MDane

1. That is splitting hairs when speaking of fading in /out for example, as it only degrades the part of the track that drops below the original material's level, and only for the duration of fading, which is typically less than 5 seconds. On top of that, any degradation would be pretty much hidden by the dropping level to the human ear. But I can see how that would affect some of the other SFE's...like track level change for example (or whatever it is called). But if one believes era field tests of Type R/SP recording units, it was often said that it takes a few re-recordings (from SP to SP) to really hear a loss...meaning there is some inevitable loss from the initial source to the first generation copy, but subsequent copies can utilize the same "ATRAC tricks" over and over to some extent with minimal loss. Whether that is rock-solid true or not, I don't know...but I remember some pretty tight 2nd generation SP recordings I had made back in the day. 2. Not sure if we are on the same page there. When you do a fade-in or out for example, it is a matter of selecting what you want and waiting maybe 5 seconds for it to process. I have never messed with level change or other edits like that, but I am assuming it does this in at least real time or better...which is plenty good for an SP deck...particularly since most of them were never meant to work any faster than 1X in initial coding. 3. As far as this being "undo-able", if such editing was being done in the way we were speaking of (making an SP minidisc from SS) then one would still have the original file on the computer's HD...unless they removed it. But yes, if this was done with a master MD, then it is changed for good. Fwiw, I think there are at least 3 different directions were are going with this thread now...so that is likely where the confusion lies.

One reason I can think of is that some decks (like my 440) will not do scale factor edit or a few other editing tricks in LP modes that are possible in SP.

1. That would explain why I was able to do that with my JE440. Out of curiosity, what if one makes an SP disc using SS and tried to edit on a older SP machine...like the D400, JE320, etc? Off the top of my head I cannot see any technical reason that wouldn't work. 2. I will so play around with that later. I have quite a few non-stop recordings where I put track marks in (just as I have for years when primarily MD) to mark the point where songs are mixed together or at song change on live recordings. But when I realized that I will get a cut-out at each mark if using an Atrac device played through USB or when playing an Atrac disc, I figured it was another case of one step forward, two steps back. Sure, I expected this from MP3...but not with Sony equipment. And even weirder is that the glitches don't occur if playing the same material back on the same Sony Flash player directly (through the headphones). Of course I could just go back to MD primarily, sell off everything else, etc (yes this crossed my mind). But after all of the effort and cash I have put into going "solid state Atrac 3+", that is something that I would rather not do. And once you get into playing Podcasts, which typically work quite well with later Sony equipment...that is also something you can't walk away from either. Anyway, thanks for the help...and sorry for hijacking the thread, OP.

1. Cool, I just assumed it (M200) didn't have the ability since it doesn't have it in the menu of editing features. But that won't help my cause much, as most of the things I need to remove tracks on are already on the computer and cleaned off of the original HI-MD disc to which they were recorded originally. I have a feeling that may help the OP however. 2. I found this out the hard way. However, I believe if one makes an MD from SS in 132/66 or SP, they can edit on an older deck right? I believe I have done that before. 3. I didn't realize there was any real editing ability in SS at all of music stored in the "library". Is there any write-ups or threads with info on this that you know of?

This is inevitable. You can only do "gapless" playback on Atrac devices. For that matter, this even occurs when playing back an Atrac device through the USB of a compatible Sony car deck or on a burnt ATRAC CD. Yes, this really sucks. In theory you could remove the track marks before making the audio CD...but I don't know if the 910 has a "combine" feature (my M200 doesn't).

I am not sure about your model specifically, but some older models take power directly from the battery. In other words, if the battery is totally dead, it would have to come to an adequate charge before anything would happen with the unit. Also, this would mean that there would have to be a battery present too. The reason for such a design is that AC adapter may only provide enough amperage to trickle charge the battery, and/or not enough to do that and power the unit. But newer phones, toys, etc, tend to use higher power adapters that can do both, for example late model Sony products that use the 5 pin USB connection for charge/powering. By the way, lithium ion batteries are prone to become totally dead and not come back via charge if left idle for a long time.

Sony gives you four side screws with a new deck, and you be able to view the pdf for your deck to see what they actually look like if you are not sure. I have collected these over the years (from deck installs where they were not needed), so I have hundreds. That being the case, any car audio shop that sells Sony or Kenwood should have plenty handy (most other makes have machined threads). The install kits and so on made by Scosche, Metra, etc. are pretty cheap as a rule. Only some of the 90's era Crutchfield kits (that they designed themselves) were anything close to the quality of fit and material that the OE trim would be.

I was never much into MP3 either (other than podcasts recently). But I had gotten a MZ-M200 a couple years ago, so this gave me the ability (and motivation) to back up my complete MD collection on the computer's HD. So now I can simply transfer stored ATRAC files onto the E107 and play them with the car deck. This is basically the exact same principle as making an "Atrac disc"...but is a little quicker and more convenient...and the 107 holds 1GB versus 700 MB (admittedly minor difference). I guess the advantage of Atrac Disc is that the blanks cost less than a buck, but the E107 actually works well as an Atrac portable that coincidentally will play every last file a RH1/M200 will make...so it's somewhat of a push I guess (yes I hashed all of this out for a while before buying anything). I used to be an installer, so I still have boxes of harnesses kits, etc. Sony decks use a non machined type side screw, which by the way...as you know can only be so long or they will puncture internal parts. So be careful with that.

1. I went a very similar route...and coincidentally for almost the exact same price. I bought a GT610U ($64) and the Sony HD tuner ($32). However, I have yet to make an "Atrac Disc". What I do however is put all Atrac media on one of my ($10-15) MZ-E107's and plug their USB cable into the deck. This woks identically to a MD head unit as far as titles, groups, etc goes. I have thought about making an Atrac CDRW just to see how well it works, but have never had any luck with similar endeavors in the past. The only real complaint I have about the unit is that if you plug a flash drive (or similar) into the USB port, it will not play Atrac, as odd as that seems. In other words, you can only play Atrac though a Sony device. Of course you can load a, say $10 8GB flash drive FULL of MP3 however. 2. If you are speaking of the side screws that normally come with a deck, I have bucket loads of them...would send you some for free if you paid shipping. For that matter, I may have even had the dash kit and harness you needed...but it's likely too late for that.

Speaking of "catching up with MD", I think we need a (home) deck with all of editing features of a typical MD unit, yet with a large hard drive. Well, I am sure there is such a thing, but it is not exactly in the mainstream, or affordable as, say a MDS-JE320 was (around $200 in the late 90's).

I gotta wonder what that would cost if one could find it on the open market (in used form). On an Ebay search, all that came up was a blank (disc) with no completed listings within the past month.

If I had a dollar for every time I wished there was something like that. Guess I was out of the loop. Any pics or links?

I guess since everyone else is posting their non MD (Sony finds), I will do the same. Here are my last two interesting items found at yard sales last week:

It is a KMD-71. I also have a 673, but am keeping it for now.

I think it's either because many of us were cassette people at some point, or are just hell bent Sony enthusiasts. I am both, and have already picked up 3 AM/FM Cassette Walkman and one Sony component dual cassette deck at yard sales this year. Do I use them? Not really. But I can always pass them on to someone that will appreciate them.

Way too late for that! Oh well, I cannot believe there is no UNDO option...even my first MD deck back in the 90's...a 320 had that. It's another case of one step forward, two steps back I guess.

Yes, I screwed up and accidentally erased "all tracks" on a HI-MD disc, rather than the one I was trying to get rid of...and after this I realized there is no "undo" in the edit menu. So is there a trick to get undo capability on this unit? And if not, is there a way to TOC clone HI-MD discs maybe...at least allowing me to get back to the data on the disc in question?

The MDX-D3 decks are pretty nice...I have one that I bought new. But to be honest, I have not actually used it in a couple years, so I should probably cut it loose.

No matter what you do, make sure to run the file converter before you start the process! The files will be stored wherever you specified during SS installation. Do a search for "oma" on your hard drive, and you should be able to find where they are.

That deck was sold eons ago. However I do have a very nice Kenwood MD unit I will likely put up for sale in the next couple weeks...as soon as I get around to taking it out and reinstalling the factory deck in a car I am selling. Let me know if you might be interested in that one.

I agree. To add, SS works even better with Sony's flash players...but that is likely just a factor of files being simply transferred rather than written to disc. I also use WinAmp. I made a point to get an older, more preferred version rather than just get whatever is the newest version. BTW, if I am not mistaken, RP 9.X+ will play OMA files., but those annoying pop-ups are hell, and the interface sure seems to eat up a lot of system resources.

I look at it as SS being all I need. In other words, I can put anything I ever plan to listen to on my Atrac equipment in SS. Everything else can simply be kept in regular folders. If I need to play something Atrac or MP3 to play portably, I simply transfer it to my portable (Sony) device. If I want to play something, say a MP3 podcast, I simply copy it to my $10 8GB flash drive and plug it into the USB slot on the face of my Sony CDX-GT610UI in the car...which will also control my E107 (Psyc), and possibly my M200 (not tried that yet). But maybe your situation is different.

Let's not forget the M200...which is basically the same unit as the RH1 with a newer mic (I believe that's the only major difference). It will upload anything you can record on MD equipment, of course.

I doubt the human ear would be able to tell the difference between the two. For that matter, many will argue that later version of the original 292kbps ATRAC is "acoustically lossless", much less ATRAC3+ bitrates which are two generations newer using similar bitrates. So if space is any issue at all, I would run with the 256. Another advantage to 256 is that it is one of the rates for the RH1/M200, and it also will be able to be played back in potentially more walkman units.

Totally agree. If you think back to when you installed SS, you may remember agreeing to Sony not being liable for any problems caused by the software to your computer, the data itself, etc. Such statements are included in virtually all software agreements. Additionally, in court, they could also could point out the fact that all one has to do is convert the files to OMA from oma...and their software even provides a couple ways to do this. In other words, they would simply say they are not liable for you not fully knowing how to use the software...but it would likely never even go that far, of course. But this is a perfect example of why they cover their ass...so they won't get sued every time a customers has a loss due to their own negligence or lack of knowledge about a product, etc. Without such disclaimers I can only imagine all of the people trying to sue their GPS manufacturer when they wreck their car - claiming it caused it. In other words, even if it did contribute to it in some way, it is up to the customer to decide whether that is really a lake up ahead or not, lol.