Sony MZ-NH700, Hi-MD, battery-life and PCM vs. Hi-SP?

[mysterymadman]

Hi,

I have a few simple, yet important (for me), questions regarding the Sony MZ-NH700 (and perhaps Hi-MD recorders in general).

The situation:

I used to use a regular MD recorder (Sony MZ-R50), and last week I found out it is pretty much broken beyond my repair skills (I spent quite a few hours on it, but a small mechanical device is not running properly, and I can't finetune it). At present, we have a baby underway, so my financial means are very limited for upgrading the gear (I had set out a maximum of around 100 Euros). Consequently, I looked into the options I had (both in terms of desired specs, and money), and I decided on looking for a good (used) MZ-NH700 recorder. Anyway, I know the disadvantages of not having a backlit LCD screen, etc., but this is the recorder I decided on, and I have acquired a nice one (hardly used at all), including 2 1GB discs, and 11 regular MD discs and a Samsonite carrying bag for 100 Euros. So far, so good. And though the recorder feels a bit more flimsy than my old one does, it nicely meets my stealth requirements, and it can be used with the ECM-717 mic, which I previously also used.

Now, I'll already need the recorder on June 16th for taping a major festival. So, time is very short for extensively testing it, and hence, I'm hoping some of you can give me a quick start regarding some rather basic questions.

The actual questions:

1-Regarding battery usage: I was most delighted to see it use a regular AA battery (which was actually one of the reasons I chose this recorder), and noticed that it takes a regular(?) provided Ni-MH 700mAh battery. Now, common sense would suggest that the ideal batteries to use, would then be high capacity (e.g. 1800mAh, or even 2500mAh) Ni-MH batteries. However, yesterday evening I tested it with an 1800mAh one, and after having recorded only one full 1GB disc in Hi-MD PCM mode, the recorder already mentioned "not enough power to edit". Perhaps that very battery was flaky, or somehow not fully charged (though it should have been), so I'm repeating that test now with a different battery of the same type. Also, the manual does not recommend using other Ni-MH batteries than the one provided, but rather it recommends only using a regular AA alkaline one as an alternative. Can anyone comment on the most ideal type of battery, and does anyone have any reliable insight into how long one can really record in Hi-MD PCM mode (e.g. using the provided battery, using an 1800mAh Ni-MH one, or a 2500 Ni-MH one)?

2-Regarding PCM vs Hi-SP mode: obviously it would be best to record as much as possible in PCM mode, yet, in order to drastically reduce the amount of required discs (and batteries?), I'm considering taping all of the first acts (some 6 hours worth of music) in Hi-SP mode (which should fit one 1GB disc then), and only the major headliner (Iron Maiden), which is of my primary interest, in PCM mode. Can anyone comment on just how good (or "bad") the Hi-SP mode is? I know that basically any type of compression is frowned upon, but does this also (strongly) hold for the ATRAC3plus 256KHz (i.e. Hi-SP) mode, or is this an acceptable amount of compression within the traders circuit?

3-As far as I can tell from the manual (and also from the recorder?), after having recorded in manual mode (with a custom sound level), and after having stopped the recorder, it reverts back to AGC (= Auto Gain Control?) mode. Is this correct, and if so, is there a way to safe the manual sound levels, etc.? I thought the "disc memory" setting would do this, but that doesn't seem to affect the recording settings, as far as I can tell from the manual...

4-Transferring files to a Windows machine is no problem for me, but my current main machine is a Macbook Pro. So far, I haven't seen any (officially mentioned) direct way of transferring files from the MD to the Mac. Does anyone have a way of doing this?

Any suggestions/comments/slacking even, is more than welcome.

Cheers,

MM

[Sparky191]

You can buy a backlit remote if you use it in the dark.

In my experience recording is very heavy on battery life on a HIMD.

I could be wrong but I don't think the MZ-NH700 remembers custom recording setting.

I think HiSP is decent. Couldn't advise if its good enough for your needs though.

Convert the files to WAV on the PC. Then copy them across the Mac.

Edited May 30, 2007 by Sparky191

[ZosoIV]

Hi-SP isn't "bad" in that it sounds pretty much like any other lossy codec at 256kbps (MPEG-4 AAC, LAME-encoded MP3, or Ogg), and is probably indistinguishable from PCM the majority of the time. I would shy away from using it for live recordings if you are going to do any sort of editing, though. Once you load lossy audio into en editor and try to do anything with it, you will quickly induce artifacts. Lossy codecs work by coding signals below a certain point (hearing threshold) either very inefficiently (i.e., by adding noise/error) or will simply "throw away" the audio if it is completely masked by a louder sound. Once you amplify a lossy signal, change the stereo width, etc., you are changing the point at which your ears would normally not hear any of that masked "garbage" below the threshold of hearing - often rasing it to a point where you can. So, if you do plan on editing your recordings, it's probably safer to stick with PCM and just carry some extra batteries.

[A440]

I use the NH700 during day-long festival recordings with no problems. I use it precisely for the AA battery.

If you're used to recording in SP and were happy with that sound, Hi-SP shouldn't sound much different. Listen to my album or some of the others in the Gallery--I think it sounds fine for live music.

Traders, IMHO, are insane. There isn't one in 100 of them who could actually distinguish Hi-SP from PCM in a genuine blind test, and he would have to ask his dog. But they're going to look at the format before they listen, so they will think they hear some horrible difference. Check their required specifications before they flame you.

You can record the full 8 hours of Hi-SP on a disc with one Duracell (Ultra if you want to be extra careful). Maybe your 1800 mAh battery was running down. Throw out that 700 mAh battery, or use it for playback at home--that's just Sony being cheesy.

Get either the highest-capacity rechargeable you can--they claim to be up to 2500 mAh--or put in Duracells. (I have tried both Duracells and Energizers, and while Energizers run nearly full and then stop suddenly, Duracells run down slowly and hang in there, which I prefer.) For rechargeables, I like Powerizer, even though they're no-name batteries, and I have had bad results with Energizer rechargeables, which seem to run out awfully quickly and stop taking a charge very early.

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?Page...&ProdID=245

You can't save Manual Volume or other settings on the MZ-NH700. Sony only fixed that on the MZ-RH1.

And you're going to need to upload to a PC unless you can emulate Windows on the Mac.

[mysterymadman]

Hi guys,

Tnx a lot for your answers, they are very helpful!

Some comments:

>You can buy a backlit remote if you use it in the dark.

Well, I considered that, but I'm not familiar with a remote that will also show advanced settings, like setting the recording value manually (I doubt there are any that will have a display including level meters, etc.), which is a crucial feature. But then, my old MZ-R50 didn't feature a backlit display either, and when lighting the display with my mobile phone, so far I've always managed to make do; even if it is somewhat more of a hassle.

Regarding Batteries: yes, the possibility of using a regular AA battery is a BIG plus, and the option of using an external 5V source on the USB port is a great idea too, which I hadn't even considered!

Anyway, I am glad to say that today I completed the duration test with another Panasonic 1800mAh battery, and this time I could record 4 complete 1GB discs in Hi-MD PCM mode, before it mentioned "not enough power to edit", at which point the battery indicator still showed it was half full. Anyway, I now have a pretty good insight into the battery usage, and I now know that 2 batteries should be enough to tape the complete festival, and I'll probably bring some 3 to 4 spares, just to be sure.

Then regarding Hi-SP vs. PCM: I too directly believe you guys in the respect that the differences are (virtually) not audible. However, there are two reasons for probably trying to go for PCM as much as possible anyway:

1) I'm not much of a trader myself, but I am very well connected in Iron Maiden trading networks. In most of them, the tapers/traders go as much as possible for completely lossless recordings, so even though my previous IM recording was on a regular MD (and sampled into the PC at that), I'd like the quality to be as high as possible, even if the differences are mostly "theoretical rather than audible".

2) I hadn't considered the post processing stage in this. Indeed, I too tend to (at the very least) normalise up to 0dB, which could then perhaps indeed pick up such "compression garbage" and amplify it too. This is a very good point for not using compression for live recordings.

Either way: there are SO many factors that can negatively influence a recording, and using slight compression is probably only a minor one of those, so in that aspect one can of course easily relax, especially since these are live recordings for usage amongst fans only, and they are not commercial releases or so. Anyway, of course it's best to eliminate as many negative factors as possible, so whenever possible, I'll simply go for PCM recordings, and if this is not an option, I'll comfortably revert to Hi-SP mode.

Finally, regarding data transfer to the Mac: sampling the data into it over the analogue or digital output is not an option for me, as one of the major reasons why I wanted a Hi-MD is the USB support, such that no further data loss would be introduced by having to pass the recording through another D/A - A/D stage.

Transfering the data to Windows (and then to OS-X) is no issue: I have Windows XP running in a separate Bootcamp partition, so performing a native Windows XP session is no problem. Also, I have made that same installation available through Parallels, so passing the files to OS-X is a dooze. It would just have been nice if I could have passed it directly to the Mac OS, but fortunately there's no real issue in not being able to do so.

Tnx again, and cheers!

MM

[Strungup]

MD Transfer 2.0 . I am also n a Macbook and Macbook Pro

you can download it from SOny

Evrything will upload as a Wav file it will not be in Atrac on the Mac it will com into the Mac as a Wav file . what I dont know is if that model will agree with the MD Transfer software , The RH1 works very nicely with it .