sfbp

On re-reading what I wrote in the middle of the night, i will alter slightly what I said. You need to remove the (MDM-7) unit from the deck, and then you need to take the cover OFF and inspect the belt. Pictures posted here will help. Be VERY careful if you are trying to replace belt on your own. We'll try to give you tips, as some before you ended up wrecking the drive.

So how did you get that image? Was it posted somewhere? My impression is that each model required a whole separate installation, clearly ridiculous. But we need to find out which part changes between models. Incidentally I've never had this trouble with a NetMD unit, it only becomes essential if you change the mainboard, because everything is serialized. Do you know what a leaf ID is? (hint: i do).

First off, I would try cleaning the contacts on the remotre cable where it goes into the unit. You may want to simply disturb the "nice" shiny gold surface by scratching with a very sharp knife. Then I would double check battery voltages and see if there is a voltage drop between the battery and the unit. Bad connections. Finally, I would test and see if it works when plugged directly into the mains charger. If it does, it's just possible that your batteries need replacing.

The adjustment for CD reading is quite separate to that for MO reading (most MD's). So you either have to fiddle with the mechanism, or (more likely) need to do a self-alignment. To do this, you need to get into service mode. You also need some experience and (possibly) electronics gear. Not a job for the faint of heart. As the CD adjustment is completely separate, I would leave that unit and stick to playing regular (MO) MDs with it. Just my 2c.

Hello Generally we don't know much about Vaio, you would do better to go to a laptop forum of some kind. I googled your problem and found this: https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/downloads/Z0000678 Not sure if this is it, but you can't fall off the floor. Kind regards

The first thing you need to check is whether the belt IS in fact loose/broken. This will be obvious as soon as you take the main cover off the deck (without disassembling the drive at all, which is quite self-contained). The service manuals (sony) for these decks are pretty comprehensive provided you can understand English, way better than most of the comparable manufacturers. It's actually reasonably easy to get the DRIVE serviced as it is light and can be shipped inexpensively, after removal. There are a fair number of other decks using the exact same drive, too, so a swap is possible, at least for checking purposes.

For virtual SP3 XP you will need to connect the Netmd USB device to your system. There's a menu on the Virtual XP. You will have to do this each and every time you start the virtual machine. For Windows 10, assuming windows 64-bit, you will need to install the net md drive NETMD760.SYS from our downloads section. Please search these forums for all that information, as I am reluctant to repeat it. Installing the unsigned driver is slightly complicated, you will have to load Windows 10 in a special mode where it does not check for drivers being untrusted. However this only has to be done whilst you do the install - after that all is plain sailing. Good luck!

The software was supplied to Sony dealers repairing and provisioning MD devices. In HiMD world, it became "TestMode_Enter_For_900_800_700_600_600D_ Ver***.exe". For pre-HiMD it was called "USB_Patchwriter.exe". Somewhere I've got a disk with some of these versions on. So far I never made it work even once.

When the remote is not working, or the buttons are intermittent (common on RH1), there has always been the option to bridge SL802 (or its equivalent) on almost every MD portable (possibly except some very early ones). I have definitely used this on my recalcitrant MZ-E909 when nothing else worked. There are also software packages (inevitably designed for NetMD and specifically USB 1.1) which will do it in software. Good luck!

Depends on your car. A head unit from around 10 years ago is quite affordable. I can even sell you one for not a lot if you're willing to pick it up from Surrey the week after Easter, as it's time to start to rid myself of "spares". Modern cars have Bluetooth that is way capable (early BT was not, quite) of reproducing. My favourite BT device is the **Japanese** version of NW-F887 (and /6 and /5). But not the NWZ-F887. Why? Because the domestic version is the only one that still supports ATRAC. These little beasts sit in your glove compartment quite happily, given that is one place you can find USB power these days. My entire ATRAC library (well, not all at once) can be copied there. It even speaks to Sonic Stage as an ATRAC Audio Device. Oh yes, did you activate the "line out" option on the R35 (I haven't checked but most portables have one)? Experiment has shown that if line out is not active, turning the volume on output up all the way actually increases beyond the "line out" point, which is, IIRC, about 85% of max. So there's another possible source of distortion.

Sony did some clever stuff in their car units to do with voltages and noise suppression. I'd wager that most of it sounds MUCH better if you actually had a (Sony-made) MD head unit, The 3,5 mm jack is pretty unreliable, and would be my best guess as the source of bad things in the car.

We would be very glad if you would like to share the software with is (the company is no longer in existence, at least online which is all that counts in this day and age). I think the emergence of the MZ-RH1 and the subsequent addition of ATRAC codecs to VLC and ffmpeg killed that company which depended on extorting huge sums for people "stuck" with data that they could not retrieve. Nic(h)e product but now long past its sell-by date. You can reach me by PM if you want to discuss an upload.

The JE640 is my reference deck (when I started making "good" LP4s). Both the 980 and 780 come with the complication of TrProtect which you will have read about. 770 is probably the most up to date deck without Type-S and NetMD. Now - you are right about improvements, Type-S "INCLUDES" Type-R, so the Type-R recording improvements are there. But Type-S is a playback technology. Just in case you don't want to wear out decks, you could use one for mainly recording (a Type-R) and one for mainly playback (a Type-S) The MDLP data DOES get there untarnished. It's just that they like to encrypt and decrypt the data in order to prevent someone sticking a USB-hoover on the end of the wire!! So that is why it says it's converting. Even the RH1 cannot upload MDLP NetMD tracks, because they put something we cannot get at into the TOC on the minidisc itself. The actual (unencrypted) data plays ok even on a non-MD deck, though. This was one of the stumbling blocks when trying to figure all this stuff out. Someone actually convinced the RH1 to upload SP but that never really saw the light of day; the code is in the linux-minidisc# thing, but there are too many other things wrong with the way it works for practical usage, at least when I tried it out. I don't think the other direction is ever going to work, though, it would require a firmware change on the NetMD target. As I mentioned, NetMD was designed back in the days of 1.1 USB, which simply is not fast enough to cope with 1411kbps.

What happens if you try transferring by USB to lower data rate is this: the sound spectrum gets "mastered wrong". The proper frequency for cutoff goes down as you use lower data rate. If you don't use the right cutoff, too much data gets spent trying to process higher frequencies instead of being used on the main body of the sound. Result- distortion/squishing, just as you describe. The surprising thing is that if you record direct to optical at LP4, USING A DECK, (at least in my experience) it works great! I think doing that with a portable is not so cool and guaranteed, which is probably one of the things a deck does with all that "extra" circuitry. I have thousands of hours of classical recorded at LP4. Admittedly it's for use in the car, but I am pretty sensitive to any sort of distortion, and this gets it right, IMHO. The other interesting factoid is this: when you record in MDLP (either LP2 or LP4) and transfer to the PC (using USB and the MZ-RH1) or from the PC, the data is completely untouched. As it is when you move Hi-MD music files around. If you can't do that, then the ability of Sound Forge to process all forms of ATRAC except AAL, is quite useful. SF seems to get the mastering right.

Just a few corrections, Mark: 1. With the 4.x Sonic Stage, no one cares about checkout count 2. Checking in is the same as deleting off the media (from within SS). Nothing is copied 3. You can use your trusty pre-NetMD devices (R35 and JE530, both) to delete files or format disk. 4. AAL (Atrac Advanced Lossless) is not transferred to the device (there are some portable flash devices which appear to play back the full file, but I seriously question whether a human, no matter how good their ears, could tell the difference). 5. Where AAL shines is as a storage format a. it is not encrypted at the end of ripping (so no need to do the SS File Conversion Tool thingy - I am sure you read all about that and how it allows you to transfer files out of your PC and play them in another, absent the encryption which is placed during rip) b. if you are not sure what the eventual destination will be, you can postpone the evil day and store in a format (I recommend 256kbps ATRAC3+ or if you can be absolutely certain you won't play on HiMD device, then 132kbps MDLP Atrac 3) which can be varied when transferring to the USB device. SS will make the correct decision and fix up the output for you based on the destination you choose. Of course the transfer of the native format without the lossless extra will be faster than an actual conversion, but with today's PCs there's little downside anyway. BTW you can still title the disk, sitting in your portable unit, from SS, regardless of how the music got there. Oh, one more thing. ACTUAL SP format does not happen with NetMD. Many people therefore swear by optical recording of SP. I am not one of them, as I know from (other folks' scientific) tests that MDLP is the better codec, and what we regard as "warmth" is actually a bit of a fake. Another hint.... do NOT make the mistake of ripping WAV with SonicStage and hope to transfer it to the portable. It doesn't work worth a darn. At the root of this is that 16-bit rips are not really a true reflection of the contents of a CD, whereas an ATRAC3 (or AAL!) 24-bit rip will be awfully close. The software will take your 16-bit rip and convert it to MDLP., which then gets sent to the unit (when they did NetMD, USB wasn't fast enough otherwise). So now you've had 3 conversions, 1 to rip, another to transfer, and a third to pad back zeroes to make MDLP back into SP (we refer to this as "Fake SP"). The result is terrible and almost certainly accounts for why MP3 beat ATRAC in some lab where supposedly fair tests were done. There's probably more, but that's a first pass. Welcome to my world....... Finally, ALWAYS have your Sharp powered by the mains, not just the battery, when transferring. NetMD units in general (this does not apply to HiMD units running in NetMD transfer mode, I think) do not get power from the USB connector, putting you at the mercy of a battery which might be only NiMH at the lower end of its operating range (1.15 volts instead of a nice 1.6 from fresh Alkali). Ya pays yer money and ya takes yer choice..... (many folks buy a HiMD unit and transfer MDLP to it!!!) Stephen

Hello, this is a very very old system, as the codec for Minidisc is ATRAC 1. This means that very few recordings will sound good - making it a piece of mainly historical interest. For less than the cost of shipping this anywhere (never mind repairing it), you could probably buy a used machine from about 9 years later (the optimal period being around 2001-2002, your unit dates from 1993 just after the introduction of MD). You can probably find something with a USB connection built in (the CMT-M333NT or CMT-M373NT is highly recommended) or some other piece of enhanced functionality (Sony made many variations over the years). If you are a collector and feel this piece is of historical interest, we can attempt to help you. The service manual is here: https://elektrotanya.com/sony_zs-m1.pdf/download.html (warning: it's 68MB, roughly 10x the size of most later manuals - Sony had not perfected the art of manual preparation in 1993). Good luck

Well sorry to sound like I have a chip on my shoulder... but I actually took the open-source version of the minidisc access project called "QHiMdTransfer" and made it so that software would play (and transfer) from ATRAC CDs. The problem in this case was not Sony, but the fools running THAT ("linux-minidisc#") project because they told me (literally) to "fork off" (free software development speak for "make your own version of all this and support it, we want nothing to do with it - and you"). So I abandoned it. So much for co-operative development. It seems like that project never got finished, and died shortly afterwards. The one legacy is that VLC has support for (even the encrypted versions of) files laid down by Sonic Stage. But still no luck with CDs. Sony has always had a financial interest in selling digital media (DVDs, CDs, and now Bluray which is absolutely good enough for huge movie theatres). Putting a ton of songs on an "ordinary" CD was never going to make them (or anyone else) any money. The problem with the FSF open-source guys was that they went into it with a mission ("beat Sony who stop us from enjoying our own music") but didn't have the experience to know and understand all the use cases. I still use ATRAC CDs in my car, but they are simply not an archive format. End of.

You need to plug it into a power source that is not the PC. Then turn it off (remove the disk and wait). Alternatively try to run the battery down on purpose, now we've established the battery is fine. Disconnect from PC when playing (you said that it will play just fine) and let it discharge. If that fails to help, you will have to go to service mode. HOWEVER, I suspect you have a hardware problem. Do NOT nuke the NVRAM (911 option) in the device unless you know how to build it up from nothing. This most likely requires gear that most folks don't possess. The hardware problem might be: 1. failure of the VS circuitry (the USB connector) 2. microswitches 3. something else leading to the signals between PC and NetMD not working. This could even be on your PC. Have you tried another computer? Bad luck. My condolences on your loss.

Ok, this is the model that the battery is wired in? Does the machine even come on at all when disconnected from USB? I'm not clear from your description. If the answer is that "nothing happens when not connected to USB" (ie nothing on the display), you had better connect the computer end of the charger cable into a straight charger (eg Samsung phone will do). If still no action, you will have to search on here (I can look later but am busy now) and follow the directions of someone who fixed the battery replacement problem. It's not hard, but some electronics experience is required.

Question: did you try to open it when there was a disk in and it had been recording? Was it necessary to force it open even one time?

Sorry, the trip to an ATRAC CD is and always has been one-way. You can't even play them back on the PC.

You cannot. Sorry, that is exactly by design. HOWEVER, they can be played with VLC, thanks to some work done a few years ago in which I participated. Just a small question - if the disk was reformatted, how did the files survive? Maybe you and I don't mean the same thing by "reformatted"....

The remote is peculiar for two reasons: 1. It needs to communicate the control information (similar to Sony's microlink Bus in car installations) hence more pins 2. The flange also takes the strain off the 3.5mm jack. Just about every device that I've used extensively with a "raw" 3.5mm jack got busted. The Sony ones generally don't. So IMNSHO it's just good engineering. And you can STILL put a regular jack into the MD unit if you really must.

That error message is perfectly correct - and you should IGNORE it (to do so you need to dis-able driver signing enforcement for long enough to install this driver package).

Three posts up?