[Oga]

You should give some though to getting a smartphone, e.g the I-mate Jam. or even just a PDA. They
- use infinitly expandable SD card memory
- have onboard mics
- accept external mics & have line-in
- record to PCM or MP3
- have USB drive capability


As for minidisc, it really is a dead end and you are stuck with a proprietary access software. 5 years ago, sure, but these days with the technology we have available, i just don't see going down that part with not only proprietaty software, but discs and moving parts. Just no point. I had several myself unitl a couple years ago, but honestly they don't compare to the flexibily of what I can do with my I-mate Jam for example.


Quote:

Originally Posted by pianoplayer88key hmm... for some reason I was having a hard time picking through that last post. Let me say that the flash-based player/recorder would mostly be for in-the-field / away-from-computer recordings. The system I would use for archiving old tapes/33's would be different from the flash player. Right now I'm more interested in getting a >512MB, expandable, usable-as-USB-drive-INCLUDING-UPLOADING-AND-DOWNLOADING-MUSIC-FILES, lots-of-recording-options mp3 player/recorder. Only thing I don't like about iriver is it's not usable as a flash drive and it's not expandable (not to mention that it's a little too small).

 

[Zappa74]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oga You should give some though to getting a smartphone, e.g the I-mate Jam. or even just a PDA. They - use infinitly expandable SD card memory - have onboard mics - accept external mics & have line-in - record to PCM or MP3 - have USB drive capability As for minidisc, it really is a dead end and you are stuck with a proprietary access software. 5 years ago, sure, but these days with the technology we have available, i just don't see going down that part with not only proprietaty software, but discs and moving parts. Just no point. I had several myself unitl a couple years ago, but honestly they don't compare to the flexibily of what I can do with my I-mate Jam for example.

Hi MD recorders can do everything you said minus the onboard mic plus-

-They're a heck of a lot cheaper.

-Media is a whole lot cheaper too.

Minidisc is hardly a dead end... its still the superior recording format. I'd even go so far as to say it's surpassed DAT simply because you can now upload recordings via usb- no need to transfer at 1x.

 

[IpaqMan]

Most portable mp3 encoders cannot do as good a job as a minidisc recorder because the mp3 encoder is CPU intensive and requires more power to do the encoding well. Sony has built Atrac encoding chips for quite some time and using a hardware encoder/decoder is more power efficient than using a software encoder. You might have noticed that Sony flash players can play up to 70 hours on one AAA battery.

Atrac3plus at 256kbps is near CD quality. Many listeners can't tell the difference between Hi-SP and uncompressed. And, Sony Hi-MD recorders can record uncompressed on inexpensive media.

As for MD being a dead end, in the worst case, you could still record and transfer in real time just like the dead end Dat recorder. At least minidisc media will last for years and years unlike DAT tapes.

If Sony took their recording technology and moved it to flash or hard drive media and removed their encryption, they could make a killing, but Sony is obstinate about content protection to the detriment of their market share.

 

[Oga]

I got my I-Mate Jam for less than the cost of any minidisc player and mind its got a phone and full PDA in there before you even discuss mp3 playing or audio recording. So price-wise it blows way the minidisc. Price is just not even something you can mention. That only underlines the kind of price gouging that Sony is perpetrating on a product that already paid itself off many-fold, over a decade ago.

And I'd always rather have my data portable and backup in many places than on a minidisc. Your file on a minidisc means you must always own that device and have it working, PLUS you must use SonicStage.

In contrast, an MP3 file on a any PDA or any flash player can be used anywhere anytime. Again, no comparison.

Like I said, I'd understand recommending minidisc to someone 5-10 years ago, but today its like basically telling a person to voluntarily go and get shafted by Sony. And with all the options out there, that just aint a good move.

Sony had their chance and they blew it. And as you yourself said, even today they are not interested in maximizing consumer usability or flexibility. Such a manufacturer does not deserve anyone's money - and that's coming from someone who used minidisc for 5 years!