tonyclune

So I wanted to leave some information about Sony's poor design choices. I will keep the rant to a minimum to ensure efficient information communication. -I bought a more affordable minidisc MZ-RH910 recorder for live voice recording and neglected to research whether the unit would be compatible with my MAC it is not. -So Sony packaged the thing in a type of box called a blister pack that couldn't be resealed and thus voided the retailer's warranty. DESIGN FLAW #1 -I stuck with Sony's phone tree and after several frustrating weeks I arrange what amounted to an exchange with the Customer Serive Manager at their Fort Meyers headquarters. (They actually bought pack the unit so I could buy the more expensive mz-100... They could not arrange an exchange b/c the mz-100 is marketed by a different wing of the sony corporation DESIGN FLAW #2) -I could have avoided by reading up on the product I bought and and happy Sony finally gave me what I wanted, but here is the crux: When I finally received my new mz-100 it became apparent that Sony had pulled a fast one. The differences between the more expensive mac compatible unit and the cheaper one basically boiled down to the contents of the "bundle" the mac compatible unit cost several hundred dollars more, not because it is mac compatible but because it included $100 headphones and an nice stereo microphone. I had just bought nice headphones and a nice microphone. The CD with the audio uploading software had the original PC based program and the extra MAC based program I have not tried to use the MAC program to upload audio file from a "non MAC compatible" Minidisc but my hunch is that it would work fine. The MD recorders all use the same compression format "altrac3" I think it is called. So in my mind Sony could very easily make the lower cost MD player mac compatible, but they took a gamble that the mac user would be willing to pay more $ for the extra equipment they may or may not need. The product works fine. I just wanted to share this slimy marketing trick. The one drawback is that the recorder picks up cell phone signals, so if you phone rings during recorder you will hear that annoying clipping sound during playback. Does anyone know how to stop that... besides turning off every cell phone in the room. best apc Today almost everything between mac and pc is compatible... no excuse on their part.