Berke

I cannot remember the solution but when I had the same problem, I just fiddled around with the cddb registration button on the right-click menu of the SB tray icon. Then I restarted my computer and after that it registered automatically. Just remember, you need to actually "register" once before you can use CDDB. (once for SS and also separately once for SB)

MD's not dead yet Those news are just Shigatsu Baka! (check today's date)

Thanks Guys! I guess I was being too skeptic, simply not believing my eyes or something. Surely RH1 is a great gadget. It waters my mouth! Ok, who wants to buy a M100?

Is it just me or do I still see the drop-off at the frequency end... The red line seems still too different at the end. Or is vastly better than the previous mp3 drequency tests?

That's what I'm wondering too...

Such great news!!! I'm very happy that Sony is pursuing the Hi-MD hype. Long live the Format!!! It's a shame though that I bought my M100 quite recently. Maybe I will sell and buy this new sexy baby... I don't mind the lack of an external AA case, as long as the promised 9 hour recording operation is true. I hardly use m100's external case anyway (I have two ni-mh batteries).

Hmm, That's kind of sad... It's like hearing the last heartbeats of a loved one... But hey anyway, we'll still have our Md units. So nothing can take that away from us.

Abandoning? Is sony abandoning MD? I'd like to doubt that...

just a very blind shot in the dark, but could it be because you moved your encrypted music from another system so your licences doesn't match with the new installation? Did I make sense?

Such Great News! Thank you for the Full Installer. Been waiting for it for some time.

I always thought the UMD disc's diameter was slightly bigger than that of the MD. I might be wrong though. Also there is a chance that the laser wavelength etc. might be different of course.

And I'll be the second one I guess. Thank from me too :)

Being a single huge file that's fragmented in itself doesn't render defrag program useless. Defragmentation is already about the files that are fragmented in themselves. Moving whole files from one place to another is not dfragmentation. This was only to clear things up, otherwise I agree that MD defragmentation is not necessary.

Well, I guess you're all right about this. But even if it's only one file we're talking about, defrag process still corrects it afaik. But then again, I agree defrag is not very useful and too much of an effort the machine.

Oh ok! I thought the backward compatibility issue was hardware based, not media based. As in the "dvd lasers can also read cd data" idea, I thought no matter how high the media, the laser could read the older ones as well. Guess I was wrong. Thanks.

It just occured to me that I can defrag my hi-md disc! It uses FAT and it shows up just like a regular hard disk drive on WinXP. I realized I can defrag when I was thinking how the MD recorded data in the first place. When I had my first walkman MZ-r50, I got to learn how the unit recorded music on the disc, and how it retrieved data from the fragged structure of the disc. I mean as we all probably know, when you have some music, and delete some tracks in the middle, it just adds up to the remaining time automatically. I was very fond of this system as the system automatically filled the blanks. I thought about the fragmentation issue years years ago back then and I thought if defragmentation would improve the performance. I haven't tried it actually yet, as it's very late at night, and all the himd's I have are at least %95 full (the defrag program wants at least %15 to function properly). The thing is, while I think defragmentation would be a very good thing to do, as it'll improve performance by avoiding multiple seeking attempts of the laser head when looking for the scattered data, I also think of the rewritability of the media. Defrag means data being copied and rewritten several times (especially with FAT systems), so I'm asking myself if it would degrade media's quality, or at least shorten its life. Any comments ideas suggestions on this? I want to try defragging when I come home from work tomorrow.

How are the 1GB discs backward compatible? I thought you couldn't use 1gb mds with normal Md units...

Good question! I'm sure it also has a big effect on how they sound too. Not all the same bitrate mp3s sound the same. The thing is that I don't remember how I encoded the files. Most of them I know I used Lame, and some I used iTunes' mp3 encoder. But I don't know which ones which.

Hey Very Cool!! Thank You Ishiyoshi.

Well, I had a feeling someone would mention the inconsistency of my utterances. The point is that I only said what I heard. Truly 64kbps hi-LP sounded clearer to me whereas my other 128kbps mp3s sounded foggy and shallow in some way. I didn't particularly put the three formats all side by side and compare them. Firstly, I knew I wasn't happy with the 128k mp3 files, and then When I was DL'ing some CDs onto my walkman on SB, I noticed maybe hiSP wasn't worth it when I could cramp up 20 or more CDs on one MD after checking and comparing SP and LP. I thought I wouldn't mind listening to the music at this (undisturbing) quality (this is for casual daily music that I listen without too mch focus) But the conclusion: Still no to 128 mp3 and yes to Hi-LP. And that is, you can say, my subjective hearing. SOme other folk might think differently. (Even I might change my mind after some time). Also on the Main library usage: I think a portable Music library on a USB disk sounds very good. After I transfer all my CDs to my MDs, I'll try to move my library somewhere else than my HDD. Cheers.

Both 1kyle's and Sparky191's comments sound feasible to me, although I wouldn't express my thoughts on Sony's possible manipulation with the consumers in the same exact manner as Sparky did. I don't reject Sparky's notion only because Sony hasn't made an announcement explaining the inner workings of the native mp3 playing that there is. Otherwise I totally would lean onto the hardware/firmware limitations on mp3 playback on himd units (but hey! doesn't that make them "un"native?). I'm currently very happy with the mp3 playback as long as the bitrate is high. (128kbps is sure unpleasant to listen). Unless you'll be working on detailed audio-making or whatever, the SQ is not a huge issue IMHO. Just off-topic, I couldn't find the Atrac3plus Hi-LP so much different than the Atrac3plus Hi-SP playback, so for me, putting 20+ CDs of mine in one single MD does far outweigh putting only 7 albums on one disc (with the "slightly" better Hi-SP SQ).

Hi, Is there a place where I can find blank Hi-MD media icons? I'd like to associate the hi-md disc icons for some of my custom discs. I tried to make one myself, but the transparent pixel got me puzzled. I don't know how to do it (create an icon).

It's good then that there is no change in the actual music data of the file. But what happens if the same mp3 is ULed and DLed back and forth a hundred times per say? Would the tiny file decrease ever continue?

But how can we be sure that it's the same mpeg stream? Given the fact that the lesser sound quality himd units on mp3s have, how do we know it doesn't change the file in order to make it more managable for the unit? Hearing the not so decent quality on the md units make me think that.

Strange, very strange indeed. I'm very curious about the detailed technical changes in the file. The bitrate and the filesize doesn't change I guess, but I wish I knew a way to compare the sound qualities of the both versions of the files (by a program with meticulous detail, rather than just hearing them by ear for comparison).