Memory Stick Help

[jonny5]

I just got my UX-50, now I need to get a memory stick....MY questions are:

1) whats the difference between the mem stick and magicgate?

2) Must I buy a sony brand mem. stick or will others suffice?

3) is 128 mb too small?

[Vagrant]

1 Magic Gate memory stick has on board encryption support
to allow for storage of copy-protected things like sony's ATTRAC3.
This will work in your UX50. (Basically you wouldn't need this if you were going to use the stick in a Camera since it cannot typically "play music", or if you were going to use MP3 songs). All the "Pro" memory sticks have Magic Gate anyways and work fine in the UX50. Sony ATRAC3 is proprietary and works only in specific devices that support it. (like your UX)

2 I own Sony, Sandisk & Lexar branded memory sticks. They all work, in all the Sony and any other brand devices I own that read memory sticks. I've not found an advantage of one over the other except for the warranty. Basically, find the lowest price from a retailer you trust.

3 128MB is relative to what you'll be doing with the UX50 and what your budget will allow. I purchased a 512MB Sandisk Memory stick Pro and it does the job for me. I have music, video and other stuff on there and still have room to spare. Someone posted this rule of thumb on the board and it rings true; "Buy the biggest memory stick you can afford".

[dwig]

#3: The answer depends on what you will do with it.

128 meg is HUGE for users storing eBooks, database files, PalmOS applications, ... . Most would never fill such a card. You can place 6-12 months of reading material for a avid reader on only 32meg, assuming 1-2 novel length books per week.

128 meg is modest for users storing audio files. Most would want more as this would hold 1-2 CDs, depending on compression.

128 meg is rather small for users storing video files. Most would want much more as this would hold only about 30-60 minutes of video, depending on compression and resolution. Its possilbe to squeeze 90 minutes max onto a 128meg card.

[Blu3Sab3r]

90 minutes? Is that with Image Converter because my DVD movies, when converted to MPG with TMPG (IMO greatest program to use), take at least 1 GB in total. Though it is in HIGHEST quality, quite lenghty and great sound. How much does Image Converter compress because if it does the job, I'ma get a 512MB Memory stick.