rainbow69

I think those of us in America may be out of luck on this one...it looks so pretty

That's been on the site for a long time already. From what I gathered from multiple salesmen at the Sony Store, they're phasing MD's out completely and are clearing all inventory. All models are "discontinued"...at least that's what he showed me on his inventory computer. This week there is a sale on all MD equipment at the Sony Store. I believe the sign said sales end on March 5th. A few salesmen have said that Sony will be releasing shiny new mp3 players that will compete with iPods. Of course this is only coming from salesmen so who really knows how reliable they are.

yap i read ur post! I am referring the relative cost of them to CDR's and DVDR's. I honestly have not seen any 1GB discs for less than 3USD. I purchased a couple recently at B&H Photo for $7 each. If you consider them relative to Compact Flash/Memory Stick/Secure Digital then yes, they are cheaper per megabyte...there's no doubt about that .

1994? My Aiwa F70 is from 1998...and I've never lost anyt data on any MD's either. Hence, my recent purchase of the new HiMD.

hehehehehe just the fact of carrying my entire moosic collection on one device instead of on a bunch of discs feels better for me...in case my mood changes. lol and everyone at my clubs have our ipods strapped to our arms (like a secret club). lol...we're so sexy edit: let me clarify that. we're sexy not cos of the kinda music player we use. we're just hotties! lol

Quite honestly, it looks like the data has become corrupt on the HiMD disc. I have a feeling that it is the result of the higher denisty technology that is the root of this problem. I think the lesson here for all of us is to keep recordings on unformatted 74/80min MD's instead of 1GB HiMD's.

Another reason why MD didn't take off is the high cost of discs as garcou pointed out. Relative to CD's and even DVD's, the capacity within an MD doesn't justify the high price tag. MD has essentially died in North America, however as I understand it, there's still a breath left in Europe and Japan. The strategy that Apple has used to market their player and Sony with theirs is drastically different. Whereas the my brand new RH10 will probably be considered by the commoner as "archaic technology", I believe most of them will look at my 3rd gen iPod and think it's still darn cool. Just as Sony dropped the Clie line of PDA's, it's really quite inconsequential for them to drop any product line not making money for them. The Memory Stick is regarded by all to be the worst type of memory out there-- larger, fragile, more expensive, etc. Sony is a devil-- as many have already pointed out.

Bill Gates projected that within 5 years time, all memory will be solid state devices and we see that trend growing as the 8GB CF card is growing in demand these days. Not only that, we also see Sony dumping the MD format in Australia and Canada and fairly soon elsewhere in the world. Optical drives like MiniDiscs are more costly to manufacturer than solid state devices like mp3 players. Gates believes that there will no longer be any optical drive units. Well, in that case...you know what? I don't believe that CD/DVD/BlueRay/HD DVD drives will be an issue by the time we roll around to Windows 2016 or whatever. The only fear I have is the unreliability of HiMD as I've noticed lots of ppl here talking about transfer failure. I may end up storing my pictures on 74/80min MD's instead. USB is 'Universal Serial Bus' for a reason. That (v.2.0) and firewire run at about the same speed. It'll most likely be the last hard connection medium we'll see as everything is becoming wireless. There is no worry that manufacturers will stop using USB. It's too widespread in just about every electronic device from cameras, phones, music players, etc. Those at DPReview.com agree that CD and DVD are poor storage medias for photos, however not as poor as Hard Drives. Aging effects of DVD's/CD's and it's susceptibility to damage is large. Tape is agreed to be the best form of storage but who in the right mind will buy a tape drive? The next storage medium will likely be a solid state nonvolatile memory storage device. Where I live is dry and static is a problem. I've had my issues and resulting loss of info with dead USB keys because of static, as well as entire drives being erased after I went thru airport security gates. Don't get me wrong. The MD's primary function is to play music/record. I'll use it for that purpose But when I go to yoga class, dance class, and when I workout...it won't be with the MD cause I wanna focus on my exercise instead of having to change discs.

MEH! It's not a thing... I use my iPod to play my music at work. I'm going to use the MD for my old 74min MD music collection and new Hi-MD to store my photos. I just wanna clear out my hard drive and saving all those RAW files from my Camera...it needs to go somewhere. Not on a CD/DVD because those damage too easily. PLUS I have 50 blank MD's that have been sitting in my room for the past 8 years unopened, unused. I have the right to spend my money for whatever reason/purpose. How I see fit to use my gear is up to me alone. Truth be known, the cost of the device is negliable. My first gen Aiwa has been working great and will for many years to come. I expect the same for the RH10. What do you ppl do to store your family/vacation photos? Hard drive? CD? DVD? Tape? Oh wellz...B&H sent it out today. Toooo late to cancel Can't wait for it to arrive!

From the olden days of yore, when I first purchased my first MD, the biggest selling point was the ability to play lossy files without any noticable degradation in sound quality. Playing lossless files seems counter productive for the MD format and provides no real advantage besides being "complete"/"perfect".

at least the plug has been pulled in australia, and also in canada. i expect USA and europe to follow then perhaps a year or two they'll pull the plug in japan also as all energy will be narrowed in on MP3 players. i hope i get my RH10 in the mail before friday!!

Good luck. When I was "researching", I talked to some Sony reps. At least here, they won't be releasing new "blow your mind" MD players. Truth be known, Sony is phasing out MD's completely and going away from that format entirely. They'll have cute little mp3 players coming out the end of this quarter. Still, I bought a RH10 today from B&H...and 2 HiMD discs...hope it'll be enuf!

In my research, I chose the RH10 over the M10/M100 because I don't use a MAC. As far as your concerned, if you use a Mac, then you should get the M10/M100...otherwise if you're a windows user, go for the RH10/RH910.

I've used md's for 10+ years now...and I've got to say that it'll go down in history as the BetaMax format for audio that didn't make it...but tried. MD is a good technology, but Apple at the industry just as Microsoft ate the Apple. I use my 3rd gen ipod all the time...but I just purchsed today the RH10 HI-MD for data storage purposes...and maybe some music. It'll function for a storage device for me 1GB for $7 on an MD as opposed to 1GB on a Memory Stick for $90...but the player/recorder looks nice