pwscott

Mine does this as well. I assume the battery countdown is just replaced by the blinking indicator that it is 'PC-connected'. It does seem to get a full charge this way however. I was surprised that it seems to bot be able to be powered off while connected this way.

Not a big deal, but I notice if I leave my MZ-RH1 connected to myXP PC via USB, it stays on all the time. Wouldn't y think there was a way to turn it off and still have it connected? (Without 'suspending' the Windows machine).

My RH1 will do exactly what you describe if the battery is turned 180degrees from how it shoudl go in. Try rotating the battery to the opposite orientation??

I received my RH1 from OneCall here in the US yesterday. They inluded 3 day FEDEX in their price and I got it on the east coast in less than 48 hours after ordering. After being confused by the battery orientation instructions and having a hard time getting the charging going, all is well and I'm very impressed with it. As a sugestion to those of you awaiting the arrival of one of these, I would suggest you refer NOT to the instructions in the manual for the orienttion of the battery nor even to your visual assessment by looking into the battery compartment- rather there is a diagram on the bottom of the device that shows where the 'cutoff' corner or slot on the battery should go. I killed a few minutes with the battery inserted incorrectly depite reading the manual in ernest. A few first impressions: -It's even smaller than I expected - yes, there is the extruded jog knob, but it works very well and has an excelent tactile feel, thinner than expected -The display is pretty great and easily controled in terms of displays and timeout controls etc. The spectral displays are very cool to watch as you listen. -The 'minutes needed to charge' is nice when charging the battery; it counts down minute by minute to the 80% mark I think it is -Worked great with my earlier disks from a Sony MZ-R90 -No problem at all plugging it into my XP Media Center with SS4.0 installed and having it recognized. Transfering files was very easy. My main use for transfer in that direction PC>MD is 320k and 256k MP3s from a library there. I haven't tried others. Transfering recordings made on the RH1 was easy also, choosing to have them as .WAV files -Most MP3 files that had album art associtaed transfered tiny graphics of the album art into SS4.0 which I was very surprised by. I'm still struggling to understand what importing an existing MP3 on the hard disk does in terms of file movement. It would seem that it just adds a pointer to the existing MP3 that is on a large USB Hard Drive and that it does not duplicate or move the file. If someone can confirm this I'd apreciate it. -Audio is very good, though I imagine it might be just slightly louder for my liking. I'm quite satisfied with the bass although I haven't exactly been listening to reference recordings, mostly to existing MP3 content at 44.1/320k on Bose headsets -There are a number of things that I didn't realize I would have to have the remote plugged in to take advantage of. They seem to be: =Changing equalizer presets or custom settings for the sound =Going fwd by groups vs. clicking through Gp 05 005 Gp 05 004 Gp0p 05 003.... to get back to Group 1 001- may be there's a schortcut here but I suspect it requires the remote to be used. =Displaying the ID3 header info [track name, group name, album?]that does transfer extremely well to the files in the RH1- I suppose they should since they're still native MP3s with correct ID3 headers huh? -In anything but a well lit environment, you'd just about have to memorize the buttons on the remote- and there are a lot. The writing for the labels is very hard to read- needed reading glasses in fainter light to even see them, although they are marked with tactile dits, squares etc. -I haven't used the remote much yet, but the twist volume control is very natural and it seems quite well made -Love that whenever it's plugged in to the PC it stays charged so I can grab it and go -Like the little rubbery feet on the underside for setting it on a table etc -The ECM-DS70P Microphone, one of Sony's T-mics, is the only one I have tried with it so far. [i got the mic at B&H in NY]I took the RH1 to my local bar last night to have a read thru the manual at the bar. I turned it on to record the ambient sound for a while and found the recording to be excellent. Mic Sensitivity was on Hi and AGC. Lot of background noise and music, along with patrons talking, ordering, yelling- all captured extremely well. The displays for recording-the VU meters or the clock or the mic settings- are nice and easy to change with the display button.It would be nice to be able to diaply the spectrum analyzer view or the little circles while recording; if you can I don't see how. -I just hadn't thought about it, but I was psyched to see that recordings get time stamped and when you bring them in to SS4.0 they are named that way. Awesome. -This makes an incredibly small package for recording onsite sound. That is no revelation to most of you I suppose. I never used my MZ-R90 for recording, just as a music player back then. I've been using an MP3 player for that but now that I have gotten back into videography and a lot of digital photography and editing, I am looking forward to using this for recording events such as kids' concerts and ambient nature sounds- waterfalls, ocean waves, birds etc to add sound to DVD Slideshows etc and it appears this will be an optimally small setup for that with great battery life and capacity. I imagine for nature work I'll have to use the ECM-909 that I have had for years due to its ample wind screen. Hope somone finds this interesting- happy to try and answer a question if I can, although I have a lot more learning to do. Get the PDF of the manual- it's way easier to read on a bright screen.

So my MZ-RH1 arrived today and I very carefully put the battery in just like they instruct, label up etc. Got same exact symptoms you describe! I waited for charging to start, replugged, even looked into battery compartment with super bright light to see the contacts. Damn! Just when I was on the phone with OneCall I saw a diagram on the underside of the recorder showing the non-square end of the battery oriented the other way. I fliped the battery and it charges and is working great. Seems to me label up is right if the recorder is inverted when doing so. I've been a gadget guy a long, long time and have multiple FCC licenses etc- I would SWEAR that the instructions say to put it in the other way. Don't know if that's what your situation may be but thought I'd fess up and pass along.

Yes, meant to post that here. I went into a store in CT last night and they had them on clearance too, same price- bought the last 4 of the blue ones also model # HMD1G. Now I just have to wait for the FEDEX guy tomorrow for my MX-RH1.

May be I over-worded my question. If I import files into SonicStage that are already high quality MP3s on my local hard disk, will SonicStage 4.0 on XP have to make a duplicate copy of the file and put it somewhere or because it's MP3 and not ATRAC or whatever it will just add it to the database and transfer it to RH1 right from the iTunes Music Library location (hopefully)?? I did import 5 songs into SS 4.0 and then checked the library folder and there is no MP3 or other familiar file there so am I on the right track? Thanks!

Hi- what great info from all of you in this subforum! Anyway, I am awaiting the arrival of my MZ-RH1 in two days and wondering a few things about SonicStage 4.0. I have installed it on XP, on a machine where, on a USB 2.0 attached drive I have 60GB of high quality MP3s at 44.1kHz sample rate and mostly 320kbps bit rate. All with complete ID3 header tags. So I want to be able to move them ad hoc to HiMDs to listen to on my new machine along with other CD sourced files that I will transfer straight from CD and with my own recordings etc. If I search for music to add to the SS library by doing File > Import > Scan Folder will I end up with all that music copying into some SS 4.0 library and duplicate the 60GB I have or will it link to the file with a reference of some kind? I don't have 60GB free on my main drive where SS installed. I do see that in options I can choose where to put the library - I am hoping that applies to newly imported files from CDs etc and not to existing MP3 files I point to and import?? Also, if it's the latter above, and I add files from new CDs or to iTunes, can I again 'scan folder' for music without creating dupes through out? Thanks for any help.

That's good to hear. I ordered something from them about 10 years ago and they still had me in their system. Anyway, unit shipped like they said with an email from them with FEDEX tracking number for 3 day saver shipping. Now the wait and the rereading of the manual. I did go ahead and install SonicStage- imported a few MP3s into there and was impressed that the album art and details came over from my iTunes library under XP.

When I first read the news, reviews and info on the MZ-RH1 it got me re-enthused about MD. May be I could make do with what I already had...? I dug out my cherished Sony MZ-R90 and started using it to record nature sounds on photo shoots and kids performances and re-learned just how cool a medium MD is....Just when I got a new, small Sony Stereo Mic at B&H and tested it for recording.....Just when I finally found an older Sony switchable/directional mic I had on hand. Just when I uploaded in real time some recordings via sound card inpt that I made with the MZ-R90 and was very pleased with the quality..... I started researching the MZ-RH1 further- looking at the tantalizing galleries of pictures, downloading the PDF of the manual. I confirmed how many old MD blanks I had stored away that could be put to good use in the RH1....I read and read the SonicStage FAQs and determined I could(!) upload my old recordings and music to my PC and certainly my new recordings. SO,...I finally decided this morning I can justify it and hit the Minidisco.com webpage today and BOOM they are out of stock! I called them and they said they thought the 5th of July they could ship more. When I asked why they thought that they said it was pretty much an estimate. So, on to SoundProfessionals- ugh, they expect them Thursday. Finally, I started Google searching- following links and found that OneCall had them in stock! Black- yea! http://www.onecall.com/ProductDetails.aspx...0&PMNID=978 So I called them, willing to pay the $349, no tax to where I live. 3-Day FEDEXis included so I should have my new gadget on Thursday. I'm looking forward to it. Any problem going ahead and installing the SonicStage SW and upgrade to 4.0 in advance of this black wonder arriving??