sfbp

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.

Sorry to hear. I'm familiar with the 4Kn sector size problem, all sorts of things don't work (completely separate from this problem). Best to buy a "regular" drive with 512e (or 512n).

Windows' *only* problem with the sound system is that it basically allows for everything. Here's a screen shot of mine: What you see is that there are at least 3 ways of connecting to every device. This is for historical reasons, and Microsoft didn't want to invalidate any old software because they picked one of the earlier methods. And it all works, I have never yet seen a conflict or failure to do what I told it, no matter how many sound devices I connected. In my experience they ALL work, especially on a decently fast modern machine. Even on older ones, the structure is all there. The "sounds" dialog allows you to pick input and output devices, (recording and playback) independently of each other. It allows you to pick the sampling frequency and various other parameters to the point where you don't even need a sound card app or program to tweak the Windows sound system Fire up Zoom (which does its own manipulation of the sound devices) and you will see what i mean. Xitel notwithstanding, the PCLK-MN10 has never failed to come up as a sound card. Maybe it(Xitel)'s an old (1.0 or 1.1) USB and the timing isn't very good on modern machines?)

I've always gotten by with either a PCLK-MN10(/20) or a sound card that has S/PDIF. Most motherboards (non-laptop) have one of those on it these days. The only conceivable problem (to me) is that the MTB sound connections tend to be at 48 not 44.1 - but actually if you look at the Windows control panel it's quite easy to set it to the right sampling rate - thereby eliminating the possible problem of re-sampling from 48 to 44.1. This is actually only a real problem with LP playback, and since you want to record MD from an (?) online music source I don't see it's a problem at all. The PCLK comes up and acts as a USB sound card with no software whatsoever, on all versions of Windows from XP thru 11. You really shouldn't have trouble with this on a modern machine. If you have a laptop that has a. no "large" USB connections and b. no optical out, then I can highly recommend a sound card like Focusrite. The most basic will probably do, you will have to work out what I/O you need. It's a little pricey but fully supported with current versions of Windows. I'm sure there are el-cheapo versions from eBay, I had at least three different dongles costing about 10 bucks apiece. But not necessarily with opti-out. This for example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/115591309485 Stephen

The answer is YES - both of the above. It will support actual MP3 playback, but there is no way to do drag and drop to the file system. You have to use Sonicstage. However that's no problem, we have a working version you can download here (on this site). P.35 " If [sic] the case of an MP3 track that supports VBR (Variable Bit Rate), the bit rate that appears here may not match the one displayed by the SonicStage software." That sounds (to me) like the device is actually playing MP3. P.76 "This recorder only supports MP3 tracks (MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3/ sampling frequency 44.1 kHz) that have been transferred using the SonicStage software." This machine is in the same (2nd) generation as the MZ-RH10/RH910/M100, which were the first to play MP3 natively. However that playback was criticised as not being very good. MP3 playback was not perfected until 3rd generation (RH1) HiMD. The RH1 is a very expensive way to play back MP3, though. You might be better off with a non-MD player such as the ICD-SX750 or ICD-SX813 both of which actually record MP3 directly. The latter even supports a microSD card (up to 32GB at least) and both take an external microphone in addition to the built in stereo mics. Both use AAA, either NiMH rechargeable, or (std) Alkaline. There are also some later models, though the price varies wildly for no apparent reason. Note that the manual downloads are on an old site (pre-TLS1.2) which Sony didn't bother to update, so you will have to use an old browser like IE most likely (I didn't try Chrome). My personal favourite is the PCM-M10. They each come with a means to connect to a standard microphone stand/tripod.

I have always wished there would be a drive (like a floppy) that might be standard on computers that you could play MDs on. Turns out there was one (somewhere in the VAIO range of Sony) but way too rare for common adoption (probably they wanted too much for the license fees?) If that had been available, MD might have lasted a lot longer and penetrated a lot further.

Agree completely. Now if you said you had the MDS-S500 then we'd have a completely different ball of wax. As it is, this is an old machine and if you have disks that have music on them (that you want) then you must buy something newer. We can try to give guidance. Kind regards

We really need a separate topic here but I am too lazy as I am away from home right now. 2 things: 1. you will need to install the 64-bit driver from our downloads section (NetMD760) 2. you must turn off driver signing for long enough to install it. This has been made MORE difficult in W10 and 11 but not impossible. If you're still stuck I can help but there are numerous posts illustrating how to do this on the site.

I see nobody has answered. As a software guy myself, I feel your pain. However, all you can do at this point is begin again from first principles ("reboot"). Taking the battery out of the HDR-SR12 (sorry, I don't know what it is, still less any experience with it, which is probably the same for almost everybody here) might be a start. You might also run chkdsk /v on the PC, and see what you get. Who knows, maybe the videos are there. Finally, a reinstall of the USB device driver might be in order. You might have more luck with a forum that focuses on video cameras. Kind regards

Same for the PLCK, usb powered - though not as small, admittedly, it sits on top or down the back of whatever. And it has the feature for controlling remotely that you don't need but that some of us find to be the sine qua non of editing, M-Crew.

Doesn't the PCLK-MN10 (and MN20) do this by default? You still need the LS(Sync) setting on your deck, can't remember what the default is on N510 etc. It's the difference between NO SOUND but an active connection (S/PDIF), ie silence, and NO CONNECTION. I think it is the latter that reliably makes the track mark. Check?

Update - 4 years later The image of the PCLK-MN20 has been removed since it misleadingly suggests it is required for this device. AFAIK we have now determined that the SE9 is a USB unit, and doesn't require anything except a cable to the computer.