Any Alternative To Hi-md?

[kalo]

The software sucks, the screen on the unit is wack, and I have just find out that the remote to my nh900 is broken after just 8 months

Can anyone recommend me an alternative to minidisc whether it be Hard-disk payer or mp3 player? Here is my criteria:

-Must be below £200 GBP

-Must have a LCD remote (preferably one with backlight)

-Must be able to record

-Must have at least 1GB Capacity

[DJ_THE_CROW]

Hi there! I have MZ-NH600! And it sucks me too! Its the last time i buy something from SONY, i will never do that ever again...

my plan is that i will buy a CREATIVE ZEN player (20 GB or more), it can play WAV-files which are 100 % digital with 100 % of Quality, and they dont make any problem when i use MONO-WAV-Files. This Hi-Md system i bought cos i knew that Minidisc always provide Mono-Recording and playback, but i gotta know that those sucking Hi-Md system does not allow me that... therefore instead of 188 Minutes of PCM playback, i can only have 94 Minutes, and i am hating SONY more and more... i wrote emails to SONY Center, but seem they never care about the clients at all...

now Sony suck you and i m gonna buy a CREATIVE ZEN player.

I can also recommend you the IRIVER, it has won the EISA AWARD ! It means its one of the best you can ever buy ! And it can also play OGG! OGG is better than any MP3 or even the ATRAC3plus cos it provides bitrates up to 500 Kbits/s (STEREO).

[pata2001]

-Most HDD based MP3 players won't have remotes included, let alone a backlit LCD one. The only one I can think of is the iAudio M3, which is getting phased out for the newer model, the X5.

-iRiver and OGG? Only the older players H1xx and H3xx support OGG. The H10 and its variations won't support OGG, and iRiver said they won't support OGG anymore.

-Not many MP3 players can record. And those that can, the quality is questionable, albeit they're getting better and better.

kalo: You can purchase the remote for your NH900 from Audiocubes. The cheapest one is probably the 33EL.

[atrain]

the older irivers have line & optical in/out for recording.

[bhangraman]

Time to snap up the iAudio M3 then. Dabs currently have 25 in stock at £179.99. However although the auto levels are fine for voice recording but I found 'proper' recording a far dodgier prospect than Hi-MD. I forgot what the limit was, but there's a maximum size for a single recording... pay a visit to iAudiophile.net before you buy, just so that you're clear about the recording limitations. I don't know how much of a priority recording is for you. If it is the overriding priority, then you won't find anything to top MD yet. Apart from that, the display remote is the most informative in the business (it has to be, since it's the only display on-unit), sound quality is decent, has FM radio and a built-in Mic, and drag & drop music loading / unloading. Up/downloads of course are considerably quicker.

As for EISA being awarded to the H140, I guess it must have been a slow year, and giving it to the iPod would have been far too predictable. I was somewhat underwhelmed, sonically, design-wise and ergonomically. One strictly for the sandal-wearing geeks IMO.

[robin726]

I would dearly have loved to get a HD unit instead of dealing with Sony's wacked out software, but the truth of the matter is that no HD unit is suitable.

Older iRivers have the required I/O but there is a famous glitch in the recorded stream each time the hard drive spins up. Plus you have to deal with their lack of an interface.

Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox 3 work well, but are bulky and out of production.

Other makes do not support lossless recording, have crap interfaces, or both.

For consumer gear a MD is still the best thing, especially supplemented with an external amp.

There is a real opportunity here for some DAP manufacturer, but the recording market is simply too small for them to care.