Topic: Sony almost created a perfect little recorder.............

[Stumptown Matt]

Well I have been hearing a little about the new Hi-MD for a while so I headed over to www.minidisc.org to get the scoop.  As I was reading about the features I found out that it has the ability to record uncompressed PCM at 44.1 just like a CD.  After a little more reading I found out that it tops out at 94 minutes of record time for CD quality recording.  It's not 2 hours like a DAT (no 90M for me), but hey that's a little better than standard 80 min MDs and standard MDs are compressed.  As I continued reading I found out that you can upload the recordings you make quite quickly via USB.  Wow! I could qwickly upload CD quality to my computer just like a JB3, but I would have removable media. Cool!  Well this is where Sony once again screws the consumer.  You can only upload quickly if you recorded from an analog source.  That's right folks if you use an outboard A/D converter you will not be able to upload the file to you computer for editing or CD burning purposes.  What do you think the odds are of Sony including both digital ins and outs on a portable units.  I say they are slim to none.  Thus if you buy into this format with the hopes of using it to make digital copies of music you legally make or record you will probably be forced to buy a home stand alone unit with digital output so you  can make a CD quality digital copies.  I think this format is dead before it even gets started.  It has restrictions that cancel out any advantages that it would have had over solid state recorders such as long battery life and cheap removeable media.  

[BCostigan]

Would they design an 8pin cable also?

probably........if sony put half as much time into designing  the product as they do creating proprietary BS to limit the product.......they'd have some kick ass stuff!

[C.Clark]

sony does really seem to screw up everything they make these days, they could be such an even bigger corporate giant if they thought things through

[BobW]

Does Sony mean "bend over" in Japanese ?