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January 7th, 2004
Sony just annonced new minidisc recorders that use 1GB discs. Current models use 140MB discs if I remember correctly. Some details on http://www.minidisc.org/. It is not clear what other improvements there might be for people who record and offload to PC. Too little, too late?
Other interesting new consumer devices: This one records to a 40GB disc in WAV or MP3 and has internal mic optical in, line in , and mic -in. See http://www.irivernordic.com/products.php?pid=24.
It will be interesting to see if Marantz comes out with new models this year. A simplier, a smaller, lighter and cheaper PMD-670? I think that would be a killer in the sub-$500 recording market.
Minidisc.org is now reporting:
Sony hits a grand slam! Announcing Hi-MD (spec) a new Minidisc format based upon a 1GB MD medium and existing MD media reformatted to 300MB. Hi-MD equipment features uploading to PC (yay!) for mic-input recordings, and linear PCM as well as ATRAC3plus encoding at 132, 105, 66, 64 or 48kbps. Hi-MD recorders also function as USB data drives. Available in April, recording equipment prices will be $200 (MZ-NH600D), $250 (MZ-NHF800), $300 (MZ-NH900) and $400 (MZ-NH1) with Hi-MD blanks costing about $7.
SONY Press Release:http://news.sel.sony.com/pressrelease/4270
I agree that the new HI-MD machines look really promising, and I look forward to seeing how they work out. The fact that they are making new recorders at all is great news, I had been afraid that they’d abandon that aspect of minidisc.
But a little caution: I certainly hope that these machines will record to uncompressed .wav files from the mic input, but it’s not completely clear that this is the case. The literature I’ve found says that the software "supports" wav files, which MIGHT just mean that you can transfer them to the minidisc and listen to them.
I hope I’m just being pessimistic, it would be nice to be able to record to an uncompressed format with these.
The other wet-blanket issue is that if one records to ATRAC format, either to maximize recording time, or because that’s all the machine will do, it’s really great that the software will finally allow us to drag soundfile from the minidisc to the computer, but then what? There’s probably a way to convert that format to something that your digital editor wants to see (maybe the Sony "SonicStage" software will do this) but i don’t know of anything right now that converts ATRAC to .wav or SD2 or aiff or something most editing programs can deal with.
And I also haven’t seen anything saying for sure whether the software will be Mac-friendly. One might not need the software if one can just plug in the USB cable and have the minidisc show up like an external drive, which I think it will do, but we’ll have to try it to be sure….
So, I think these will be great, but before we get too excited, let’s try them in the real world! Whoever gets one first, please post some real-world reports.
Jeff,
The literature I’ve seen clearly states that Hi-MD supports uncompressed PCM recording. Sony’s Hi-MD specs are here:
http://news.sel.sony.com/filestorage/download/hi-md_technology/Hi-MDRL_E_FNL2.pdf.
There do appear to be catches with the uploading aspect. Apparently the MD disc does not just appear as a USB attached drive so that drag and drop can be used to move recordings to PC. It is necessary to use Sony’s SonicStage software. I’ve never used SonicStage but I don’t have the impression that it has a big fan base. I don’t know if there is a MAC version of SonicStage. I also don’t know how ATRAC transfers are done. I suspect SonicStage can be used to convert them to WAV or some other format. It’s also not clear how fast these transfers can be accomplished.
So, there probably is reason to be cautious. Looks like an improvement from a microphone recording perspective but I can’t say I have any regrets having jumped from a mindisc user to the Marantz solid state recorder. As far as I’m concerned, this is great and some people will benefit from it greatly, but for me it’s too little, too late. This is the product they should have been selling two years ago.
BTW: Minidisc.org, usually a reliable source, has started a Hi-MD Faq (http://www.minidisc.org/hi-md_faq.html). Some of their information apparently comes from people who have been quizzing Sony staffers at CES. The Faq states:
-Hi-MD equipment can record audio to Hi-MD media in uncompressed PCM (16bits/44.1khz, i.e. CD format) as well as in Sony’s ATRAC3plus encoding at 256kbps ("Hi-SP") and 64kbps ("Hi-LP").
-Hi-MD recorders can be used directly as USB connected data drives on any PC supporting USB storage devices (no additional drivers needed).
-Microphone and line input (i.e. analog source) recordings made on Hi-MD equipment can be uploaded at high-speed to Windows PCs via SonicStage (Sony’s copyright-protecting audio transfer software).
Alan.
Alan, thanks for that info, all the press releases I had seen were much less specific. In the pdf, Sony does overtly say that uncompressed wav file recording will be possible (although they also talk about "recording" text and graphics, which is a little weird, but that’s just me being paranoid).
But Alan’s right, I’ve never heard anything good about the Sonic Stage software, but this is a new version, so maybe they got it right this time. I guess we’ll have to wait and see how smooth the transfer-to-computer and conversion from ATRAC thing is, and whether the software has Mac compatibility (earlier versions did not.)
And i’ll agree that the Marantz conpact-flash recorder is still the better choice if you can afford it and the size isn’t a problem. These new minidiscs still have inferior input jacks and mediocre metering. We’ll have to wait for some real tests to talk about sound quality.
Thanks again Alan!
For an initial report of hands-on experience with the new Hi-MD recorders see:http://www.minidisc.org/himd_mdcenter_news.html
Of course Sony has to make things complicated. This all raises a number of new questions. Here are some excerpts:
# High speed MD to PC uploading can be performed with recordings made from mic, line & optical sources.
# All Hi-MD formats that can be recorded with the units themselves can be uploaded (i.e. PCM, Hi-SP & Hi-LP).
# Uploaded tracks can [currently] only be played back on the PC by using the supplied SonicStage2 ("SS2") software.
# Extended SonicStage software will become available that will be able to burn audio-CD’s.
# Exporting from Extended-SS2 to WAV is still unknown.
# The transfer rate of a data mode file copy (same 200MB video file) from MD to PC (i.e. upload) is 6.22 Mbps (Sony datasheet says 4.37 Mbps)
# All recorded audio is placed in a collection of ".hma" files (of unknown format) in a single directory on the MD. One large .hma file contains all the audio-data, the other files are for index-data & titles. These ".hma" files can be freely copied back to the PC hard drive, but no subsequent playback of them is possible. (They present fertile ground for further investigation however).
Alan: This was extremely helpful info. Have you heard anything regarding the use of PCM? I’ve read conflicting info about MD to PC transfer via USB. Can I pull .WAV files from the MD directly? I’m trying to decide between MiniDisc and the Marantz 660–the latter, though much nicer, simply costs too much. MD’s quirks–like this analog transfer business–almost make the Maranz worth it. Your thoughts?
I haven’t used the Hi-MD minidisc recorders. I’d already moved to a Marantz PMD670. For info on Hi-MD I’d go to minidisc.org, especially discussion forums.
My understanding of the conversion process is that it involves multiple steps, including use of SonicStage to initially upload the protected recordings. There are also some limitations on what you can convert. I’m not sure how reliable it is.
See Sony’s WAV Conversion Tool:
http://www.sony.net/Products/Hi-MD/nf_wavcot.html
http://sonyelectronics.sonystyle.com/walkmanmc/wav.html
I have given up on SONY HI MD. Too much data loss. Twice I have had important interviews locked up on disks because of, maybe, minor nudges of the device during data transfer.
Sound quality is excellent, but the software for transfer is too touchy — and the customer support pathetic. Data retrieveal estimates ranged from a minimum of $600 just to look at it up to $3500.
WA