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Anyone else had trouble migrating to Hi-MD?

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watcher666

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Hi

I was just wondering wether anyone else has had trouble migrating to Hi-MD? I've used Minidisc since aroung 97 and have hundred's of md's! About 2 month's ago i purchased a MZ-NH600 but have been having trouble making the switch!

My problem is that im quite stuck in my way's (even though im only 24 and not 65 and wearing cardigans) and have been opticaly recording my MD's from my CD player since the beginning and am quite happy with 80 min's of audio on a disc! But im also a gadget freak and really want to start using my 600 and Hi-MD in general using the PC etc.

What make's it harder is the fact that my JB940 which sounds sooooo good and my not as good sounding but very sexy E10 will be made redundant if i make the switch! :sad:

And another thing is that Atrac3plus doesnt sound as good as Atrac on the JB940!

HELP

What do i do?

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yes, i think the most difficult part would be moving your music to hi-md. I personally use mp3 as a storage medium, then transfer to md whenever i want to listen to it. youre going to have to re-record the songs (or re-rip from cd's) to the new minidisc, unfortunately =/. as for sound... hi-md's LP2 is fine to my ears!

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youre going to have to re-record the songs (or re-rip from cd's) to the new minidisc.

I wouldnt bother re-recording everything onto Hi-MD disc's as there's no point?! The Hi-MD unit play's normal Minidiscs fine!

In fact i don't think id really use Hi-MD media, only for large compilation's. I have over 300 MD blank's because a couple of years ago i feared minidisc would fail as a format so i panic bought loads of disc's rolleyes.gif

So id just use those instead!

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What wrong with cardigans? I've been wearing them since I was 14. In fact, I'm wearing one now. Mind you, like almost everything else I wear, it's black.

I had no problem migrating.. I had no MD equipment or discs of my own before. I got a fresh start with HiMD as a result. I never use netMD mode - though if I needed to run something off for a friend with standard MD equipment, I like having the option. I also like the 2:20 runtime of standard MDs that have been reformatted [and using HiSP of course].

Basically, you have to choose to make the leap.. or not.

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Oh!

I was hoping Sony would be like Nintendo in the respect that the latest GameBoy and there new DS system STILL play the original GameBoy games from 89!!

So the MiniDisc format's in the future will still be able to play back original (and best IMO) MiniDisc recordings!?

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Maybe, but like I said before I doubt it. If Sony wants to delve into higher densities whilst still keeping a close glimmer or the specs we're accustomed to, we'll have to ditch the old MD format. That's why I strongly believe that this generation and perhaps the next will be the crossover phase.

But then again, Sony has surprised me, ala Playstation 1/2.

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Oh!

I was hoping Sony would be like Nintendo in the respect that the latest GameBoy and there new DS system STILL play the original GameBoy games from 89!!  

So the MiniDisc format's in the future will still be able to play back original (and best IMO) MiniDisc recordings!?

I thought the DS will not play older type of GB games, only GBA. Yeah, I know, it's stupid, but they said they had to forsake that feature to save costs.

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For myself, the transition is relatively painless. I go back and forth between making Hi-MD discs (using existing 80 min discs) and regular MD compilations. The big struggle is not having Hi-MD ready deck/bookshelf equipment. I have a MXD-D5C in my living room and a Sharp SD-11 bookshelf system in my bedroom. A lot of times it's nice to be able to listen to a MD in those rooms. Once Sony (and others) come out with non-portable Hi-MD equipment, I'll be in heaven. :-)

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Well the way i see it, Sony seems keen on keeping the MD format in the same casing's etc so the older disc's will almost certanly PHYSICALLY fit into the any new MD machine's, So it cant be to hard to make the machines read the older disc's!

HiMD itself was a compromise solution created specifically to bridge the gap between MD/MDLP and the next full generation.

MD and HiMD both use the same optical system, which is part of what limits the capacity of HiMD media to 1GB. Had they not chosen to maintain backward compatibility, they could easily have fit 2-4.7GB on the same-sized 64mm disc. Such would have been accomplished by using a narrower-focusing laser, for one thing.

If they eventually make the choice to move to a newer [higher density] optical system, MD compatibility will disappear completely from the player/recorders. I couldn't say whether 1GB discs would still be compatible,though - it's possible that because of the DWDD system they use, they might still be usable even with different optics.

So - the discs being the same size is not the only factor in determining backward-compatibility. If anything, it's the least important factor.

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This sounds very interesting (and of course convincing). Do you have any more details about it? Where does this information come from?

I can't recall the exact locations of the articles, but they were linked from http://www.minidisc.org . They were mostly technology-related articles relating to HiMD's "new" DWDD techniques if I remember correctly. I came across them while researching whether to purchase a HiMD back in June-July.

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Sometimes I get the feeling that MD is Sony's abandonware. They are not doing the format justice as a recording medium. If anything, it's being marketed as a DAP, which is not Hi-MD's true place. An iPod is a ten thousand times better DAP.

Hi-MD, however, is the only inexpensive, small, easy to use and high quality recording device... so why the hell can't Sony figure that out? Only the niche users actually use MD as DAPs. Most users are going to be amateur recordists and musicians.

A lot of times MD reminds me of Amiga Computers. Great products that died slow painful deaths from poor marketing.

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Sometimes I get the feeling that MD is Sony's abandonware. They are not doing the format justice as a recording medium. If anything, it's being marketed as a DAP, which is not Hi-MD's true place. An iPod is a ten thousand times better DAP.

I am in complete agreement [especially having said all the same things before myself].

Hi-MD, however, is the only inexpensive, small, easy to use and high quality recording device... so why the hell can't Sony figure that out? Only the niche users actually use MD as DAPs. Most users are going to be amateur recordists and musicians.

Again, in complete agreement.. again, having said the same before.

As I've said in the past - I bought my HiMD specifically for recording. I didn't expect or want to use it as a DAP. However - there it is, I may as well use it as such. I'm so happy with how it works as a DAP that I actually gave away my portable mp3-CD player because I just couldn't see myself using it any more.

Still - I understand its quirks very well, and what it is and isn't good for. I do know that the average person would find netMD and HiMD a pain in the ass to use as a DAP, mainly because of how slow they are and having to deal with Sony's b*llsh*t DRM system - and oh, yeah - SonicStage.

A lot of times MD reminds me of Amiga Computers. Great products that died slow painful deaths from poor marketing.

Yesyesyes... the thing about Amiga though.. as with Mac, in all honesty.. is that it attracts a small but extremely devoted following who also tend to be rather vocal and defensive about the format.

And the proper word is 'orphan.'

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I have an Amiga 500 in my bedroom next to my PC. :laugh: It's in a box at the moment, because the 120mb hard drive I had with it crashed a few years ago and finding a replacement is nearly impossible, I'm just waiting until I find someone getting rid of a lot of old Amiga stuff.

It was my first computer... I got it for Christmas when I was five years old. I had some good times with that thing... good times. Lots of playing Gold Box AD&D games and fooling around with the Amiga programming language. (I don't remember a thing about it either. :grin: )

I wouldn't sell the Amiga for anything, even though I don't use it anymore. It's one of the few things I still have from when I was a little girl.

And if you want my honest confession about why I chose to abandon MD... well, it wasn't the hassle or the DRM or UselessStage or anything like that. It was that my home audio system ruined me. :laugh: I wanted to be able to use better headphones, and if you use the DS8 without a remote, the chrome part on the headphone jack doesn't ground properly and it introduces a lot of static.

I'd been wanting an iPod anyhow, so it seemed like a good time to sell off my legacy MD equipment before Hi-MD and other DAPs made them totally worthless. And off it all went, for so little too. At least, however, I got a bit more than I paid for all of it.

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