OT: Just purchased Hi-MD recorder...

corug7 wrote on 8/6/2004, 8:31 AM
I just purchased a new Sony Hi-MD MZ800 over Ebay. Should be getting it in a few days. I know there have been some threads recently regarding their fitness for event sound recording, so I will be the Guinea Pig and let you guys know. If any of the rest of you have used them yet, please post about it. I'll be using it to record sound at a wedding on the 14th, so I'll give a first impressions post when I get it, and an in depth analysis of its use in the field.

Corey

Comments

klaatu wrote on 8/6/2004, 9:18 AM
I have an older SHARP model of portable mini-disc recorder, and it works great !!!! While it does compress the audio quite a bit, it still sounds excellent; it only removes a SMALL portion of the highs, but so small you almost can't hear it. My only advice to you is to get ( 2 ) "Plate" mics ( Radio Shack used to sell them ) to capture your sound in true stereo. The Plate mics allow you to capture the sound just like your ear would normally hear. The only drawback to these kind of mics is that unless the sound source is quite loud, they have to be relatively close to the source. They're good for recording music; if it's speech your trying to record from a distance then consider SHURE wireless mics or my favorite the AUDIO-TECHNICA "Shotgun" mic - it works perfectly !!!!
BrianStanding wrote on 8/6/2004, 1:21 PM
Looking forward to hearing the review.
corug7 wrote on 8/16/2004, 9:42 AM
So far I'm not a fan...

Was very excited to get my hands on this piece of equipment since it can record in uncompressed PCM for an hour and a half, so I was really eager to use it at the wedding I taped last weekend. Ran into a few problems though, and I don't know if it was user error, hardware error, or media problems.

The 800, like it's predecessors, is an ultra-compact MD player/recorder. What sets it apart from its brethren is its ability to record on 1GB disks in PCM audio without compression, and the ability to quickly upload recorded files to a computer.

The controls on the unit are very small. There are also some buttons on a breakout tuner that are necessary to control some of the functions on the recorder. The buttons on this controller are placed somewhat awkwardly on both sides of the tuner, and it is often difficult to push one button without pushing another placed opposite of the one you are trying to push.

Many of the functions on this unit are accessed via a very complicated menu system. Trust me when I say that the "out of the box" functionality of this unit is near zero for those who have not used anything similar to this unit (me). Trying to change mic gain, ACG, recording quality, and other functions necessary for using this recorder in our industry requires several hours of getting aquainted with the rather large manual, and then fiddling with the recorder.

The sound quality when using PCM audio at low mic levels and auto gain turned off is fabulous, and should satisfy most videographers looking for an economical digital recording medium. I have not attempted to use any of the ATRAC recording formats yet.

I have encountered several problems while trying to use this unit to record sound, he most annoying and somewhat depressing being the tendancy for the unit to display a constantly flashing "System File Writing" message after recording. After recording a 1 minute test before the wedding I was working last weekend, I waited 10 minutes for the message to stop flashing before removing the brand new battery from the back of my unit and deciding that I would just have to go with ambient sound. I do not yet know if this is due to a hardware glitch or bad media, because the new 1GB media is not readily available at most of the common outlets (Best Buy, Wal-Mart, etc.). The unit will accept the old 300MB MD's, but PCM recording would be drastically limited. I also have not yet tried to contact customer assistance.

So far I have found the use of the 800 to be frustrating at best. That one cannot just press "RECORD" and have it record is hard to believe in this day and age. There is a "Simple" and "Advanced" menu system option, but both are difficult to navigate without reading the manual through.

Has no one learned anything from the IPOD...

Corey
riredale wrote on 8/16/2004, 10:26 AM
I suggest that perhaps you bought too much technology. I have a couple of old Sharp MD-MT15 units (about $60 on eBay) that record regular old ATRACS on conventional 80-minute Minidiscs, and they're wonderful. The ATRACS compression is comparable to but better than mp3, and while most people can't hear much of a difference between 128Mb mp3 and raw audio, imagine that here we're using a superior compression system running at 300Mb/sec! In other words, if you can hear ANY difference, your ears are a lot better than mine.

The Sharp units are very easy to operate. I had one mounted to the back of my VX2000 this summer for my surround-sound documentary shooting; to get started from the off condition all I did was hit the "Record" button, wait a few seconds for the unit to be ready, and then hit the "Play" button. That's it. Between takes I would hit the "Pause" button. You can adjust the recording level with the "<<" and ">>" buttons while recording. It doesn't get much easier than this.

When shutting down, it does take a moment for the Minidisc recorder to write the TOC. I suspect the problem with your unit is that it is dealing to a huge amount of data, so it takes correspondingly longer to finish. In my case, even after a continuous 1-hour take, it would need maybe 30 seconds to finish.

Anyway, hopefully some food for thought. These units have been bulletproof and I have never heard any glitch or dropout.