Hungerdunger

My favourite bit is: "Because being digital, it can retain the contents which are recorded with the knitting machine in the personal computer..."

There was a lengthy discussion on the WinMX newsgroup recently. It was mainly about the legitimacy of allofmp3.com, but someone also asked if it was known for certain what format the original files are stored in. For example if they were saved as 128kbps files, then although you might opt for a 256kbps download it wouldn't actually benefit you. I don't think anyone had a definitive answer.

That title suggests the pitch increases as the speed increase, which would mean on a fast playback people would sound like the chipmunks. I think this is what happened with one of the Net MD models (N1???) Please tell me that the pitch actually stays the same as the speed increases.

Hi MDFreak, Thanks for doing all that research for us. There has been so much posted in the last few days that I can't remember whether anyone has mentioned variable speed playback. This is a feature I really liked in the NH1 which was sadly missing from my RH10. Can you (or anyone else) tell me if it's back? And apologies if I should have known the answer by now.

Hopefully Amazon will be able to shave a few pounds off the quoted price of 240 UKP. I got my RH10 there for around 155 UKP, so I would hope they could do the RH1 for around 200 UKP. (If they decide to take it at all - anyone here got connections with the buying department in Amazon??)

Interesting that for a format which so many have written off, there are, at the time of me writing this, 171 people reading this thread. I just hope someone from Sony is also looking in the see the amount of interest. (Just in case they are: Where is my ******* Hi-MD Deck? )

I use that feature to speed up spoken-word recordings, so that a one hour recording can be listened to easily in 45 minutes, or even, if they're not talking too quickly and you're prepared to lose the occasional word, in half an hour.

I always wonder why people make these claims for "xx CDs per disc" when obviously it depnds on the length of all the CDs you are planning to put on the disc and the quality of the recording you want to make. I presume they must have worked out somehow what the average length of a CD is. Anyhow, to answer your question (and you should be able to find all this in the manual which came with your player)if you record on an 80 minute disc @ 48kbps (the lowest possible setting), you should get a total playing time of 13.5 hours, or 810 minutes. Therefore, as no CD will be longer than 80 minutes, you will indeed be able to the 10 CDs onto your one disc, and more if they are shorter in length than 80 minutes. Whether you will be happy with such a low bitrate is another matter - it really depends on your ears and your headphones. With the next setting of 64 kbps you will still get over 10 hours of music onto one disc at better quality. If you want to go for excellent quality then you won't get anything like 10 CDs onto one disc. To begin with, why not try making recordings at different settings to see which suits you best. If you don't have a manual, you can download one for your model here: http://minidisc.amulation.com/part_Manuals.html And if you haven't already updated your version of SonicStage to 3.4, I would recommend doing this first.

... and providing you can reasonably claim that the item is to be used for the business. I'm registered for VAT (Retail business) but I'd never dare to put a Mini Disc player through the business (although I think I put a CD burner through a couple of years back as I burn compilation CDs to play in the shop). The VAT inspector has the knack of finding those transactions you'd prefer him not to find.

But the most important feature of all must be that it looks like a previous model so that my girlfriend doesn't notice that I've spent more of our hard-earned money on yet another MD machine.

Have a look here: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=14538 for further discussion I think all the machines are out in the various stores, but if you go to Argos' web site you can search to see if there are any left in your area.

I think it's actually a wise move. I was quoted 35 UKP for a replacement battery (If anyone knows of a cheaper one in the UK please tell me); I believe the remote costs somewhere in the region of 40 - 50 UKP and you can now use that on your RH910 or keep it as a spare; the Hi-MD disc which comes with it would cost you 5 UKP; so basically you've bought yourself a spare machine for around 10 - 20 UKP. Incidentally, if you haven't already done so, can I recommend getting a pack of "WriteRight" PDA screen protectors; trimming one to size and covering the displays of the remotes before you start scratching them.

Well, if you fancy a day out in sunny West Wales, they still have them in the Llanelli, Ammanford and Neath stores. (I've just snapped up the last one in Carmarthen)

And Wales! (and probably Scotland too) I've already got the NH1, but I'm tempted to get a spare tomorrow (my local store still has one). I'm not sure about prices, but I know the battery and remote are both pretty expensive, so it might be worth getting it for those alone.

As you are new to the RH10, it might be worth taking the mp3 of a piece of music you are familiar with and importing it to the RH10, firstly as an mp3 (no conversion), and then converting it to ATRAC3+ and importing again, and then comparing the two. Several people (including myself) have reported that they find the mp3 doesn't sound as good as the converted one (at least not withour tweaking the equaliser settings on your player).

I had similar symptoms a couple of weeks ago. Eventually I tracked it down to the fact that a long time back I had told ZoneAlarm not to allow SonicStage to run the file ssaad.exe every time I started the computer. (I have a thing about all these things which run automatically on boot-up) It used to be OK but for some unknown reason it suddenly failed to recognise the CD or MD when I clicked on the Transfer button. It also caused my machine to run very slowly, as SS appeared to be using up all its processing power even if it didn't seem to be doing anything. So my only suggestion is to check whether you have done something similar, and if so, to undo it, and allow ssaad.exe to run on Start-up. I hasten to add that I'm no expert - this is just my own experience

I've done this several times. Unfortunately I don't have SonicStage in front of me at the moment, but from memory if you select the option to convert files to ATRAC3, (as opposed to ATRAC3+ or Hi-MD) you will be given 3 bitrates to choose from. If you select the highest, it will allow you to transfer in a format which will allow your dad to play it on his Aiwa. It won't be at 292kbps, (IIRC it's 132kbps), but if your dad's hearing is as bad as mine he probably won't hear the difference. At least give it a try - it's certainly quicker than real-time recording and it will title the tracks for you as well.

Yes all Hi-MD models can store data.

Thanks for the suggestions. Task Manager shows Omgjbox.exe at around 88 - 92 in the CPU column. Also, although I'm not certain if this is a fault, Omgjbox.exe continues running at the same figures after I close SonicStage, and to stop it I have to do it manually in Task Manager.

I did follow the directions, but just to be sure I've just done the uninstall/reinstall again, and things are still the same. So basically, SS takes about 15 minutes to offer me the options to transfer to MD/CD; it won't convert an MP3 to any ATRAC bitrate file; it won't play files either in the library or on hi-MD; and it seems to slow my whole system down after a while. I've also noticed that my AV - ZoneAlarm - crashes if I leave SS open; this never normally happens.

I tried this, but got the message: "The correct driver has been installed. You do not need to install this driver again." Do I need to do something else first? Incidentally I have now installed SS on a very elderly (200Mhz) laptop. Getting it to convert mp3s to ATRAC is a bit like watching paint dry, only worse, but at least it gets the job done until I can work out what's wrong with my desktop machine. I presume I will eventually have to reformat my hard drive, but I'd prefer not to if I can find a solution.

Update: Tried SonicStage again tonight. It took about 15 minutes to recognise the Hi-MD. It would allow me to transfer an MP3 file from my library to the disc with no conversion, but when I tried to convert it to 64kbps I got a message "An error has occurred while transferring. Transfers are not allowed." I'm not particularly technically minded, but I noticed while waiting for SS to recognise the disc that Windows Task Manager was reporting high figures for omgjbox.exe. It spent some time around 66,000k then gradually increased, peaking at over 200,000k and then fell back a bit. I also noticed that there were a load of Page Faults being reported, amounting to 515,000 in the 25 minutes or so that I had the program running. I don't know whether these figures are relevant - perhaps someone can enlighten me.

No, I used the on-line installer. I've also followed atrain's suggestion and done a full uninstall and reinstall, but there doesn't seem to be any improvement. I'm off to bed now, but will have another try in the morning. Thanks for your advice anyway