Good day minidisk.org forum members, I am a new member here. I have surfed your site as well as your forums for a while, and it led me to my first purchase: A Net MD MZ-N420D, or for those of you not good with the numbers, the PSYC model. I loved it to death. The format always caught people's eye, and was a great conversation starter. It's also not a very well-known format, so it has that allure to it. However, over the past year of my owning it it has been through hell enough. It was dropped twice from 6 feet up onto a solid concrete ground, while on. This damaged the section where the disk comes out, making it so that it never looks like it's properly closed. Then, a little later on, my sister had stepped on the unit and afterwards it started making strange noises and taking longer to read the disks. Long story short, I began to look at my upgrade options. I spotted a model that seemed interesting enough: the MZ-DH10P. I saw that it was on Sale at Amazon.com for a price tag that is nearly $200 under the list price. This makes me quite satisfied, seeing as this seems to be a quality model. However, I do have a few questions before I go ahead and make my purchase. 1.) It boasts a fine looking 1.5" screen, which contains a bunch of information about the track you are listening to. Does this still display for Net-MD disks? I read that the unit IS backwards compatable with Net-MD burned disks. I wouldn't want to have to go through the pain of transfering everything back onto my computer (I used SonicStage 2.0, I have yet to update to 3.0, more on that later) and putting it on the Hi-MDs. 2.) Is SonicStage actually required to transfer data onto the MD, or is there a way it can be used as a hard-drive of sorts? I've read that SonicStage is a horrible mess. While i've only had one problem with SonicStage 2.0, (a ram-dump error, nothing was lost) I would like to use it as least often as possible. I don't want to run the chance of installing more programs that may contain Sony's DRM spyware. 3.) The Camera mode, how are the pictures retrieved from the camera? Is there a software piece for that as well, or is there an add-on to SonicStage that allows for this? 4.) The LCD screen sounds pretty nice, and I love how bright i've read it is. However, is there a way to de-activate this so I can preserve on Battery Life? While i'm not out for 14 hours at a time, it would be nice to have a slightly more expanded life for those times when i'm out of the house and can't lug the charger around with me. 5.) During photo-taking mode, can I still listen to music as i'm doing so? I would hate to be listening to a song, and I accidentally lower the cover for the lens and then I have my music cut off. 6.) While I don't plan on messing with the EQ, i'm curious. Does the EQ still work on Net-MD disks? Thank you for your time, and I hope to become an active member here at the forums.
