kino170878

http://www.esdl.co.uk/body/md_data_recovery/md_recovery.htm

Sounds like you've recorded over your material. There was a stupid 'end' button on earlier minidisc units which you had to press every time to make sure this didn't happen. The only way to get your audio back is to give it to a professional company who can restore the TOC (table of contents) to the state it was. Do not record anything else as the chances of recovery fall each time you record. I know of one company in the UK that has special software to do it, but they will charge you. Maybe TOC cloning can also give you results - look in the threads it's been mentioned before.

Admittedly it has been a while since I last listened to an iPod. Going by what most iPod owners themselves say though, they also feel like throwing it against a hard surface sooner or later. Especially after listening to a Sony device I would say in any case that the plain and simple fact of the matter is that the Sony sound exceeds that of the iPod, even from a compressed sound source. Pinning your hopes on lossless audio on the device doesn't always guarantee the best listening experience. There are many factors to consider and a manufacturer will usually decide to focus more on some areas while neglecting others. I cannot follow a company that sacrifices on sound, therefore I will almost always choose Sony. On the other hand, if by some incredible chance a super version of an iPod finally comes out that matches the Sony on the sound front, I will immediately jump ship and buy it believe me. It's all about the sound, that's the most important thing I am sure you'll agree.

Dude you're writing iPod and Sony in the same sentence, urgh. An iPod sounds like an old radio wrapped in tin foil. Stick to Sony if you want the best sound.

You can use both MD data disc and standard minidisc on the Yamaha. In 4-track mode you can only use the MD data disc which halves the recording time (e.g. a 74 minute disc becomes 37 minutes across 4 (mono) tracks). The advantage here of course is that you will have separate track information on each of the tracks. If however you only need a 2 track stereo mix then you can use standard minidiscs although you won't then be able to use the 4-track potential of the machine.

I wish people would understand this more, it seems like prices on ebay never come down at all.

I guess minidiscs are just not 'kewl' anymore

I think the beauty of minidiscs is the removable medium. They just look cool, sound fantastic, and there's nothing else like them. I agree about the low availability of discs, this is a big problem. I wouldn't encourage anybody to start fresh with this format right now unless you have specific requirements on the recording/editing side. However if you really want to experience your music collection and actually *listen* to tracks rather than just fly through them then minidisc is probably best for you. Sound quality is a priority with all Sony devices, it's the one thing they've always got right.

I agree with you. I have an old MZ-R37 and the sound is miles ahead of newer MD units. It's more natural and more powerful. Sometimes I wish I could go past the '30' volume level on the headphones, but the sound quality makes up for it (and the fiddly controls). It also has a separate line out which the newer units don't have.

That's one fine piece of equipment. Give it in for servicing and hopefully it will be back to 100%.

Comparing Flash with Minidisc is like comparing apples and oranges. They are two completely different technologies. With Flash you can't approach the editing capability that you can do on a MD, the reason being the magneto-optical technology and the ability to update the table of contents (TOC). Flash can obviously go higher (16gb on one stick is affordable now) which is great. Everybody would love to see Minidisc achieving that sort of size. But unfortunately I don't think the technology is up to it.

That's interesting. I had never considered DVD-Audio before for archiving. Could you provide any names of newer hardware units that can handle DVD-Audio through MLP?

Maybe if you shouted louder they would listen. But I doubt Sony would comply. Only if they got pushed down into a lion cage head-first like in Goodfellas, now that might work.

Maybe some other members could provide english manuals for the Onkyo XB-8, MD-133, and XN-7. Bit of a long shot but who knows.

Has anybody tried this: dubbing tracks from CD to Hi-MD (at high speed if possible, if not at real-time) on the Onkyo XB-8 and then labelling the tracks in Sonicstage/SimpeBurner? Does it work without any problems? That is, not uploading the tracks but just titling on the discs themselves through the software screen? Are you also free to delete tracks, both on the unit itself and while viewing them in SS/SB, without actually transferring them to the PC first? Following on from the previous questions, are you able to upload the tracks (after editing them) to the PC through SS, without any restrictions? For me this would indicate that the editing capabilities on a Hi-MD bookshelf are quite useful and may be a reason to purchase the unit.

This might be a long shot, but if you can try to get hold of some old pre-2000 MD equipment, either decks or portables, and try the disc erase function on those.

Try banging it real hard again, you never know it might do the trick lol. Maybe push the headphones in with great force and see if that does anything. Sometimes when a headphone is only partially in it causes the sound you describe.

Probably the most complete example of a minidisc unit ever made. I have two myself

For professional use Standard MD hardware easily wins over Hi-MD units with their small fiddly buttons and needless restrictions. Optical out, are you listening Sony? Heaven forbid they actually try to manufacture a professional Hi-MD deck one day.... Yes and that lossless copying function of discs is fantastic. Of course you would need at least two units linked up but I believe it is at 4x speed. Good luck!

If only all our pockets were so deep *sigh* You giving out free 1gb discs by any chance hehe

Yes of course it sounds better, but you are still not editing on the discs themselves. I assume you are editing on the PC. Perhaps you have some amazing new technique for solving the disc editing problem which is facing the thread starter?

Because you don't do any editing that's why

Without even looking up the answer I knew it would be a resounding no. You just can't edit Hi-MD discs downloaded through the PC, period. From http://www.sharoma.com/minidisc/reviews.htm - "Upon attempting to edit the disc title manually with the unit, an 'Impossible' message is the result. Very strange indeed. Could it be that titling discs with SonicStage or SimpleBurner causes unforseen problems that the Onkyo deck cannot handle?" Forget Hi-MD, stick with MD and you can do no wrong.

I doubt there is a list compiled on bugs, that kind of (highly valuable info IMO) is probably scattered all over the forum. That is a very interesting link you provided by the way, it backs up my theory that the Hi-MD format is not dependable for any sort of advanced editing operation. Most people upload to the PC and then do the editing from there so it's a non-issue for many users, but how on earth Sony could allow that bug is beyond me. That's part of the reason why I still record SP discs to this day. Another bug I doubt they fixed is the MZ-RH1 uploading of legacy discs where if you selected Hi-SP as the destination format it would change the track marks by a few seconds. PCM uploads are at least okay though.

The problem is Sonicstage. If you make a line-in recording for the first time you are free to edit the tracks in any way you want on the Hi-MD unit. The moment you upload the recording to Sonicstage the problems start happening. You can of course choose to edit the file further in Sonicstage (where the audio is now in the PC) or just leave it as is, but now when you transfer the file back to the Hi-MD you cannot do any further editing. You again have to upload to Sonicstage. This sucks because sometimes you want to edit on the disc itself but it seems Sony doesn't like you to do that.