wolb1

No, I did not use SS backup as it deletes stored files without notice. Yes, research would be helpful. An important researcher has been Adrian Glaubitz, Berlin, Germany with 5 other programmers, but he is offline, I suppose. https://wiki.physik.fu-berlin.de/linux-minidisc It seems that Sony MD technology has been superseded by mp3 and is already something like vintage.

Dear Stephen, thank you for your extensive help. Yes, the files had been uploaded to Windows 10 from Walkman, that crashed and has been installed new on another partition. But I had a backup of all files in RAR format and could restore them. But I did not have a backup of the SSprogram and all the OpenMG .dat files, don't know whether this would help? Now there are three types of files: 1. Files not encrypted 2. Files encrypted but can be played in FFmpeg 3. Files encrypted but cannot be played in FFmpeg. These files cannot also be converted by FCT: error messages. I wonder why FFmpeg can play and convert some and others not. Kind regards, Wolf

Dear Stephen, thanks for your reply. FCT = file conversion tool. I used PCM also believing that it would be better. Thank you for your explanation. I am not quite sure whether my files that could not be decoded where uploaded by which walkman. These files where rather old and FFmpeg did show: [oma @ 00000000001ce040] File is encrypted [oma @ 00000000001ce040] No encryption header found C:\ProgramData\SonicStage\Packages\Hi-MD 2019-07-14 18_10_12\010-2019-07-14 18_10_12.oma: Operation not permitted That is atrac3plus, 256 kbps BTW, is there a bit depth value in oma files? Kind regards, Wolf

Ich habe beobachtet, dass alle oma Dateien, die mit dem Walkman MZ-RH1 als verschlüsselte atrac3plus oma Dateien auf den PC übertragen wurden, von ffmpeg entschlüsselt werden können. Das gilt sowohl für normale MD (atrac3) als auch für HiMD (atrac3plus, 256 kbps). Aber HiMD Dateien von anderen Walkmen (z.B. MZ- NH1) können zwar auf SonicStage übertragen und dort abgespielt werden, aber nicht mit ffmpeg Decoder entschlüsselt werden. Ich schließe daraus, dass die ffmpeg Programmierer nur die Verschlüsselungs-Software geknackt haben, die im RH1 eingebaut ist, aber nicht die Software von OpenMG. Immerhin ist auch das schon ein großer Schritt, der bestimmt viele Jahre an Arbeit gekostet hat, um die verdammte und wertlose Digital Rights Management (DRM) Philosophie von Sony ad absurdum zu führen. Sony stellt zwar ein "File Conversion Tool" zur Entschlüsselung zur Verfügung, wenn man aber vergessen hat, dieses laufen zu lassen, sind nach einem System Crash mit System Neuinstallation, was bekanntlich bei Windows sehr oft passiert, alle oma Dateien unbrauchbar. Das gilt sogar für PCM Dateien, die als verschlüsselte oma Dateien gespeichert werden, mit der gleichen Dateigröße wie eine WAV, die aber nicht mit einem normalen Player abspielbar sind. Übersetzung: I have observed that all oma files transferred to the PC with the Walkman MZ-RH1 as encrypted atrac3plus oma files can be decrypted by ffmpeg. This applies to both normal MD (atrac3) and HiMD (atrac3plus, 256 kbps). But HiMD files from other Walkmen (e.g. MZ- NH1) can be transferred to SonicStage and played there, but cannot be decrypted with ffmpeg decoder. I conclude that the ffmpeg programmers only cracked the encryption software built into the RH1, but not the software of OpenMG. After all, this is also a big step, which has certainly taken many years of work to lead sony's damned and worthless Digital Rights Management (DRM) philosophy ad absurdum. Sony provides a "File Conversion Tool" for decryption, but if you forgot to run it, after a system crash with system re-installation, which as you know happens very often in Windows, all oma files are unusable. This even applies to PCM files that are stored as encrypted oma files, with the same file size as a WAV, but are not playable with a normal player.

Kris01 how did you add pictures to your posting, please?

I have the same problem. Is there any solution out now without programming SonicStage new? 0011.bmp

Hi Phillippe, A link to instructions I had installed the drivers in November 2017 and February this year, transferred tracks from Net-MD and now Windows says, Device is ready Net-MD/Hi-MD is set up and ready to go but in the Device Manager it says Currently not connected Code 45. It seems the driver have been lost from alone!

Sonic Stage is a software that is rather badly designed by Sony and even is not supported since MP3 is dominating the field! Sonic Stage should enable transfer in both directions, but does not. Furthermore, Windows 10 blocks installation of Sony drivers as the signature is missing. What is the result of this? Only Software experts and nerds can manage to transfer Atrac 3 SP and LP recordings directly as oma files from the Walkman to PC.

Turn walkman off as long as connected to PC.

Dear Steve, thanks for your help. I will check whether I downloaded the correct file. Meanwhile Sony told me the following: <<<< Unfortunately SonicStage is not available anymore and therefor not being supported by us any longer. That's why it is incompatible with Windows10 and will not be updated in future. We're very sorry to disappoint you. Please feel free to contact us, if you should need further assistance. >>>> So, what does this mean??? Sony software must be updated by anybody who is not member of this stupid company? If Microsoft will stop support for an old System version, there would be a successor that does replace and improve this obsolete version. What is the successor software for SonicStage? Or the user should throw away any Sony software and also any Sony hardware too??? I am frustrated, that is very bad Corporate Identity.

Dear Stephen, thanks for your reply! Under Win10 I had the following problems (that is where my trouble began): 1) The option to create a CD was totally missing. 2) After installing the new "Ultimate" SS, only runtime errors came up. It did not run at all. So, maybe I made something wrong with my installation. The system file check, however, did not show any error, only one unimportant file was pointed out. Wolfgang

Dear Stephen, thank you for your kind reply. Yes, VLC can play them. Is it possible to run conversion with that from oma to wav or mp3 for a number of files in one operation? Is there any other program that can do so? What is DLNA? Does anybody know, what System files are checked by the OpenMG (to open the "Magic Gate"), so that I can restore these system files from my backups and simulate the original System to this stupid Sony software? Yours sincerely, Wolfgang

Hi all, it is absolutely unsatisfactory what happens when I transfer music files from one partition to another on the same computer. I have made a backup of all stuff on an external drive. Then restored all files to another external drive. Then started SS on another partition with a different Windows System as this poorly designed software is not running under Win 10 (!!!). From that external drive, I imported some oma files into the SS on the other partition. Now it says it cannot retrieve the licensing information. Furthermore, all files had been imported from my Hi-md Walkman without any software protection or property violence!!! IMHO, no type of software is allowed to depend in such important way on the operating system or the hardware of a computer where it is running! The well designed software has to be absolutely platform independent!!! IMHO Sony software is lacking a system that stores all audio files in one place, maybe with password, and the user can access this from everywhere he wants. The current method of digital rights protection is absolutely crap, in my humble opinion.

Supplement: I have tried VLC player 2.2.1 that can play the files, even SonicStage cannot. So it could be possible to convert them into WAV by the VLC player and reimport them into SonicStage. But this is not recommendable as solution, IMHO!

Recently I upgraded from Win 7 to Win 10. SonicStage did open normally but it was not able to transfer to CD. The drive was not recognized and all options greyed out. After this, I searched for a new version and found one titled “Ultimate”. After installing new from this source, SS did not even run. It said always Runtime error in Visual C++ Even installing it from the old source file gave the same exception errors. I investigated the type of error and found out: Function Create Mutex | Access denied. I do not know why! After many new trials of installing this software and many different runtime errors, finally I managed to make the program running again. It is running only in Compatibility Mode for XP!!! Also the tool: 'SonicStage System Information Restore Tool' was running at startup and successful. But yet now, I tested all my albums and found out, that only those I had formerly exported without software protection could be played. The others showed the well known error: "Cannot play this track because the licensing information cannot be found. Please contact the source from which you received this track from" This is very great sh***t!!! Can any body help me or post her/his other experiences with SonicStage and Windows 10? I have about 14 GB of music albums and do not want to loose most of them. Prior to the new SS installation I had made a SS data backup, but I don't know if restoring from backup would help.