Preparing To Buy A Hi-MD Walkman

[ROMBUSTERS]

I've narrowed it down to either the $299.99 CND MZ-NH700 or the $249.99 CND NHD600D model. I was wondering what your thoughts on the two were as the only real difference i can tell (besides the looks obviously) is that the NH700 has a built in radio tuner, which i more than likely wouldn't use.

Also coming off of my NetMD MZ-N505 player, which i was very pleased with aside from the constant battle with waiting for it to convert songs to Atrac, is there anything I should know before jumping in?

Finally I was wondering if someone with an actual Hi-MD player could answer this question, or point me to the place where I can find an answer: how long does it take for the Hi-MD player to:

A) Copy a 100MB file onto the disc

Copy a 100MB file from the disc

C) Transfer an average Hi-SP song file (not including time taken to compress)

D) Is the compression length any different from the Hi-standards then it was from the old MD-LP standards? Like does it take longer, shorter, not difference to convert a song to Hi-SP then it did to convert it to MD-SP?

Any other information or input would also be greatly appreciated.

[KJ_Palmer]

Actually, the NHF800 has the radio tuner, the NH700 is identical (pretty much) but doesn't have a tuner. The NH600D doesnt have a mic in or line/optical in that the 800 and 700 do (though the european version - NH600 has optical/line in).

[ROMBUSTERS]

ok cool so aside from the fact that i cant record out of home is the NHD600D still a good buy?

[watcher666]

Hi

I have a MZ-NH600, It is an extremely good little machine! It may be made out of plastic but it is very tough and solid and feels nice and robust in your hand. It takes 1xAA battery which last's for about 20hrs playback and is powered by the USB when connected to the PC so recording doesnt use any battery power.

I got mine on ebay brand new and sealed for £89.99 "Buy It Now"!

[ROMBUSTERS]

awesome! could u please try the 100MB file copy to and from the disc. This is probably the largest size file i would be storing in Data mode on the disc. Also if someone does get around to testing this could you please also post your Computers hardware stats.

[KJ_Palmer]

The data transfer speed is reckoned to be of the order of 0.6 MB/second, so I've read - not sure if that's the read or write speed, or both.

So, 100MB would take 166.67 secs or 2 minutes 47 secs to transfer, if my maths is correct.

Sorry, I'm not going to try it, but anyway, it's whizzy at copying my excel and word files...

[ROMBUSTERS]

cool. so is it possible to buy a remote that works with this model?

also does anyone know if the conversion times for Atract3 are comparable (faster/slower) than the older Atract2 conversion? Oh and to that point can a disc formatted in Hi-MD mode playback in MDLP modes? or is it strictly Hi-MD?

[watcher666]

so is it possible to buy a remote that works with this model?

Yes, both the RM-MC33EL and the fantastic RM-MC40ELK work perfectly with the 600 and greatly improve it's functionality! The later is the remote that is supplied with the NH1 (3 line, backlit).

The ATRAC3Plus conversion is a bit quicker due to the software improvement. No you can only write in Hi-SP or Hi-LP on a Hi-MD disc. (i think)

[sxc]

No - if your file was ripped to the PC in LP2, then it will transfer to a Hi-MD formatted disc as such - no further conversion.

[mutant1345]

Hello,

For the purposes you SEEM to have which im thinking are just a minidisc player that cn take my files from computer and take music files aswell, the 600 is imo the choice you want UNLESS your thinking about live recording....

the 600 from my expieriance can, transfer data at an okay speed a 100 meg file might take about 3 mins depending on if its one file or many, many can take either less or more time its all about how buisy the opticle head is at the time....

music is relativley fast transfer, conversion takes a few extra seconds but its never bothered me as a person who transfer a song for on the go listening at the very last second of time he has, again as long as you are sure you will not need the live recording then i do suggest the 600

i also agree heavily with watcher666 in the fact that its made of plastic (which is most definetly no magnesium or aluminum body) but feels verry sturdy and holds together very sturdy as well.

hope this little revie helped somewhat, in aliance to the others comments

[ROMBUSTERS]

alright cool.

btw now that sony is embracing the MP3 standard... finally... does anyone, u guys would know more than anyone, if there are any future generations of Hi-MD machines coming within the next year or so? If so will these support the MP3 format as well?

Beyond that I have one more real question: is the player firmware upgradeable/updateable? If so has there been any releases and what have they changed? Not the bring the black sheep iPod into this but it has had numerous firmware upgrades and can even add new codecs? Wouldnt it be possible for sony to upgrade the firmware to allow for MP3 codec and thus playback on existing players?

On the old Net-MD i know theres a way to 'hack' into the debug portion of the firmware and alter things and even 'unlock' certain modes on lower end models. Has anyone had any success with this on the new Hi-MD?

Oh and one more quick questions: which has higher audio quality in your opinion (i think its obvious but for some reason if its not im just curious):

Which is better quality: ATRAC3/132kbps (MD-SP) or ATRAC3plus/256kbps (HiMD-SP?)

[thepootleflump]

In the Uk the 600D doesn't come with a HI-MD disk where as the 700 does.

If you are looking for a portable storage solution look elsewhere, the speed is pretty slow compared with a proper solution.

Hi-SP is better quality. Couldn't you tell by the bit rate?

[Christopher]

Actually, some have said that SP sounds better - and it's not ATRAC3 132kbps, it's ATRAC 292kbps. If you record via NetMD, SP will record as 132kbps, but if you record in real-time it's 292kbps.

Anyway, with that aside, it's been said that SP does still sound a bit better in the ABX tests I've read, and I assume this is because it's a more mature inclination of ATRAC, whereas Hi-SP is ATRAC3plus in it's near infancy.

btw now that sony is embracing the MP3 standard... finally... does anyone, u guys would know more than anyone, if there are any future generations of Hi-MD machines coming within the next year or so? If so will these support the MP3 format as well?

If all goes well, Sharp and the other big guys should release units in Q1 2005. If they don't, then I'm going to be worried about the future of the format. As for mp3 support, it's very likely given what has been going on with Sony as of late. There's no definite word on any of this, so all we can do is merely speculate. I have a good feeling, however. :grin:

Beyond that I have one more real question: is the player firmware upgradeable/updateable?

It probably is, but I doubt Sony will release firmware upgrades and probably just save new features for a new generation that we'll have to spend money on. :rasp:

On the old Net-MD i know theres a way to 'hack' into the debug portion of the firmware and alter things and even 'unlock' certain modes on lower end models. Has anyone had any success with this on the new Hi-MD?

Not yet mate, but I will try and accelerate progress with that if I get a NH900. I'd love for a new round of hacks to happen for Hi-MD.

[ROMBUSTERS]

ok so one last clarification (for now at least)

The old MD modes can still be transfered to HiMD as long as I format them on my PC before hand, and then transfer them to HiMD? That way I can still get the inbetween (and great sounding) MD-SP(wrong name i know: ATRAC3 132kbps) instead of going for the 'better sounding' but much higher bit rate of Hi-SP (256kbps)? Correct?

[mutant1345]

if i understand the question correctly then the answere is

yes

[ROMBUSTERS]

lol thanx

ya i wrote that with very little sleep :wacky:

[ROMBUSTERS]

here's a question for you and i bet your answer will be a screaming NO! but i must ask it all the same.

I currently own the old-school N505 MDLP recorder with OMG and Simple Burner 1.0? In preparation for my forethcoming HiMD should I install SonicStage and SB2? My only reason for asking is because Sony refuses to let you install it unless you uninstall previous software versions completely. I havnt really done anything that I'm going to lose or w/e but I want to know wut u guys/gals think.

Thanx in advance

[Christopher]

Yes, you should upgrade, and no, Sony doesn't require you to uninstall. It should upgrade automatically if you're using the installer at connect.com.

Additionally, if you have any tracks in *.omg/a or whatnot, back them up to be safe.

[ROMBUSTERS]

well it does force me to lol it pops up a message box saying "Detected previous version of Open MG and Simple Burner. In order to continue previous versions must be uninstalled. Do you wish to uninstall OK/Cancel"

not much of a choice there

but I guess ill be upgrading soon then

Also i had a quick question I just thought up. When you import music from your HDD (like say an MP3 file) it creates a new OMG file on your computer as well (thus preserving it if u delete the MP3). wut restrictions if any do you recieve trying to copy a track from a CD or an MP3 from a CD for that matter? Does it also make a copy or is it straight transfer?

EDIT: Just installed SS2.2 for advanced users that have changed things, what settings should I be adjusting for best performance?