Help Me Sort This All Out!

[xzen54321]

Hi, i have been using cdplayers all my life, since i listen to most my music at home i never needed a lot of storage. Well now i do, and i have determended that one of the new HI-MD players will fit my needs nicely(the MZ-RH910 to be exact). Only i have a few questions to ask...

1. storage, as i understand the new players support(nativly) mp3s witch 90% of my colection is, the rest are legal mp3, some wma and a bunch of cds. What is involved in just uploading them to the player(this should be fine as a gig is about 17 hours of mp3s... i think)

2. uploading in ATRAC, i know there are several bitrates, but witch one is comparible to a 128kbps, and how many hours am i looking at in that format?

3.recording, i will probly use this soon after i get it. How much can a empty disc hold with the highest quality from the digaltl in? And can you cut it in to seprat tracks compress them (or record them compresed to start out with) and give thim names withg out a pc? I see this(if it does) being VERY cool if i could record off some of my friends cd/ipod/mp3/whatever player at school or after school as a lot of them have access to a lot of local bands music.

4. sony's sonic stage software, aside from being a CRAZY resorse hog and a over "eye-candyd" GUI it looks ok at first glance. BUT after loading some of my mp3s in to it, it seems like it doesent want to play some files(all mp3s) even after converting them into ATRACs they would not play, any help on this would be very helpful. Also i see that converting takes a bit of time, is there an option in SS to just comvert ALL files so i can do it over night? Also it crashes (3.1)

5. MD as a extrenal HD, what virsions of windows DO and DO NOT need a driver.

6. battery, 25 on the internal battery and its good for 1k cycles? And the AA "dry" battery case, what is this a pack that holds a AA and plugs in somewhere? and how long will that last?

7. lastly,,, Can you have mixed content on one MD eg. ATRAC, mp3, data

Thank you and sorry for the long post, BTY i will be useing this player while riding the bus, school , trail runing(VERY shakey, Il prob get an arm band case thingy) and while doing homework. All and all it could come to am excise of 8 hours a day.

Thanks,

[The Low Volta]

welcome to MDCF,

and I hope these forums can help you make up your mind, but I would advice you to search the formus first for a bit (using the search function function or scanning a couple of topics in the 'Find your minidisc' , 'HiMD', 'software discussions/faq' and 'technical topics' sections)... as most of the questions you pose either are answered in the RH10's manual (search it on the net) or have been answered here on MDCF (many times over and over again ) and probably nobody will therefore take the time to summarize it all again...

if you still have questions after a couple of searches...feel free to post 'em, I'm sure ppl will try to answer them...

greetings Volta

[xzen54321]

Sorry, and thank you, i was able to figuer out 1,2,4,5&7. The others im still a confused by. Also i found out one of my teachers is a minidisc user, (a Sony MZ-NH600D, and he is about to get a MZ-RH910) and he showed me and let me play with it a bit. Im now playing with what bitrats are aceptible to me in trems of quality, as i dont think i will ever need to cary more than 5-10 hours worth at a time i will probly use a higher quality,and i can allways cary more discs. This SS software is not as bad as a lot of things i have read about it, when was 3.x relesed? Anyway thanks, i need to find a sony store or buy it off ebay, unless any of you know a better place to get a MZ-RH910.

EDIT:ok i read the manual, this thing is all that i hoped for and more, also i found another bug in SS, you can not play a atrac file in windows meida player when SS in encoding a file.

also after converting some music(the test file was a 1:20hour long "megamix" of a BUNCH of realy good industrial/dance/EBM in the form of a varibal bitrate MP3) and i determend that i dont like anything lower than64kbps atrac3+(its ok(ish), or 105kbps atrac3(sounds fine!).But i will probly use atrac3 132 because it sounds good and you can still 16 hours on the disc(and i see that it can shove 6 hours on the old discs as well)

Thanks I will read some more in here, and if you have any recomed reading please tell.

Thank you

Edited May 19, 2005 by xzen54321

[The Low Volta]

Sorry, and thank you, i was able to figuer out 1,2,4,5&7. The others im still a confused by.

3 really should be mentioned in the manual...and most manuals can be found on MDCF, yes you can title without a PC,

6 battery life is also mentioned in the manual (but take the mentioned hours with a grain of salt ) and for further info on batteries, check out the "Battery University"

i dont like anything lower than64kbps atrac3+(its ok(ish), or 105kbps atrac3(sounds fine!).But i will probly use atrac3 132 because it sounds good and you can still  16 hours on the disc(and i see that it can shove 6 hours on the old discs as well)

←

after you get a decent pair of 'phones (check the 'phones-section of MDCF for cheap but good ones) it could well be that you never want to go below Hi-SP again (at least I don't) but if you only listen in very loud/rowdy environments like public transport or on the streets of a busy city, Atrac3 132 will be more than enough...

hope you enjoy the Hi-MD experience ... greetings Volta

[xzen54321]

"EDIT:ok i read the manual, this thing is all that i hoped for and more, also i found another bug in SS, you can not play a atrac file in windows meida player when SS in encoding a file. "

Yea, i read the manual and got my questions anwserd, also i have fine set of headphones. And yes, i can tell the didderence between the compressions, i just dont care alot about perfect quality.

[xzen54321]

" (but take the mentioned hours with a grain of salt )"

Is it better or worse?; the battery life is realy the bigest reason im opting for a MD.

Edited May 19, 2005 by xzen54321

[The Low Volta]

Yea, i read the manual and got my questions anwserd, also i have fine set of headphones. And yes, i can tell the didderence between the compressions, i just dont care alot about perfect quality.

←

sorry, missed the edit

and you're right, everyone is free to choose the bitrate they prefer...

"(but take the mentioned hours with a grain of salt)" Is it better or worse?; the battery life is realy the bigest reason im opting for a MD.

ppl here on MDCF seem to agree that Sony exaggerates their battery life quite a bit... the supplied battery won't give you so much hours of use... but (as I did), you can get a higher capacity gumstick NiMH battery for a very decent price (see powerbank or anything similar) and the results will be very pleasing...(allow new batteries to 'grow', let them go through a couple of full charge/full recharge cycles before you complain about rediculously short battery life... they are NiMH and need to be primed a little bit before they function optimally)

[xzen54321]

Ok, I have orderd the MZ-RH910. I shure il be happy with it, realy i can deal with anything, up to 3 mounths ago i was useing a 64MB RIO flash player

Also im used to carying around a litle book of cds so a couple of MDs will be no problem

Sorry about the post then anwsering most the problems myself, just thouught(as uasly the case with ppl on fourms) that you could give some more acuret info.

Anyway il be lurking around in here whil it gets here(a week maby?) and will tell you about my impressions when it arives.

Thanks again and pece out

Edited May 20, 2005 by xzen54321

[The Low Volta]

enjoy your Hi-MD experience!

greetings, Volta