Yes, you can label with artist, song title, genre, and a couple more fields......it wouldn't pick up your existing MD labels unfortunately.
If you were to transfer from MD to iPod, it would be quite easy for you.
The one thing you would need is a computer (PC or Mac) to transfer your MD tracks to.
You would need iTunes, which is an apple program that comes with your iPod.
You would take your line out of you MD and go into the audio line in on your computer.
The application you would be taking your music into would be iTunes.
Once you have your MD tracks onto the computer and into iTunes the rest is simple and painless.
You just place your iPod in it's dock, which is connected to your computer, and between the iPod and iTunes, all the work is done for you.
The tracks will just show up on your iPod.
You will have done all your re-labeling in iTunes, and those new titles will pop up on your iPod.

It actually sounds far more complicated than it really is. From the sounds of how much work you've done with MD's, you have more than enough chops to deal with the iPod.

Having said all of that though, I do believe that if your MD is serving you well right now, then you have no real need to change for the sake of changing.
Perhaps you might consider buying an iPod for your personal listening pleasure, and as you learn to use it in a non-critical way like personal listening, you'll get a lot more confident if and when you decide to transfer your MD tracks to another format.

Another thing you might consider is making your iPod purchase from an Apple Store or from an Apple dealer. They support these things just like they support their computers.
You might not get that level of support from an audio superstore.

But put your mind at ease, the software, and the hardware are incredibly simple to use, and the only real grunt work I can see is what you've already recognized, and that's the need to re-label your audio material.
And if the MD still does exactly what you want it to do, then you really only need a plan to migrate to another platform should Sony stop making MD units, you don't have to actually do it.
Even if they did stop making them, if your MD was in good health, you'd still be fine for a couple more years, which is plenty of time to migrate your shows over.

Thanks Silverking. Excellent advice.

A few more question about the IPod:

I am assuming from your post that you can group songs with IPod, but can you change the order of the tracks easily? The groups on the MD make it much easier to keep up with all this. Also, will it recognize very low volumes, or blank spots when transferring music to it? Will that mess up the track marks? Will it leave my up and down volume levels alone?

I love being able to record with a line in on the MD. I also love the removable media of the MD. I set up (arrange the track order) several discs prior to showtime and I'm ready to go. I guess I would need multiple IPods to do that.

Thanks for all your help!

Regan

Hi Regan,
Yes, you can group songs with the iPod. You wouldn't need multiple iPods to do what you're describing, you could prepare multiple "Playlists" and have them all on your single iPod.
The only thing to note is that you would have to prepare the playlists at your computer, and then transfer them to your iPod.
You could have 10 songs on your iPod, and have those same ten songs arranged into 20 different playlists, all on the same iPod.

Think of an individual playlist like an individual Mini-Disc, you could have 10 playlists, all with different things on them.....and each of those playlists would be the same as one of your individual Mini-Discs.

The playlist is one of the most powerful features on an iTunes/iPod system. You don't have to physically construct seperate playlists, just drag individual songs into the playlists that you create, and then when you bring them up on your iPod, all the palylists are listed out, and all the songs that you put on each playlist are available to play.
One playlist could be your weekend show, another could be your under five years old show, another could be your adult show......each playlist could contain the same ten songs, but in a completely different order.

The iPod has a volume option that you would turn OFF which means the iTunes makes no attempts to tamper with your pre-set volumes. Your up and down volume settings would remain exactly as they are. Also, remember that although we're talking about iPods, much of the work that you're concerned about is actually taking place in iTunes. iTunes is something that you could take a look at well in advance of purchasing an iPod.
Head on over to Apples website and download iTunes for free.
http://www.apple.com/itunes/

Silverking, Thank you so much. This is sounding better and better.

Are you telling me that I could go ahead and download iTunes and set up a playlist, etc. right now? Can I download from my MD and get one ready? I hate SonicStage software. I wish I knew another way to download from my MD.

Is there a way to duplicate a song in iTunes? I have some routines that I may do in each show. With multiple discs on my MD, I only need one copy of the song on each disc. Then I arrange each show on a seperate disc, so I'm always covered. I would probably like to set up like 5 identical playlists. Easy to do?

Regan

Yes, you can download it onto your computer, load it up with some of the songs on your exissting Mini Discs and start playing around with playlists.
It's free, and available for PC's or Mac's.

In iTunes, even though you may use the same song in 20 different playlists, you only ever have one copy of the song on iTunes, and on your iPod.....it's the playlists that put that single song into multiple different lists, each one completely different from the other.....but there's only one phyisical version of the song on your iPod.

One other thing you'll need to play around with this is an audio in on your computer, and the appropriate cable to get from the output of your MD player into your computers audio input.
Once you've got that, you set the input in iTunes to "LINE IN" and begin the transfer process.
You'll probably have to kick around it for a bit before you get it all happening, especially if you havn't done it before, but it's something that has been designed by Apple to be easy for everybody.

You could transfer all your MD music to iTunes, play around with it for months or even years while using your MD, and then at a time of your choosing, all you need to do is purchase an iPod, put it in it's dock hooked up to your computer, and wait five minutes......and you'll be ready to go.
You can do all of this with the free iTunes software, you don't need to buy anything but the cable from the MD player to your computer, which you may already have, it's probably a 1/8" to 1/8" phone plug cable.

Man, this is sounding better and better. What started out as a fearful idea actually sounds pretty good now.

With an iPod I could have the wireless remote that I covet so much. I may not do it today, or next week, or next year, but eventually I may go this way. If MD becomes obsolete, I will have an option.

Sony has so many different models of the MD that do this or that, it is terribly confusing. I really believe if they had been smarter about standardization of their MD, it would been more popular. It has been a difficult task for me just to learn which of the new MD models, or which older MD models has the line out, line in and/or digital input jacks.

I mean you have a MZ-NH900 that has it, then an MZ-NH600D that does not. An NZ-NHF800 does not, but a MZ-NH1 does. Then, with the newer models the MZ-RH10 has it, but the MZ-DH10P doesn't. Plus there is Hi-MD and MD, etc, etc, etc. So many variations and combinations.

This is just a few models Sony has developed in the few years MD has existed. I keep running across models that I have never heard of before. There are many, and it is confusing to say the least.

It is ashame, because I personally love the MD, but there are problems and I am afraid it will eventually cease to exist. It seems to me that most of these problems would be so easy to corect too. But with iPod, Sony is playing catch uop now.

I may still use mine, even if I get an iPod. I will definitly try to pick up a few back up MDs along if I see a really good deal.

Thanks again for all your help. You have turned my bleak, worrisome outlook into a bright, obtainable possibility for me.

Regan