MZ-RH1 Capabilities and Opinions please

[indifference_engine]

Hi All,

I haven't been to these forums for a while and it's good to see they are still alive and kicking. I have done a bit of homework reading reviews and the manual but still have a few questions regarding the Sony MZ-RH1. First the history:

I have had a Sony MDS-JB980 deck and a MZ-N10 walkman (both netMD machines) for a few years now. The N10 was a replacement for an N1 which broke 3 days after the warrenty expired but sony replaced it free of charge (but that's another story). Anyway, I love both machines and the MD format in general and have used both to record many MDs at various settings (SP, LP2, LP4) using the various inputs (optical, line,mic). Then along came something called "mp3" (excuse the blasphemy!) and I got hooked on the idea of being able to move music around - My (only) gripe about MD was that what went on MD stayed on MD - so I was in the market for a digital recorder that was more compatible with PCs. I tried looking at the usual suspects (CD, SD etc) but none quite fitted the bill.

Imagine my delight when I happened upon the MZ-RH1. An MD that could play mp3, upload recordings, was backwards compatible, in short, kicked-ass. Surely too good to be true? Well, is it??

I have read some stuff about the MZ-RH1 but need to clarify/confirm some points before I re-mortgage the house...

1) Can it really upload ANY recording made on my current equipment to the PC? If so, does it do it in an open format (wav mp3 etc) or am I stuck with oma?

2) If using it with HiMD formatted disc, can it play mp3's (and wav?) natively, without conversion to ATRAC? Can this be done with non-HiMD discs aswell?

3) I read that a HiMD disc shows up in explorer as a mass storage device. What happens if you were to drag-and-drop an mp3/wav/oma etc onto the device? Would it acually be playable?

4) Can I attach the unit to more than one PC in order to move recordings between my laptop and desktop?

5) Does it really work? Is it reliable for recordings?

6) At the risk of alienating myself completely, should I still be looking at MD at all or is it a dying technology??

Thanks in advance for the torrent of replies,

Doug

[garcou]

Hi All,

I haven't been to these forums for a while and it's good to see they are still alive and kicking. I have done a bit of homework reading reviews and the manual but still have a few questions regarding the Sony MZ-RH1. First the history:

I have had a Sony MDS-JB980 deck and a MZ-N10 walkman (both netMD machines) for a few years now. The N10 was a replacement for an N1 which broke 3 days after the warrenty expired but sony replaced it free of charge (but that's another story). Anyway, I love both machines and the MD format in general and have used both to record many MDs at various settings (SP, LP2, LP4) using the various inputs (optical, line,mic). Then along came something called "mp3" (excuse the blasphemy!) and I got hooked on the idea of being able to move music around - My (only) gripe about MD was that what went on MD stayed on MD - so I was in the market for a digital recorder that was more compatible with PCs. I tried looking at the usual suspects (CD, SD etc) but none quite fitted the bill.

Imagine my delight when I happened upon the MZ-RH1. An MD that could play mp3, upload recordings, was backwards compatible, in short, kicked-ass. Surely too good to be true? Well, is it??

I have read some stuff about the MZ-RH1 but need to clarify/confirm some points before I re-mortgage the house...

1) Can it really upload ANY recording made on my current equipment to the PC? If so, does it do it in an open format (wav mp3 etc) or am I stuck with oma?

2) If using it with HiMD formatted disc, can it play mp3's (and wav?) natively, without conversion to ATRAC? Can this be done with non-HiMD discs aswell?

3) I read that a HiMD disc shows up in explorer as a mass storage device. What happens if you were to drag-and-drop an mp3/wav/oma etc onto the device? Would it acually be playable?

4) Can I attach the unit to more than one PC in order to move recordings between my laptop and desktop?

5) Does it really work? Is it reliable for recordings?

6) At the risk of alienating myself completely, should I still be looking at MD at all or is it a dying technology??

Thanks in advance for the torrent of replies,

Doug

1) yes, except net-md(lp2/lp4 atrac3) tracks that have been transfered from computer with sonicstage (with simple burner ,you can!). Yes , you can convert to wav. No more copy protection for Pcm/atrac3+/SPatrac analogue, digital-optical or digital-USB !

2)Wav yes , mp3 yes (sonicstage put them in one large file on th disc but doen't reencode to atrac).No, but you can format your old 74/80min disc into 291MB hi-MD!

3) you can transfer audio files, just like computer files with explorer, but you will need a computer to read them with the player of you choice (wmp, wiamp, etc...)

4) Yes: you can upload tracks to a different computer: no more copy protection.

5)Mz-rh1 was specially designed and configured for live recording...

6)We are all dying a little more, day after day...When you choose a car you think: "is it good for what I need?" not wonder "will it be dead technology, one day"...

[indifference_engine]

Thanks Garcou. I can only assume you own one of these fabled beasts??

Re points 2 & 3 if I understand you correctly; Dropping an mp3 onto the unit via explorer and transfering an mp3 via SonicStage are two different processes with different consiquences? In the former the mp3 is not playable on the recorder but can be copied to another PC (without the need for drivers) and played from there, whereas in the latter the tunes are playable on the MD but can only be transferred via sonicstage? Is this correct? As a matter of interest, is a track downloaded via SonicStage accessable via explorer and vice-versa or is it a split-personality-type-thing where each method is invisible to the other?

re 6; Point taken. I guess the issue is for how much longer will the discs be produced as there has been talk of the RH1 being the last MD (but unclear about just from Sony or ever?)

As an aside, the SonicStage help mentions transferring to/from a "netMD slot". Does this mean that computers could read MDs natively once upon a time? I can't help but think that Sony missed a trick and that the MD should have been the logical replacement for the floppy disc and then things would be very interesting... (remember the dark days of Jazz, Zip et al before flash came along??)

Anyway, it sounds like it's just what I need but welcome any other comments

Thanks.

[garcou]

Thanks Garcou. I can only assume you own one of these fabled beasts??

Re points 2 & 3 if I understand you correctly; Dropping an mp3 onto the unit via explorer and transfering an mp3 via SonicStage are two different processes with different consiquences? In the former the mp3 is not playable on the recorder but can be copied to another PC (without the need for drivers) and played from there, whereas in the latter the tunes are playable on the MD but can only be transferred via sonicstage? Is this correct? As a matter of interest, is a track downloaded via SonicStage accessable via explorer and vice-versa or is it a split-personality-type-thing where each method is invisible to the other?

Yes I have the Rh1, and others...

I use himd as usb mass storage for my work's files, family photos and little videos. To read them I need a computer.

I use himd with sonicstage for music: the songs are payable on the unit itself on the move, or through a computer with sonicstage interface. This way you cannot play the music files using windows explorer, although you can see the folder himd hifi with 8 esoteric files inside: don't touch them and you'd better hide the folder with windows folder options...Anyway this is not a big problem, because you can upload-download- upload again the audio files without any limitation or degradation to original computer but also any other computer (with sonicstage installed on it...). Of course you also have the possibility of putting music files through explorer, just like for photos, .doc etc... but yes each method is invisible to the other (except the " esoteric" himd hifi folder which you cannot make anything)

re 6; Point taken. I guess the issue is for how much longer will the discs be produced as there has been talk of the RH1 being the last MD (but unclear about just from Sony or ever?)

Sony said this to prevent you from buying the unit...

As an aside, the SonicStage help mentions transferring to/from a "netMD slot". Does this mean that computers could read MDs natively once upon a time? I can't help but think that Sony missed a trick and that the MD should have been the logical replacement for the floppy disc and then things would be very interesting... (remember the dark days of Jazz, Zip et al before flash came along??)

It used to be some viao with an integrated MD bay, but never heard of himd bay...

Recently, I made a post that could interest you:

http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=19582

regards.

Edited August 4, 2007 by garcou