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Disconnect all MD devices from USB connection to the computer (you can add back drivers for other units as it suits you later). Delete all visible devices that are causing you problems (yellow) in Device Manager. Then follow the directions in this post (ignore everything after the first post since it has to do with RH1 and other stuff). This deletes all the devices that you added that you don't need, there may be lots of them. It's the only way to do this. Uninstall any MD driver packages that are showing in your Add/Remove Programs list. Reboot Windows. Now start again with the right drivers which are probably the last ones you found (mine are in a file called "OpenMG_Jukebox_NetMD_Drivers.zip"). I recently did this for the JB980 which I strongly suspect has the same set of drivers as you. Note that Sonic Stage should not recognise the device until you press that magic "NetMD" button, in fact the USB system should not even SEE the MD system. At this point you probably will get connected. If none of this works, you need to look carefully for a line in one of the .inf files in one of the packages you have installed that says: ExcludeFromSelect=USB\VID_054C&PID_0xxx ; yyyyyyyyyyy Where xxx is some arbitrary 3-digit numeric string (for MDS-JB980 it happens to be "080") and yyyyyyyyyy is the name of your device (note that some of the bookshelf devices can have multiple names). It doesn't matter, it's a comment anyway. Also further down there will be a line in the [sony] section of the inf file which looks something like %NETMDUSB.DeviceDesc%=NETMDUSB.INSTALL, USB\VID_054C&PID_0xxx (xxx is same string as above). If you can figure out xxx you can even try it. You (almost) definitely need the file NETMDUSB.INF which will tell the installer what to do, and if you found it this should be the name of the file you found in the description above. Hope this helps! Stephen PS it's *just* possible that http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=PCVMXS20&upd_id=213&os_id=7 contains the right driver, if nothing above works. Only a guess, don't shoot me.....

WOW! Important question: what voltage are these decks?

You need to find the right drivers, that's all. I'm not sure what you need; there is a pa_driver.zip package. There's also an older package that had .inf files for my JB980 and some other units. Perhaps that is the one you want. Someone can tell you where to find it; I've temporarily forgotten.

It seems (at first quick read of your detailed explanation) that you may be thinking there is a way to play PC to the Sony unit via USB. There is not. The only thing that the USB drivers will do is to allow you to download (at high speed) songs from your PC onto minidisc. If that's what you want to do, we can probably help. If you want to play back in real time without making MD's you have to use line out on the Laptop and Aux (or MD) line in on the HiFi. And you will need a "special" (maybe you already have one, available from many electronics stores, and NOTHING to do with Sony) cable, 3.5mm stereo male plug at both ends. The extraneous noise may be from the sound card setup on the PC/Laptop. You may need to mute any inputs that could be causing noise, eg microphone. There's a bit to start with. Perhaps this will give you enough to chew on. Good luck! Stephen

Well, they're not there to improve *your* sound. More that your equipment doesn't upset someone else's - that's why there are FCC/CRTC regulations (and presumably the same in other countries). Probably these devices do not comply unless the "sausages" are installed. For example, if you have a neighbourhood lawnmower that causes interference, it's not up to you to filter it out, but the lawnmower to suppress it in the first place. Same with car, if your engine interferes with the car audio, you need a new car, not a new audio

Not sure what can be edited - suspect ONLY things that have been legitimately uploaded. You have to view All tracks in My Library. All of a sudden there are Divide and Combine options in the Edit menu. HTH Stephen

Not so... you can *up*format the older disks to a bigger capacity and use them as HiMD quite nicely. No need to use the 1GB disks unless you have actual need for their (much) higher capacity. Yes that's a pain. But NetMD doesn't really let you manage very much at all. If they are in the PC you can convert them to HiMD format (assuming the conversion doesn't wreck the sound) using Sonic Stage. If they are on old-fashioned MD's then you need to get them off, suggest a deck with optical out as the cheapest way and the RH1 as the most convenient.

Way to go, team!

I read the whole thread (all 7 long pages of it). Seems to me the two times that electronics fail are: 1. in the first month 2. 1 week after the warranty runs out. So anything that has lasted a couple of years and works, is at least as likely as brand new equipment, to work nicely. Especially when the item is top of the line or something new. I have had very good luck with Sony decks, though (just as in the thread) I had a Sony MDS-JE510 (my first md unit) die on me. I also heard the comment that the JB9xx series are as good as the ES series. I am very pleased with my JB980 and there are numerous positive comments on the others in that range. Note that in the middle of the same thread, the principal poster concludes that for Pro gear, that the MDS-E10 is a better deal than the MDS-E12 unless you actually need XLR input, especially since the E10 has optical. Combined with the fact of no SCMS, I would take the MDS-E10 (though I don't have one) over the JA555ES and JA333ES, based on this thread and the poor guy's experiences. Stephen

I've no idea about the Sony receivers as I don't own one. But I recently bought an Onkyo receiver (not MD, just AV receiver with lots of inputs and outputs). It does exactly the same trick. If there's digital on the same input, the digital wins (and the analog cuts out).

He's referring to the skins for Sonic Stage. Go ahead and delete that URL key thingy. Honest, it can't hurt. You can save it first if it makes you feel better. It's the links to the now defunct connect store but you can put anything in there. When you do, SS starts acting very oddly sometimes, including crashing.

If they are the std ones, just buy a cheap player second hand and take the screws. Should cost no more than $20 if you look in the right places.

Aha, allegedly this only was sold with the HCD-SD1 making (together) the bookshelf system CMT-SD1. This is where it is in the browser. Do tell, can it in fact be coupled to other units such as a PC or regular CD player? I had never noticed this one before.

Sorry, meant to include optical with line, since they are the same plug.

You have to change "Disc Mode" to MD (instead of HiMD). This is not a record setting, but an option. Stephen (this will only work for microphone or line-in, absolutely no way with Sonic Stage - though the #linux-minidisc project will have something "soon")

You've done "better" than I did. I couldn't persuade the bottom casing to come off (it stuck on the USB connector, and I was frightened to pull hard as it seemed so flimsy, and I'd already had a fight with the excess plastic moulding round the battery door) but when I put it back, everything worked! What I noted was that the glitchyness of the jog lever AS WELL as the functioning of the eject button seemed better when I got the screws just right. Keep us posted!

If you *only* want the 980 for PC compatibility, I would forget it and say get an RH1, then move disks from one machine to the other. It (the 980) was the first NetMD deck, and the transfer is not very fast, sadly. I like the way you can turn on/off the USB with a button though, appeals to my controlling nature If you want the 980 to make really good MDLP recordings (the 930 doesn't do MDLP) that's a different matter. All sorts of nice features like easy control of input and output levels, too. Wikipedia is the source of all knowledge on random subjects these days: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_power_systems Stephen

Just in case you missed it, I figured out how to use the hacked N505 with the commonly available RM-MC38EL. The secret is the Group+ key.

Ah, I just double checked about the speed control... no wonder I couldn't get it to work - I don't have an RM-MC11EL, nor am I likely to get one. Afterthought: if I actually had one, what buttons would I press? Maybe I can find something here that will generate the same resistances..... Duh... that didn't take long. An RM-MC38EL works fine. (I found the instructions, sort of, under the MZ-N1 manual). Hold display down (for 2 seconds as per the instructions) and then navigate with jog until it says "SPEED". Now press "GROUP+" exactly once, and the speed control menu appears. With the jog lever (still on the remote, nothing on the main unit does anything at all that I could find), change to different speeds. If you leave it playing by exiting the SPEED menu, an S will show on the remote display to indicate it is working at a different pitch. I think someone (Giant_Rick) was desperate to get an RM-MC11EL for this purpose. Now he doesn't need one. What a wonderful feature! Thanks for pointing it out. One more addendum: I checked the 810 (710 presumably the same) and 910, they only change speed, not pitch, so the SQ is rubbish of course. I imagine someone at Sony thought the speed control at constant pitch would be more useful. Silly!

Just tested RH1 with CD and MD, both cases track marks are inserted flawlessly. I haven't anything else except maybe a DVD but the tracks (on most DVD's) are a bit long. Maybe it's something about the output of the DAT which is a bit different? One more thing: SYNC REC was "Off". I think for digital signals it matters not, that setting only applies to Analog Line in or Mic.

As long as Vista is 32-bit Vista, you are ok. I'm afraid I don't grok :installs into some temp files and an error message comes up: This may beyond the capability of folks here to help as it sounds like a computer support problem. Setting up multi-boot is a kind of nightmare which I would not attempt unless you know what you're doing. If you are going to do multi-boot better to throw away Vista and multi-boot XP and Win7, IMHO. You are right, Windows Home will not support the XP virtual mode.

Just as a prank (hehe, it might actually fix it), try deleting the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sony Corporation\SonicStage\EMD\HomeURL Since you are *this* close to pulling the plug on 'er, I figure this is chicken soup (ie it cannot hurt!) Stephen

You cannot run NetMD with Windows7 64bit directly, there are (and will never be) no drivers for it. However "XP compatibility mode" should solve your problem though I haven't done that myself since I don't have Win64 capable CPU/motherboard. Not sure how you install those USB drivers in XP compatibilituy mode, but I believe someone here did it. Vista-64, fuhgeddaboudid. At least with your setup you have a chance. You may have to start by downloading the XP compatibility mode (actually it's a full copy of XP to host under the new OS) assuming that's included in the price of W7-Home. Stephen

the two screws that matter are on the bottom of the unit. They can be too tight, or too loose, though since you haven't actually touched them yet, I would guess too loose in your case. Getting them "correct" should fix both the problems you describe. There's no harm in tightening the other screws, eg. the ones you expose when the lid is lifted, the two on the back, and the one you can only see when you unclip the battery door (feeling brave?) but I think the two on the bottom are the only ones that really matter. There's also one underneath the other side panel but that involves snapping off the protecting cover for the input jacks, and I wouldn't bother, for the same reason. (oops, I see you already had that off, you are definitely hacker material!) Let us know how you get on. Stephen

270488172390 (you that need to know understand what this is) And this one is a nice JE780 250535407892