sfbp

Impressive! We'll keep you around :)

Yeah, probably some Microsoft Access database maintenance utility might work wonders. I've poked around, but never tried to interfere with SS's manipulation of its DB.

I'm sure everything you say is true. I am also reluctant to mess up my main SS installation. However I will mess around on another machine and see if i can work out what's going on.

Sorry but we have a rule about no self-posted ebay items following consistent abuse by one member for the purpose of profit. I have deleted your listings but will leave the post as a warning to others. Please don't repost.

Maybe it's the auto-play function then. Ie If you drag a file to SS, does it play? And does it get copied, or are there traces of the copy left either on disk or in SS database, when it stops playing? This will all be connected to the default actions for various file types. I predict disaster if your computer had some other software (VLC, WMP. RealPlayer, Foobar2000...... ) that handled things when you double clicked MP3's. If you only imported OMA's then perhaps less problems.

Interesting. It's never worked for me, I gave up a long time ago - last time I tried my library got horribly messed up. Maybe it's something to do with the default locations of the library? Sorry for any confusion - maybe you can shed light on Kona's problem? I agree with you though, selective import by clicking the required folders is always successful (for me).

You cannot use drag and drop. Period.

I do recall having to multiply all the numbers from my Sanwa to adjust for the 780 nm.

Busted overwrite head.

http://m.ebay.com/itm/Handheld-Optical-Power-Meter-YW-3208-Laser-Fiber-Optic-Tool-Tester-70-TO-6DBM-/111647009471/

Up to now I have seen more trouble with misadjusted reading power than writing power. The major thing that can happen is too much write power may burn the pickup out... but that surely is not happening here. Or it would not read. A common failure seems to be that misadjusted reading power makes it look as if writing failed. It's time to replace the pickup maybe. I like your theory of the switching circuit. Can you actually do the IOP current measurement?

Looks like no laser power to the optical head, then. It plays, so presumably what's happened is that the higher power required for writing is either busted or adjusted to a low value. Reading only takes 1/10 of the power (usually 0.7mW as opposed to about 7 mW).

The rule of thumb: do whatever works. If you can find a path that accomplishes what your needs are, be happy. For example, I find that if I am recording off the internet radio that up to 128kbps (MP3 stream) will usually record perfectly at LP4 (66kbps ATRAC3), even music. I have hundreds of hours to prove it. To record at LP4 you probably want a deck (ie not portable), and if possible you should use digital (optical) input from your source. For a higher data rate stream (eg 320kbps), it is hard to fault Hi-SP (256 kbps Atrac3+) For LP transcriptions I find SP or Hi-SP will do. Although the latter has a slightly less "pleasing" colour to it, it transcodes and can be edited quite well. To edit ATRAC you need Sound Forge 9 or better. There is little point in always converting to WAV before editing, as SF takes care of all that internally in a completely transparent manner. What you will have to do with uploads (from MD to PC) is to learn to use the File Conversion Tool so that you can edit your uploads. Also upgrades to Windows don't wreck the encrypted files because FCT will decrypt them permanently. Note: you cannot upload SP or LP2 or LP4 without the (in)famous MZ-RH1. So with your hardware I would generally record at Hi-SP. There's one annoying feature of Sound Forge - it cannot understand the encoded "LPCM uncompressed" 1411kbps format as produced by direct recording. For this you would have to convert to WAV. Honestly, it's almost never necessary. Oh yes, one more thing: for importing CD's use ATRAC Advanced Lossless. This is a good container format and you can convert after the fact to any ATRAC or MP3 format quite easily. Enjoy! Stephen

Getting mad at them won't change them... too big a target. We've done what we can, and the end result was the VLC/ffmpeg workaround (AAL doesn't play, but it was never encrypted and will work with Sonic Stage perfectly). Whether their ATRAC-->MP3 program actually works on non-decrypted files or whether it requires them to be playable via the encryption keys that you don't have, I don't know. I would suspect the latter. Microsoft stopped supporting software XP (which was about the same age as Sonic Stage) a couple of years ago. C'est la vie. There are 55,000+ people running the latest version of SonicStage (unless you read Japanese, and even then X-Application doesn't support MD properly - Avrin took a bunch of the X-App DLLs and packaged them into the Ultimate, meaning "last" hahah version of SS). Sonic Stage and MD protection wasn't an issue except that they probably used the same encryption scheme for all their other products too, and also the fact that they have a significant investment in the Music Business (recordings of professionals so the rights have to be protected or they get sued by THOSE guys) and film industry means they'll never hand us the toy store. Apple didn't.

Well you will probably have to look in the "Windows 32" portion of the registry which is something like <blah>/WOW6432/<more blah> But the easiest thing is to look for the later part of that registry path using the Find command in regedit.

From my POV drag and drop has never worked. But SS is quite useful even for post-MD devices that DO support drag and drop from Windows. Why on earth can you not import an entire folder? I'm mystified. This sounds exactly backwards from my experience. The ONLY problem is that folders on the PC can only be one level deep, mirroring the (primitive) structure on MDs.

It must be the actual connection to the OWH then. The normal thing that happens is the cable gets an invisible crack in it somewhere it was flexing. However as you mention that this head worked ok in another machine, may I venture to suggest that it (the break in continuity)'s upstream from whatever you fitted. Especially since you said a working OWH failed in the exact same way when removed from another machine and transplanted here. Look at printed page 40 (on page 36 of the pdf). Top right. The connections to the OWH are pretty simple. If the ATRAC chip isn't actually blown up (game over), the answer must lie in that little piece of the diagram. What's BG1? some kind of isolating crystal or something? And you've got 4 test points to check, too, TP320,1,2,3

I am assuming you are using 64-bit Windows. Turn off DEP. Disable protection against unsigned drivers Get rid of all netMD drivers following the description in the post here Go through and delete ALL oem<nn>.inf files that have "Sony Net MD" in them (They are text files) from C:\Windows\inf Reboot Install SS Ultimate over the top (don't bother trying to uninstall anything)

Unfortunately it is more complicated than your simple picture will allow, Wolfgang. Certainly the VLC can be used to convert them all, and it is quite well suited to batch operation since it has a command line interface, which you will have to learn to use. However, you may be happy with a DLNA server - there are many on the market, look it up in Wikipedia and get one that is supported. DLNA servers mostly use ffmpeg on the back end so your files will be playable thanks to the support in there for Atrac3 and Atrac3+ (no support for AAL, sadly). Another possibility is M-Crew Server 2.5 from Sony, but it is very slow and clunky, to be honest. They originated the DLNA idea but never made a really fast implementation. If you really want to get your files back, the Restore procedure should work, but note you must be online for it to work. And the Sony Server has to be online at that time. Usually it is, but if not you may have to wait a day or three until it comes back. Sonic Stage works under W10, according to reports. You should only install the version from our site if you want to avoid problems. Even then, the 64-bit install for NetMD is not built in... but SS itself should work. If you can reproduce (resurrect) your Windows XP system (or whatever was working before), then you can run the File Conversion Tool and be rid of the wretched encryption (I agree, they got carried away protecting things!) for ever. At that point, your files ARE copy-able. Good luck with whatever path you decide to use. We'll be here to help Stephen

To be fair, Apple does (or at very least, did) approximately the same thing with iTunes. We've been pointing out to people for a very long time that they need to run the File Conversion Tool (after uploading from MD to PC) on a regular basis to avoid this. The design of the Sonic Stage software is such that the database does not know when you manually move files around. The best workaround for moving files because a partition gets too small is to make a directory (folder) on another drive pointed to by a <JUNCTION> or symbolic link from the original site. Having said that, Sony does provide a way of moving the library, you probably didn't notice it - and it can only really be done one music file at a time (sigh). The backup and restore do need to be run whilst connected to the internet, as the keys for the music (only really important as long as Sony was trying to run Connect Store as a competitor to iTunes) must be derived from master keys on their server. But they work. At least VLC and ffmpeg will play most of your files - be happy about that. You can use a DLNA server to store the files and play them back by streaming where ffmpeg is on the back end and provides a stream that can be understood by all your devices. We feel your pain!

You don't need the OWH to do actual recording. Many folks have reported everything working fine for many minutes and then they simply get a blank disk. Having no overwrite means that you never get to record the TOC. If you can see the seconds clicking off on the display then all should be OK except the OWH. If you don't see that, then, perhaps strangely to you, the OWH is not your problem. There's nothing to adjust on the OW circuit if my memory serves me. I'm wondering if the abuse to the machine was it being plugged into the wrong mains power. Even 120 vs 100 makes a difference on Japan-intended units. Will this give you a clue to what is wrong? You can check all the relevant voltage levels. I'm also wondering about the write protect circuit not doing the proper thing, you may need to check the signals from the microswitch which controls whether writing is disabled - maybe it's (physically or electronically) "stuck" and somehow the OW never gets enabled. I don't know where 7350 is coming from, can you give us a better locus for this error number? I cannot get the bits in the "retry cause display mode to make anything like this", so I am probably merely demonstrating that I've never worked with this feature. Either 73 or 50 could be a track number (in Hex). Tell us all the digits you see on the display, and try to figure out (Page 9) what they mean. Sounds like you're hot on the trail. Maybe we'll be getting you to fix our equipment soon!

Look in the downloads. It's front and centre, with 55924 downloads at last count.

This is nothing to do with Windows 10. Its behaviour is BY DESIGN to stop people copying music and giving it away - this is (well, was) a legal issue for Sony or they might be found liable of encouraging piracy by the music companies. What you have to do is to go back to a working system and run the File Conversion Tool (look on the menu of Sonic Stage in the main "Library" screen, i.e, not the transfer screens) on the files in your 14GB library. UNcheck the box marked "Add copy protection" after it has gone through the database looking for which files to convert. When you are done, this library will be importable into the new Sonic Stage setup. Restoring from Backup depends on the Sony server being online. There are reports of people doing this, but I have never done it myself. It should be able to fix the problem. There may be a way to get back the keys that your "upgrade" threw away. It's possible that they are in: C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Sony Shared\OpenMG\ Look in the following (sub)directories (particularly at dates) to see what's going on: OMGKEY OMGRIGHT (it's hidden so you will have to display hidden files and directories) restorable You will have to do a very careful compare with the state of your hard drive before installing W10. You did a backup, right? The moral of this story is that backups (simple file copies) of the music data are useless if the files are DRM-protected. FCT gets rid of this but you have to start from a working system. As far as recognizing the CD, you can generally trick SS into doing so by DELETING (uninstalling) the device from Windows Device Manager. NOW REBOOT. This ought to force Windows to make new ID's at which point SS will realise that it's got a new drive. Automatic calibration/testing should follow. Stephen

Get rid of the URL that refers to Connect Store. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sony Corporation\SonicStage\EMD\HomeURL. This should be long gone from fresh SS Ultimate (off our site) install. However likely there in some archived version you got from Sony,

I gather turning off automatic updates in W10 is possible but very tricky to find. The best way may be to have them disabled by Group Policy if your machine is part of a Windows domain network. When I said a "System Restore" I did NOT emphatically NOT mean completely re-installing Windows. Very sorry if I caused that. I was referring to the System Tool (under Windows Accessories) known as "System Restore" (Might be differently named in W10 but the principle must be the same) which restores your files, and particularly the System Registry, to the state at a given time (as backed up automatically every day or three by Windows itself). The nice thing about it is that it is reversible. So if this doesn't solve your problem, you can undo the restore, and try and solve your problem by other means (eg hand reinstallation of SS). System Restore may be the fastest way to undo automatic updates! Also, I asked because music files that were not transformed (decrypted) by the File Conversion Tool but had been uploaded after the restore-to date will be unintelligible. This is (in the future) one reason you should attempt to decrypt all your uploads as soon as humanly possible, using the FCT. There are other benefits such as being able to use Sound Forge on the decrypted file (whereas the original encrypted one cannot be interpreted).