Sony TZ MagicGate question..

Hi,
What is the best MagicGate card I can get? I am looking them up and they are all saying that they are for PSP is that the same card? Also would that be good to keep all my pictures on? Currently I don't have any of my pictures on the TZ (so I don't use all the memory up) and was thinking of getting a card to keep them on.. that a good idea???

Thanks

 

The MagicGate bit just refers to Sony's proprietary DRM (urgh!)... so you don't need that bit just to store images. You only need MG if you've encoded songs using Sony's network walkman (or whatever they call it) software. Like all DRM, MagicGate should not be touched with a proverbial bargepole.

Any Memory Stick Pro or Memory Stick Pro Duo card should be fine.

 

so what do u guys suggest? What is the biggest MB I can get for the TZ and also is there a better brand as far as speed and quality that I should buy? I currently have all my songs (mp3's not acc (is that what sony uses?) in the hd, should I put them all on the Memory stick w/the pictures???

 

You needn't store anything on memory stick if you have enough room on your harddrive (it's always worth having a backup though, just in case!).

If you're running out of room, the best cost per GB (while still being very portable and not needing a power supply) is one of the little bus powered external HDs - something like the Western Digital Passport series. I bought a 320GB model the other week for less than £100 from Amazon.

If you don't want to carry that around with you and want something that fits in the laptop, then yes a memory stick (or SD card or ExpressCard34 SSD) would be OK. For just storing files, speed isn't such an issue. Using the card for Readyboost in Vista is a different story - you need a very fast Memory Stick to make it worthwhile.

Sandisk and Sony are probably the best brands for memory stick media, I reckon. I use several Sandisk Ultra III and Ultra IV CF cards for my photography and they've never let me down, so personally I'd choose Sandisk.

As far as I'm aware, the very fastest memory stick format - Pro Duo HG - isn't supported by the TZ's slot. These cards will still work but only at normal Pro Duo speeds, so no need to waste your money on those.

Personally I have far too many MP3s and images to fit on any sort of flash based media so the external HD is the only option for me. It depends on how many songs and images you're talking about...

 

I am such a nubie.. what is Readyboost for? I have Vista and the TZ 150 w/2gb Ram (so guess that would make it a TZ170 ) but could u explain the use of Readyboost (I'm getting ready to go into work but I will also do a search on it once I get in) but I'm not really hurting for memory on my harddrive, I'm just looking out for the future and I know pictures are a hog. I have them all on my desktop computer but was scared to throw them on the TZ due to such small HD and figured that I would use HD for programs. not to mention a slot for a memory stick which I don't even use. I thought might as well put that slot 2 use right?

 

If your TZ has a normal harddrive (100 or 120GB perhaps) and a DVD burner, then your hard disk will be spinning at 4200rpm, which is slow.

Readyboost is a Windows feature new to Vista, which aims to speed up performance by using a fast flash drive as a cache to speed up things like application start times, etc.

On the TZ, the fastest slot to use for flash media is probably the Memory Stick slot, so I think it's worth buying a 4GB Memory Stick Pro (or Pro Duo) and using it for Readyboost. As you say, you can deal with long term storage on your desktop and just have the programs and data you need on the move with you on the TZ's harddrive.

If you've got an SSD - solid state disk (32, 48 or 64GB) - in your TZ, it's a completely different story... because the drive will already be faster than flash cards even for random accesses, so you won't gain anything noticeable from using Readyboost. But if you've only got 32GB of main storage, you'd no doubt appreciate getting some extra space and in this case I'd buy the largest memory card you can afford, just to use to store your files.

In summary, if you have an SSD, you could buy a large Memory Stick Pro (or Pro Duo) card to use as storage, but don't bother with Readyboost.
If you have a regular spindle based hard disk, especially a 4,200rpm model like you get in TZs with DVD, then you would probably see some (admittedly small) performance benefit from using a fast Memory Stick for Readyboost.

 

Thank you InfyMcGirk,

I do have the 120GB HD and DVD burner and from what I have read about Readyboost you can't even tell the difference so would I be better just buying like a 8GB Memory Stick to keep say pictures and mp3's or would I still be better off getting the 4GB MS (which one is the best for readyboost) and increasing speed via Readyboost? I have done a clean sweep of the computer to get all the Sony crap out and took out the patition as well as increased the max Rom...

 

now to make me sound really dumb. I ordered a Sony 8GB Pro Duo w/ Memory Stick adapter so now do I need to use the adapter or just put the card in and does it go into the MagicGate slot? Lastly (and prob. must dumbest) is the MagicGate thing u push to open stay out? I believe it does but it looks like there are 2 compartments in there. Is that to store memory cards or just there 4 no reason and just a dust cover? I notic that the SD slot below it doesn't have any cover