Roamer

If you want to go for a Creative Jukebox, I would recommend a Jukebox 3 : line/optical in (like MDs), record 3 hours without a break (and can continue with a 0.5s skip), 6 hours recording with 2 fully charged batteries (but they are hard to find, or you should get a external power supply). The mic option is not that good, so a preamp could be usefull for anything but loud recording.

Audacity (free), TotalRecorder ... http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=7070

The line-out essentially raise the volume to the max with no EQ, and plugging to portable speakers should not be an issue. The line-in is both optical and analog, so you can plug your tape player if you wish.

You can write-protect standard MDs (if you want) before uploading, so it is really safe.

Thanks for the converting tip ! WAV is actually an old format that was not designed to hold complex tags, so the best is the rename the file accordingly, or re-convert to another lossless format that support tags.

Yes, no problem with HiSP. The only thing that the NH600 can't read are mp3s transfered directly (You need a 2nd gen. unit or the RH1 for that)

The european version actually comes with the optical cable (Toslink-minijack), Sony is only saving some extra $ by ommiting it. My PC is just a PII @ 400Mhz. It's slow to encode, but it works.

http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=7070

Same as 440, I got an issue earlier with one opaque HiMD, and I haven't done any further tests.

Changing from auto to manual has to be done on the unit (no remotes will help you). You can change the level with any remote after it has been set to manual (using << and >>). You can get the MC35ELK or MC38ELK, which are basically the same, if you don't want the better MC40ELK.

1st generation and MZ-RH1 can do all the legacy Atrac mode as well from line-in/mic.

Sounds strange, but there is no need to log off to swap disc. The proper method is to press the stop/cancel button on the unit, and then you can eject the disc. Restarting is an other way to do it (it takes longer). The only HiMD recovery method known to date is here : http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=17805

Having a battery box will surely help you. But you could also be limited by the maximum level of pressure your mics can handle (I didn't check yours specificaly). A battery box will also raise that max. level (compared to a lower voltage). God luck in your project !

How many tracks marks do you have ? My first guess would be that it can't manage too many of them in memory, and must save them at some point.

Actually, you can record with mic/line-in in LP4(at least with 1st gen HiMD, MZ-RH1 and older Sharp units). But unless you're doing speech recording, I don't see much the point ...