Guest Anonymous Posted January 9, 2004 Report Share Posted January 9, 2004 Interesting comments have been made. Unlike many other Apple Mac users, I have many reservations about the whole iPod movement, mainly the battery issues. Does anybody know if Hi-MD will be compatible with Mac OS X? I assume it will work as a data drive, but what about transferring music? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted January 9, 2004 Report Share Posted January 9, 2004 From all the material I have seen so far, the recorders conform to the USB-Mass-Storage standard, so they will work on Mac and Linux as well. However, if Sony doesn't get a grip here, it's Windoze only for music. Grrr... :x With best regards Jadeclaw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted January 9, 2004 Report Share Posted January 9, 2004 Interesting comments have been made. Unlike many other Apple Mac users, I have many reservations about the whole iPod movement, mainly the battery issues. Does anybody know if Hi-MD will be compatible with Mac OS X? I assume it will work as a data drive, but what about transferring music?To the best of my knowledge, there has never been Mac software that enabled faster-than-real-time downloading to MD, and I don't see any on the horizon. (I have, however, used Macintosh software that enabled MD labeling via a USB connection.) People seem to forget that Sony makes Windows-based computers, too, so it is in Sony's best interest to tether MD downloading to Windows. Plus, the Macintosh computer market is so small, Sony may not think it worth going after. iPods didn't really take off until Windows-compatible software came out. Just had a thought, though: You can buy Windows emulator programs for Macintosh computers. Could you run SonicStage on a Macintosh this way? Has anyone out there tried this? Jeffery Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebarnman Posted January 11, 2004 Report Share Posted January 11, 2004 Just had a thought, though: You can buy Windows emulator programs for Macintosh computers. Could you run SonicStage on a Macintosh this way? Has anyone out there tried this? JefferyNot an expert, however I read that these emulators do not have the drivers for USB devices or something like that. So I don't beleive it will work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted January 13, 2004 Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 Not an expert, however I read that these emulators do not have the drivers for USB devices or something like that. So I don't beleive it will work.No, they aren't windows emulators, they're PC emulators which emulate the hardware of a PC so that you can run any standard version of windows through them. I have Virtual PC 6.1, and it says it supports USB, although I have never tried it out, theoretically it should work. I'll try it with my sister's NetMD walkman and let you know if it works. Either way, it's not a decent solution because windows run really slowly (because the emulated PC has low specs by virtue of being emulated), and her's uses OpenMG anyway which runs shockingly slow enough on a real windows PC. iTunes, however, runs flawlessly on either PC or Mac. Way to programme, Sony. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
voodoofish Posted January 13, 2004 Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 People seem to forget that Sony makes Windows-based computers, too, so it is in Sony's best interest to tether MD downloading to Windows. JefferyThat is exactly why I've stopped buying Sony products - they're incredably arrogant. They make you use all of their technologies, assuming you would never want to use anything else and that they know best. For example, all their digital cameras use MemoryStick - why?!?! All it means is you pay twice as much for memory as you would otherwise, and subsequently are pretty much never going to buy another non-Sony camera as it would waste your memory card investment. But then they go and do things like releasing MemoryStick walkmen that only work with MagicGate memory sticks - meaning you couldn't use any of the cards you'd bought for your digital camera with it. Also, they force you to use their sub-standard software (eg. OpenMG). I have nothing against ATRAC, but they could at least let you use ATRAC and MP3, like Apple does with MP3 and AAC, so that you don't have to convert from one format to another or are locked into using their jukebox software. For example, in OpenMG if I wanted to copy something to MiniDisc in SP I had to rip it to the hard drive in WAV with another application and then import it to OpenMG before I could transfer it as OpenMG would only let me rip in LP formats. They've updated their software to SonicStage, which is very nice, but doesn't help me as they only ship it with new products. On the other hand, iTunes updates are free and so are firmware updates to iPods - the original iPods produced before AAC was used by iTunes can easily be updated to play it with a free software download. Sony's microMV format looks very cool, but is only compatable with some Sony application for transfering to a PC. Fine if you want to spend your entire life hooked to Sony products, but I really don't think they're that competent - for example, they released the PS2 spouting on about how you could use it online and buy a hard drive, but then sat back and did nothing until it's competitors released their own. Also, SACD is the most contrived format ever, which as part of it's liscensing is never allowed to be played on a PC incase it gets pirated, and cannot be read by standard DVD lasers (the music is encrypted and the decryption code is encoded in the width of pits on the disc. Normal CDs/DVDs only include data in terms of the length of pits). This means that the SACD readers are going to be needlessly expensive (as they require specially designed 'DVD' drives (the discs are basically DVDs but with the width of pits changing aswell as the length)) just to make the format prohivitably un-user friendly. Even though DVD-A uses its own copy protection, it can be read by any DVD drive and can still be played on any DVD-Video player (bizzarly, they don't bother to encrypt the DVD-Video audio with the DVD-Video encrytion), so the format is alot more flexible (even though I would not replace CDs with it). Yes, SACDs can be hybrid, but the second they think they can get away with it they'll stop producing hyrbid discs to lock you into thier format. Sorry, I know I'm ranting on and on, but it makes the point that Sony takes propriotryness to an extreme with their products and I don't want to buy into such a ridiculously protected format. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toolowtwo Posted January 13, 2004 Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 is support from Roxio through Toast so that we could make a disc image and burn it to MD. This should not be that hard either because already lets you make disc images in any of a number of formats, including MP3 disc, so what we would really need is a driver to recognize the MD recorder and support download of the disc image to the MD, at high speed. The current software will support CD burners at speeds up to 56X, so what would the challenge be to create the burner driver??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
voodoofish Posted January 13, 2004 Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 well, if you just put files onto the Hi-MD as files it would just treat them as such and wouldn't play them. If you wanted to download a playable image to the MD player it would have to be in whatever file system they use (they use FAT for data but they may use a different one for audio) and also even then it won't 'burn' like a normal CD writer so writing some kinda driver for it would be difficult. Also, the files would have to be converted into ATRACplus format and have whichever encryption/copy protection scheme applied to them that Sony has used in order for the Hi-MD walkman to play them, so basically it's really unlikely that we could get it to work. This is what annoys me about Sony you see, because even years before I got a Mac (I only got one about a month ago but have had my iPod since summer) I'd always fancied the idea of getting one, like all those people that are like 'I'd love to get an iMac but it doesn't use windows ' so i'd always only bought things that would work on either a Mac or PC so that I always had the option for me to switch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted January 13, 2004 Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 I used to have a 3rd generation iPod but sold it due to absurdly low battery life, mediocre sound quality, and expensiveness. Having said that, I am a new convert to Mac and love OSX, will never go back to WinTel or AMDows unless Microsoft delivers a decent OS. I currently have an NetMD and am seriously considering a HI-MD with radio tuner, but I hate having to use my brother's Windows PC just to upload files, and did I mention that SonicStage and Sony's software (what's it called again?) really sucks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted January 13, 2004 Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 Oh yeah, the new mini iPod looks enticing, but the problems with HD based players persists: 1) Poor battery life and built-in litium recharageables that cost so much to replace. 2) No direct CD-player (or any other source for that matter) recording. 3) Fragile (relatively) 4) Expensive 5) Half-life, after all, they are still hard drives, and we've all had our share of those flaking out on us. Also, the EQ in the iPod is software based and sounds horrible. I am so used to Bass Boost from Sony that I can't listen to flat recordings, and the iPod simply lacks bass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
voodoofish Posted January 13, 2004 Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 Oh yeah, the new mini iPod looks enticing, but the problems with HD based players persists: 1) Poor battery life and built-in litium recharageables that cost so much to replace. 2) No direct CD-player (or any other source for that matter) recording. 3) Fragile (relatively) 4) Expensive 5) Half-life, after all, they are still hard drives, and we've all had our share of those flaking out on us. Also, the EQ in the iPod is software based and sounds horrible. I am so used to Bass Boost from Sony that I can't listen to flat recordings, and the iPod simply lacks bass.1) Smaller MD players (eg. MZ-E10) have similarly built in batteries, though they do last longer. 2) Direct CD recording - why would you want it? 1x speed, then you have to connect it to a computer anyway to put in track names (either that or do it by hand). CD players with TOC-Link are not all that common, although the PS2 does have one. The iPod supports recording voice notes, but you cannot use a line-in (the mini-iPod does not support voice notes but may do in the future). 3) I've never had a problem. My iPod jogs better than my MD player, but my MD player is 4 years old. 4) But convenient (ie. no discs), which is what you're paying for, and I do prefer Apple's styling to Sony's on the whole. 5) I really don't think HDD problems are a worry for most people and MD players do break too. I probably know as many people with iPods as MD players, and none of the iPods have broken whereas one of my friend's MD players have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted February 7, 2004 Report Share Posted February 7, 2004 As of right now, it is pretty much impossible to run/download/edit/upload minidisc items on a Mac. However, there is currently technology called WINE (no, not the alcoholic drink) made by Darwin. I'm not a programmer by any means, but I do know that if this company gets WINE up and running, then and Windows OS software will be able to be run on Mac OS X. This is great news! It will be so much better than stupid virtual PC! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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