sfbp

Sorry to say, but the one about a special frequency is the sort of fairy tale told by elderly uncles to 5-year old kids. This is a digital device with digital media. The protection lies in the embedded numbers, and the program (firmware) on the RCD-W3 that reads them. Most people here have long since concluded that the best (well, most practical) way to record things digitally is to make MD's using Sony decks (or portables for microphone recordings) and then figure out how to get that (via Computer) onto CD. Years ago subjective tests were done, showing that you literally cannot tell any difference in the result, when ATRAC is used. It's how I prepare my own CD's, and the whole reason I got into MD. You get editing for free; most rewriteable CD's are way too unreliable to use for that. But you shouldn't need convincing of that, being an MD owner Cheers

For ripping from CD to LP2 or LP4, either software works great. DO NOT make the mistake of assuming it's safe to RIP to WAV/PCM quality using SonicStage, followed by transcoding to a later data rate (LP). It won't sound good. But if you use an independent ripper such as EAC, then you can do just that. For ripping properly (with SS) to a storeable PC format, suggest using Atrac Advanced Lossless. And never go via MP3. BTW, SonicStage always shows the time left in SP (on a legacy-format disk), multiply up if you plan to use LP.

Type-R is the level of the ATRAC (DSP) chip. It probably is true to say that the main feature in "Type-R" is the better *recording* (which I am certain applies to both SP and LP, based on the sound), but the term describes the chip as a whole, and there are probably other ways (unknown to you or I) in which the chip was indeed an improvement over the previous version, 4.5. Sony nearly always used the latest revision of ATRAC as it came out with new products. The only counter example I am aware of is that sometimes the CSP (hybrid) packages were on a previous revision until after the normal DSP-only-based decks had come out. Presumably this is because of the all-in-one effect - you don't want to package two things together unless all the components of the package are already successful. Plus development time to hybridise.

Sorry I misread (in some haste) your description. I would guess that downgrading to XP doesn't work - I recall the 7 beta did something funny to my MBR and both XP and partition magic absolutely refused to recognise this partition which I had used to boot from. You are in a mess, and probably your XP reinstall disk will never work with this computer (unless it was for this machine, supplied by the original owner and Sony). Time to call Microsoft. If you can't do that for some reason, you're going to have to diagnose it yourself. Start by hitting F8 and creating a Boot Log. See what the last thing that loads is...... (if you're not familiar with this you will have to reboot again to see the log from a command prompt) .... (a little later) I note that this model apparently comes with Windows (XP) MCE (Media Centre Edition). Wouldn't expect bogstandard XP to be anything other than confused trying to install over an upgrade of MCE to 7. The good news: all the drivers are there on Sony's support website. http://esupport.sony.com/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNC140G

Is it possible that you purchased, not a dead computer, but a dead (pirate) copy of XP? Black screens are the kind of thing that invalidated copies of Windows are known (and supposed) to do?

Because it is not within the design specifications for NetMD. Until the MZ-RH1 (also MZ-M200, same thing with a mic included) there was no way. I can safely say that no one has ever uploaded a NetMD track to a PC. No one. MDLP tracks (for example that you have recorded), yes, using the RH1 (but not your JE780 deck). Even the RH1 will not permit the upload of already-downloaded (and therefore marked as protected) NetMD tracks TO the PC. The only way to get digital quality output from whatever you have on MD is to purchase a sound card (USB is a good choice) that has optical input (there are some for $15) and play the NetMD track through the optical output, capturing the sound at the PC end. There are generally (depends on the card and software and maybe version of Windows) no SCMS restrictions going INTO the PC. Hope this helps. PS please don't double post, this topic will be read by everyone, and there is no sense in duplicating it in another (I would say) irrelevant section. So it has been deleted from there.

His problem has nothing to do with the design by Sony. Something went wrong. Please keep your comments factual or I will have to start editing them (this isn't the first time), thanks. Stephen

Note: this only works if these files exist. Typically this will only be when someone ran SonicStage Backup at least once, I believe.

I've never (until now) understood what trick the manufacturers pulled when making these types of CD recorders. There's absolutely nothing magic about a CD Audio disk. I guess the range of embedded serial numbers which may help a drive to tell the difference between CD and DVD (and other optical formats in the same physically sized disk), are highly restricted. So that would be a firmware hack of some kind, to bypass this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD_recorder See the paragraphs on SID and RID

Try searching in the standard search engines for "Sony KMS-210A/J-N" which is listed in the service manual as the optical pickup type. I just did so, the first page of results is pretty revealing. Encompass (and others) will sell you one for just over $100. You can also search for "A-4672-542-B". Making a guess, the least expensive model that would have this head, might be the MXD-D1, however there aren't any for sale in the obvious place (Ebay) at the moment. It's at least as likely that a non-functioning deck simply needs adjusting, as that it actually needs a new head. However to do so will require some gear that costs more (way more) than a new head. Welcome to the forums! We look forward to your article

Moved here as the MD forum is getting rather over used. Regards.....

I'd consider it myself were it not for the fact that you offered to USA only - most of the current posters to this board are actually outside the US, and you might want to reconsider that decision. Just my $0.02 BTW, welcome to the forums.

The question is: does your unit still work, or did it just die? I suspect there's at least a possibility that the overwrite head is busted. What you need to do is to take a fresh disk, record something on it (in the R900), take the disk OUT, and put the disk back in, and see if NOW you can play back what you just recorded, on this or some other machine. Under NO circumstances should you insert the disk with your important recording already on it. Or any other disk you want to keep. You MUST use a new disk. If you can pass that hurdle we can help. However no more comment from me, at least, until you have tried the experiment I outlined. Good luck!

Sorry, but most people will not deal with a newbie by email. This board exists to exchange messages in a safe manner - if you cannot figure it out try searching the title of the original posting you made in google after a couple of days. That's the best I can suggest. You need to read raintheory's TOC cloning guide. Welcome to the forums!

Just search posts by Philippeb and you will see that the claims are correct. Stephen

Except that Jim is a loooong way away from here. The good news about England is that it seems to be the second best supply of all things MD in the world (after Japan). Jim certainly has many many MD lasers on hand to fix units with. I would be interested in hearing Pham's opinion whether I should be getting a 110->100 volt converter, and what the long term prognosis is for the one unit I have which is currently being run on 117V when it should be 100. BTW I saw today in Ebay UK, the MDS-W1.

I add welcome to you, Pham. I too went through the DACs and so on (listing them, mainly for my private use) but you are even better organised. I wonder what you think about optical out and the input DAC's of AV amplifiers (instead of relying on expensive DAC in MD)? I am very happy with Onkyo TX-SR605 working with TOSlink input from MD. I will have some questions in due course, but here is one for now - do you know how to obtain a HiMD alignment disk (1GB disk)? Thanks Stephen

Easy-peasy. There's a poll and someone votes in it. Consequently the last post shows up as if it were new. Probably shouldn't but that's the way it works.

I saw not only a 555, but also a 333ES on Ebay UK yesterday! I know that the high end equipments often have a voltage switch or a configurable transformer. However the consumer ones especially the later models frequently do not. There are some strange circuitries on the different versions of the CMT-PX3 (DHC-MD595) so I know all about this. The basic idea is that you get the last 10% of the voltage from what is called a "bucking" feedback of the voltage - by feeding back the result of the transforming and adding (or subtracting) it to the final delivered voltage. This can work in either direction. The result of running my 100V-designed Japan built version (of the PX3) on 117V here may be that everything runs a bit hot. So far everything is within specification, though. After much messing around, I decided that the different version of the transformer was used and it's not possible to change that aspect of my unit; the FM tuner was the same, though the main circuit board itself turned out to be configurable by carefully reading the schematic and resoldering a bunch of resistors. I totally missed that the decks in question (from your new friend's posting) are 100V. I personally have a voltage doubling transformer (110 to 220 and it would work in reverse, if need be) but this (and the plugs) are a hassle for many people who've only ever used one kind of mains supply. I await with interest the report of your visit from this guy. Stephen

That's what I said, voltage in VN is 220V. No good for N.America in most cases (110). I just didn't understand the notation, T = 1 million.

You mean WITH THIS SETUP you can successfully record 2 tracks at a time? You don't answer my question(s): 1. are you running SS on the Native Win64; or in the XP virtual machine? 2. what player are you trying to connect? Too many variables for us to give you sensible answers. Re-doing everything is unlikely to work unless you take different choices.

The only likely problem for most people here (apart from the unfamiliarity of language and possible worries about shipment) is that VN is on 220V, so will not be so good for those of us in USA or Canada. A very nice find though. Hard to work out the currency, looks like the JE640 is $100 but that doesn't match what I can find about the dong which is about 2,000,000 to the dollar AFAIK. There are some amusements in his contact information (as translated by google), I will spare y'all. Stephen

But the RH1 has the Dynamic Normalizer built in so one shouldn't need this..... Stephen

On the contrary, if he can record anything at all, the fault will most likely be a timing problem caused by running in VM. Assuming I am correct, the only fix is to deinstall, and reinstall not using VM, but using the 64-bit drivers. There's one other possibility, I admit - if we have a terminology disconnect and the "NetMD" refers to HiMD there may be some strange problems caused by inserting uninitted 80 minute disks expecting them to be formatted as HiMD. The TOC doesn't even get laid down until WELL after the first track is buffered up. So at some point the machine may be waking up as NetMD, and without the right drivers, as they say "Bob's your uncle" (and Fanny's your aunt).

If the red light indicating charging comes on, it is working. You can't blow anything up. Or you. Voltage variations won't do it. The problem is more than that - has to do with the way USB support (in the device) accepts a charge. Forget the USB socket. Stephen