Have any HiMD users gone BACK to MDLP?

[theblueraja]

I'm curious if anyone else had caught the HiMD bug, then went back to standard. I still consider myself an MD noob, since I only started using minidisc in 2004, and my beginnings were with HiMD (the NH900 being my first unit).

Over the years I have acquired many HiMD players/recorders but I've always enjoyed LESS capacity actually (the "less is more" phenomenon) that the standard 74min/80min MDs offer. For one, there are obviously countless cool styles of discs out there, but for another, I like to make my own cool labels, etc. Since I use a pretty low bitrate for my music (132k or LP2) I can fit around 16 CDs on one HiMD (1GB) disc, which is quite overwelming... especially since I typically don't like to fiddle with remotes, so for players without an LCD finding specific music is quite a chore.

So now with HiMD units becoming more and more difficult to find, I have turned to MDLP players, which are quite prevalent on Ebay. I've enjoyed making LP2 discs which fit 2 to 3 CDs which is just fine for me.

Has anyone else taken such a turn? Or maybe you at least use HiMD players but use mostly standard discs?

[Strungup]

Raja , I tend to use my Older units a LOT more than the HiMD , the only thing I really use the HiMd for is to capture stuff I want to upload , If I have no intention, of uploading , then it stays on disc SP , or LP2 most of the time I have more SP discs than anything , because they sound good , and I know they will play on any machine.

[THIS SUCKS]

i have all my recordings on sp disks and use hi md for portable listening. lp2 does not sound quite good enough for me. the 192k on hi-md sounds awesome and is very good for listening in any environment,

[bobzilli]

Yep, Im only using my Hi MD for storage of photos and podcasts I want to keep. As I have a deck for MD and several players, I use them for my music

[carlesraf]

I Have an MZ-RH1, it's a great unit but due a eject button it's inpossible to carry on de pocket cause it's so sensivite....

Insted I use the MZ-NFH800 for lisening.

My biblioteque it's a mix of MD and HI-Md disc, but normaly I use the standard MD mode , due my MD car unit only works with MDLP/SP disc.

[bluecrab]

Although I was interested in Hi-MD, that would have meant a deck for me. I would have bought one, but I thought that they were just too scarce, too expensive, and if something went wrong, harder to replace than the pre-HiMD units. I had other reasons for deciding to not go to Hi-MD, as well. For example, I have SP/LP in my car, so there's full compatibility all around. I guess I don't even know what I am missing!

What I do know is that since I upgraded my speakers on both of my audio systems, I am finding that many SP/LP2 MDs are very close to CD quality. It all seems to depend more on the quality of the original source more than the MD. And I can still get away with LP4 here at work (MDS-JE480 > small amp > over-ear headphones). Still, if they'd made a hi-speed HiMD-to-HiMD unit (something like the Sony MXD-D400), I might have made the jump. Just not interested in mixing my computers with my audio.

Interesting topic, though!

Edited April 14, 2008 by bluecrab

[Pug]

As a long time Mindisc user I was exclusively using SP for discs. 1 disc = 1 album.

I dabbled with HI-MD for around a year. I quite liked it and it was a great novelty putting tonnes of albums onto 1 disc. However once it was obvious the writing was on the wall I got out of it. I wanted to have contingency for players to access my music for the next 50 years (I do expect to use mindisc for that long!).

I have returned to SP and I now have little fear of not being able to access my mindiscs for home listening.

I intend to use MDLP for portable use and extended mixes, as I'm starting to fing 30gig of music a little overwhelming. I still find Sonicstage great for MDLP mixes - very quick and convenient. Even in 10 years time I will to have an old XP laptop with SS and my media library. I'm also getting to the point where less = more.

Cheers

Pug

[Ral-Clan]

I refrained from getting into HiMD because of the cost at first, and now because of the relative scarcity of the media & machines (as compared with older MD/MDLP).

So, I'm sticking to standard MD because it gives you a greater compatibility & wider choice of machines to play the music on. Standard MD discs are still widely available. I live in a small town and can walk over to the mall across the street and still find discs for sale. HiMD discs were never available there, as far as I know.

The sound quality of MD in SP mode is pretty darned good for making live recordings / field recordings and LP2 is good enough for portable everyday music for me. LP4 is passable for stuff I don't care about as much (books on tape, spoken word & transfers of old mono recorded music or less important stuff).

Lastly, the regular MD machines are almost free now. It's no problem to build up a whole reserve arsenal of decks & portables. I recently found an MZ-N505 in a Thrift store for $4.99, then I purchased an MZ-R700 off Ebay for $15, and just a couple weeks later a friend offered me his Sharp MS200 for free. I don't have to worry about breaking, losing, or treating these things gingerly. I can actually use them and put some miles on them.

In comparison, HiMD stuff is much rarer and remains highly expensive on Ebay & elsewhere.

Edited April 14, 2008 by Ral-Clan

[KJ_Palmer]

LP2 is fine for me, as I can still play these recordings on my home decks and bookshelf system, and gives a reasonable 2 and a half hours playback per disc, enough for one session, for me at least. I tend to use Hi-MDs for commuting and travel, so as not to have to change discs too often, but take an LP2 or SP compilation as well.

Best of both worlds really, I'm not coming back to MDLP - I never actually left it, and still make LP2 compilations of new CDs..

[Syrius]

Not me. I am sticking to HI-MD from now on. I will keep my old SP recordings even after I have uploaded them using the RH1, and the old SP-only units since I can upload their recordings with the RH1 again, but I don't use them to listen anything on them anymore.

[Ral-Clan]

One question though. If you take a standard Minidisc and format it to Hi-MD mode with a Hi-MD walkman, is there any way to format it back to a standard MD again?

[raintheory]

One question though. If you take a standard Minidisc and format it to Hi-MD mode with a Hi-MD walkman, is there any way to format it back to a standard MD again?

Yes, although this does in fact erase everything from the disc.

And as far as the initial question, I use Hi-MD & old-school MD about equally. For recording purposes mainly, which isn't a problem at all with the RH1 which allows me to upload any old-school MD recordings I make.

[Levanel]

I'm split between MDLP and HiMD at the moment. 90% of my collection are still in MDLP and the thought of importing/exporting everything to the newer format makes me cringe. I'm still eager to take advantage of it in the future (if there ever is a future).

[bobzilli]

One thing that puzzles me (actually there are many) is

that in a good number of these type threads, people say they cant find blank discs. I have no trouble online finding discs. What gives?

Edited April 15, 2008 by SourMilkMoon

[BIGHMW]

One thing that puzzles me (actually there are many) is

that in a good number of these type threads, people say they cant find blank discs. I have no trouble online finding discs. What gives?

I don't know, but I find tons of new, sealed blank MDs and Hi-MDs of eBay everyday, I have some listings saved up in My eBay, and of course, MiniDisco, and MiniDisc Access.

Edited April 15, 2008 by BIGHMW

[Kardon]

I've gone through all kinds of DAP's.. I started with a little NetMD which I used LP4 on and crammed it to the brim on 1 disc, then i tried HiMD, a 600D (boo) and it held alot for me at the time but I got tired of it and went to HDD. That was years ago. Now im back. I got a N1 which I use to record my CD's (and my friends CD's) onto SP Minidiscs, and then I play them in my NH3D (thanks again raja). Its been great, I still have an 80GB iPod which I like to keep around just because, and a iPod touch for safari and cheating at school. I keep 1 disc in the unit, 1 in the back pocket, and 2 in the backpack. I listen to music all day so 4 albums is good enough. I finally cracked open one of the 3HiMD blanks I have to record Sam's Town. Only reason I did this is because I have a bad feeling my N1's shitting the bed because no matter what disc I use, it will not record the final few tracks on the cd. So basically I'll use 1 album per disc even if it is HiMD (until I find another MDLP recorder). Less is indeed more. And it sounds better! Nothing made my D66 eggos sing like the first time I listened to a SP MD through the N1, and even better so on the NH3D! Before now I had only used LP4 on my MD's. haha.

[garcou]

I use himd for music but also data as work , photos, videos, etc

I've got 2 Onkyo's himd decks, and I can live with my connects2 car audio adapter (with MZ-nh900, it allows control and displays titlle on standard sony cd recievers).

Considering the very best sounding of Atrac3+ (and pcm!) and greatesr capacity, I Will never go back to old MDLP/SP.

[kino170878]

90% of my stuff is SP - decks, minisystems, and car audio. I only use Hi-MD bit rates for portable use, and even here I have some nice portables that are SP only. The choice is so much greater with SP. You can still buy brand new equipment from Japan that uses Atrac type R/S. Can you say the same for Hi-MD? I can only see one unit by Onkyo.

Edited April 15, 2008 by kino170878

[bobzilli]

Pre Recorded HI MDS, now theres a thought! With all the new formats (Music Pass?) they might do well to go back to HI MD and do just that. A viable format with liner notes and its portable AND has great sound. Sounds too good to be true and its 10 years old! think its a great idea that they are likely too blind to go with

[Ral-Clan]

Yes, although this does in fact erase everything from the disc.

Okay, but what equipment do you need to do this? i.e. let's say I have a Hi-MD player, and I've formatted 10 standard minidiscs to HiMD mode (7 hours of music, etc.). Then my Hi-MD walkman breaks, so I decide to go back to Standard (Net)MDLP units (because they are easier to get). Can I use the standard MDLP walkmans to re-format the discs BACK to standard MD discs, or can the re-formatting only be done with a Hi-MD walkman?

Does it require SonicStage, or can the machines do it themselves?

Edited April 15, 2008 by Ral-Clan

[KJ_Palmer]

An non Hi-MD walkman can 'format' a standard Hi-MD formatted disc. Just use Erase - All. It worked on my old Sharp recorder when I tried it just now anyway.

[raintheory]

Another nifty feature with MDLP is that TOC-Cloning can be done. Due to the encryption on Hi-MD formatted discs, it is not possible with Hi-MD, although some people have had luck sending their discs to Sony for recovery.

[bobzilli]

An non Hi-MD walkman can 'format' a standard Hi-MD formatted disc. Just use Erase - All. It worked on my old Sharp recorder when I tried it just now anyway.

Yeah, I think that is true with all MD recorders..at least with mine anyways

[raintheory]

I got TrProtect when I tried on my MZ-R909 just now.

[THIS SUCKS]

you can only erase hi-md formatted disks on units without the computer that are very old and dont understand the to look for the track protect bit. if not you need to use a net md unit and erase them on the computer. my old deck from 1996 will erase them.

[mmp64]

I basically have my complete library in both formats, but have found myself using my trusty old MZ-NF610 and MZ-N505 more and more. A lot of the reason is battery life - my HiMD units mostly use gumsticks, and I've had a lot of problems with those keeping charges, etc. Plus I love the idea of being able to go into any store and buying a "AA" battery which = 45+ hours! No other DAP past or present provides that flexibility. I'm surprised this is not a bigger issue for people.

Of course, being a bit of an old-timer with this, I still get a lot of pleasure from real-time SP recording on my decks.

[bobzilli]

REAL TIME SP is great, a bit of work, but great sounding.

[sallymae_hogsby]

I use Hi-MD for the PCM setting, as my DAT deck is starting to show its age. (These are for home music recordings.) Fortunately I have several Hi-MD recorders (including a Onkyo deck) to last me well into the future. I use my huge supply of old "regular" MD discs, since 20 minutes is convenient for any single project (including alternate mixes, the backing, etc.) So there's no going back to regular MD there, since it's really a replacement for DAT.

I also use Hi-MD for my regular portable listening. I mainly listen to compilations of music from different albums, so the longer the playing time on the disc, the more variety. As mentioned above, my old regular MDs get reused as 20-minute Hi-MDs for music projects.

Needless to say, I was very disappointed that Sony gave up on Minidisc, aspecially Hi-MD, since it seemed to be the ideal Dat-replacement. I trust long term storage with MD over a stored CDR or hard drive any day. I've always loved the editing features on MD decks, so another disappointment is that Hi-MD decks didn't become available with these features. (The Onkyo's editing doesn't offer much more than what portables can do.) I'm resigning myself to computer editing, but it's actually more of a bother for me, since MD deck editing suited me well.

So, no going back for me, in spite of Hi-MD being a format with no future evolution.

[Vesuvio]

I have an MZ-RH1 and an MZ-NH600D, but I've gone back to my MZ-N510 primarily because of its great battery life. The Hi-MD units just murder batteries, but I get around 2 weeks from a single AA battery in my N510. I actually have two N510 units now. I use my RH1 primarily as my upload/download unit, and for occasional field recording. The NH600D is a very pretty desk ornament at the moment.

I think the N510 is among my favorite and most reliable electronic devices ever, though I have to confess I might not be as happy with it if I didn't have my RH1 to connect to SonicStage. The N510 is very slow as a USB device, but the RH1 lets me do just about anything I want to do very quickly.

By the way, speaking of finding blank MD discs, my best score EVER was buying 138 discs from a guy on craigslist for... drumroll... $15! Thirteen of the discs were brand new, still sealed. I think I'm set for life for blank media!

--V.

[THIS SUCKS]

I have an MZ-RH1 and an MZ-NH600D, but I've gone back to my MZ-N510 primarily because of its great battery life. The Hi-MD units just murder batteries, but I get around 2 weeks from a single AA battery in my N510. I actually have two N510 units now. I use my RH1 primarily as my upload/download unit, and for occasional field recording. The NH600D is a very pretty desk ornament at the moment.

I think the N510 is among my favorite and most reliable electronic devices ever, though I have to confess I might not be as happy with it if I didn't have my RH1 to connect to SonicStage. The N510 is very slow as a USB device, but the RH1 lets me do just about anything I want to do very quickly.

By the way, speaking of finding blank MD discs, my best score EVER was buying 138 discs from a guy on craigslist for... drumroll... $15! Thirteen of the discs were brand new, still sealed. I think I'm set for life for blank media!

--V.

i also have a n510. i like it a lot and use it all the time!

[Riccardo]

By the way, speaking of finding blank MD discs, my best score EVER was buying 138 discs from a guy on craigslist for... drumroll... $15! Thirteen of the discs were brand new, still sealed. I think I'm set for life for blank media!

--V.

craigslist is a great place to shop for md. i've bought a couple of r700s and 4 decks, all at good prices, almost all in excellent condition. one of the units (an s38) shows some wear, but works perfectly. i routinely do a craigslist search for "mini disc" minidisc, minidisk, etc.

i have a portable hi md unit but hardly ever use hi-md. i mostly use that unit for multi-disc sets, audio books, etc. for routine use i prefer my nf-610 or one of the r700s. btw, i mostly record directly from original cd's using sp... sounds great and playable in any unit.

Edited April 24, 2008 by Riccardo

[Strungup]

One nice thing about the RH1 , is that with the 40ELK remote , you can Label and Title all the Regular MD's with much greater ease .

The Jog wheel on my RH1 is VERY glitchy and has been since I got it , but it was my first HiMD , so I was reluctant to take it back , after getting the 40ELK it took the stress off immediately and I rarely bother with the Jog wheel , except for menus that are RH1 specific .

I can record on my Standard MD's ........ Title them on the RH1 , and have discs that will play in ANY player ......car or otherwise .

What's not to like ? it is a good combo

[Syrius]

Jog wheel? On the RH1? What Jog wheel?

[bobzilli]

That is the only issue I've had with the unit. The jog lever is hyper sensitive.

[bobzilli]

Yeah, the eject button is a bit much, especially since the volume and menu controls are microscopic

[NorthStar]

Yeah, the eject button is a bit much, especially since the volume and menu controls are microscopic

Yeah, that's something about the RH1 that's made me hesitate a little about getting it. I don't know... it seems all the Hi-MD units have some kind of strange flaw in each, some worse than others. I still plan on getting an RH1 though... as it's the last and most advanced unit, it just makes sense to me to get it before it's too late (it kinda already is, since I know have to get the MZ-M200 in order to have a chance)

I don't plan on ever going back to MDLP however. I first got started with MD's thanks to my old reliable N510 (still got it, along with a n610... both still work great), and as much as I loved its long battery life (40 to 45 hours on one AA battery is nothing to scoff at... though I've seen even better with other people's models... Sharp anyone?), and overall decent design, my fate was sealed the day I got my NH1 (for 200 bucks even. Funny thing was that it was a few people on this forum who convinced me to get it). I've been enjoying the minidisc world even better since then... the Hi-MD format just seems overall better and more versatile than the older formats, and the sound seems just a hell of a lot better (I've recently stuck to having my music recorded no lower than 192k bitrate and up... anything lower is for talk only.). Thanks to Hi-MD I've archived lots of music, lectures, and live mixes by friends of mine, as well as lots of data files, programs, and even backed up website data for my server in case of a crash. The discs really aren't hard to find at all... I tend to get the Hi-MD 1gig discs for really cheap on Ebay (average $4.50 a pop), and we should all know by now how easy it is to get the regular discs... they're all over the place if you know where to look, and I use those extensively for music, keeping about 5 disc's with me at all times in one of those old Sony hard plastic cases that come with their standard 5 packs when I go out.

Granted, I do have some problems with the design of the NH1... sure it's durable, and has a great look, but being totally reliant on the remote for all it's features sucks... my remote recently broke, so I now have to scramble for a new one on Ebay... and the unit only able to charge it's battery with a charge stand was a bad idea. But I'm still happy with my NH1 overall... even the battery life doesn't bother me much, since I tend to keep an extra gumstick on me in case I get caught out there with a low battery, and to be honest, that's rare. 10-12 hours of playback is actually enough for me during the day... I'm rarely outside for longer than that, and I can't listen to my music during work anyway.

I still have recordings in NetMD/MDLP formats, and I tend to keep them that way just so my son can listen to them on the N510 I gave him, as well as to maybe pass them on to any MD enthusiast who's interested in them (if you're into Jungle and /trip hop and acid jazz type music that is), but I don't have that many discs recorded that way, and since I want to land that Oynko deck I'm not too worried about most of the MD tech out there being made for MDLP only. If it comes to it, my NH1 will just end up being my man playing unit... just gotta hook up some bigger speakers to it for home use, and that's not hard to do. I got my hands on a second one anyway (the first one being a bit more beat up from use and accidental drops, but still works fine), so until I get that RH1 I'll have one for the home, and one for outside.

So yeah, long winded post summed up... Happy with Hi-MD, have no reason really to go back to MDLP except under special circumstances (recording a disc for someone else for instance).

Edited May 2, 2008 by NorthStar

[theblueraja]

Happy with Hi-MD, have no reason really to go back to MDLP except under special circumstances (recording a disc for someone else for instance).

I used to say the same... then when HiMD units dropped off even Ebay like flies, I found myself going the MDLP route, happy to find SO MANY more unit options. Luckily with HiMD I was using 132k, so using LP2 is the same... all I lose is capacity, which is no biggey.

[THIS SUCKS]

lp2 132k sounds terrible to me compared to old sp or the original wav file. its so bad i would rather listen to lp2 105k even though it has a lower frequency response. i had a old version of open mg that would allow you to transfer the 105k rate as lp2 to net md with extra bits added as padding so the unit could read it as lp2 132k.

[calpico]

I only use my RH1 for transfering music to and from my computer now. Everything I record is in SP so all of my players can read the same recordings. I guess if all of my units could read HiMD then things may be different.

[bobzilli]

I only use my RH1 for transfering music to and from my computer now. Everything I record is in SP so all of my players can read the same recordings. I guess if all of my units could read HiMD then things may be different.

I find myself using SP as well. Nothing worse than going to play a disc on an older unit only to discover it is an HiMD disc