silence

The biggest problem that you seem to face is the sheer size of having 14 hours of audio and 7 hours of video. You have a movie-size problem BUT all is not lost All it takes is patience, not necessarily technology. Step back, look at the problem and see opportunity; for example after 3 weeks of daily synch ing this stuff, you will be a whole lot faster editor and wiser about future projects like that. The truth is that this kind of insight is hard to come by otherwise. I know What some people faced with that do is: 1) break the problem into small bites, 2) load one hour at the time of audio and video a 3) break that into 12 five minute sections 4) use the on camera strictly for cues 5) once you find a scene that you want, synch the beginning and cut in 15 sec segments That last step will make your video less boring and teach you a lot of editing tricks. Put on one of your films and take a stop watch and try to find one cut that last more than 15 seconds...though huh? 6) repeat 800 times I just hope it is for a worthy cause or for tons of cash or something altruistic you believe in - otherwise it will be painful, but with "patience" you see it through. Good luck

SIm Lim Tower, Funan Center , Pertama Etc. in fact all of the outlets than once carried them will not be bringing them in. They are not out, they don't carry them at all, as a matter of fact Sony has indicated that Singapore is not in their sight for MD distribution. Over 75% of their revenew there is for consumer grade digital cameras. You'll have more luck finding Durians in SIngapore Airlines than MiniDiscs in Singapore.

Great, thanks

Reading the review from the Netherlands I still do not see if one can upload a recording made "optically in PCM." They listed every possible combination except for this one. In other words If I use a pre amp that has optical out and I make a PCM recording, can I uplaod it without any sort of compression? Anyone knows the answer to this? Thanks

I still have the Sony TCD5M cassette recorder and it has no restrictions nor ecryptions whatsoever and it does not require a computer to manage its music. If it was designed to replace the cassette, they certainly did not remember what the cassette did when they started designing.

What a sad headline, wouldn't "overstock forces massive bargains" sounded better. Should the US expect similar clearance situation?

All of these has been said before by various enlighten posters: MD does not transfer easily HI-MD up until a month ago had a pathetic one-of transfer restriction. Macintosh comparability happened just less than a month ago. Ridiculous software requirements to get one's music to the computer. and be able to play it - give me a break Sony Handicapped units that allow digital in but not digital out. More ridiculous still is the proprietary ATRAC format - hello!! who else uses that Sh#t Amazingly clumsy User Interface. on ALL their MD units - the word counter-intutive comes to mind Let me say it here: the Japanese can make incredibly complex technology but can't program to save their lives.I have been in the professional video for years and this weakness carries through to the broadcast line. TOO LITTLE TOO LATE SONY BOY the market has spoken I have loved recording concerts and family reunions on my three MD's and HI-MD, BUT I hated getting the music out of them to edit and burn to CD' I never ever used them to play music - I used a clever thing called the iPod M-Audio's MicroTracker is just the opposite USB transfer to any computer. Drag-N-Drop to any location No encryption whatsoever Standard WAV -PCM files professional connectors no moving parts - save for microdiscs large lighted LCD - Ipod sized Digital in and out Phanton power ETC All of this from the first unit out of the factory. It can only get better. I don't care if they only make 1 per year as long as it is availble for me to use. I got mine from cascade media for $350 inc. shipping I dont' carry microdiscs. All I need is one of them to record up to 4 hours and transfer after to CD For my purposes there is no match. I'm not emotional about technology- This is not a "my daddy can beat your daddy argument." Neither Sony nor M-Audio know me personally nor do I think they care. - the feeling is mutual. I do however like the members of this forum, specially the ones that disagree with me. I will miss their rantings when it is all over.

if Sony comes out with this announcement (it still hasn't you know) it means it that quite some internal meetings/discussions etc. have been held to come to that decision... some email spam won't change their mind, it will only shut even more doors for consumer feedback! I feel your pain Volta BTW: this stage is called denial just try to be a bit reasonable: lots of ppl still have some equipment and for the others there will be quite some for sale on the net for a couple of years to come (and media just as well) so we can still record for quite some timeit's not as much the question whether they kill the format or not (in the end, almost all formats are limited in time... 128MB MP3-players are even more outdated than MD and I still know ppl who can't afford to upgrade from that) but what other recording/portable AP -options there will be? For listening on the move, a lot of manufacturers are designing and selling alternatives already, but for cheap, portable and still high quality digital recording there are practically none (not counting the M-audio overpriced and not better than MD, even though it offers higher bitrate and stuff-thingy)so let's not spam them with stuff they won't look at...just cause we're angry... let's think constructively!just post what you use MD for in this thread as some sort of petition showing there is a substantial semi-pro recording market out therelet's invite (you know the polite way when you ask someone in stead of forcing him/her) Sony ppl to study this forums for ideas/opinions etc (like the what would you like to see in the 3rd gen HiMD models-thread which could become a 'what would you like to see in the HiMD-replacing alternative'-thread)... if they got to know their (potential) consumers of future products, Sony could perhaps score again with something new & improved (and DRM/proprietary format-less ) Any spinning disc thingy (your word) is outdated technolgy. Yes in the past we have kept inovations alive -ie the cassette but they were mechanical in nature and could be easely fixed. nobody is set up to repair products the like of the MD- FYI a solid state device with specs higher than the HI-MD, with phantom power, and drag and drop, PCM recording for $325 is not overpriced - is called a bargain. please ppl, do not morn MD cause you do not like change...morn the loss of some excellent features that at this moment no other device can replace I do like your voice of reason attitude Volta, I just hope I'm in the right forum this time. My 2 cents just my humble opinion

Sony has to dump all the units it has before it has the guts to announce it to its loyal customers and dealers. For those of you who think that they will retain a certain model think again. Look at where the market is going.., although Sony has been known to do some pretty stupid things and disregard the trends. You have to understand the Japanese mind to make sense of it - I don't claim to but my wife Sayoko does not make sense very often. I'm sorry to see such a nice site as this going through the 4 stages of grief. (or better known as"How much longer until I feel good again") Feel free to choose the stage you find yourself at: Denial Depression Anger Acceptance The quicker we go through them the better we will feel Kurisu said it clear enough that the MD is dead ( without saying it ) We can... Wait for the next ATRAC encoded, idiotically-encrypted software crippled wonder from Sony. OR we can move on to flash based - no moving parts, drag and drop technology from more switch-on manufactures - Bye Sony

YES you are wrong

You are right about the overnight battery issue. It would be great if the battery could be taken out like a digital camera. If you are driving a car or any other 12 V vehicle they make lighter plug for recharging. In France I saw a charger that works on your bicycle dynamo -neat The 12volt store sells a larger battery pack and solar pack for campers. The only adaptor for it that I have yet to see is fuel cells.

I have never have had the patience nor the time to listen to more than 8hrs continuously to anything and my iPod Mini does that very easely. The Nano goes farther to 14 Hrs. I don't buy music from iTunes, I just trasfer my CD.s at 1445 which is WAV format. It does not get much better than that for portables does it? What I really like is listening to audio books on it while I do long distance driving. The play through the radio feature of iTrip is very nice

As far as players are concerned you can't beat the ease of use of the iPod if you like the Linux world you can give this a try; http://ipodlinux.org/index.php/Main_Page For day to day playing, any of the HI-MD units will do. My favorite is the 800 with its FM tuner and AA compartment. As far as recording live the only affordable and with higher specs than the MD is M-Audio's recently released M-Tracker for $ 325 it exceeds most peoples sound system capabilities and it can record on SD cards and 6 Gig MicroDrives and it is drag-n-drop I for one look forward to the day when Sony announces that the ATRAC division is closed They brought this on themselves by their encryption/greed and lack of standards. What ever unit I'll buy will have to be drag-n-drop. Sony proprietary programs are for the birds. I love my MD units and the discussions on this board. I'm sure the units will live on just like cassettes have. So now is the time to buy some of the classic models on ebay. The MZ- R50 and MZ-R37 are on my list. Good luck on your search for the perfect unit.

PCManiac, A little reality check is in order here. Death is being postponed more and more each day, The rich still don't pay taxes AND The iPod has 72% of the world market of portable music player while is selling 1000,000 ( one million) songs per day and growing. ( the envy of every company including Sony and Microsoft. Hiding one's head in the sand will not make this last fact go away. Sony lost the music war due to greed and not learning from their past. A locked/ proprietary system be it superior technology or not is not what the market wants . The market has spoken, Sony has lost millions over the past years as a result of their ATRAC /encryption blunder and lack of vision. As the t-shirt says: Does not play well with others I have loved Sony and their products but hate the lack of compatability and closed system.

To me it did matter where my wrongly placed post had gone to although, I didn't know that there was alreay a thread for my laments. Thank you for that info. I too will hate to see my beloved MDs discontinued. In one of the lost messages I suggested collecting the units available on ebay so that we can have spares for years to com. My apologies señor Volta for my transgression. I'll try not to do it again.