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Not sure how much of this applies to Hi-MD devices like your RH1 but have you: Installed the Zadig USB driver? Have you successfully connected a different MD device? If so you might need to uninstall the Zadig driver and then then reinstall with your RH1 connected (I have to do this when swapping between different NetMD devices). How far do you get in the connection process? Can the app see your device but not connect or do you get the "no compatible devices found" message when you click on Connect?

Hi @BearBoy thanks for the welcome. electronWMD is just a self contained version of Web MiniDisc Pro that doesn't require the use of the Chrome browser. I have tried the web version as well but still not able to connect to my RH1 via the USB lead.

Hi @JohnD - welcome to the site. I don't think I've used ElectronWMD, if I have I certainly didn't need to use a "keyring" from SonicStage, but have you tried the "normal" Web MiniDisc Pro? That allows you to extract the audio from MDs/Hi-MDs over USB. Web MiniDisc Pro Hi-MD Guide Web MiniDisc Pro link

Hi I'm a newbie to this site but have used minidiscs in the past and am thinking of resurrecting my MZ-RH1 as a field recorder. I will need to extract the .wav files from the RH1 onto the computer for editing. I have installed ElectronWMD on my Windows 11 laptop but it requires a "keyring" from SonicStage in order to connect to the RH1. I don't have SonicStage anymore and I am not at all sure what this "keyring" is. Is it a file or a code? ElectronWMD offers a window to type something into. Can anyone please enlighten me? Thanks in advance. JohnD

It won't be a laser issue.

Hi, thanks for asking. Unfortunately, there's still no progress, it still acts in the same way. It works completely fine under the condition that I momentarily rotate the mechanism onto its left side in the moment just before spinning up the disc. I had the idea that the problem might in fact be with a physical microswitch, specifically the switch for detecting the home position of the laser assembly, in which case it would make sense that gravity helps it get pressed better when the mechanism is on its left side. But adding some padding and using a contact cleaner on that switch has not changed the behaviour at all. I may have to look deeper inside the mechanism again to see if there are any potentially problematic springs, but all that I see at the moment seem to be just fine. There was no brute force needed for anything, I got the machine without a disc inside and behaving in the same way before I even started disassembling it. A friend might help me diagnose whether this is a laser issue, but I am not completely sure when and if.

Yeah, I think you need a number of devices with the Group functionality to make it worth using otherwise you end up with wonky looking disc titling, which would bother me 😂. All but two of my portables have it, and I tend to default to the 980 in my office stack when I'm using a deck, so I'm generally using a compatible device.

Did you manage to make any progress with identifying the issue @IC.?

Apologies for digging up an old post (I think I was on holiday when you posted these pictures) but just wanted to say how impressed I am by your skills in designing/building this. 100% looks like a professional product.

And this : much better pictures of the business parts of the Xitel MD-Port from an archived blog site circa 2001 or so. The DG2's more complex. It's got three major integrated circuits. Interestingly, one of them's another UDA1321. (A Phillips integrated circuit that converts digital to analogue) There's also a Cirrus CS8405A 96kHz Digital Audio Interface. This critter takes raw digital audio input and squirts out an S/PDIF signal. Besides that, there's a square Xitel "XA3IC1-1" chip, whose purpose, no doubt, is to tie the other two together. I originally thought the UDA1321 might still be doing its D-to-A trick here, but it actually has digital as well as analogue output; in the DG2, only the digital output's used. It turns USB into a bitstream, and the Cirrus chip turns the bitstream into S/PDIF. S/PDIF data is the same whether it's delivered via an optical or an electrical cable; in this case, the output's optical. The underside of the DG2 circuit board has a couple of whoops-a-daisy wire links, but they're neat and tidy enough.

Sorry, I should have added the words "for many devices (and Sonicstage)". Great that it still works! What I have noticed is that if it had already downloaded info in its database from Gracenote, then inserting the CD will find it just fine. I had less luck with a brand new CD where it had to go out to the Gracenote Server. It's too bad that more CD makers never got aligned with the CD-Text possibility. I'm always delighted when a CD turns out to have the information already on it 🙂

Having taken lots of these MD drives apart, I would make a guess that when reassembling there was a spring not quite right. The behaviour of it working when on one side but not in normal orientation is consistent with the weight (of something including the MD itself) being enough to do what the spring was doing. That, or something needs a tweak until things are aligned. Particularly easy to do if you got a disk in the unit locked in record mode and had to use "brute force" to get it out (been there, done that).

In case it's any help at all, I just found this guy, absolutely by chance: Having watched another one of his presentations, I can tell you he is a treasure. This is part 2 of repairing a Gigajuke. I particularly like the "soldering tweezers", never seen a tool like that before.

I should have added this as well if anyone is interested : https://support.audacityteam.org/basics/recording-desktop-audio

Sorry for the long delay replying; when it rains it pours; things got hectic for a for weeks. Anyway, I've learned that others also have problems with their Xitel MD-Port on Windows 10 and 11 machines. Something to do with some specific generic Plug And Play drivers that aren't always present on may machines. Mine apparently must have these driver files because the device does work at times, just not reliably. And i assume my active monitors with USB input must rely on the same generic drivers. In fact when the MD-Port device is interfacing successfully with the computer , the computer identifies it as a playback device like an additional speaker. (?) But, all that may be moot now as I have also learned that anyone can now record any sound that plays on their computer, from any source, with Audacity and , very easily. That is even better because I end up with a tailor made audio track just waiting to be named and saved to a folder. Then import the track into Sonic Stage or similar program and transfer to minidisc. No additional components and hook ups; just open the audio editing program Audacity, one or two clicks to put it in a 'loopback' capture mode and click record. It will record for as long as you wish. i am still intrigued by the idea of adding optical out to the USB input board in one of my powered speakers. In that I have four of these Xitel MD-Port units, I can easily remove a circuit board and see if it's possible to wire it to the monitor's USB input board. If I just knew how to read a schematic it might be easier. If I should somehow succeed I will report here. Thanks for all the input. There is a picture of the Xitel MD-Port and its insides in the Minidisc Community Portal in the Gear tab ,MiniDisc Accessories Browser at USB Audio Adapters, near the bottom of the page.

Fortunely it works on this device for now, when getting from CD or from optical in.

well found some old HDD online. 250gb IDE drives. Restoring worked. Formatted a drive again and made an image of that one too. So if someone still needs the image for restoring I have it. Software package is "disk genius". Only thing is, after that I plugged in the original one with all music on it. And it displays, "audio data file corrupt" --> repair. So probably I need to import all music again..... Other than that. I have an image in case something happens in the future.

Glad your 909 is working (I don’t want to talk about mine…). I’ve only got an MDS-JE770 that supports this group thing and whilst it’s in my ‘active’ stack it’s not a machine I generally use (normally I use the MDS-JB940 I got from @M1JWR or the MDS-E12 that’s on my office desk under the laptop). So I’ve never got into using the group function - but I know from your posts that it’s something you use quite a bit! Nothing new going on my side but I do use my MZ-R700 at work most days (it’s still trouping on after all these years) and the machines I mention above.

Hi, yes, the loading mechanism does have a tiny belt for the motor, and I initially suspected the loading mechanism to be the issue, but the belt and auto-loading mechanism are both completely fine. It pulls the disc in forward and down completely fine to the end. I also have been applying a small DC voltage to the motor directly while I have the mechanism disassembled and outside of the unit, it works completely fine without any resistance. I'm fairly sure it's not the loading mechanism, since when I do the trick with placing the drive on its side in order for it to detect and play the disc, but then stop the playback which makes the disc stop spinning, and then try to play the already loaded disc again, it fails to detect and spin up the disc unless I do the trick again. The loading mechanism does not move at all in the meantime, the disc stays in the fully loaded position. This might really be a one of a kind of an issue, since I haven't been able to find anything about specifically such an issue online, when I was searching before posting on this forum.

This is not the best photo example I’ve seen but the machine above the unit with lots of green buttons is an MDS-E12. https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/no-tears-says-terry-but-the-emotion-shows-as-listeners-wake-up-to-life-after-wogan-6804454.html When MDS-E12 get listed on eBay in the UK they’ll often say ‘ex-BBC’. In the rack below the two 2U CD players above the green unit.

There are some photos of Terry Wogan in the radio studio where you can see MDS-E12 rack mount units in a rack of kit in the background. Those machines first came out 2001 timeframe. As you say jingles, programme adverts and possibly even the music that played when the fire alarm went off and they all had to vacate the studio 😆 The boxy units like above I think were a drop-in replacement for the continuous loop cart machines. The overall shape and layout of the front panel on those Denon’s looks very much like the cart machines. So it was almost certainly a deliberate decision to keep the layout and operation familiar for DJs. Later on the machines like the MDS-E12 were probably triggered remotely by commands from the studio mixing console or possibly even from the control room. The MDS-E12 has a few remote control options as well as the balanced analogue audio I/O that is favoured in pro-audio setups.

Good spot! I think MiniDisc was fairly common in radio stations back in the mid/late 90s, in the UK at least. Probably for similar reasons to why you use them for your theatre productions - reliable instant replay of sound effects, jingles etc. Wonder why some pro units are rack mount style (MDS-E10/12 etc) and why some are the square boxy type like those Denons? One type for recording studios and the other for radio stations perhaps? There's some info on their use in radio stations on MiniDisc.org: https://www.minidisc.org/radio_use.html When I was growing up back in the 80s, I remember thinking DJs like Johnnie Walker, Tony Backburn, Dave Lee Travis etc were really old. Scary thing is they were younger then than I am now 😯 Anyway, RIP Mr Walker. Was nice that he was able to keep doing what he loved right up until the end.

This afternoon I've been working with a couple of portables on my desk. Got an MZ-N910 hooked up to my PC and Web MiniDisc Pro to record to some discs and then an MZ-R909 connected to my office speakers to play them back. Can't remember if I've asked about this previously but it did remind me of the inconsistency in how different players function with tracks in Groups. If you select a particular Group on the MZ-R909 then it will play all the tracks in that Group and then stop (or go back to the beginning of that Group if you've got Repeat on). This is the same way my MDS-JB980s work. On the MZ-N910, however, it starts playing the tracks in the next Group when it gets to the end of the original one, unless you have Repeat on, in which case it goes back to the start of the original Group. Not sure if I'm doing something wrong at my end but it seems a bit odd that it won't just play the Group I've selected and then stop.

Oh, and don't worry about posting about non-Sony kit. Despite the name, the forum's good for all things MiniDisc 🙂

Hi @IC.. Welcome to the forum! I'm not familiar with your JVC unit but does the loading mechanism use a belt? I've had an issue with Sony decks ejecting discs after a few seconds that's been solved by replacing the belt with a new one