sfbp

I think I understood from other MDS-W1 owners that a hack is not strictly necessary - just a minor use of service mode to prevent writing of TOC on the drive that the track is copied FROM. I've heard of "white elephant", this machine(S?) is clearly a "black elephant"!?!?

It looks like you just fixed the upload problem. Expect lots of files to appear in the downloads section over the next few days Stephen

Help! I have finally gotten a CMT-M333NT in my hands. Everything works, including using it as an Audio device, except M-Crew. Does anyone out there actually have the right version of M-Crew (mcrew_m333nt.exe) for this box?

I don't think you can. Sony never supported Mac with SonicStage.

The problem is not the program - the problem is the unit (NH600/700). Neither has the facility to play MP3 without first conversion to ATRAC. I am not sure if QHiMDTransfer supports making files on the HiMD, either. Last I heard, it does not.

England is only 3 days by mail (or 8 hours by plane!). In fact post to/from UK is better than post to/from most of Canada (not to mention the USA). And some of it I can do myself these days.

Exactly right.. it's the only editor that deals with OMA files (oma files are generally encrypted so it cannot do those) and can read and generate every flavour, bitrate of the many different ATRAC formats (except of course SP which Sony never allowed on disk, probably by contract with Dolby, we think).

Just so that no one else is misled into thinking this is Sound Forge Pro..... I got my copy, but it's the "normal" Sound Forge 10 (an update all the same, so I'm not complaining). SFPro is a separate product. I haven't installed this yet, but I strongly suspect the batch facilities continue to be missing from SF (standard edition).

Try here: http://www.chsinteractive.co.uk/electrical-components/misc/dmd1300-manual-denon.htm Sorry but no free manual from the usual sources, at least with my brief survey. Good luck. For servicing, you may wish to contact Jim Hoggarth here. He runs a nice repair service for most MD's out of Bradford.

You have to check the disc mode using the menu. That HiMD Hi-SP "just" (awful word) means that is the default format WHEN YOU PUT A BLANK DISK IN. So that may well mean they are both set the same. However I would suggest: a. listening to the PC speaker to hear the HiMD USB connection go down and the MD USB connection come up (in sequence) as you insert a legacy MD (LP2, LP4 or SP) into an RH1 configured as HiMD. b. changing the "disc mode" on the failing machine to MD and seeing if it still fails. c. attempting to play music using Sonic Stage on an MD (you will have to listen on the headphones). If the music comes out of the PC speakers, then, as you probably know, it's not an MD. I'm actually thinking there might be some confusion here about how the RH1 treats a blank disk.

The menu modes are fully documented. The entry you want is called "Disc Mode" see page 59. The manual's available here.

asked - and answered - a while back. Someone clicks on the poll.

This makes no sense at all. Almost as if (and I say "as if" because I currently don't believe it!) Sony fitted out different versions of RH1 to have different restrictions. Perhaps there's something here we're missing. You literally unplug one RH1 and substitute another to the SAME USB CONNECTOR? Then putting the disk in... Questions: 1. what DISC MODE is the disk in (it's an NVRAM setting you can change), in both units? It's possible you have stumbled on something here. I'm thinking perhaps one machine is set to NetMD, the other to HiMD. 2. Do you have anything unusual installed on USB? In particular have you installed Nero Backitup 4? This has a very sneaky USB watcher that may have some strange effects unless you disable the service (from Services in Computer Management). Very intriguing....

This sounds like an interesting saga. Is the firmware update compulsory, maybe automatic (ie the unit will suddenly stop playing all sorts of music, games and generally acts as deauthorized), or will these units you showed on Ebay be actually capable of some of this "retro" compatible stuff?

That is totally bizarre. Next question: can the "failing" machine actually PLAY this disk? CD's are a special case in any event, requiring special settings of the laser on each and every unit when adjustment is done. I was totally surprised that I was permitted (by Sonic Stage) to upload from the one CD that I have. MO's (recordable minidiscs) may be quite different.

This is the kind of reason why Sony and other manufacturers don't like repairing equipment any more - they replace whole machines (my PCM-10 for example) or at least whole boards.

Please see And

I think that must be a bit of an exaggeration. Can you be precise about a track or album that CAN be uploaded with one RH1 but CANNOT be with the new one, and tell: a. how the music arrived on the disk? (Sonic Stage, Simple Burner, recording from optical, analog etc) b. what format was used? (HiSP,HiLP,PCM,SP,LP2,LP4 etc) c. whether the PC you made it on was the same as the PC you now have connected to the RH1 trying to read the disk? It's quite possible that you managed to come up with a combination of actions which is considered a copyright-infringing upload. There's usually a way round it, but maybe you should try to tell us what you are doing, in detail. Cheers

Neat. Did you see the posts,. by Camron Crouse about adding optiout to the MXD-D5C, and my own about same for the MXD-D40? The "big" problem has often been that the 3.3V parts are unobtainable. I'm amazed you got one. However we discovered that it's actually much easier if you use the 5V diodes made by Toshiba, as in most cases 5V is easily found on the main board - typically for the PS/2 connector. Would appreciate a URL for the 3.3V part, though. I used a 3.3V part; in retrospect it would have been easier not to bother, as it was used and came from very far away (England). I have a JE640. What would be really neat would be to add PCLink to the 640. I never even noticed this MDS-S50 model on the list of decks, as having the PCLK connector. What I have not yet figured out is why Sony makes slight variations in that "keyboard" connector (well, the electronics behind it), even between different country versions of the same machine. For example the MDS-JB940 has a keyboard connector, and it is alleged to be a PCLink socket too, and the circuit diagram seems to show that. But no one yet has reported it working, only that it does not work as an MCrew device. Maybe we need a section on hardware hacking (there's one at minidisc.org but we don't have write access to that)? Added: Holy Cow! They're here for 0.72 Euros - and I couldn't find any in N. America.

"fully working except the door closure (weak design from sony) can reset the player if it is moved about" I don't think so.

So if I understand it right, the chip that blew up is the sampling rate converter? Seems like maybe in later machines that all that functionality was folded into some more complex chip. I realise that discrete may = better quality, but is it also true that more to go wrong is possible with more components to perform the same job? I'm not a great electronics buff, but maybe pham cu or someone else can tell me if I am understanding this correctly. This part of the decoding looks to be a standard function; is it critical to the quality in the MDS-B5 or can you simply bypass it somehow with some more modern chip. Even tying it up at 44.1 sample rate, so that it doesn't try to do the conversion, unless you actually need Fs=48KHz recording. But the latter conversion you could achieve by (say) putting signal (first) to JB980, and pressing record - now the sample rate conversion should be achieved with Fs=44.1 output which you can feed to the MDS-B5. Make sense? Stephen

If it's recessed AND tilted I imagine the line of sight to the bottom of the TV is going to be obscured by the ledge above the fireplace.