sfbp

Right. There's only one set of keys for a given install. So you can move .oma files around and they'll still play. Even with Windows mediaplayer and such. If all your files have headers exactly the same length you may get away with this. But there's no reason a priori why they should. I think if one wrote a simple utility to copy data into a known header, then the only difficult bit is convincing something to rewrite the audio data back into the file. After that, no encryption. That's what the File Conversion Tool (FCT) does. The only question is whether the FCT insists on the data matching the install. If not, its possible someone might patch the FCT to ignore.

Hang on.... John will try it out, and probably you'll have a fix by end of day.

You're right John. This is the second request for that functionality. Am I right in thinking that unless the files were encrypted on the same Windows system that HiMD renderer will not get them back? Somehow I thought the NW-HD3/5 were PREdating the so-called Atrac Audio Device, which needs the files to be decrypted (File Conversion Tool) before transfer. IOW, although they will accept decrypted files, the default is encrypted and it's locked to the keys on your particular PC. But experience is the best guide. Did you actually do the process with "foreign" files or did you have the "right" PC at hand when you recovered that 18GB? I know that LP2 and LP4 can be decoded regardless of encryption using ffmpeg (VLC) but the Atrac3+ cannot.

Good question. The basic reason being that they hadn't invented it yet. With the exception of the MDS-JB940, all subsequent models had either pclk or keyboard functionality but never both, I think. Special firmware and circuitry I shouldn't doubt. The mxd-d5c actually has two versions. One of each. I looked st the 940 circuitry and tried to understand it, but no one has ever actually reported it working with pclk, so it may be a delusion after all.

Fine. But you started by saying you wanted sound from FLAC files on your PC. The MXD-D40 combo deck is usually reasonably priced on Ebay, and you can run it with PCLK-MN10. That's where I might start, in your situation, as it has optical input. http://minidisc.org/part_Sony_MXD-D40.html

Bad news, I'm afraid. The 930 just predates the time when the PS/2 interfaces were included, so pclk-mn10 wont respond to usb in this way.

IMO you don't gain that much with PCM / MD. The dynamic range, general fidelity and frequency response of 256kbps Hi-SP seem to me more than adequate. When you consider that dynamic range of "PCM" (1411kbps) is limited by definition to 16 bits, I actually have abandoned that format (1411) in favour of 256kbps Hi-SP (on MD) or 24-bit/PCM (on flash recorder PCM-M10). I'm sure you will have followed the discussion about the "bitness" of Type-R ATRAC, and learned that it seems agreed that ATRAC is either 20 or 24 bits already, with the last 4 bits (out of 24) making no difference to anything whatsoever. Whereas the much-prized LPCM is stuck at 16 bits. The old myth about not having an (extra) conversion step between recording and eventual mastered output seems to me to be flawed - since 256kbps is still better than most mikes can.will do. (I await the cries of flame). As long as you use Sound Forge 9 or later (which knows about ATRAC), you should be fine. Just my $0.02

Whatever your PC will play with is fine (or u can convert to wav). Yes you can title with mcrew, or the rh10. Only mcrew lets you do it during recording (like a deck). The biggest problem with PCLK-MN10 is finding one. If you can get one of the later md bookshelf models with usb you need only a standard usb cable since the pclk functionality is built into the unit. Hope this helps

Hmm... I assume you mean ATRAC. I wonder what would have happened if Sony had used ATTACK as a trade mark? Maybe they could have won the "war" with Apple..... There are lots of devices on Ebay. It depends on how much control you want. The "real" Sony device is called a PCLK-MN10 but that's only needed if you want to control (PS/2 interface) the various decks that support it, using M-Crew on your PC (won't work in Windows 64-bit native). I'm sure lots of people will have recommendations. There's one made in large quantities that sells for $15 or so, like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/External-7-1-USB-Optical-Audio-Sound-Card-Adapter-New-/300450141661 I have one. It works. But there are plenty of others, too. If you have a laptop this is what you need, most likely.

I mean, you should take headphones and plug into whatever machine produces these blanks and see if there is a problem with the recorded sound, straight from MD -> headphones.

But that is AFTER you transferred to the PC. Can you hear the blanks with headphones plugged in the recorder?

I'd still be inclined to suspect the line cable. One way to resolve this would be to see if you can hear with your own ears the "bad" sound from the mono recordings, using the headphones and using the line cable routed to an amplifier. I would always avoid a PC for making direct recordings, personally. Latency is always an issue, as well as pickup electronic noise from the other components plugged into the (PCI) bus. Here's the picture of my Volume Control:

Comprehensive analysis, Jim - I would expect no less! You're right, if OP doesn't report whether "normal" recordings have the same fault, we have no idea if it's a playback issue. Also I know that cables for PLAYBACK with non-gold contacts (eg many headphones) can be really awful. So maybe the dirt theory isn't so far wrong in the first place, if one thinks non-gold==dirt What sort of cable are you using, Juan? Edit: I just thought of something. This could easily be a Windows problem. If you look at your volume control in Windows (for recording inputs) you may find there is (or can be - see advanced properties on the mixer) an input called "Mono In". It might be be that you need to select this to prevent the input from going crazy when it gets no signal from one channel.

With a soldering iron (and in this case, if possible, a microscope), and a LOT of skill.

Jim Hoggarth probably has an opinion. I will second guess him and suppose that you have a dry joint on the 3.5mm jack socket... that's quite easy to happen on any of the 3.5mm sockets. More likely than dirt.

Looks like an intermittent microphone socket to me.....

Yeah I was quite peeved to discover my NWZ-S754 steadfastly refuses to play ATRAC, although in Japan (and possibly even the UK) different firmware on the same device will do it. Any suggestions Richard? By the way, anything which uses ffmpeg (VLC etc), including Android software, will play back LP2 and LP4 (ATRAC3) - but not the Atrac3+ coded stuff.

A program like Sound Forge will dither as it does bit conversion. I know it does, and it asked me about what kind of dithering I wanted. So if one burns a CD from a 24-bit WAV then that's exactly what happens (during the process). I'm surprised that the CD-R machine doesn't have dither circuitry in it. But then again, I've never seen the need for one after discovering that PC's are the best (and only?) way to produce CD's. There was a whole nonsense about buying "Audio CDRs" and I wonder if that is indirectly related to this challenge. They still sell them, too - I had always the impression that someone decided they could sell snake oil with that product. Going out on a limb here... did the manufacturers of the CD-R recording machines include the dither (or some other) circuitry ONLY when their drive firmware recognised an "Audio" CDR?

I think somehow that the default for all Sony decks is to output 20 bits which is the specification of S/PDIF and Toslink. The esoteric discussion in that reference is mainly about internal signal paths BEFORE they are sent from one device to another, methinks. Mind you he doesn't actually talk about optical or coax transmission. I didn't read the whole thing but I see it goes for 64 pages!!!!! As my SO says, "maybe later..." The bit about dithering by adding noise makes perfect sense - it explains why ATRAC can make a perfectly good recording at 66kbps. They manage to throw away all those bits of noise when compressing. When you look at frequency response of output, most of the time what you are looking at is the noise curve... which is why it looks (almost) the same always. I think ATRAC is (internally) 24-bits always. I know that for recording, 24 bits works nicely. Mainly because when you have to amplify digitally (= blow up the sound) for something too quiet, there is enough resolution left to make a decent sound even after turning up the (digital) gain. Just like the man says. An interesting question would be - if you output on the "16-bit" setting, will the sound still get "dithered"? Perhaps it's a question of whether the dithering happens before or after some other step.

Hmmm... didn't we in a sort of roundabout way determine that in fact the max is really 20 bits? Because S/PDIF is a 20-bit format... For some reason I had it in my head that the options were 20 and 24 bits. Intriguingly according to manuals only the 920 (not the 930) and 555 actually have 16,20 and 24. Having never had one of these bit-length-switching decks, I have nothing to go on. I have noticed that playing back ATRAC from a PC it is best to use a component that transmits 44.1kHz S/PDIF rather than 48kHz (std for Video), as there seems to be noticeable "mushiness" in the latter case. My guess then would be that 20 is the best setting (tant pis).....

Update: done! sfbp

Grrrrrrrr8! We'll add that into the downloadable version then. Merry Christmas

Yep, Check. The 2677-202GA is the same chip as the 505.

I would look at the chip numbers of IC801 in all of these models. In conjunction with the sequence posted in the MDCF equipment browser, I think the story is quite interesting. There seems to be consensus that the S1 (which came out about the same time as the 707, the 707 certainly best-of-breed up to that time from all anecdotal accounts of users) may have had the later chip revisions of the CXD-2677 substituted as production continued. I found -202GA, -204GA and also CXD-2678 and -2680 in the various machines from around that time. At what point there was a quantum leap, I don't know. Maybe they just decided to call it Type-S because some incremental improvement meant that someone noticed it was better?

And very happy I have been with it. I'd take USB connectivity as well but that was never going to happen, way too much (encryption and) software required. But the unit performs flawlessly and produces uploadable disks of whatever stripe for sending to PC via RH1. Thank you Jeremy