Topic: new Sony MD deck in the works...very taper friendly

[Nick's Picks]

yup, it sure would.
but then again, for the price ...are you really that far off w/a MT and a 2gb card?, or a microdrive?

[chong138]

yup, it sure would.
but then again, for the price ...are you really that far off w/a MT and a 2gb card?, or a microdrive?

I don't own one so I can't say for sure, but after reading about all the problems everyone has with their MT...I'd never buy one.  A 2 GB MD would be the answer to all my problems. 

[nameloc01]

yup, it sure would.
but then again, for the price ...are you really that far off w/a MT and a 2gb card?, or a microdrive?

hmm.not sure. i personally am a fan of the md.
anyways...one thing i'd thought i'd let everyone in on.(if everyone didnt already know except me) i just happen to be in radio shack this past weekend re: my wifes cell phone and happen to ask if they could order 1 gb himd discs)wondering if they were any cheaper than minidisco-where i usually order from) he said to my surprise... well we dont carry them in stock in this store but other "higher volume" stores carry them..like euclid(which is like 5 minutes from my house) i went to the other store and beholf a big old pile of them(still sonys) for only .05 more cents than minidisco,but cheaper if you would add shipping to the online order.they are also in a different casing..its more like a mini- cassette case.the mds themselves are from australia and are all black unlike minidiscos japanese colored versions.
-i thought someone may benefit from this.

[dunebug81]

yup, it sure would.
but then again, for the price ...are you really that far off w/a MT and a 2gb card?, or a microdrive?

hmm.not sure. i personally am a fan of the md.
anyways...one thing i'd thought i'd let everyone in on.(if everyone didnt already know except me) i just happen to be in radio shack this past weekend re: my wifes cell phone and happen to ask if they could order 1 gb himd discs)wondering if they were any cheaper than minidisco-where i usually order from) he said to my surprise... well we dont carry them in stock in this store but other "higher volume" stores carry them..like euclid(which is like 5 minutes from my house) i went to the other store and beholf a big old pile of them(still sonys) for only .05 more cents than minidisco,but cheaper if you would add shipping to the online order.they are also in a different casing..its more like a mini- cassette case.the mds themselves are from australia and are all black unlike minidiscos japanese colored versions.
-i thought someone may benefit from this.

Woah, thats still $7.00 or so a disc?  Call Tape Warehouse at 800-659-8273 and order discs from them.  They sell them for $4.67.  Shipping will only be a few bux and if youre not in Georgia then you don't have to pay sales tax.  I live about 20 min away from them and usually buy 10 discs every other weekend for just under $50.00 including tax. 

They usually stock about 20 discs or so at a time so if you want more then will have to do a special order.  If anyone wants to go in on an order of 100 ill take 50.  Orders of 100 or more are $0.10 off per disc.  www.tapewarehouse.com > click shop > digital audio > minidisc audio > 3rd or 4th item down.

Id never buy a microtrack as its not nearly as useful to me as a minidisc plus I like having the original recording on a disc for back up.  Not to mention it doubles as my MP3 player when im at work.

[Nick's Picks]

well, wouldnt an MT do all of that as well?
plus give you longer record time and 24bit ?

[Genghis Cougar Mellen Khan]

yup, it sure would.
but then again, for the price ...are you really that far off w/a MT and a 2gb card?, or a microdrive?

Half the size of an R1 or MT, hard copy of the master, it's a different toy.  You may be limited to 16 bit PCM, but you can rewrite on discs, a 1GB disc for $5-$7 is much cheaper than CF memory.  It'll probably sell for $100+ less than a R1 or MT unit and that's before buying the required memory @ $75-$100 a gig.  For a beginner or somone on a tight budget that additional $175+ someone could buy some decent budget mics.  Reliability could also be factored in, no firmware updates...

I've considered a Hi-MD for backup purposes as opposed to rolling tape, worse case scenario I'd have a 44/16 bit copy on discs I could re-use if there was no need for the backup.    

[nameloc01]

yup, it sure would.
but then again, for the price ...are you really that far off w/a MT and a 2gb card?, or a microdrive?

hmm.not sure. i personally am a fan of the md.
anyways...one thing i'd thought i'd let everyone in on.(if everyone didnt already know except me) i just happen to be in radio shack this past weekend re: my wifes cell phone and happen to ask if they could order 1 gb himd discs)wondering if they were any cheaper than minidisco-where i usually order from) he said to my surprise... well we dont carry them in stock in this store but other "higher volume" stores carry them..like euclid(which is like 5 minutes from my house) i went to the other store and beholf a big old pile of them(still sonys) for only .05 more cents than minidisco,but cheaper if you would add shipping to the online order.they are also in a different casing..its more like a mini- cassette case.the mds themselves are from australia and are all black unlike minidiscos japanese colored versions.
-i thought someone may benefit from this.

Woah, thats still $7.00 or so a disc?  Call Tape Warehouse at 800-659-8273 and order discs from them.  They sell them for $4.67.  Shipping will only be a few bux and if youre not in Georgia then you don't have to pay sales tax.  I live about 20 min away from them and usually buy 10 discs every other weekend for just under $50.00 including tax. 

They usually stock about 20 discs or so at a time so if you want more then will have to do a special order.  If anyone wants to go in on an order of 100 ill take 50.  Orders of 100 or more are $0.10 off per disc.  www.tapewarehouse.com > click shop > digital audio > minidisc audio > 3rd or 4th item down.

Id never buy a microtrack as its not nearly as useful to me as a minidisc plus I like having the original recording on a disc for back up.  Not to mention it doubles as my MP3 player when im at work.

boy,i feel like a big arsehole for paying almost$ 7.00.i will definitely be calling them soon.

[mrsoul]

Looks like all SP original recordings are "uploadable" using the RH1, including optical and analog source SP, SP mono, LP, and LP4 bitrates.

See the image below (this was taken from the MDCF forum post by the MDFreak in the Netherlands who has an RH1 to play with from Sony for a few weeks.)  Very nice to see it can happen. 

I am so excited about this that I am taking my trusty MZ-S1 unit with me to the Wanee again this year since I will later have the ability to digitally upload anything it captures down there.  I usually keep my RH10 and RH910 in tandem so I always have 180+ minutes of PCM recording available.  The MZ-S1 will be at the other stage with my buddy and hopefully we can find a good patch output for it. 

This is really good news and great confirmation. 

[bgalizio]

Interesting. I have a few MD masters that could use retransferring (analog transfer, since no one near me had a deck with optical out). Hopefully some nice soul will get one of these and help me with a retransfer.

[tod3sschu3tze]

looks good, the device becomes more and more interesting

[taper420]

The 2GB disc everyone has seen is indeed wishfull thinking and a photoshop mockup...it is my understanding that with the current laser they use it would not be possible to make it 2GB ... they already did something with the HiMD technology that makes the data smaller than can be read by the laser... and an additional layer acts as a sort of interpreter. This let them double the capacity of the legacy MD's and enabled the development of the 1gb which if you know anything about the technology is a miraculous feat. For 2gb the discs would have to be bigger or use the same laser wavelength as DVD, both of which would offer no legacy support.. so in fact this would be nothing more than a new format. It sucks I know...the one thing we can hope sony will do is include a buffer and support for swapping discs with continuous recording. The discs already record from a buffer (I think it might be as much as 30 seconds) so this isn't realy just wishfull daydreaming...and with the release of the RH1 it's looking like sony might actually be starting to listen to it's consumers after so long....maybe we'll see the swapability with the RH2.

[gngrbrdman13]

from that press release: “Hi-MD is light years ahead of alternative formatting technologies such as HDD and Flash, making the MZ-RH1 the clear choice for professionals and music fans alike” – Yoshiaki Kadokura (Vice President, Personal Audio Europe, Sony)
 

Yeah, I know.  Even as a big MD fluffhead, I did cringe just a little 

nuttin' wrong w/a little fluff

[dunebug81]

The 2GB disc everyone has seen is indeed wishfull thinking and a photoshop mockup...it is my understanding that with the current laser they use it would not be possible to make it 2GB ... they already did something with the HiMD technology that makes the data smaller than can be read by the laser... and an additional layer acts as a sort of interpreter. This let them double the capacity of the legacy MD's and enabled the development of the 1gb which if you know anything about the technology is a miraculous feat. For 2gb the discs would have to be bigger or use the same laser wavelength as DVD, both of which would offer no legacy support.. so in fact this would be nothing more than a new format. It sucks I know...the one thing we can hope sony will do is include a buffer and support for swapping discs with continuous recording. The discs already record from a buffer (I think it might be as much as 30 seconds) so this isn't realy just wishfull daydreaming...and with the release of the RH1 it's looking like sony might actually be starting to listen to it's consumers after so long....maybe we'll see the swapability with the RH2.

While 2GB discs may not be physically possible perhaps they could develop an ATRAC lossless..or something...and the would expand disc capacity.  Even if it was only a jump up to 120-125 min that would be perfect for almost any show.

[flintstone]

dunebug81 wrote "...perhaps they could develop an ATRAC lossless..."

Sony has recently included "advanced lossless ATRAC" in its discussion of ATRAC format, (for example, see http://www.sony.net/Products/ATRAC3/tech/aal.html ) so it's possible that this format could be implemented in a Hi-MD machine. 

I think lossless compression is the first step in the ATRAC process.  So it should require only a change to the Hi-MD firmware to save the lossless compressed version to the Hi-MD minidisc.

Flintstone

[taper420]

Atrac-lossless has indeed already been implemented since sonicstage 3.3 where it was pretty much useless and with many  restrictions being lifted in 3.4 (the current version) this format may actually serve as a legit archival option (I would still use flac)... Sony has been getting their act together with the software as well it seems... but all the current testing on the new unit hasn't reported anything about atrac-lossless being used on the recorder.... it remains as an option only when managing your music on your computer.... but there is certainly hope for the future...there probably just holding off for marketing....but as of right now as an archival format it does not offer as much freedom as flac does...there seems to be an issue with encoding lossy files from it...which isn't that big a deal, but still....anyway, atrac-lossless may have a future if they put it in the recorders, but right now its not much