Raga Posted July 30, 2005 Report Share Posted July 30, 2005 If in the middle of a recording the MD runs out of battery, does it have the brains to stop in good time and save the TOC and all that jazz before shutting down? My age-old MD seems to be in the habit of just losing the whole thing if I don't stop and save in time before the battery is finished.I'm frequently in a situation where I need to record for 2+ hours and staring at the LCD screen is not an option since the equipment isn't near me but left next to the players, so this is a bit of an issue to me. Any information on this? I'm particularly looking at this with MZ-RH910 in mind as the potential purchase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenmachine Posted July 30, 2005 Report Share Posted July 30, 2005 It strongly depends on the battery. The recorder (i use a mz-nh700) usually tries to save before power runs out, but if you have a battery with a fast dropping voltage (for whatever reason), there might not be not enough power left to write the system file. I wouldn't rely on it unless you know the behavior of your batteries well. Better to approximately know how much recording time you'll get with your battery and to save before it gets critical. I get about 16-17 hours in Hi-SP/LP mode, about 8.5 hours when recording in PCM with a fully charged 2300 mAh Ni-MH rechargeable, so 2+ hours shouldn't be a problem even with lower capacity batteries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raga Posted July 30, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2005 Those are awesome recording times. This is what I read from the MZ-RH910 manual:Can you explain this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenmachine Posted July 30, 2005 Report Share Posted July 30, 2005 The NH-10WM is a 1000 mAh Ni-Mh rechargeable. Multiply those times by 2.3 and you'll approximately get my measured times for a 2300 mAh battery (i've used a 1GB Hi-MD disc for testing by the way). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raga Posted July 30, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2005 Why do they put in such a miniscule battery? What I'm wondering is how come, then, the AA-battery gives only half the recording time in the table above - is the LR6 something much less powerful than a regular 2300mAh rechargeable battery?Also, what I can't understand for the life of me is why, when recording to 1GB HiMD media the AA-battery gives half the time of the NH-10WM, while when recording to a standard MD media it gives a bit more. That is all taking place in HiMD mode, how can the media make such a difference, and why does it only cut off the AA-battery, not from the NH? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenmachine Posted July 30, 2005 Report Share Posted July 30, 2005 Why do they put in such a miniscule battery? To cut costs propably, even if it's only a few cents. High capacity Ni-MHs have indeed surpassed alkalines lately, in particular for high current drawing equipment like digicams or digital recorders/players, besides surpassing them in capacity, they can deliver higher (peak) currents without dropping too much with the voltage. Recording on 1GB Hi-MDs propably requires higher peak currents for some mechanical reason, which an alkaline has problems to deliver, thus the shorter recording times. There's propably still much capacity left on the alkalines when the recorder shuts off after a low battery indication, but this remaining capacity is only accessible for low current drawing devices like clocks, calculators etc.. This makes Ni-MH rechargeables the better solution for (Hi-)MD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROMBUSTERS Posted July 31, 2005 Report Share Posted July 31, 2005 Why do they put in such a miniscule battery? To cut costs propably, even if it's only a few cents. High capacity Ni-MHs have indeed surpassed alkalines lately, in particular for high current drawing equipment like digicams or digital recorders/players, besides surpassing them in capacity, they can deliver higher (peak) currents without dropping too much with the voltage. Recording on 1GB Hi-MDs propably requires higher peak currents for some mechanical reason, which an alkaline has problems to deliver, thus the shorter recording times. There's propably still much capacity left on the alkalines when the recorder shuts off after a low battery indication, but this remaining capacity is only accessible for low current drawing devices like clocks, calculators etc.. This makes Ni-MH rechargeables the better solution for (Hi-)MD.←also you have to look at the actualy physical difference between a HiMD 1GB disc and a reformatted legacy one.The 1GB disc needs to be 'pre-heated' (in lay-man terms) in order for the switching layer to be ready to read/write (lots of high peaks before actual recording takes place)The only difference between a legacy MD and the same reformated in HiMD mode however is the error correction. (more or less constant power consumption) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raga Posted July 31, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2005 OK, those were very thorough and satisfactory explanations. Thank you very much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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