h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I want to buy a mini disc player for going on my travels. I don't know where to start!
I have been advised to buy Sony.

I need to get a recordable one and i'd like it to have the little remote control panel. I also want to be able to take it jogging, but I gather the cheaper ones skip - is it really bad?

I have seen G protection mentioned as well as G protection jog proof. Is there a difference? Are they worth getting?

I don't want to spend huge amounts of money on this, but that's starting to look a little inevitable.

Please send any advice my way!

AFAIK - G Protection and G Protection Jog Proof are one and the same. It should allow you to listen while jogging but beware it can eat into the battery life. I would recommend Sony, Have purchased 2 MD players myself (both Sony) and had no probs with either. The first one I purchased is still going strong - I bought the second cause it was smaller and lighter and hooked the old one to my hifi for recording only. If you want to take a look at other manufacturers I'd suggest staying away from anyone other than Sharp or Panasonic.

Sony generally have 4 current models on the market at any one time. The one below the top of the range is usually a good buy with a fair amount of features bu if you can afford to pay for the top whack model - do it. Anything else I can help with?

Thanks for that advice - much needed!
Do you think it is worth the extra cost to get the NET ones, or can you easily make do with the normal type of recording?
I'm trying to keep the price as low as poss, as i want my travelling budget to be the maximum it can be!

If you're content purely recording direct from CD to disc then it's not worth the extra cash but if you're travelling - think about whether you'll have regular access to a hifi to be able to record new stuff. If you're going to be travelling where net access is easy, maybe it's worth the cash as you can change your playlist as regularly as you like and not have to carry too many discs.

I opted to go for the model without net features purely because I don't have a PC fast enough to download decently.

Good thinking.....
I'll chew on it for a bit - might get back to you when I've been to the shops for a look around.
Thanks a million - I am very grateful!
Ferino

Happy to help. I knew being a gadget freak would come in handy one day. And feel free to ask me anything else when you've had a look round!

The mini-disc standard defines a 10 second shock prevention memory as standard. Even the really cheap ones that don't specifically advertise that they have shock prevention should have this and so shouldn't skip. Most have 40+ seconds of memory but you really shouldn't ever need more than the basic 10 seconds.

i thought they all had permanent shock protection, my one is quite old and it has it, go to the sony homepage, i think it www.sony.com and look throught those to see what you want, the new one looks briliant

(Having problems logging in as Ferino, so have reverted to this username...)

Is the anti-shock good enough for jogging? I have heard that it's ok for the odd bump, but the memory doesn't help if you're out for a run - you have to stop and let it recover before going on. That's really what I'm unsure about.

I am very pleased with my Sony mini disc player. It was the first generation PC connectable, so I could download all my MP3s. It was recommended by our local hifi shop, they said it was the only thing Sony still did well, before I get sued: it was their statement not mine.

The newer version is even easier to connect to a PC, I believe.

Excellent choice my friend, I bought a Mindisc player over a year ago and havent looked back yet. Loads of my friends have even started to get them after seeing what I was doing with mine.
One bit of advise, just make sure it has a long play function (LP4) is perfect.

Lord Smooth

Well, I've checked out sonystyle-europe.com and have found the MZ-N510 for £169.
It has net function, remote control, g protection and sonic stage, whatever that may be.
Do all you experts think that's a good price? would i be mad to buy it? (or mad not to?!)

Sonic Stage is the software that allows you to collect your mp3 music off your p.c. and download to your disc player.

That may as well have been in Greek, i dunno how that is so good. I am not au fait with the whole mp3 business. I thought you could download your music from your pc with any of the recording players?? Are MP3s different?

I have the MZN707. It cost about 175 pounds sterling. However a much cheaper option is an mp3 flash drive & player if you just want mp3 music from the p.c. its small and holds 64 meg of mp3 files. Only cost 60 pounds sterling from http://www.maplin.co.uk!

Is 64 meg good? (Technophobe!)
I'll check it out, ta muchly!

mp3 songs are generally 3-5 meg each. So 12-15 songs can be recorded to the players memory at any one time. I bought one for my daughter last week. Simple plug in to your p.c. via usb port. It is viewed as an additional drive on your p.c. so you can just drag and drop files from where-ever they are stored. I ordered one day - it was delivered the next!

That would prob be ideal if i was going to stay at home for a while, but I'm off round the world for a year and don't know how easily i'll be able to access new tunes, so I'd say the 12-15 would get a bit boring fairly quickly.
Looks like i'm going to have to fork out for the MD....
Thanks for the tip, though - good to know about for future reference.

I have also got an MS Walkman, which has a memory stick. I bought the mini disc player as it is a lot cheaper to buy the discs than a new memory stick if you want to listen to more than 1 CD. Although, I expect there are sticks with bigger memories now, even so 10 or so of those are going to cost a lot more than 20 discs, ot whatever the storage equivalent is.

I would go with the MD player. I don't LP is all that important, Ive only used that function once. But it depends on the type of music you prefer, the lenght of the recordings etc.

Ive just bought a sony minidisc player very cheap. The only problem is it has got a foriegn plug to re charge the battery. Ive looked in all the shops and there are no adapters for this specific plug. I was wondering can you buy the special batteries or would i need to fond an adaptor that fits.