BearBoy

Ah, so it's a Blu-ray thing. I did make an MD of a DVD the other day but used the other method you suggested (i.e. ripping the DVD to my PC and then transferring to MiniDisc using Stefano's Web MiniDisc app). I don't think I had a PC with a DVD drive during my original MiniDisc phase. With your Onkyo, does it make any difference whether you're recording PCM to a HiMD or ATRAC?

That's interesting. I'm sure I've made digital copies of soundtracks of live music DVDs etc in the past without SCMS rearing its ugly head. Don't think I've ever tried it with a Blu-ray though. I'll have to do some tests and see if I have misremembered (I've definitely got some MDs that I recorded from DVDs many years ago but maybe I ended up using analogue).

Sooo,

Techmoan posted a new MiniDisc video whilst we were off air:

They are now? 😀

Emojis still don't seem to be working for me.

Just checked and I can now access PMs through the site on my phone. The site seems to work really well on my iPhone now. It looks a bit different too, compared to the screenshots I posted above.

Great to see the place back. Thanks for getting it all sorted Christopher!

So whilst we’ve been on sabbatical, I picked up a few new MiniDisc related items. First up is a bit of a nostalgia purchase. Back in 1997 I dived into the world of MiniDisc by buying an MDS-JE500 deck, which is still going strong, and an MZ-E30 portable player, which sadly got stolen from a pub in Holborn around 2001. I’ve been keeping half an eye open for an MZ-E30 ever since getting back into MiniDisc but kept talking myself out of it as it doesn't have MDLP or Group function, uses an older form of ATRAC etc. Anyway, I came across a nice looking one on eBay for a reasonable price and my resolve wavered. The seller mentioned that audio was only coming out of one of the earphones but I wasn’t unduly concerned as I would have used my own anyway. The only slight worry would have been if the issue was with the remote, rather than the earphones, but I decided to take a chance and went ahead and bought the player. Player turned up and looked great: Then I encountered a problem. I had completely forgotten that the remote that comes with the MZ-E30 (RM-MZE50MP) doesn’t have the normal 3.5mm headphone connecter but instead uses a smaller “micro plug”: Okay. So I needed some sort of adapter. I found the Sony part number, PC-MP1S, and started trying to track one down. Easier said than done. Found one on eBay but the seller wanted over £100 for it (there’s one on there now for £113.99 ….) In the meantime, I tested the player and everything seemed to be working okay. The remote seemed functional, although I couldn’t test the audio, and the player sounded fine with the remote bypassed. It also worked okayish with some of my later remotes (IIRC some of the buttons did fairly random things). Then, purely by chance, I came across a post on the r/minidisc Reddit where some guy in Hong Kong was selling PC-MP1Ss for a much more reasonable price. I bought one from him (he has dozens by the sounds of things) and, hey presto, one fully functional MZ-E30 with original remote :-) The player also came with an original Sony NH-14WM gumstick battery. I fully expected this to be useless tbh but, to my surprise, it works absolutely fine.

Hello everyone. Looks like we're back :-)

I've got no experience with M-Crew / SonicStage and the like, I'm afraid. I'm sure some people here will be able to point you in the right direction though. Good luck! Will be interested to hear how you get on.

Have you had a play with it yet, Kevin?

I had started pulling together a table of the specs of the Sony decks (ATRAC version, mechanism type, encoder etc). I included the Control-A1 information from the manuals for each deck: This is just an extract for the full size (i.e. not midi/mini) decks from the MDS-XXX20 range onwards. It doesn't include any ES decks or Pro decks (yet). I couldn't find a manual for the MDS-JB730 but am assuming, based on the fact that the 930, 630 and 530 all have it, that it probably has Control-A1(II) as well. None of the lower end decks (i.e. MDS-JE3XX and MDS-JE4XX) had Control A1 and Sony discontinued it by the time the JB980 and JE780 arrived.

Haha :-D You definitely do need reliable kit in those circumstances!

Hmmm. Annoying, but useful to know, I guess. I had been looking at the section on Control-A1(II) in the manual for my MDS-JB940 and there's no mention of CD text/song titles etc. Just fairly vague references to "transmission of control signals", which didn't look too exciting tbh - just automatic switching of amp inputs with a compatible Sony amp etc. I then found a separate section "Synchro Recording with a Sony CD Player" that does state that: Unfortunately it looks like Sony had abandoned Control-A1(II) by the time they made the CD player I have connected up to my MD decks in my office (SCD-XB790). I think it dates from around 2003. My MDS-JB940 (2000?) has the functionality but the slightly later MDS-JB980 doesn't.

Not looked at those for a while but I did have them in my watch list at one point and, like everything else MD related, they seemed to be getting more expensive. They also commanded pretty high prices to start with, presumably they're much rarer than standard MD decks.

Makes sense to have plenty of contingency given what you use it for. You don't want an empty silence with the actors looking blankly at each other at a key moment in the show ;-) Not to encourage yet more kit purchases but maybe you need to have a think about a NetMD compatible machine and the Web MiniDisc app? * Runs for cover...

So, just to clarify, copying from CD to MD with Control-A1(II) will transfer song titles (assuming the CD in question has CD text) but copying from MD to MD with Control-A1(II) doesn't?

Ah, that's a shame. Would have been a useful feature. I have never really copied MD to MD very much but I suspect that's something you need to do for your shows (so you have backups)?

Very true :-)

Haha. Mine too :-)

Well, after listening to (and ejecting) a variety of MiniDiscs all day, the issue hasn't re-occurred Didn't even get around to trying the power cycle Kevin suggested. Weird...

That's a very good suggestion! I did have a keyboard connected yesterday when I first encountered the issue but it was not connected this morning when I was able to replicate it. The remote control was sat on top of the unit the deck's in and didn't have any buttons accidentally pressed.

If you put a disc recorded in Groups in a non-Groups compatible deck (at least, this is what happens with my MDS-JE500) the titling goes a bit wonky. I recorded a test disc as follows: Disc Name: Disc Name Group One: Song One - Song Two - Song Three Group Two: Song Four - Song Five - Song Six If I put that disc in my MDS-JE500, the disc name comes out as: 0;Disc Name//1-3;Group One//4-6;Group Two// The tracks themselves are fine (i.e. Song One, Song Two, Song Three, Song Four etc). I did wonder if you could "fake" groups in a non-Groups compatible deck (maybe if you wanted to play them back on a Groups compatible portable) by manually entering the disc name in the format above but it doesn't work.

Good luck! Let us know if you find a working method :-)