HI-MD of IPOD ?

[Renecl]

Hi All,

I'm a bit confused................

I want to buy a SONY HI-MD walkman, but all my friends tell me to buy a IPOD :-(

Can you guys give some tips to me to buy a SONY HI-MD ?

Pro's and Cons ........

Regards,

Rene

Edited August 10, 2005 by Renecl

[Christopher]

Welcome to the forums. This is a pretty general topic, I assume you have searched a bit, right? This has been discussed many times before.

Regardless, what interests you the most when you look at Hi-MD? Let's build upon that.

[IdiotSavant]

Really you want to consider MP3 player vs. MiniDisc player; formats not brands.

An MP3 player would be better if you almost exclusively use your PC to manage your music listening. That way transferring files to/from your MP3 player isn't much of a big deal to you.

A MiniDisc player on the other hand allows you to record from line and optical sources as well as the PC. Plus with a MiniDisc player you're not limited to the size of the hard drive - if you need more space, you can just buy more media (though obviously 30x1GB Hi-MDs will take up far much more room than a 30GB MP3 player.) The other problem with MiniDisc players is that they have a much slower write speed than the MP3 players so transferring MP3s to them will take a lot less time (hence they're suited more for recording something to a disc once and leaving it there or switching a few albums to/from a disc, rather than swapping entire libraries of music between an MP3 player and the PC.)

Finally there's the software. With a MiniDisc player you'll have to use the godawful SonicStage to transfer tracks to the unit. While SonicStage is getting better, I imagine iTunes is far easier to use.

Really this is my advice:

If you're more at home with the idea of creating lots of discs of music and 'archiving' music, then choose a MD player. (Though MP3 players transfer music fast I doubt any could beat the time in which it takes for you to pop a disc out of an MD player and pop another one in.)

On the other hand if your music collection is PC based, and you want to be able to carry around practically everything you own at once... go with the MP3 player.

Be careful of iPods though - they come with a bare minimum of accessories (so even something like a mains adaptor will have to be purchased in addition) and the battery is built-in, so when it wears out you'll have to pay to participate in the iPod exchange program (where you pay $50, send your iPod off and get back either a new iPod or someone else's refurbished iPod.) To me that's one of the very appealing things about MD players; they operate on gumstick batteries which can easily be purchased (for maybe $15) to act as spares or replace the old battery when it wears out.

If you're after a gadget - something that's not just a music player - and the battery lifetime doesn't concern you, then an iPod might be your thing. I've read a lot of very positive reviews about the iPod and it is highly praised because of its photo/games/calendar/etc. features. However, from the sounds of it the new Sony hard drive MP3 players (such as the HD5) are far better at playing back music.. but that's all they do. I wouldn't like to give out too much advice on MP3 players as I'm not too well schooled in them, but ATRAC Life might be helpful if you're interested in more information on the Sony players (which also have a replaceable battery, by the way.)

Hope that helps a bit...

[Renecl]

Thanks, thats a lot of info ;-)

I like i-tunes, but i really hate the M4P format. Not allowing it to transfer to MP3.

So with this format youre (i am) stuck with the apple format if i buy an ipod.

MD i like, but now my only question is how "alive" is MD these days ?

Are there still a lot of MD buyers ?

Can i still get the HI-MD discs next year ?

Regards,

Rene

[Christopher]

Are there still a lot of MD buyers ?

Yes, but it is not as popular as hard disc players. Do you have any real interest in recording? For playback only purposes, it is hard to justify MD.

Can i still  get the HI-MD discs next year ?

Definitely.

[Renecl]

Thanks,

My main concern in a Harddisk recorder is its lifespan.

When you drop it, there go all your Cd's ;-)

So for safekeeping i go for the MD.

Do you recomend a player ?

Regards,

Rene

[IdiotSavant]

Thanks, thats a lot of info ;-)

I like i-tunes, but i really hate the M4P format. Not allowing it to transfer to MP3.

So with this format youre (i am) stuck with the apple format if i buy an ipod.

MD i like, but now my only question is how "alive" is MD these days ?

Are there still a lot of MD buyers ?

Can i still  get the HI-MD discs next year ?

Regards,

Rene

←

M4P? As in.. M4A? DBpowerAMP can easily convert M4A files to MP3 files. While transcoding isn't great.. hey, it's a solution.

Are there a lot of MD buyers? Will you be able to get Hi-MD discs next year? Yes to both. MD - it seems to me - has something of a cult following. While it's not strong enough to cross over to the mainstream (like MP3 players have) it's certainly strong enough that Sony will continue to keep the format going - I've been with MD for 7 years and have been through 6 units!

But as to how 'alive' it is.. it's the same with any technology. Sony could bring out MD blanks next year which make even the 1GB Hi-MD media of today redundant (though given the level they've gone to to preserve the useability of old systems - including NetMD functionality on the first generation Hi-MD units - it seems unlikely they'll make the current Hi-MD technology/units redundant) but then again, what if Apple brought out a 200GB iPod next year? You catch my drift...?

Besides... what else is there for causual recording? Is there a smaller, more cost-effective expandable media for digital music in high quality?

As for your comment about hard disk players.. when you drop it, there goes the music on the disk. Let's face it... you'd have to be crazy not to back it up in some other way

Hope that's useful...

...and not too indicative of the amount of ethanol running through my veins right now

[AMPlitude]

just one thing i need to say. today, my friend asked me which ipod to get. her old ipod, less than even a year old is bugging out already. in fact, it was dying after about 3 months. the internal lithiums in the ipods are the biggest problem in its design.

get a md

[greenmachine]

And remember: There's not only Apple and Sony involved in the portable audio market. Broaden your horizon.

[Renecl]

And remember: There's not only Apple and Sony involved in the portable audio market. Broaden your horizon.

←

I like SONY, its always perfect audio quality at a reasonable price.

And alway repairable is case of failure, unlike those other korean/taiwaneese products they are hard to get serviced.

By the way, can i put data files on my old minidiscs (60min) ?

[Roamer]

You can transfer data files as long as you format them in HiMD mode.

[andysnap]

Thanks,

My main concern in a Harddisk recorder is its lifespan.

When you drop it, there go all your Cd's ;-)

So for safekeeping i go for the MD.

Do you recomend a player ?

Regards,

Rene

←

Thats an interesting point, which has yet to be answered in real life use . . how long will hard disc music player work for before failing. And then what happens to your 5 -60 Gb of music?

Another point in favour of Minidisc players is they are just so cheap at the moment. A Hi-MD Nh600 will only cost around £70-80, and is infinitely expandable. Just buy more MDs. An iPod, or any other hard disc player is quite an investment of your hard earned cash, so do you really need 5 - 60Gb of storage/music?

I have both Sony MD players (E10 and Nh900), and a Sony HD3 20Gb hard disk player, and think the MD is more 'fun' (recording CDs to MD discs, making compilations, carrying only those collections I want to listen too . .) while the HD3 is useful for carrying 'everything', but even using a few of the 20Gb available is a huge amount of music, so I feel I could be recording to it forever!(yawn)

And hard disk players require you to copy the CDs to your computer hard drive first before transfering (just watch your computer 'fill up'!), while Minidiscs can use Simple Burner, to just rip the CD direct onto your MD.

My conclusion . . . go for a cheap MD first, and see how you 'use' your portable music and how much music you actually want to carry with you.

Then later, if you find you do need huge capacity, look at a Sony HD player. They're only getting cheaper per Gb, and you could transfer any Minidisc ATRAC files stored on your computer straight onto your Sony HD player.

Whatever, enjoy your music!

Andrew