that the data on a flash card be refreshed every 5 years (some manufactures will go 10). In the commerical computer arena, MO is used for archiving data because of its long life span. Putting multiple gig of audio on a flash card is fine for listening, but my concern is long term storage. You can still get a turntable and listen to a recording made 80 years ago. Even cassettes will still be around a while longer due to the large number made. What about recordings today. Will someone even 20 years from now have something to play it on ? CF cards are on their way out. SD is "old" in flash terms. I am sure in a few years it will be replaced by something "newer and better".

It is certainly NOT Sony's fault that US Best Buy stores do not stock 1GB MDs. Vendors DO NOT tell stores what to stock, the stores make those decisions.

You are probably right. I would love to see a HiMD update to the B100. I find it is my most useful MD and it is very rugged. Still has the advantages of removeable media (compared to flash units). Instant archive (it is already on a disk), ease of editing on the unit, Unlimited storage (just get more inexpensive media).

And also the 2nd Gen does not have a relief for labels. I like to print labels for MDs and find the small, odd shaped relief useless

Recordings of this type should be fine. Distortion is common on all media, including analog tape. The square waves are distorted going down the cables, due to capacitance effects of a cable. Software that reads the signal can deal with the distortion unless it is excessive. If it was something designed for cassette then a frequence response only to 8-10 Khz was orginally a design parameter. You should be fine using a higher bit rate. Give it a try. The worse that can happen is it won't read it correctly and you will have your answer.

What you record will also make a difference is what bitrate sounds acceptable. A single aCapella voice is fairly easy to encode, a full orchestra much more difficult. The first would sound good at a low bitrate, the latter would be able to take advantage of a higher bitrate.