Hi-MD vs Mp3

[jthm]

Well it's about time I got myself a new portable audio fix, however after reading so much about these two mediums I am still undecided. So I look to you guys for advice on the merits of both, why you chose one over the other. Some factors I want to look at are battery life, storage, size(fitting in my pocket), navigation, and recording.

 

[LancerEvolution7]

HD-MD would have been a great alternative. I would argue its better than most hard drive players such as IPOD and Creative ZEN. The MD looks real stylish also. But all this come to an end when you actually need to transfer the music over to your MD player.
You have to realize that an MD does NOT player MP3s natively. Sony's hd mds plays a format called Atrac. This means everytime you want to transfer, you have to load up the software, convert your music files, then transfer it over to the MD. Granted the time it takes is very short, especially if you have a decent computer, its still annoying and it wastes hard drive space. Also the software has some anti piracy protection that causes issues from time to time.

What I would suggest you get is a mp3 player. Now just decide whether to go flash or hard drive.

 

[jthm]

Lance I'm pretty sure that SonicStage 2.0 solved a lot of those issues, made the transfer rate faster, you don't need to keep copies of the encoded audio files on your computer and you can transfer stuff as many times as you like.

 

[LancerEvolution7]

I've owned the n1, n10 and sony's network player. I then switched to a flash mp3 player. I didn't have much issues with sony's software besides the copyright protection, but regardless you still can't get around converting the file to atrac. You don't have to keep copies of the files on your hard drive, but then when you want to transfer the song, you have to convert it again. Its annoying. Also when you convert from mp3 to atrac you lose quality.

 

[alltaken]

Ummmmmm Hi-MD does not need ATRAC (it doesn't even use standard ATRAC), it can play MP3's nativly. now a normal MD player is different. but a "Hi-MD" with 1 Gb of storage shouldn't have issues.

Alltaken

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[LancerEvolution7]

Maybe I'm not up to date on the most current models. Looking at the specs of HD MD, it doesn't play mp3s natively. It only plays PCM and atrac. You mind pointing me to where it says MD's supports mp3s natively without conversion?

 

[sparks219]

I was under the assumption that the sony only plays Atracs. THat is the main reason why I opted for the Rio Nitrus

 

[alltaken]

well currently the players are not playing MP3's but there is no reason that the Hi-MD format cannot support MP3 support.

i think people like sony are keeping MP3 support in the bag, so that they can sell new units later.

Alltaken

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[LancerEvolution7]

Nope Sony doesn't plan to support mp3's anytime soon. Look at their <A HREF="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/01/sony_hd_walkman" target="_new">new</A> hard drive player. The thing is small, 20gigs and has 30 hours of battery life. I'll get that over the ipod mini. But... it doesn't support mp3s playback so you have to convert to atrac.

This unit isn't out yet, soon it will be. Hopefully after sony sees that the unit's sales stinks, they'll start supporting mp3s again.

 

[alltaken]

yeah sony are being fools on this one.

perhaps they could be smart enough to support MP3 files that exist on the computer already, but if you insert the cd for somthing ti does it to ATRAC3, break into a current market instead of muscling into one (but they can afford to muscle in i think, they don't care if they piss people off LOL)

i would count on philips or another brand supporting MP3 on HiMD though. even if sony sucks arse LOL

Alltaken

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