MD help please

[reverendjimmy]

Hi guys...Ive been putting a lot of thought into md's.....but i have a few questions maybe you guys can help with:

1: What is the average amount of music you can get on 1 md?

2: What format do Md's record in usually?

3:what are the most notorious pro's/cons of a md?

Thanks for all of your help!

Reverend Jimmy

[pfife]

Hi guys...Ive been putting a lot of thought into md's.....but i have a few questions maybe you guys can help with:

1: What is the average amount of music you can get on 1 md?

2: What format do Md's record in usually?

3:what are the most notorious pro's/cons of a md?

Thanks for all of your help!

Reverend Jimmy

Here are some answers, to the best of my ability:

1.) 80 Mins.  The higher quality, the lower amount of space on a disc.  80 is the shortest, i.e. highest quality.

2.) ATRAC compression scheme.  I am telling you here:  There are no consumer MD's that will allow you to transfer from MD to PC via USB.

3.) ATRAC compression; setting levels on the fly is problematic for some, impossible for others;

If you get a MD, make sure you look at Sharps, and not Sony.  But, for a little more $, and not too much, you can get a Nomad Jukebox 3, which records at a better rate, and doesn't take discs... you would prolly make up the difference in price in purchasing discs...

My $00000000.02...

Maybe someone else can offer more, contradict me, etc!

HTH-
Pfife

[Simp-Dawg]

pfife you did alright buddy.
1. md's come in 74 and 80 min discs.  if the md recorder has an LP mode you can record longer on those discs but you sacrifice quality.
2. the recording format is atrac compression, and is how all the data that a normal sized cd would hold is fit onto the md.  
3. atrac is technically not as good as cd quality though most people cannot hear the difference.  it is as close to cd quality as you can get without having a dat, njb3 (nomad jukebox 3) or solid-state recorder. that's a con to most but the difference can be negligible to someone starting out.
pro's: ease of use, easily available media (at any best buy or other big store), portability, low price, easy to power
cons: tape flips, lossy compression, difficult to find a digital patch unless you carry a coax>optical converter box with you, need a separate home deck to do digital transfers (no portables have digi outs currently) - though those last two are assuming you want to do a digital transfer...which is recommend in trading pools.

[pfife]

pfife you did alright buddy

Thanks - used to run one until I discovered the Nomad... that's why I sounded a little biased toward the nomad in my initial post... I dig it.  

Peace.

[sexymexi]

Here are some answers, to the best of my ability:

1.) 80 Mins.  The higher quality, the lower amount of space on a disc.  80 is the shortest, i.e. highest quality.

2.) ATRAC compression scheme.  I am telling you here:  There are no consumer MD's that will allow you to transfer from MD to PC via USB.

3.) ATRAC compression; setting levels on the fly is problematic for some, impossible for others;

If you get a MD, make sure you look at Sharps, and not Sony.  But, for a little more $, and not too much, you can get a Nomad Jukebox 3, which records at a better rate, and doesn't take discs... you would prolly make up the difference in price in purchasing discs...

My $00000000.02...

Maybe someone else can offer more, contradict me, etc!

HTH-
Pfife

pretty good..  but you can download md via USB, you just have to spend a pretty penny to get the deck that allows it..  http://www.minidisco.com/md-p500.html that is the one that does..  its cool, but i'd spend the money on a dat instead.  

also about setting levels on the fly, they say sony's can't but they can. check this in the archival section.  http://www.taperssection.com/yabbse/index.php?board=14;action=display;threadid=8635

peace. good luck, but i'd personally say skip the MD and go for whats diggity, a DAT.  peace.

matt

[Sean Gallemore]

he did say consumer MD decks, I wouldn't consider HHB consumer

and the Sony MD on-the-fly changes are only one NetMD units and newer.

+ for everyone helping

[Ed.]

who'd spend $1400 on md, dang...thats just silly.

ed

[sexymexi]

who'd spend $1400 on md, dang...thats just silly.

ed

exactly. might be kinda cool, but i'd go with a dat first.. peace.

[Ed.]

or wait a few months and get the sd722 for a couple hundred more.

[Sean Gallemore]

couple?

[Ed.]

a couple few, heh, ya know.

i thought the 722 was only gonna be between 1500 and 2000.  If you're spending 1400 on MD, why not just throw down the extra and get something worth while.

ed

[Sean Gallemore]

oh, I don't know any taper in their right mind that'd use that HHb over any of the many other expensive options

[Ed.]

agreed, it does look kinda cool tho.

[pfife]

Here are some answers, to the best of my ability:

1.) 80 Mins.  The higher quality, the lower amount of space on a disc.  80 is the shortest, i.e. highest quality.

2.) ATRAC compression scheme.  I am telling you here:  There are no consumer MD's that will allow you to transfer from MD to PC via USB.

3.) ATRAC compression; setting levels on the fly is problematic for some, impossible for others;

If you get a MD, make sure you look at Sharps, and not Sony.  But, for a little more $, and not too much, you can get a Nomad Jukebox 3, which records at a better rate, and doesn't take discs... you would prolly make up the difference in price in purchasing discs...

My $00000000.02...

Maybe someone else can offer more, contradict me, etc!

HTH-
Pfife

pretty good..  but you can download md via USB, you just have to spend a pretty penny to get the deck that allows it..  http://www.minidisco.com/md-p500.html that is the one that does..  its cool, but i'd spend the money on a dat instead.  

also about setting levels on the fly, they say sony's can't but they can. check this in the archival section.  http://www.taperssection.com/yabbse/index.php?board=14;action=display;threadid=8635

Yeah - I used to set the levels on the fly all the time, but there was a 'long menu path' to get to it on mine, and you actually had to use both hands to do it... hit record and pause at the same time

I definately agree with skipping it though - that's why I kinda proded toward NJB3... that's my personal preference, esp. taking money into consideration.

[reverendjimmy]

thanks for all of the help,,,,im trying to figure out how much $$ i need to save up and what kinda stuff i need to look at.......with christmas coming up its gonna take me a while to get any money to fool around with, so thats why im spoending all this time asking questions now =)