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sfbp

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Posts posted by sfbp

  1. So there's no known "restore" software for the "locked" files at this point?

    If not, I guess I will go back and see how many locked files I have where I no longer have the original source to re-upload. If I deem it worth the trouble, I guess I could take the old HD in question and install it in another computer...getting it running at least well enough to start SS again...apply DRM stripping, and then transfer the newly rendered files.

    A couple more DRM stripping Q's:

    1. If I delete the "non-optimized" files from the original transfer (to save HD space) as mentioned in this thread earlier, will this effect SS negatively? Why does SS keep both versions?

    2. I notice all of the new (optimized) files are sitting in the folder randomly (not grouped in any way). How in the heck can one make sense of them when they have quite a few? In other words, say I want to transfer them to a second computer...wouldn't I have a bunch of random songs more less - and have to sort through them to put them back in groups, etc.?

    The "imported" files are in folders. The "optimized" ones are all in a single folder. In both cases, when I run the conversion tool, the .oma files disappear, and the .OMA files appear in their place (actually I fancy there is a rename).

    I have no idea why SS would keep both the .oma and .OMA - I suspect this may be because someone either misconfigured SS or writeprotected the .oma files. Windows has a lot of trouble with case sensitive extensions and will see them as the same file anyway, so this may answer your question. When SS ends up making a duplicate (because for example you interrupted a group transfer or conversion) you will see (1) added to the file name main part (before the extension).

    The database makes sense of them for you. If you reassign the Album of tracks, they will move around because their name changed to include the Album as part of the path name. When SS cannot make sense (because a component of the name is missing, eg untitled tracks uploaded) it sometimes puts in some identifier, like the time and date of the upload.

    I may sound like an apologist for SS - but these kinds of things are all fairly obvious to me as I have written applications which catalogue files before, and these are the sorts of things you end up doing to make sure there are no name collisions.

    Finally, there should be no need to ever keep any "optimized" files, since they are always secondary in nature and will be regenerated when you transfer again. Not sure what happens when you delete the file and SS doesn't know, though. Safest is to go through and delete them from the File Info tab of the properties dialog. Be careful, there's no confirmation prompt and if you delete an original, once it's gone, it's gone. I have sometimes had to mess with this when SS got confused because there were too many copies of a file and in my attempt to clean up I deleted the one it had the reference to, rather than the one it had forgotten about. Then you get strange messages about files not registered to SonicStage.

    Note, of course, that the file conversion tool will probably not remove DRM from any file that it didn't generate, eg downloads. The only reasonable way to deal with those is to play them back, capturing the sound with external MD or CoolEdit/Audition/WaveRecorder/TotalRecorder, make a wave file and save that. I'm pretty sure you can do that, so it makes kindof a mockery of DRM anyway. Maybe that's why we are all supposed to move to Vista, to prevent this from being possible :)

  2. Exactly which version do you consider "the latest"? And in what sense is it "gone"? Currently I run the SS file conversion about once per month to make all the new .oma files into .OMA files, with version 4.3

    Or maybe I missed some other way that you can avoid these hassles. We all know what it's like when a HD goes down, and very annoying when you haven't backed it up - even more annoying when the backup is braindead.

  3. You'd have to pay a license fee to Invision most likely, to have a decent board. There are freebies but I would never put a major BBS there. $150 initially, and then optional $25 per (not sure if 6months or 1 year) for ongoing support.

    Registration is only about $35 per year, less if you get a 5 or even 10 year lease from Network Solutions.

    The server itself - about $100 per month. No way you want it on an existing connection, this belongs on a server farm somewhere.

    PS right now I am sure it's only the name that's died, the server is probably out there. So it's the issue of someone's DNS server holding that name so it will be promulgated over the internet, that hasn't been paid for. Maybe someone here can figure out the last time they got an email from Atraclife, and we can access it via number instead of name.

  4. Have you noticed how this board went down twice (I think it moved). I tracked this one to Eric Woudenberg someplace near NY.

    However it seems atraclife.org's domain registration has expired. These things cost money, and I expect it's not paid for. One of the troubles with a "free" internet and the falling financial system is that lots of people will simply stop paying for their domains. I almost did this myself on one domain I look after.

  5. Aha! Some dumb questions:

    1. Will that 27K affect other things that might plug into the PS?

    2. Why does this stop the Sony from working at all when plugged in? I couldn't even get either unit to play anything.

    3. Does this mean that the GPS already has a 27K inside it somehow, or is this just a Sony thing?

    Assuming the answer to #1 is YES, can you tell me what parts I am looking for to make an extension cable (or perhaps if some kind manufacturer already made one) with the resistor embedded in it.

    Thanks

  6. Do you get longer charge times (sorry I mean discharge times) as a result?

    I have a GPS in my car which has a cigaretter-lighter powersupply that delivers USB charging for the GPS - and this same PS point blank refuses to charge my NH700, or the RH1. In fact neither machine will even come on (weird!) plugged into that powersupply. What gives? I can't tell you the rating as I hid it behind the console and I would have to unscrew everything again to look.

    The Sony cigaretter lighter charger (a different one) I have for using MD in my car will charge the earlier, non-USB models (eg NF810) and it is rated at 3.0V 1000mA.

    Another point to note: when I have my "universal" powersupply (bought from the drugstore) set to 4.5V, it won't charge the 3V machines same as above. So it's not necessarily true that too much voltage will lead to better charging. It often just cuts off and won't work at all.

    Maybe you can enlighten me as to what is happening in all of these different cases.

  7. I don't have a second machine with LIP-4WM, but what you say makes perfect sense. My guess is that they were forced to compromise to allow charging to take place via USB as well as "from the wall" and in some sense there had to be some limiter placed to make that safe.

    The NH3D appears to take power but not **charge** via USB, correct?

    Help me out someone who has USB knowledge.......

  8. Still, it looks to me like the tool is unable to connect to openmg.com to restore the bloody useless DRM keys.

    Do you have any files in the "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sony Shared\OpenMG\restorable" folder? If yes - try copying them to "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sony Shared\OpenMG" - this may help to get the keys back without using the tool.

    Now I'm curious. What puts stuff into the "restorable" folder, the act of running the SI Restore Tool? Is that why there's nothing there on my system at the momenet?

  9. If it had the option for LP2, I'd agree.

    Not sure why I'd care about that - LP2 is not a format for archiving, so the defragging and stuff it does is of no particular interest. SP, OTOH is another matter. Armed with one of these, the MD becomes a nice place to actually archive things, albeit only 80 minutes at a time.

  10. For once I am going to present the opposite POV - don't all shriek at me, I love MD just as much as anyone. The drives for this device (in fact a drive shaped object that does 18 other things as well) are now about $20-30 in a computer, and are therefore fairly common.

    Even my DVD hard disk recorder has a slot for one.

    So it might be the new floppy disk..... better than a thumb (USB/flash) drive, I think.

  11. Can't find it. Maybe someone made a remark which led me to deduce that, when describing the efforts to protect their DRM. As you are the expert on (all) the details.....

    Meanwhile I had another idea for the folks with Vista to consider. I recall Sony saying (and some people confirming) that Sonic Stage doesn't work well with anti-virus, because too much CPU bandwidth is taken by the scanning. I'm sure that this advice goes for all such scanners anyway.

    Could it be that Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool just got too big for its boots? I would expect some people with XP to be complaining, but you never know. Avrin and myself are obviously those who tend to resist updates......

    Try removing the Software Removal Tool (if that's possible). I know that Symantec (for example) is so deeply embedded in a Windows PC that I had highly technical friends begging me to spend an hour to get rid of it when they had tried for 2 days and failed. It took some brutal steps, I can tell you.

    Stephen

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