Hi-MD

[danielbb90]

Will Hi-MD ever pickup as much as iPods?

If not is this be because of the origional sp real-time recording of minidiscs and people think it's similar?

[pata2001]

I doubt it, unless Apple does something stupid in their future iPod lineup. Blame it on Sony. All the features we have now with SS3.4, especially the uploading stuff, should have been there in the beginning. If Sony had dished out all SS 3.4 features right form the start, coupled with MP3 support right of the bat and appropriate marketing, HiMD could have been big, especially before the release of iPod nano, when flash players are still in MBs and expensive. Now, it's all too late, especially with prices falling down. The problems with Connect player and availability of the A series are not helping either.

[danielbb90]

No! Thats really a downer!

Anyway you can't have it all!

[pauljones52]

I cant bring myself to buy a hard drive based player. Theres something not right about scrolling through hundreds of albums to find a song you want, I would be continually switching tracks. I like being able to grab an MD depending on my mood before I leave in the morning. I'm stil getting used to having 8 albums on a HiMD, it still seems too much to me! I guess thats what you get from growing up using tape based walkmans.

I do miss the old days, when you could swap minidiscs with your mates. As not many people use minidisc these days its harder to do! But theres something cool about having a player that you know not many other people will have seen let alone own, especially with an LCD backlight remote. Im sure I will buy a hard drive based player in the future, just not right yet!

P.S. Happy valentines day, I hope everyone remembered to get their loved ones something!

Edited February 14, 2006 by Matt J

[Rasuogen]

I love MD and will soon be getting a Hi-Md player the RH-10, but at times I just stop and think to myself..

"I wonder what it would be like to have 20Gb of music in my hand?"

1. yes I have every thing I could ever hear in one nice package.

2. what time would I have to listen to it all?

3. What happens if it gets stolen/lost, or you somehow break it?

Whats nice about MiniDisc is:

#1 I only ever have about 2 discs on my at any given time plus the one in my player because they hold in for me in LP4: 2hours 30mins and some odd seconds = 70ish songs

#2 Its nice to know that if your MD unit breaks then at least you have your minidisc's and can just buy another player.

#3 same goes for if you lose your discs you still have the player.

#4 WHO IN THERE RIGHT MIND WILL EVER HAVE TIME TO LISTEN TO 20GB OF MUSIC!!! I can't remember how many hours of music I have(over 20Gb) but I know that I will never have the time to listen to it all. There was awhile back some site/page that said how long 40gb of music would take to listen to and it was crazy.

I also hate SS but will soon be upgrading to 3.4 so hopfuly it fixs a lot of the problems that make me hate it so.

Plus>>if I was to get a Harddrive player, I would have to go with the MZ-HD3.

Ipods are just a fad same as starsbucks coffee is*. and I hear that the Ipods sound is flat? is this true if so then I love my MD player all the more and can rub it in the Ipodeds of the world HAHAHA!!!

*(but the coffee thing is still going strong hmmm...)

[greenmachine]

#4 WHO IN THERE RIGHT MIND WILL EVER HAVE TIME TO LISTEN TO 20GB OF MUSIC!!! I can't remember how many hours of music I have(over 20Gb) but I know that I will never have the time to listen to it all. There was awhile back some site/page that said how long 40gb of music would take to listen to and it was crazy.

Almost 28 days continuously or almost two years with an average of one hour per day if your files average 128 kbps. At that point you will have listened to each file only once.

I think 1GB is plenty for portable listening since you can easily rewrite the media.

[tattoou2]

I started out with Sony MD units in the 90's. At one time, I owned over 75 pre-recorded MD's. When some of the first MP3 players came out, I purchased an original Archos unit and gave up my MD gear. Since then, I have owned Creative players, iRiver, Rio, iPods, and more than a handful of others.

Having owned, used, bought, and sold so many MP3 players, I always felt something was missing with their collective versatility, SQ, and just plain convenience.

It took some time, but what goes around eventually comes back around. Today I own both an RH10 and an RH910 along with a Sony D-NE10 PCDP, and couldn't be happier. A GB of music at 256kbps is more than enough for me. The convenience to record, change my music at will, and the MD unit's portability, battery life, and sound quality have brought me back to the format I had always really just felt at home with.

I don't know where MD will be three or four years from now, but I am very pleased knowing that what I have suits my needs perfectly.

[danielbb90]

Plus>>if I was to get a Harddrive player, I would have to go with the MZ-HD3.

Ipods are just a fad same as starsbucks coffee is*. and I hear that the Ipods sound is flat? is this true if so then I love my MD player all the more and can rub it in the Ipodeds of the world HAHAHA!!!

*(but the coffee thing is still going strong hmmm...)

Give me timmy's anyday!

Anyway... I woulden't give up my MZ-NH1 for the world...

unless its for a MZ-DH10 or a MZ-M100 lol

I would only turn to an ipod if minidisc was no more!

But i woud like to see larger minidiscs... lol

Edited February 14, 2006 by danielbb90

[dex Otaku]

Personal opinion [and I've stated it before, I know]:

MD and HiMD don't have what it takes to compete directly with hdd or flash players.

The properties of both media limit their use when direct comparisons are made; the speed issue alone is enough to put many if not most people off either format.

As much as SonicStage has evolved significantly, it's still inadequate for handling playback and download needs when compared to iTunes. Sony have been doing their best [i honestly do think that] to make improvements to SS, but given its lack of support for different formats [something which iTunes admittedly shares, at least on the PC - the Mac version has codecs/plugins for formats [via Quicktime] which the PC version does not], the oddnesses and inconsistencies of its interface [especially confusing "features" such as supporting encoding formats not usable by all Sony's players, and its still-relatively-poor handling of MP3s].. I think that's enough said. SS isn't the beast it was 2 years ago, but it still lacks .. chutzpah.

DRM segregation doesn't help, either. Given that iTunes' music store is indisputably the most popular way to buy music online, the battle between Apple, Microsoft, Sony, et al over what DRM mechanism to use is only making the situation worse for everyone, not better.

HiMD itself is an excellent format for portable recording. It will eventually be surpassed by flash and hdd recorders, but at this point in time nothing competes directly with HiMD for high-quality portable recording in a consumer-friendly price range.

I am actually very happy with HiMD's playback features and use my two portables on a near-daily basis for listening. I have no serious qualms about the sound quality of either my NH700 or RH10, and I find the playback interface to be straightforward enough for the kind of listening I do [usually whole albums].

My own usage pattern does not reflect that of the average iPod user's, though. As has been mentioned already by others here, I am one of those who is not interested in carrying my entire music collection around in my pocket. The biggest limitations with using HiMD for listening, however, still revolve around SonicStage - though I will point out that my own [computer-based] music library also does not reflect that of the average user's; I have music in at least 8 different encoding formats in my collection. The majority of player/library software out there, including both SS and iTunes, do not support playback or transcoding of around 30-50% of my library.

In the end, I'll stick with the opinion that in terms of capturing the portable player market, HiMD is too little too late. The format's place in the portable recorder market could probably be expanded through better marketing in that direction, though.

[danielbb90]

Do you think Hi-MD would improve if sony did a questionare on Hi-MD and what sould be added to make it better?

Or do you think this woulden't help...

[jonnybiggs]

I wish Sony would do a questionaire - and research a home deck, like conduct a poll. It would be especially relevant to take note of the supporters in each country, to avoid situations like HiMD being removed from the market down here in Oz.

We could set up a petition/vote/feedback to forward to them via the forum here too.

I like having a system that interfaces with hi-fi and not just computers!!!

[zerodB]

I guess thats what you get from growing up using tape based walkmans.

Yep, old-skool MD was designed as a replacement for the cassette tape. That's what I still use it (MD) for - recording shows off the radio, and making mixtapes, etc.

I do miss the old days, when you could swap minidiscs with your mates.

There's a bit of an effort to ressurect MD swapping through these forums. I personally don't have the energy for it at the moment, but I might take the plunge in the future. Old-skool MD seems to well and truly be in decay by now.

[Tom Ellard]

Do you think Hi-MD would improve if sony did a questionare on Hi-MD and what sould be added to make it better?

Or do you think this woulden't help...

It doesn't help.

A short while ago I was on an international flight. The lady with whom I was travelling pulled out her iPod, selected her track and closed her eyes. I pull out my minidisc. Reached for the box of discs which I had previously wedged into the seat pocket in front of me. Turned on the reading light. Shuffled through the discs until I found the genre I was thinking about. Turned the player upside down and carfully tried to put in a disc without elbowing the people either side of me. Once the disc loaded I shuffled through the tracks, got to something which wasn't what I really wanted but I couldn't be arsed looking through the discs again and started it up. Then I could turn off the reading light again, thinking of course that NEXT TIME I'd use a pod.

Minidiscs will never be popular listening devices again so everybody just got to get used to it.

[Pug]

Minidiscs will never be popular listening devices again so everybody just got to get used to it.

I don't really ever remember them being that popular so I've always been used to them being the slightly ecentric choice. I think minidisc is dead in the water (in the UK at least) the wider general public think it was discontinued years ago. VHS is going the same way.

The debate on the death of midisc has been running for almost as long as I have been using the format.

It would be interesting to get a statistic on how many HI-MD units were sold to people who has already used the format vs users new the format. I would imagine a high percentage of HI-MD sales were to existing users and the rest were to people who stumbbled into the format or were mis-sold.

Cheers

Pug

Edited February 25, 2006 by Pug

[A440]

Turned the player upside down and carfully tried to put in a disc without elbowing the people either side of me.

You're not flying first class?

java script:emoticon('', 'smid_5')

But you're right. Minidisc is for recording. Anyone getting it as a player only is just being perverse at this point.

[danielbb90]

I use my Hi-MD player for both...

But I didn't have a problem on a plane!

Mainly because I was sitting next to family and I didn't need to worry incase I Knocked my brother out trying to change the disc! lol

He uses his plam for playing audio... And changeing media in that is alot wasy (SD card) But all his 2 cd's fit on one card! lol

[BeciMester]

But you're right. Minidisc is for recording. Anyone getting it as a player only is just being perverse at this point.

Well then I'm the most perverse one of them all, because I use my MZ-NH700 for listening only - I only have 2 discs, one of them never used. I listen to it 8 hours a day at work (seriously!), but there are still entire albums on my disc that I never get to listen to...

[MtnBkr]

Well then I'm the most perverse one of them all, because I use my MZ-NH700 for listening only - I only have 2 discs, one of them never used. I listen to it 8 hours a day at work (seriously!), but there are still entire albums on my disc that I never get to listen to...

I'm with you, BeciMester. I use my NH1 almost everyday for listening to music at work - 35 hours/disc of reasonable quality music -able to quickly replace it with another 35 hours, at will. It connects to the car headunit and home amp; it goes everywhere with me. It is rare that I record with it but apreciate the ability.

[1kyle]

Actually if you load your player up BEFORE getting on the plane --and why carry a BOX of minidiscs with you anyway -- even 5 HI-MD's at HI-SP will give you nearly 40 CD's listening in any case so you shouldn't have that problem.

It's not difficult in any case to load a MD into a player even if you are travelling "Cattle Class" on Ryanair - Not that I've got anything against Ryanair --had some good flights to Finland from the UK for 1 EUR (yes 1 EUR) from Stanstead (near London) to Tampere (near Helsinki.

Having 20GB / 40 GB of music on an Ipod, fiddling around and deciding what to play can be a problem.

With a Minidisc I just pop in say a Hi-MD disk of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, put on a pair of decent Bose cans and ignore everything else until we are landing 3 hours later.

With a pair of decent cans some IPOD music can sound excruciatingly HIDEOUS. The small white phones (same problem as the Sony Bud phones that come supplied with the MD units) mask horrendous sounds so Ipods can actually appear to sound reasonable.

I'm assuming typical MP3 stuff at lowish bit rates on the IPODS --decent PCM will be OK but IMO if you don't use PCM /WAV then ATRAC3 plus at HI-SP or the old GENUINE SP sounds far better than other compressed formats by a UNIVERSE.

Cheers

-K

Edited March 7, 2006 by 1kyle

[danielbb90]

Maby Hi-MD will raise up now the RH1 has come out?

[Christopher]

With almost 500 people on the forum, I imagine so..

[danielbb90]

With almost 500 people on the forum, I imagine so..

I'm begging to worry about you'r bandwith limits of the fourms now!

[Christopher]

We had to pay for extra bandwidth a few days ago, coincidentally. Expensive stuff, gotta wonder how Google and all the rest do it.

[streaml1ne]

They buy in bulk

I think the RH1 bodes well for the format. Especially with the pre-Hi-MD upload capabilities.

[danielbb90]

We had to pay for extra bandwidth a few days ago, coincidentally. Expensive stuff, gotta wonder how Google and all the rest do it.

They use there own servers...

They supply there own bandwidth and they don't have to pay for it!

[chorismos]

With a pair of decent cans some IPOD music can sound excruciatingly HIDEOUS. The small white phones (same problem as the Sony Bud phones that come supplied with the MD units) mask horrendous sounds so Ipods can actually appear to sound reasonable.

I'm assuming typical MP3 stuff at lowish bit rates on the IPODS --decent PCM will be OK but IMO if you don't use PCM /WAV then ATRAC3 plus at HI-SP or the old GENUINE SP sounds far better than other compressed formats by a UNIVERSE.

--------------------------------------------------

I completely agree. It is astonishing to me the relative lack of attention paid on these excellent and highly technically competent threads to what brings me back to MD everytime (after six happy years of two different Sharp and Sony models): sound quality.

With a pair of decent headphones (I'm using Bose QuietComfort 2; incidentally, if you buy in the States they are far more reasonable than UK in price) on a MH-NZ1 at HI-SP there is simply no comparison with standard MP3.

IpoD sound quality is embarrasingly bad. A couple of mates use IpoD Nanos and the acoustic range is limited, the bass muddy, the response muffled and strangely flat. In short, the sound is bland and gutless. Until a decent bitrate and acoustic range is baselined as standard for hard disk playback devices I'll be holding onto my MDs.

I use the NH1 for gym as well (with smaller Sennheisers) and it never skips with intense workouts. My DJ mates burn MDs of their mixes straight from the decks and I use the unit at work to record meetings and take minutes (just plug the ECM DS70P straight into the unit)- far better reproduction and capture than the current generation of digital notetakers. I also use the unit to backup data - who wants to pay £35+ for a 1GB data stick when you can just plug in your 1GB disk at £5 (and change the disk)?

Call me 'old school' but I will keep buying CDs and burning to Hi MD until a realistic better optimal sound solution emerges. Also, I don't want to pay for half-rate bit-rate quality downloads from sites that don't have half the music I am after.

It has been said again and again...if only Sony had marketed this technology right.

[Mr_Bass_Man]

Well things seem to go in circles.

First (ignoring 8-track, etc) there were compact cassettes, basically they were poor compared to open reel tapes, but they were convenient, and could be packaged to be usable by "the masses" (ie non technically-savvy people).

They sold like fun. Never mind the quality ...

At some point Sony (I think) introduced ElCassette (or something with a similar brand name). They were kind of like compact cassettes but sounded a whole lot better being based on 1/4in tape if my memory serves. But they never caught on - they had come too late.

Eventually technology improved and compact cassettes became of acceptable quality even to hi-fi buffs ...

Then came walkman, and then clone walkman from 3rd party manufacturers, and the subway was full of people playing music on the move, mostly at fairly indifferent quality, but hey, it was popular.

Then came CDs, and suddenly seriously good quality became available to the masses (good!). Ignoring the "vinyl vs CD" argument the average consumer could have his own music system which sounded as good, if not better than say FM radio.

And then came MD.

Was it to replace the compact cassette, or was it to allow CD's to be transferred to a portable medium? It matters not, the quality was pretty damn good and everyone was satisfied (almost). But people had to transfer their CDs onto MD - OK so it was only like compact cassette in this respect, but ...

... then came portable CD players.

Then no-one really needed to be able to record CDs onto portable media as CDs themselves became portable.

And then came PCs and mp3 players, and to (mis) quote Sellars and Yateman ("1066 and All That") History came to a Full Stop ...

Naff quality (usually), but the average man in the street could drag and drop his mp3 files onto a portable device.

They sold like fun. Never mind the quality.

In the meantime Sony had invented NetMD, but it was fatally flawed - it needed a tad of brain power to figure it out, and there lurked the dreaded DRM.

They sold quite a lot of those, but because of the brain power problem it eventually lost out to the less "cerebrally intensive" drag 'n drop culture of the mp3 player [i am not saying there is anything wrong with drag 'n drop, btw !]

And finally came HiMD. Stunning quality, high capacity, affordable media, fewer DRM restrictions, but possibly too late.

Finally finally (as of today) there is the promise of the RH1, with even fewer DRM restrictions, sexy design, impressive specification, etc etc.

Possibly Sony's last throw of the MD dice?

I am sure dyed-in-the-wool MD users (probably including me) will buy this unit, which will probably be the "best MD ever"

So, assuming the above chronology is more or less right, what was the fatal step?

DRM seems to be the obvious answer.

[The Low Volta]

I actually guess it is a combo of too little too late (connected to the DRM woes) and also to the not quite small/easy enough as an 'on the go' player like the shuffle/nano etc. and not enough storage space to serve as a 'do all/carry all' portable player (like the HD-iPods etc)

ppl choose either very robust easy players with limited storage or less robust machines that can contain their entire music library...HiMD falls in between

also, the one big strenght of HiMD: recording, is of little interest of lots of ppl or is separated from the player/listening functionability so HiMD never stood a chance as a mainstream format

if the whole idea of blueray 5gb HiMD had been invented 5 years ago and could be further developed (but it couldn't/can't and not because Sony didn't want to... why wouldn't they do this if possible, just give me one real reason and no conspiracy nutcase rambling please) it could have cought on as a player, but it hasn't...so ... get over it!

Please ppl, be glad we do have HiMD as a great recording device and also as one of the few devices to offer gapless playback (which obviously isn't valued by many ppl)... but be aware that the RH1, while it will be the ultimate recorder, will probably be the last HiMD you will ever buy: soon other players will offer gapless playback and/or HDD or beter solid state recorders will grow into reliable and affordable tools to replace HiMD for recording as well...

If you are serious about music this evolution shouldn't scare you...as long as recording and playing music as it was intended is possible at a reasonable price...who cares. If you are a Sony fanboy or stuck to a format (MD) just cause you are (or for whatever reason you choose) you should a.) wake up and smell the coffee: HiMD is another format than MD...so you ain't being 'true' as we speak and b.) you don't care about music, but about a technology only intended to make music sound good and for you to be able to record it also in the best possible way and another format able to do this should make you forget about HiMD

you might disagree with me...I know lots of you do... but I don't really care, we'll let the future decide: I'll meet up with all of you in ten years time and see who still uses HiMD and who misses it... still, if it is phased out without an alternative on both things I mentioned (gapless playback and recording) I will be the first to protest to Sony for their mistake of abandoning the format

but to round things up: HiMD is what it is... a recording format and (almost) the only way to get gapless playback NOW. It will be surpassed and there definitely is NO need for a car system (just use aux-in!) and maybe even a home deck is unnecessary (a pro-deck might still be useful for sectors needing it)

just get over the sentimentality and start pushing the big companies towards a decent replacement in stead of using your energy to revive a format destined for oblivion.

So I vote for a petition to push Sony into developing the technology they have already developed for their new >$1000 pro recorder (HDD or solid state I can't recall right now) into a consumer/semi-pro product that incorporates all of our recording wishes... think of the future and not only of the past! this might get you further in life

PS: do not take this too seriously...I love HiMD right now as it is the only format allowing me to do what I want... but these 'Sony should have done this' or 'why HiMD didn't pick up' threads or any like 'em make my skin crcawl!

Edited April 8, 2006 by The Low Volta

[chorismos]

I actually guess it is a combo of too little too late (connected to the DRM woes) and also to the not quite small/easy enough as a 'on the go' player like the shuffle/nano etc. and not enough storage space to serve as a 'do all/carry all' portable player (like the HD-iPods etc)

ppl choose either very robust easy players with limited storage or less robust machines that can contain their entire music library...HiMD falls in between

So I vote for a petition to push Sony into developing the technology they have already developed for their new >$1000 pro recorder (HDD or solid state I can't recall right now) into a consumer/semi-pro product that incorporates all of our recording wishes... think of the future and not only of the past! this might get you further in life

PS: do not take this too seriously...I lose HiMD right now as it is the only format allowing me t do what I want... but these 'Sony should have done this' or 'why HiMD didn't pick up' threads or any like 'em make my skin crcawl!

Totally - let's not get into the 'if only' and 'why it didn't' territory which is covered elsewhere ad nauseam.

It is interesting to look at the context of MD: Sony revolutionised the seventies 'boom box' carrying generation with a miniature personal cassette player. With Dolby NR etc the quality was ok and with all the clones the price tumbled (remember the bright orange foam headphones? Wow I'm getting old).

I'm *just* young enough to remember the impact of CDs on the acoustic vinyl market: CDs were often considered 'cold' and lacked the warmth and ambience of vinyl playback but they were relatively robust, comparatively compact and the music was digital and pristine.

Vinyl is still played, largely it seems by DJs and classical music buffs with expensive valve pre-amp systems. My prediction is that in 30 years it will have gone the way of the gramophone and be found only in museums. Most DJs I know (ok they aren't big names but I think it's indicative) are shifting over to or using Pioneer CD mixing decks and the vinyl is only available in swap meets and from specialists.

Everything is going HDD or solid state: Bose Lifestyle systems are symptomatic of this in dumping your entire CD collection onto HDD for playback. With CD sales now falling on the High Street there isn't much doubt that CD days are numbered- who knows how long but they'll probably only be in specialist stores in ten years.

I think that outside Japan MDs were only ever really a niche market between CD-Walkmans and the highly PC-literate MP3 generation. HiMD probably was a little too late and was in-between the mass storage space of IPods and the tiny size of MP3 players, without the marketing support and facing the (let's face it) design genius of Apple.

We have been totally spoilt in having near CD quality reproduction in the beatifully designed and sized MD units, with (nearly) all the recordability, battery length and disk exchangeability we could want. (The one thing hard to beat about Hi-MD for me is the disk-swap. For some this is a liability, I like having different themed disks and the ability to store music away from the actual unit etc).

I think that outside Japan Hi-MD has already become a niche market and I earnestly hope that Sony continue to support it at least in the short term. I love the look of the RH1- stunning look and capacity with few restrictions. I'll almost certainly buy one when I'm next over in Tokyo. Bring it on.

I have no attachments to technology (although I've a soft spot for MD): I'll move on from Hi-MD when there is a suitable replacement offering: CD quality sound, recordability, affordability, gapless playback, data archiving etc.

I don't want to get into endless discussion about what constitutes 'CD quality sound' it's covered in other threads by people who know a lot more about it than me. All I will say is that I'm subjective in that I know what a difference Hi-SP makes through decent headphones.

It's like riding a bike: once you've been on a top line racing model it is very hard to go back to what you once had. Sure, we all have fond memories of our first bike but we know we can't return. Some things are improvements and some are retrograde: the question is how can Sony keep the sound quality and other great features of Hi-MD especially recordability in their next generation of products?

Ok I won't get into the 'Sony shouldn't compete with Apple on the same turf' argument, but if you buy the whole bike-shop analogy here's my petition to Sony:

Sony please don't abandon the manifold strengths you've built through Hi-MD, without offering alternatives! It won't be easy to improve on the Hi-MD attributes (sound quality, recordability etc) and it will need strong marketing and design but you could do far worse than building on this technology! And keep supporting this brilliant format.

[tekdroid]

I have no attachments to technology (although I've a soft spot for MD): I'll move on from Hi-MD when there is a suitable replacement offering: CD quality sound, recordability, affordability, gapless playback, data archiving etc.

WHEN there is a replacement; agreed.

*Small portable with good battery life, on-the-unit editing and good playback capabilities (inc. SpeedControl on higher-end units).

*Linear PCM 44.1KHz/16bit recording/playback - minimum

*Robust (and relatively cheap) removable media

*MIC inputs, etc.

*Recording from multiple sources, including optical.

I, for one, don't see a complete replacement for a Hi-MD portable (a device with all these features, that is) on the horizon for at least 2 years. Not in the price range, anyway. Very few companies have the smarts and marketing to bring out a proprietary removable disc format, let alone nail those other areas.

I think we will see many non-Hi-MD devices that do SOME of these things, or do some things better, but not all of these things. Not at the price.

This makes any argument about what the masses are using and which way the market is headed irrelevant (to me, anyway). Current Hi-MD devices (especially at discount prices) are brilliant value for money, and as long as they last, will be used for years to come because it will be a while before features like this are matched elsewhere.

The future

I believe there is a huge market for a killer 5GB+ removable disc format that addresses MD/Hi-MD's failings:

1) speed

2) storage capacity

3) negative DRM experiences of MD/Hi-MD (which really linger for a while, it takes a lot of work to change negative perceptions).

I think there's a huge market as long as whoever introduces the format knows what a person expects of the format (ie. no stupid restrictions, working much like CD-R) and delivers. But I don't believe we'll ever see a truly unrestricted format from Sony, even though I am certain they have 'enhanced Hi-MD' technologies in the lab, ready to be released at the appropriate time (they probably don't wanna can Hi-MD just yet, seeing it was intro'd in 2004). I'm sure it makes far more business sense for them to milk the market (and strengthen the Hi-MD format) as much as they can before introducing a new format.

[MDX-400]

Will Hi-MD ever pickup as much as iPods?

LOL, you're joking right? At least that's what I thought when I read the first post, but it seems like you have quite the discussion going on here!

But yeah you still have to be joking if you think Hi-MD will ever be anywhere near as popular as the iPod.

As for this:

#4 WHO IN THERE RIGHT MIND WILL EVER HAVE TIME TO LISTEN TO 20GB OF MUSIC!!! I can't remember how many hours of music I have(over 20Gb) but I know that I will never have the time to listen to it all. There was awhile back some site/page that said how long 40gb of music would take to listen to and it was crazy.

I hate to say it but I have to say it... It isn't at all about listening to it all at once--that's certainly clear when the average HDD player won't even play 1/50th of 20GB on a single charge. It's just about the convenience of having everything in one place. What's more convenient 20-80GB of music all in a small thing the size of an MD unit or so; or, the MD unit and like 150 MDs or 20 Hi-MDs?

MD (Hi or otherwise) is a different animal than an HDD DAP and though they do overlap in their use, they

are still different products. Just take a look at how many of us own and use MD/Hi-MD equipment as well as owning one or more HDD and or flash-based DAPs as well.

The RH1 is a great announcement and I'm very pleased/excited to hear about it as are many MD fans. However, lets be honest, the RH1 doesn't do much at all to make Hi-MD any more popular or draw a 'new' crowd. The main razzle/dazzle of it so far has been the legacy uploading and that, let me tell you, is for legacy users. There are lots of people using Hi-MD that never used and never will use legacy MD formats (not just SP but even MDLP). What the RH1 does for them and any possible newcomers I can't really see.

If anything I think Hi-MD is more of a niche market than std. MD was. Now I could very well be mistaken about that but it's what it seems like to me. Either way Hi-MD isn't ever going to become as popular as the iPod.

[jaylen]

Wow, MDX. Very well said. It bursts a lot of RH1 bubbles, but I think people would be hard-pressed to disagree with those points. I think I'm even more impressed with the fact that this is coming from a person like you, who we all know isn't an Apple fan (lol).

[The Low Volta]

I have no legacy MD stuff and still I look forward to the enhanced recording features of the RH1... as I skipped 2nd gen I do think it is a real good recorder

...but I really don't think it will ever get HiMD the popularity of the ipod...nothing will

[dmcmillan]

My son uses an i-pod, but he has the same problem that I had when I only had 1 minidisc player viz. you cannot leave a recorder to do a timed recording from the radio whilst travelling and listening to recorded music. MD seems so made to be an in-car system and hi-md even more so, but Sony's lack of drive is sending me back to recordable CD's for portable music They are bulky and delicate. We have been spoilt!

[tharmon]

I doubt it, unless Apple does something stupid in their future iPod lineup. Blame it on Sony. All the features we have now with SS3.4, especially the uploading stuff, should have been there in the beginning. If Sony had dished out all SS 3.4 features right form the start, coupled with MP3 support right of the bat and appropriate marketing, HiMD could have been big, especially before the release of iPod nano, when flash players are still in MBs and expensive. Now, it's all too late, especially with prices falling down. The problems with Connect player and availability of the A series are not helping either.

I love my MZ-NH1 for daily recording of radio programs. I love the idea of recording live concerts and music work shops, then uploading to my computer and then burning CDs. However, I hate using Sonic Stage 3.0 to upload my live recordings to my PC... because, as I understand SS, it automatically erases the Minidisc recording as it uploads to the PC. I can't take the risk of erasing my precious recording in hopes that I'll be able to eventually burn to CD!!! Several times, I've lost the whole thing!!

Question, Is SS version 3.4 any better in this regard? If so, I'll be very happy!! Tom

[jaylen]

I love my MZ-NH1 for daily recording of radio programs. I love the idea of recording live concerts and music work shops, then uploading to my computer and then burning CDs. However, I hate using Sonic Stage 3.0 to upload my live recordings to my PC... because, as I understand SS, it automatically erases the Minidisc recording as it uploads to the PC. I can't take the risk of erasing my precious recording in hopes that I'll be able to eventually burn to CD!!! Several times, I've lost the whole thing!!

Question, Is SS version 3.4 any better in this regard? If so, I'll be very happy!! Tom

Just a little tip. Don't double (Edit) triple post or post in unrelated threads/forums or the Powers That Be will not like it.

Edited May 25, 2006 by jaylen

[Lopar-XL]

What a pity. With enough nurturing of the technology, the MiniDisc could at one time replaced high-capacity storage formats, too. I'm kind of intrigued at the possibility of the ill fated MD camcorder, and the other related MD gadgets. We're just trying to forestall entropy here, I guess. In any case, you can consider me some fresh blood for the MD community.

[danielbb90]

LOL, you're joking right? At least that's what I thought when I read the first post, but it seems like you have quite the discussion going on here!

But yeah you still have to be joking if you think Hi-MD will ever be anywhere near as popular as the iPod.

Yeh, HDD mp3 players had dropped in price alot lately - and so have flash - I've seen a 2GB one about the same price as 4 Hi-MD discs! thats the chepest I've seen yet!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B...ronics&v=glance

Hi-MD is failing hard at the moment as a listening devise, but Is strong for porable recording...

I guess someday thats all it will be, too bad I guess... Its a great format.

And my MP3 collection growing faster than my CD one, getting a mp3 player seems more apertiseing everyday! (Still less than, but growing)

Edited June 13, 2006 by danielbb90

[bobt]

I am so intrigued by the fecetiousness of people that decry Hi-MD devices as "poor " listening devices. You people are joking aren't you. If you can record, you can listen, it's simple, it's easy, and on the same device. You can put 1 CD on a disc, or several hundred songs. You can find any song in a matter of seconds. if you lose a disc or it destructs, you are out 1 disc, if you lose your mp3 player, or it crashes (which they do), you are out all the songs.

No device is perfect, but for most of the people on this fourum Minidisc and Hi-MD are what we want and need.

Especially for the newbies lets focus on the positives of the devices. Not everybody wants jog dials or earth shaking bass, but we all want a small device we can carry around with the music we love,

Peace,

Bob

[danielbb90]

Hi-MD is great for listening...

The only problem I've found with my MZ-NH1 is the lack of MP3 playback...

Thats IS sorted finally in the RH1, Just the price of that, ouch!