Breepee2

True, Atrac is probably one of the most battery- and edit-friendly formats out there. But, since I almost don't edit and don't mind -10% battery life, I prefer quality.

I haven't ever heard of it, but if it's true (and he gets it actually to work) that would be great.

And probably/possibly because cpu's in older units have not got the juice to decode MP3, and because MP3's would have to go on an standard discs involving a lot of hassle.

It's a shot from Sergio's Once upon a time in the West. It's a man who's caught a fly in his gun (you'll know how, when and why if you've seen the film). He's looking into it.

<== One of film history's greatest achievements.

Actually I think Windows already has OK security options. The thing is nobody uses them. A good set of software won't even install/run unless you're an administrator. The fact that all users a made administrator by default also doesn't help. Current NTFS permissions and usermanagement actually are quite nice, I you take the effort to configure.

A bunch of Sherlock Holmes audiobooks

Foobar is a different kind of application. Sonicstage and iTunes try to be a music control center, from which you play, rip, burn, transfer, organize, edit, buy and search music. iTunes scores everywere nice (of course it too has it disadvantages), Sonicstage almost everywhere failes. Buggy trasfers, useless library, no intuitive interface.

As long as people think that way, we're doomed to stay stupid. Luckily I'm unbiased and my primairy concern is audio quality, not supporting everything MD because it's MD. I like the disc, not it's codecs (it's no secret that I'd like a FLAC-like codec, you'll never hear me again if Sony adds one ). Always be wary for info coming from the makers (of course Sony considers MD/Atrac better, just like Atrac HiLP is supposed to be near CD-quality). And add that is a year old, it's of no use. I value someones opinion in a forum higher than a developer's, simply because a paid developer would be very stupid to say his work can't compete with an existing (and older) codec. And true, Atrac has a few format-advantages over mp3, but when audio quality is your concern, there's no question. Of course codec's have different characteristics so saying one is better is indeed tricky, however I think I can say that on the whole MP3 is a better performer. And about the height of the bitrates: distinguishibility (is that a word?) differs from song to song, but sometimes I even can hear that good ol SP sounds different than the CD (I did a blind listening test once with a friend, with some other codecs and bitrates). Other than that, I don't want the hassle of keeping a non-bitperfect copy. Why go with 256/320 kbits with some lossy codec (which improve all the time) when I can have a bitperfect copy at ~800kbps. Space is no issue, it's 2005, our movies are 5~9GB, why crunch a CD of beautiful music into 140MB (or less, if you go with LP2 or lower even)? Reformatted discs could hold an average album, completely lossless. 1GB discs three. That'd be perfect.

Compared to Sonicstage any software is flowers and light. iTunes is beter than Sonicstage. The white cover is not the only reason the iPod's do so well. iTunes is easy and convenient. And, if the MD were to be compatible, a lot of 3rd party software would be compatible too, satisfying about everyone.

Can anyone confirm?

For the record, that is a NetMD.

Well, if it's true, lets hope we can all use iTunes (and it's Lossless codec!) in combo with our HiMD's in a year.

So once I add titles via Sonicstage, the music is 'locked'?

I'm maybe going to buy a NetMD-deck. I want to record to MD via an optical cable, but I'd like to title via Sonicstage (because that's obviously easier and faster). Is this possible? And will it be possible to edit (merge, split, move, etc.) afterwards outside of Sonicstage, on the unit itself without any restrictions? As if titling was done on the unit?

Amen. That's altogether the reason why I avoid DRM'ed music. I want the rights, not some stupid computer program which has no idea what's going on.

I kind of blame Apple always for their bad hardware part, iPod, Macs and so on, but geez....... Sony people just can't write software. Sonicstage, clean interfaces, random generators..... Why o why don't they team up and create a killer device: The iMD.

Actually I don't recall anyone trying to with a real bitreader/writer. Maybe even in Linux, just to be sure.

Info in that link is either outdated or just not accurate. True, Atrac3Plus tends to be better al ultra low bitrates like 64, but above neither Atrac3 nor Atrac3plus can be taken seriously. The story Atrac is better tuned to the hardware is just not true, the units play don't have separate circuitry for mp3 and Atrac, it's just one cpu which decodes everything the same way (nothing bad about that). MP3 sounds better. In bitrates below 192 I'm not interested, sounds horrible to me. Add that MP3 is pretty much the standard, I see no reason to choose Atrac(3plus) over MP3. Compressed lossless is what I want. No hassle of codec-fights () and half the size of wav/pcm. What a wonderful world it would be Mr Suzuki even admits it:

Oh my god..... They ARE a bunch of newB VisualBasic programmers at Sony..... If you can't write a random number generator, you shouldn't be placing devices on the market with such function....

And what about full size decks (preferable black)?

I was trying to say that The driver is done, how you(r software) interface(s) with it, is besides the piont.

The sweet thing is you can implement it any way you want on any computer you running any OS you want. If it's compatible with HiMD and someone build a linux driver, then I'll know what to do.

Amazon UK has is for 200 pounds. http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/sto...3099060-9385447

Well, mp3 is a better codec, and with bitrates up to 320kbps it sounds better. The mp3-datastream remains untouched (however gets the encryption treatment). OK, Sony still manages to make is just not right, but hey, at least it actually sounds (way) better.