sfbp

Ooohhh something else I just discovered. I laid out for the (overpriced) dock, the BCR-NWH10 (it will set you back between 100 and 150 bucks/euros/whatevers). Got fed up with the insertion mechanism for the WMPORT which is on all walkmen now. The unexpected payoff is that there is a two position switch on the dock: - in position A, ("PC") it communicates seamlessly as USB both for charging and copying or SonicStage-ing - in position B ("Digital out") there is another USB which can be taken out to any old $10 USB-to-optical converted with excellent results (sure, Sony wants you to buy their "DAC" but if I only convert to TOSLink why do I care that much?) and now I can play from the dock into my stereo without any software at all. The A position works on the Android Walkmen (NW-F88x, ZX1 etc) as well as the NW-S75x series. (note, not the non-Japan NWZ- series). The B position only works with the Android Walkmen.

Depends on the source. If you are using a deck to record broadcasts, you can get away with LP4 (and of course LP2) provided the deck is type-R (or Type-S). However I have no experience with the Hi-MD record rates of less than 256kbps, which is what I would recommend (Hi-SP 256kbps). If you're using a microphone, I would record (if possible) in LPCM (I use 24-bit 44.1 on my PCM-M10) and convert to Hi-SP later (using Sound Forge). Uncompressed (LPCM) Hi-MD is a real pain because you have to strip out the header information and convert to 16-bit WAV. SF doesn't understand the LPCM format when it's in an OMA container, don't ask me why. For live broadcasts (where they haven't levelled the sound previously) you should use at least LP2. The one useful bit rate that never turns up on MD is 128kbps Hi-MD, however it is possible to record in that using some of the Japanese NW- walkmans.

Yup, you can do it either way (using Sonic Stage OR by Drag-and-drop). Files added by both routes will play correctly. The two song types show up in a slightly different place in the player directory tree from each other. There is one subtle difference between the two methods of loading: - via drag and drop, AAL (lossless) files are intact with their real file names. Sony claims the reproduction of these is very good. Personally I am a bit sceptic about playback of AAL, its main purpose to me is that I can convert from ANY bitrate AAL to some other format and have it sound good - making it a perfect archive format (except that it won't play in VLC, sigh). - via Sonic Stage, the file names become part of the SS database and are not viewable by humans (weird titles such as FX000023.OMA and such). This is standard for Atrac Audio devices and Atrac CDs. Also the lossless part is stripped off. Important if you want to get all your music for portable use onto one machine, since the file size is considerably smaller. It's possible to do that with your AAL files, but a real pain without SS. However you don't seem to have that problem since you are using a single format which is playable by VLC anyway. I'd be intrigued to know what you think of file playback (of dropped files) with the latest VLC versus the built in player provided by Sony. As in the HD5, there is a small problem with ordering. If you have songs which are only ordered by their position (ie like on MD) there seems (so far) to be no way to load them into any of these devices like that - AFAIK all three devices insist on sorting them by title. I have had the small chore of fixing this by adding 001-, 002-, 003- to the front of names. This prefix (3 digits with leading zeroes and a dash) seems to be the most useful because it disappears in quite a few circumstances such as if you make a CD with a bunch of different software. As far as 4.3 goes you should probably upgrade your SS, and I believe that files have to be decrypted before sending to AtracADs anyway. I forget the problem with 4.2 but the 4.3 from this site should install right over the top of what you already have. It's possible that 4.3 is needed, but the fact that you are working with 4.2 and HD5 means that it's worth a shot without the upgrade.

​Exactly. With the same setup (not meaning same as yours, but what I thought was invariant in my case) and minor tweaks to parameters I have had luck (or not) with Synchro REC - and it appears to be random. If you get something that works, stick to it!!!!!!!!!!!

I think the issue may be that SYNCRO REC works on a physical drop of the digital signal, rather than the signal falling below a certain level. OR VICE VERSA, hahah. This has always been one of those dodgy issues when recording digitally. If you could get a script that played one ITunes track at a time and then paused for a couple of seconds, during which time the signal dropped completely, I think you should get trackmarks.

Jan, I'm impressed. Somewhat sceptical, but impressed nonetheless. I want OP to be sure he doesn't wreck the machine by the process of opening it up when it actually might still be software. Many devices get ruined because the person opening them has not got the correct directions. So i would recommend chasing down exactly when this happens. Eg if you get heating when windows has not even booted yet, then the hardware issue may be important. Another thing that may be wrong is that the CPU fan has failed and there is no cooling. Can you hear the fan and can you feel any warm air being expelled? On my IBM laptop I was able to buy a replacement fan unit. On desktop machines, I always end up taking the fan apart and putting one drop of bicycle oil in the bearing. YMMV. But I would start by running as little software as possible and seeing if it heats up. You might pause the boot sequence for example. If you find it ONLY heats up when you boot all the way into Windows, then you need to consider the software issues. BEFORE disassembling the machine. So both Jan and I may be right, or one only, or neither..... sorry to say.

Sorry but this problem is not Vaio although many Vaios and other laptop models have it from time to time. Almost certainly some software component is running 100% cpu (or at least all of one core in a multiple core processor eg 25% in a 4-core). The only sensible way to find this is with process explorer (a free download from Microsoft at www.sysinternals.com). Once you've isolated the process and if possible killed it then you can try to figure out how to fix the problem. I would be checking things like printer drivers (HP in particular) and Skype. In essence what usually causes this is poor or misconfigured software attempting to poll a non working or non existent device. Its just possible malware is involved but not very likely. Good luck!

If you upload to PC you will need to run the File Conversion Tool (from within Sonicstage!!!!) to remove encryption (DRM). Once you've done that, the Sound Forge 9 or 10 editor will allow you to do full editing of ATRAC files. Hope this helps. If you have more questions (or clarification of what I just wrote), go ahead and ask.

Hello and welcome By far the easiest and most reliable way to get data off your legacy MD's is using the last MD Sony produced called the MZ-RH1 (or MZ-M200). This will upload to PC at 4 to 10 times real time... and I have yet to improve on the result with any other technique involving optical (or analogue) playback. They are expensive. The MD format is basically 24 bits in principle, 20 bits in practice with a floating point stem or characteristic, which enables a very high dynamic range without using a lot of bits on disk. If you can upload, then SCMS ceases to be a problem. However you have to watch out for encryption. Luckily Sony provided another tool which happens to solve that problem, although it was not their intention. Latterly VLC and ffmpeg can get around the DRM (encryption) on the most common formats (not including AAL which isn't encrypted to begin with). You can beat SCMS with several devices, since "pro" equipment ignores it.

There is no particular shortage of the gumstick batteries - indeed, almost 2x per year we hear on here of a new supplier or brand. On top of that with the battery reviving computer powered chargers such as BC700 very few of them need to be discarded. In fact they are quite long-lived, if treated properly. The biggest problem seems to be decomposition at the contacts (often the battery door) and the necessity to clean up and shine the contacts afterwards. The Li Ion batteries (RH1, NH1 etc) are another matter entirely. In the short term they tend to produce more reliable output (hours of playing time) but in the long term they inevitably die and are impossible or very expensive to replace. More than the value of the unit in some cases. YMMV

1500 quid to recover a few CD->MD files of less than SP quality? Better solution is simply play them back at x1 over an optical cable.

It may be a screen failure - Jim would know, except that contacting him at the moment is not easy. However my first thought (if I had the unit in my hand) would be to try a service on the power circuits. I'd clean all the contacts, check that the voltage is getting to the main board, and note whether this problem varies with different sources of power (a regulated PS would help here). Once I got a sensible power supply (i.e. checked that the 3V one Sony gave me is putting out a reasonable voltage under load), I'd do the first couple of adjustments on page 17. (Do the preliminaries on the previous page such as temperature setting, but UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES execute the procedure in Section 3-2, "Initialize the adjustment value"). At this point the problem may well be solved, however if it wasn't then I would conclude the lcd is itself at fault and give up. You should find (if you don't have one) a remote with display on it (most should work) to do the testing.

Hmm.... this ebay listing is expired. Now what? Nobody bought it so this is instead of a listing here? Might be better to post the pictures here before they disappear from eBay?

Downloads is now back. Please report any problems folks (by PM to myself or Christopher or Richard)

That headphone connection is a point of stress. Hence Sony's design with the 4-fingered side-flange which performs dual duty: 1. Relay control signals from wired remote 2. Takes strain off headphone. So the advice would be in future NEVER use with bare headphones if you have a wired remote available. They pass the audio straight through so it's not like there will be any SQ loss. Stephen

Update: I recently got my hands on the Japanese version of the NWZ-755, namely the NW-755. You may be interested to learn that it (and also the others in that series) has the capability to record ATRAC directly at the bitrate of your choice from the analog (line) input. Even at the mystic 128kbps (I could never fathom why HiMD didn't support that rate!) ATRAC3+. There are twelve icons on the main screen instead of 9. Another example of the domestic Japanese consumer getting superior products. I am grateful to those (eg Richard) who over the years have kept up with these developments which are now accessible to those of us who can be bothered to make a few extra clicks in our browsers, via translation and using proxy bidding sites to buy this stuff.

You can see we have changed (updated) the forum software. While we work out what other features are missing, please hold the comments until we have had a chance to complete the migration. In particular, the downloads links are all inoperable. But I'm reasonably sure they will all come back. Sorry for the inconvenience.

You need the MZ-RH1 (or MZ-M200). No ands ifs or buts..... Sorry, it's effectively a hardware limitation.

Shoestring/MD??? (as opposed to Quincy, ME?) It exists. But it's legacyMD only, and costs thousands. The stuff about copying is no longer true. With the MZ-RH1 (MZ-M200) and Sound Forge 9 (or later) you can edit ATRAC files to your heart's content. Provided you decrypt them using the File Conversion Tool.

Update: the NW-ZX1 and NW-F88x work with Sonic Stage Ultimate right out of the box as ATRAC audio devices. They both support drag and drop of all ATRAC files as well, but SS makes it easier to control what ends up on the device (because the conversion is done batchwise for you, for example from AAL->HiSP, which drag-and-drop has no knowledge about). Note: as with all Network Walkmen the NWZ- prefix means "Export model, no ATRAC support". The Japanese ones are always NW-whatever. So be careful if you want to play your precious ATRAC library without conversion.. be sure to get the NW- version.

The driver is not part of the Ultimate (or indeed the online-from-Sony) package. It is here: (assuming you have 64-bits Windows, or you would likely not have any problem)

1. Get rid of all NetMD devices (see the stickied post on "Slow MZ-RH1 upload") in device manager (you will have to uncover the hidden ones using this technique. 2. Is your Vista 32 bits or 64? Pick the correct driver from the downloads section and "update" or install the driver (probably a yellow exclamation mark) in Device Manager using that (unzipped) driver package.

One would be hard pressed to beat this price: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-MXD-D5C-5-Disc-CD-Changer-MiniDisc-Player-Recorder-High-End-Vintage-/291459588345

Well... you can not make them all work at once. For XP you can use the driver here, regardless of whether the original one with the deck works: For Windows-64 (likely the version of 7 & 8) you need: AFAIK the 780 is the same as the 980. You are welcome to poke inside the driver and figure out what PID the device is presenting (look in the yellow question mark entry in Device Manager). The MDS-JB980 is x0081. If it's the same, your only problem is you didn't have the driver I just sent link to. Good luck!