MiniDisc player transfer rates?

Factual Questions
1

I’m looking to get an MD player/recorder from Santa this year.

I’ve heard about a new entry-level model, the MZ-R505, which is supposed to be really hot stuff in that it will allow you to move 80 minutes worth of music from your PC to the player in around three minutes. It costs about $200.

Is this a significant difference from the current intro model, the MZ-R500? I vaguely recall something to the effect that the older models will only let you transfer stuff @ 1X, which could be a real pain if I want to record 5 hours worth of stuff.

Which brings to mind another question: the two figures I keep seeing everywhere are “80 minute discs” and “5 hours on a single disc.” What do they mean with these figures? 80 minutes in full-blown CD audio and five hours of utlracompressed lowfi mud? What effect does it have on the “real time” transfer rate? For instance, could I transfer 5 hours of compressed audio in 80 minutes? That wouldn’t be too intolerable.

One more question:

Is it possible to transfer audio from the MD to the PC via the USB adapter thing? Most of my music consists of vinyl, and the soundcard in my notebook sucks. I’d like to record off of my stereo on the MD and arrange my mixes on the PC, as well as do some live band recording.

The 500 is going for significantly cheaper on ebay right now, hence my curiosity.

Thanks.

2

'scuse me.

The new model is the MZ-N505, not R505.

3

Well, here and here are listings of Sony’s line of Minidisc players. I don’t see MX-N505 anywhere. And I checked some of the models, and none of them mention being able to record fast. I think they’re still limted to 1X.

Is it a Sharp player/recorder?

4

Here’s where I read it, but I can’t find any information at all from Sony.

5

I missed this part when I was first reading teh article:

Duh.

Anyway, my other two questions still stand…

6

If the player has the “MDLP” logo on it, you can record up to 320 minutes in LP mode. The MDLP compatible units now have four recording modes:

Stereo - 80 min
LP2 Stereo - 160 min
LP4 Stereo - 320 min
Monaural - 160 min

NOTE - recodrings made in LP2 or LP4 mode can not be played back on units that do not have the MDLP logo.

This is achieved through compression of course. The operator’s manual for my brand new MZR700 says that LP4 mode may result in some background noise behind the recording.

I almost bought the 750 which has the PC bundle but the retailer was out of that model so I ended up with the 700, so I can’t comment on the data transfer rate from PC to MD.

7

Cool. That’s what I thought.