BearBoy

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 :-)

Thanks Kevin; I'll give the power cycle suggestion a try. Re the audio/track data: yeah, I didn't think this would be the issue as I've completely filled discs before and never had an issue with adding track names etc. The only difference this time around was that I made the recordings in LP2 mode and they were in four Groups (I hadn't had an MDLP compatible deck back in the day so had only ever made SP recordings) so I did wonder whether that might be the issue. Good to know for future reference that the audio and track data are stored separately.

Bit of an odd one, this. Apologies in advance for the lengthy post... As I mentioned elsewhere, my main MDS-JB980 started giving C13 errors on Saturday. Before I got around to taking the lid off to give it a clean, I plumbed in my second MDS-JB980 so I could do some recordings, which I did on Saturday evening. On Sunday, I tried to enter track names for a couple of songs I had recorded the day before but got a "Cannot Edit" message appear in the display. I was a bit bewildered by this. The disc didn't have the record-protect tab open (and that would give a different error message: "C11/Protected") and the disc had not been anywhere near a computer (so no "TrProtected" issues). I wondered if it might be because I had completely filled the disc (I ran out of space about 8 seconds before the end of the last song I was trying to record) but don't recall this ever having been a problem in the past. I then noticed that the deck was in Programme play mode (i.e. PGM was illuminated in the display). I thought this a bit odd as I hadn't been using Programme play mode but assumed I must have accidentally knocked the Play Mode button on either the deck or remote control at some point. Set it back to normal and was able to enter the track names. Okay, so far, not particularly interesting :-) I carried on messing about with a few different discs before I noticed the deck was now in Shuffle play mode (i.e. SHUF was illuminated in the display). Not sure if I was getting very clumsy but was pretty sure I hadn't been touching the Play Mode buttons. I had, however, had a couple of instances where I had to press the Eject button on the deck more than once to actually get it to eject the disc (not an eject issue in the usual sense with a failing belt but just no response from the deck when first pressed). I then noticed, when pressing Eject on the deck and the eject cycle not initiating, that the Play Mode changed in the display. It's not consistent, and doesn't appear to follow a pattern that I can discern, but I can replicate it and change the Play Mode with the Eject button. On the MDS-JB980, the Eject button is to the right of the loading slot/display screen whilst the Play Mode button is to the left, so they're not in any way adjacent. Has anyone encountered this sort of behaviour before? Any ideas what might be causing it?

On my iPhone, requesting the Desktop site still shows the exact same screen as the Mobile site. Is that what you meant sfbp?

I've not been able to work that out either. I have only been able to access PMs on my phone by using the links in the notification e-mails I received.

I've not tried it but maybe Web MiniDisc or Platinum MD might be able to do it? Web MiniDisc: https://stefano.brilli.me/webminidisc/ / https://github.com/cybercase/webminidisc/wiki/Support-and-FAQ Platinum MD: https://platinum-md.app/ / https://github.com/gavinbenda/platinum-md#readme

That's a shame. I thought, given the number of connections on the rear of the two machines, and that they both appear to "match", you might have been able to get them working together in some fashion. Have you got a CD player that's Control-A1(II) compatible? Just wondered if that brought any benefits with your MDS-JE770?

Thanks Kevin. I'll pop the lid off and give the lens a clean with some isopropyl alcohol tomorrow. That worked the last time I had a C13 error with this deck so hopefully it might work again:

Looks great, Kevin. Very compact! Can you do anything clever with the myriad of connections on the back of the pair of them? e.g. Remote/Control-S etc?

I don't suppose you have access to an older MD deck do you? I use my MDS-JE500 to wipe discs that have been write protected via SonicStage.

Oooh. Do tell!

It does look like the loading slot was something of an afterthought :-) Did a bit of Googling and it looks like there was a graphic equaliser (KE 7090) that seems like it might match? @Trumie35 let us know how you get on once you've had a chance to try recording a few things.

I'm probably being a bit dim here but please could someone explain what NGY means by "jumper" in the steps in his txt guide? One of my decks, which had been working perfectly up until about 30 minutes ago, has suddenly started giving C13 errors.

Very professional looking with the label :-)