Jump to content

cbmuser

Members
  • Posts

    103
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    2

Everything posted by cbmuser

  1. You should post these questions to the mailing list here: https://lists.fu-berlin.de/listinfo/linux-minidisc#subscribe As for SP downloads, it should be possible to perform these downloads using "netmdcli" which is available on MacOS and Linux. Don't know whether we currently have Windows builds for the CLI utilities. Adrian
  2. Hi, MacOS X users, please download the release candidates for VLC 2.0 here: http://download.videolan.org/pub/testing/vlc-2.0.0-rc1/macosx/ These versions support decrypting of encrypted ATRAC-1 and ATRAC-3 files . For Windows: http://download.videolan.org/pub/testing/vlc-2.0.0-rc1/win32/ Linux users will have compiled versions of VLC 2.0 available in their favorite distribution soon. Adrian
  3. Because the code is still WIP. Please check this status table regularly, it still says *experimental*: https://wiki.physik....doku.php#status We just managed to successfully write a MP3 to a HiMD device and play it back: https://lists.fu-ber...y/msg00005.html This work will be finished after this years' Google Summer of Code, I am currently preparing the task lists for the students who are going to work on it! Adrian
  4. Hey guys, sorry for not checking back here for a long time! I have had to move from country to country, so you can guess I have been quite busy. Anyway, there are several good news. 1) The upcoming major official release of VLC contains the universal OMA decryptor which allows to decrypt ALL files encrypted by SonicStage without having to have SonicStage installed or the keys backed up. Very useful for people who had to reinstall their computers and can't play back their content anymore. Fetch preview versions of VLC here: Win32: http://nightlies.videolan.org/build/win32/last/ Win64: http://nightlies.videolan.org/build/win64/last/ MacOS (Intel): http://nightlies.videolan.org/build/macosx-intel/?C=M;O=D MacOS (PPC): http://nightlies.videolan.org/build/macosx/?C=M;O=D Note: The 2.0 versions for MacOS do not play back these encrypted files at the moment due to a bug which is supposed to be fixed in the release version. 2) The free ATRAC3+ decoder for VLC/ffmpeg is nearly complete and to be expected within the next months. With this decoder, VLC/ffmpeg will also be able to play back ATRAC recordings made with the latest generation of HiMD devices. 3) We will be getting two slots for this years' Google Summer of Code again through VideoLAN. This means, development will gain another boost. 4) HiMD write support has been successfully shown to work for the first time. I was able to transfer an MP3 using "himdcli" on Linux with my MZ-RH10 and it worked! We just need to fix some bugs in this area . @THIS SUCKS: NetMD transfers already work, but there is no UI integration due to some bugs yet. Sorry, been busy. But it *does* work! Development will gain another boost during Google Summer of Code 2012. We will have two dedicated students again who will work on the project and get paid. The previous GSoC (2011) already brought major steps forward in the NetMD development (see the progress here: http://www.ohloh.net/p/linux-minidisc). So, while I would like to apologize for the slow progress, please let me tell you that we are still working on the project and it just takes an incredible amount of time and effort. I understand your frustration, but I can promise you that we are still working and we will get to the point that we will have a full-featured SonicStage replacement, cross-plattform WITH SP downloads. This years' GSoC should bring us there or at least very close to it. I promise! So, again. Very sorry for the slow pace. But we're still going strong! Adrian
  5. Yes, the previous versions were still buggy which resulted in a crash of VLC when opening an .oma file. Also, some DLL files were missing and have now been added. More updated versions: https://rapidshare.c...r_mac64_drm.zip - QHiMDTransfer - MacOS 64-bit https://rapidshare.c...mdcli_mac64.zip - himdcli - MacOS 64-bit (command line version for HiMD transfer) https://rapidshare.c...mdcli_mac64.zip - netmdcli - MacOS 64-bit (command line transfer utility for NetMD) https://rapidshare.c...r_mac32_drm.zip - QHiMDTransfer - MacOS 32-bit https://rapidshare.c...mdcli_mac32.zip - himdcli - MacOS 32-bit (command line version for HiMD transfer) https://rapidshare.c...mdcli_mac32.zip - netmdcli - MacOS 32-bit (command line transfer utility for NetMD) https://rapidshare.c...0-git-win32.zip - Updated version of VLC for Windows with integrated decryptor (in case it didn't work for some before on Windows) The usage of netmdcli and himdcli on MacOS is not straight-forward, please see: http://www.minidiscforum.de/forum/download/file.php?id=1635&mode=view Adrian
  6. https://rapidshare.com/files/3217379360/ffmpeg-plumbojumbo-970d362.zip - ffmpeg - Windows https://rapidshare.com/files/910579041/vlc-1.2.0-git-win32.zip - VLC - Windows https://rapidshare.com/files/790979033/VLC_oma_64bit.app.zip - VLC - MacOS 64-bit
  7. It's probably missing some DLL files. As I said, this is just an early test version. To fix the problem, you can try the following: 1. Download the current nighly build of VLC for Windows and install it. http://nightly.videolan.org/build/win32/last/ 2. Replace the installed files in the VLC program folder with the one from the ZIP archive supplied above. I will try to reproduce the problem myself. EDIT: I just tried running that VLC version I linked on Windows 2003 Server and it worked fine. Do you get any specific error message? EDIT2: Ok, I should have read more carefully. You said, that it actually crashed upon opening one of your files. I cannot test that at the moment since I don't have any sample files right now. But you may still try the above suggestion and also check if you get any error messages. ffmpeg has to be run from the command line, it doesn't have any GUI. Adrian
  8. Hi, for anyone who wants to try it out, here is a preview version of VLC and ffmpeg with the integrated decryptor. https://rapidshare.com/files/1586631008/vlc-1.2.0-git-win32.zip https://rapidshare.com/files/76562274/ffmpeg_win32.zip These versions of VLC and ffmpeg should be able to playback ALL encrypted .oma files (PCM, ATRAC-SP, ATRAC3), no matter whether SonicStage is installed or not. ATRAC3+ are not YET supported, as the source code for the decoder hasn't been finished yet. But anyone who has unplayable .oma files lying around on their hard drives should try this out. Adrian
  9. Hello guys, finally some very good news from our Google Summer of Code students projects: Both students appear to have passed their tasks (it's not yet official) and have therefore achieved the planned goals. I will shortly inform you about the status of each project now. 1. Updating libnetmd The first student had the task to revive the abandoned project "libnetmd" and extend its functionality with transfer capabilities (up- and downloads) with the help of our documentation and our Python NetMD code. The idea behind this project was to provide an easy-to-use NetMD library which can be integrated into QHiMDTransfer and other software (like VLC, for example) to extend these applications with the capability to connect to NetMD devices. The advantage over our previous method of using Python scripts is that libnetmd does not require the installation of any additional software (like Python) except for a special USB driver for libusb. After integration into QHiMDTransfer, all NetMD devices can be accessed from a simple and neat graphical user interface. Both uploads (transfer from the device, MZ-RH1/M200 only) and downloads (transfer to the device, all NetMD devices) are available. Since all NetMD devices can encode SP audio on the fly, SP downloads are available as well. The input files have to be in PCM (WAV) format. There are no software SP encoders available as of today, decoding in VLC is supported however (for uploads made with the MZ-RH1/M200). The libnetmd code is not yet merged into our mainline code or QHiMDTransfer, but it is ready and will be worked on in the following weeks. You can expect updated versions of QHiMDTransfer in 1-2 months. The source code of the newly updated libnetmd version can currently be accessed here: https://github.com/AlexanderS/linux-minidisc 2. ffmpeg OMA/ATRAC improvements The goal of this task was two-fold. First task was to extend VLC with the capability to playback encrypted .oma audio files generated by SonicStage. The motivation behind this is the common problem many users of SonicStage experienced: The have a large library of audio files in SonicStage and then have to reinstall their computer for some reason or move the audio files to another computer. Since the audio files are encrypted with a dynamic key created by the installed instance of SonicStage, it is not possible to playback these files without the help of the installed version of SonicStage with a specific set of keys. Fortunately, Sony included a back door in this encryption scheme for .oma files which allows ALL .oma files to be decrypted using a known master key. Knowing this ability, we had the idea to integrate a decryption functionality into VLC and ffmpeg which was then eventually performed by the second student. After having been seriously sick for several weeks, the student finally managed to finish the decryption code. After being reviewed and polished, we can expect this decryption code to be part of one of the next releases of VLC. The decryption function has one minor disadvantage. Due to copyright reasons, it would be illegal to include the secret master key for the .oma files into VLC. This means, that VLC will not be able to decrypt .oma files by default unless a key is provided. However, this key merely consists of a series of alpha-numerical characters and will leak into the interwebs once the appropriate version of VLC has been released. It is also possible to build a "dirty" version of VLC which will already include the keys in the source code. We're thinking of distributing this version through Rapidshare (links will follow). The code changes introducing the OMA decryptor can be found here: https://github.com/plumbojumbo/FFmpeg/commit/4d63745d422f73f8bf7c1afa42db0b0e957e633f The second part of the task was to finish the ATRAC3+ decoder in VLC/ffmpeg. Up to now, only ATRAC1 and ATRAC3 decoding is supported, while ATRAC3+ is still being work-in-progess. Since most HiMD devices store audio tracks in ATRAC3+ by default, it would be very important to have a working ATRAC3+ decoder in VLC/ffmpeg as well. Since the Google Summer of Code is almost over and the student didn't manage to work on the ATRAC3+ decoder, the task will be to work on the ATRAC3+ now. The student himself has shown interest and is willing to work on the ATRAC3+ decoder. However, since this is not covered by Google Summer of Code anymore, he will be working without getting paid. So I was thinking that we might start collecting some money and donate any amount to reward the student for his work. Donations could easily be carried out through PayPal, so I will suggest him to create a PayPal account unless someone here has a better idea. In any case, I think it would be nice to support the student financially and I will jump in with 20 Euros. So, as you guys see, this years Google Summer of Code brought a lot of progress to the MiniDisc world and if things work out well, we will have a full, free replacement of SonicStage and playback capability for ATRAC1/3/3+, even if encrypted on ALL platforms (Windows, MacOS, Linux, *BSD and so on). Adrian
  10. You guys can track the updates to the code here: https://github.com/AlexanderS/linux-minidisc Adrian
  11. And the student is back to working. Looks like he will finish his work on time . Adrian
  12. That is not correct. I have already said that we already have performed SP downloads and it works. You can just take any Linux or MacOS computer, install Python and our python-netmd package and easily download tracks in SP. All NetMD hardware does support SP downloads, it's just SonicStage which deliberately transcodes everything into LP2/LP4 to not give the user SP downloads. There is a checkbox in SonicStage which you can tick which will create MiniDiscs compatible with non-LP devices which actually generates SP downloads, however with a low quality by converting the tracks into LP2/LP4 first, then converting them back into PCM and then sending them to the NetMD device. All NetMD devices can create ATRAC SP from PCM data. The task of the Google Summer of Code student was to make the whole thing easier to use and compatible with Windows. I didn't say that it will never happen now, it just got postponed. Please don't panic. Things like these happen. Adrian
  13. The development has started in June and is still work-in-progress. You can track the changes at our student's source code repository here: https://github.com/AlexanderS/linux-minidisc Unfortunately, our student hasn't done any work recently and I currently cannot get into contact with him, so things will be delayed further, sorry . Adrian
  14. Hi guys, as some of you guys may have already heard, this year's Google Summer of Code has begun as of today and we're participating through VideoLAN (the makers of VLC) who were so kind to assign one of their students to us to work on the NetMD code. The other student is working on finalizing support for ATRAC3+ for VLC/ffmpeg including a generic OMA decryptor which will allow ALL ATRAC/PCM files saved in the oma format be decrypted and played back by VLC/ffmpeg. A very first status update has just been posted by this student on the mailing list "vlc-devel" and can be found here: http://mailman.videolan.org/pipermail/vlc-devel/2011-May/080430.html The general timeline for GSoC can be found here: http://www.google-melange.com/document/show/gsoc_program/google/gsoc2011/timeline I will keep you updated, Adrian
  15. Please join the list. It's a bit tedious to post all the news twice, it's much easier when people interested are just following us directly . https://lists.fu-berlin.de/listinfo/linux-minidisc Latest news: https://lists.fu-berlin.de/pipermail/linux-minidisc/2011-April/msg00002.html Thanks, Adrian
  16. Hi, new updates: We found a student who is going to work to finish the ATRAC3+ decoder for VLC and also integrate a decryptor for all .oma files. If things go well, VLC will be able to playback all ATRAC1/3/3+ audio, no matter if encrypted or not, by the end of this summer. We, as a project, have also applied for Google Summer of Code 2011. Unfortunately we haven't, again, been chosen this year. However, the VideoLAN guys are thinking of supporting us and transferring one of their GSoC to help us make some progress. The write support for HiMD has been implemented but is still very buggy, meaning, that it can transfer tracks onto the HiMD already. However, the tracks cannot yet be played back on the HiMD device. We already tracked down some of the problems, see the thread here [1]. Adrian [1] https://lists.fu-berlin.de/pipermail/linux-minidisc/2011-March/msg00002.html
  17. Hi, we have two important announcements these days, one is regarding write support in libhimd and the other regarding a Google Summer of Code project regarding the MiniDisc, ATRAC and VLC player. Both announcements can be read in our mailing list archives. Please follow these links. 1. https://lists.fu-berlin.de/pipermail/linux-minidisc/2011-March/msg00002.html 2. https://lists.fu-berlin.de/pipermail/linux-minidisc/2011-March/msg00000.html Looking forward to your feedback and we will hopefully find a student to work on VLC for us and the rest of the community. Google pays well =). Greetings from Norway, Adrian
  18. Well, integrating such functionality is possible and planned for version 2.x. It can be realized through ffmpeg, which allows to convert from everything to almost everything when it comes to formats. I doubt though, that it can be done for Sonic Stage. Adrian
  19. Hi, for the people interested, there is a tool which allows you to recover your old SonicStage music library after a Windows re-installation or computer crash. It requires that you have a backup of the files in the directory "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sony Shared\OpenMG". If you still have these from your old Windows installation and you have a collection of .oma files which you cannot access anymore due to a corrupt SonicStage installation and the fact that files are encrypted, then this tool will allow you to decrypt these files again. It comes with a readme file. http://rapidshare.com/files/444508273/openmg_20110125.zip This tool was not written by me but I compiled it and provided a readme. I simply provide the link to allow people to restore their encrypted SonicStage music library with .oma files (PCM and ATRAC3/3+). For all people who do not have a backup of the files in the aforementiond OpenMG directory anymore, you might be happy to hear that VLC is going to be able to playback such encrypted files in near future. Coming in late summer 2011, VLC will feature an ATRAC3+ decoder plus a decryptor for the .oma files. Adrian
  20. VLC actually already supports both ATRAC-SP and ATRAC3. It is, up to now, still missing an ATRAC3+ decoder and a decryptor for the oma files. The decoder is work-in-progress and almost finished. I have seen the code and it looks very promising. It still needs some final polishing and then will be part of ffmpeg and thus VLC soon. I expect a release in the summer. Adrian
  21. Hi, First of all, I would like to invite everybody interested to join our mailing list [1]. I periodically post updates on updates on the software and everything related to the project and MiniDisc with free software. For your questions: 1. The software is available on Windows as well as it is available on Linux and MacOS. The software has the same capabilities. But I assume that you refer to NetMD downloads on Windows which can be performed with the PythonNetMD scripts so far. I understand that most (Windows) users actually prefer an easy-to-use GUI but no-one has written a GUI for the scripts yet. Please understand that our time is limited as well and I am actually supposed to do Physics at my PhD position. We have someone who is actually working on making the NetMD stuff more user friendly but I haven't heard from him for a while. 2. There actually very good news for everybody with lots of ATRAC3/3+ .oma samples on their computers, and especially for those, who lost access to these encrypted files due to a computer crash or Windows reinstallation. We have found a solution to decrypt ALL oma files with a generic master key obtained through reverse engineering of SonicStage. Together with a simple decryptor code and this master key, we can unscramble all oma files. And since ffmpeg/VLC already has support for ATRAC-SP and ATRAC3 (with ATRAC3+ being work-in-progress), you will be able to playback ALL your oma files in VLC in near future. We're currently discussing with the VideoLAN developers (the people behind VLC) on how to integrate the decryptor into the demuxer of VLC. Please join our mailing list to stay updated. Adrian [1] https://lists.fu-berlin.de/listinfo/linux-minidisc
  22. Yes, it does indeed work on Windows now as well, you have to follow these instructions: https://wiki.physik.fu-berlin.de/linux-minidisc/doku.php?id=netmdpython This is a bit experimental though since we haven't finished yet integrating the NetMD stuff into QHiMDTransfer. We're currently working on implementing functions such as formatting HiMDs and allowing external keyfiles to unlock QHiMDTransfer for all HiMD devices without the need of an unofficial version which we cannot distribute over the website. Adrian
  23. Hi, just to give you guys some updates. It's now possible to use the "NetMDPython" scripts on Windows as well since the required software library "libusb" has recently been released as version 1.0 on Windows. You will find an updated howto which will include Windows as well on this web page soon: https://wiki.physik.fu-berlin.de/linux-minidisc/doku.php?id=netmdpython Also, as promised, I kept in contact with Sony to negotiate the public disclosure of some SonicStage internals needed to fully support NetMD/HiMD with our software. Eventually we got a reply from Sony Japan: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unfortunately, we are not prepared to offer a license under any Sony intellectual property rights to re-implement some of the HiMD functionality of SonicStage onto Linux. Please be advised that our message does not mean Sony is prohibiting someone to develop the HiMD functionality of Linux by using public information as long as there is no infringement of any intellectual property rights of Sony nor contractual breach. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So, we have two possibilities which I will certainly both seize. On one hand, we can modify the software such that the necessary secret keys will be provided by the user manually _after_ installation. Thus, you install the software and then open a preferences panel where you enter the key which you will get from an unofficial source. It's just a matter of not publicly distributing the keys together with our software to stay on the legal side. The other possibility is, of course, continue with the negotiations and try to contact Sony Japan directly without a "relay" at Sony USA. Will let you guys know. Also, I will get the updated instructions and freshly build version for all operating systems online ASAP. PS: Anyone here can help with a Dutch translation? That is, someone here who speaks Dutch and who is willing to translate some text from English into Dutch? You will be credited, of course. I'm unfortunately still waiting for our Spanish translation which should be in the making ... Adrian
  24. Stephen, I really wonder whether you have completely forgotten about our project. Of course it is possible to upload tracks you recorded with your HiMD with our software "QHiMDTransfer". Just use this version for MacOS 10.6/Intel: http://rapidshare.com/files/413176587/qhimdtransfer_macintel-drm.dmg Or this version on 10.5/PPC: http://rapidshare.com/files/398007718/qhimdtransfer-macppc-drm.dmg For more information, please go here: https://wiki.physik.fu-berlin.de/linux-minidisc @Stephen: Since you are an administrator here, it would be nice if you could pin this information on top of all threads. We definitely have the _only_ software which allows MD functionality on non-Windows platforms like MacOS and Linux, so people should be able to easily find this piece of information. I'm sometimes a bit frustrated when I have to explain over and over again that there are ways to use your NetMD/HiMD on Linux and MacOSX while people keep asking these questions all the time . We have the solution, so let the world know. I think I will start a separate post with all information which would be nice if it was pinned to the top of the other threads. Adrian
  25. Hi, I got a little news update from Sony USA regarding the permission for full disclosure of all our knowledge and source code and software on MiniDisc. Their reply is that they are going to forward my inquiry to SONY Japan to the Tokyo engineering team which is incredible. They're probably at the top of the hierarchy as they have developed SonicStage. If they give us the permission to release everything, then we're free to use our MiniDisc devices as much as we want =). Greetings from Norway, Adrian
×
×
  • Create New...