let me rephrase my question.. i know that i can just play the mp3's from my computer and just hit record on the MD.. but is there a way to just kinda do a file transfer w/o having to be recording in real time? see my problem is that my computer sucks hairy monkey balls and theres something wrong w/ it and it always kinda skips forward or like fast frwd through songs and theres no way to make it stop.. so if this is the only way for me to do it... then im screwed.

usually u have to plug the optical cable into the soundcard output from the MD's input and stream yes, but some minidisc's have some magical abilities to just drag and drop songs using explorer.

The MP3 thing u speak of can be done this way, because the new minidisc recorders actually turn the music into mp3's anyway, because thats how so much can be put on a single minidisc with the new recorders. There not any bigger, but it compresses the sound. It usually has a little picture of 3 CD's on the front (I think it mite be called long play for a minidisc or something like that). I think most if not all minidiscs can plug into ur inputs/outputs, but some have another little picture on saying they have special PC compatibility, this is the 'magic' i talk of. If it don't have that i think u mite be fekkered, but minidiscs arn't my specialty...

Hope it helps m8.

a few corrections:

minidisc does not use mp3 compression, it uses ATRAC compression, which is very similar but not the same.

they can record in stereo, LP2, or LP4, which gives you 1, 2, or 4CDs worth of time respectively. stereo is good, LP2 sounds almost indistinguishable, and LP4 loses quite a bit, the bass is lacking.

you can record in mono too, i haven't tried that yet, not reccomended for anything but voice recordings. i am going to try recording some stuff in mono tonite, i will let you know the results.

also the picture on the front of the MD is 4 CDS not three.

as for digital transfer.. this is something i don't know a lot about, i have the MZ-R500, and it only records in real time.

my friend has the 909 though, and he says there is a lot of pain in the ass stuff with it. Digital Rights Management it is called. it prevents you from transferring stuff, unless you have the rights to it. this is a PAIN in the ass.

you can read all about Minidiscs at minidisc.org

I stand corrected, , i dont own a minidisc player/recorder (although i want one) so cheers for clearing up a few things.

glad you took that well, some people would take it as in insult and get all angry..

cheers!

BTW, i tried recording in mono last night. I had assumed that mono/stereo was independant of the LP2, LP4 settings. but it isn't. so when you put it in mono, it isn't compressed at all. meaning, you get double the length of recording, at full quality. but it only lasts as long as an LP2 recording. there is no option to put it in mono and LP4 and get 8 times the recording length.

bummer. that would be nice for recording long spoken word pieces.