NGY

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Great stuff - and very environment-friendly. And this is when "great minds meet" :-) - I came up with the exact same idea. For the gumstick "craddle" I used a Li-ion charger I bought on fleabay, (for $0.99 - incl. free shipping...). All electronics were removed, except for the spring loaded contacts. Cable and alligator clips were from an ex test lead (also cheapo Chinese thingies). I have the Technoline BC700 (European version of the Lacoste), that is a great little charger. Besides my "dead" NiMH gumsticks, I actually revitalized more than 30 pieces of NiMH AA cells, that my cameras rejected with "low battery" message (and I kept buying new batteries, while only the improper chargers were the cause of frequent battery mortality...). Now, those old (some of them 14-15 years old) cells can keep about 60-80 % of their original nominal capacity.

I am just curious how many people would be interested in such a solution. I had some thoughts, and wonder if there are any volunteers (to hack their precious MD gear). Here is my concept: 1. Take an MD remote and add a 3 position switch for controlling 3 different MD decks, and add an extra piece of circuitry, that can change the IR signal as needed (see point 3.). My candidate is the RM-D15M, for a couple of reasons: it is fairly common and relatively inexpensive, it has a lot of buttons (~90% of other advanced decks' remotes), and it is big enough, so has room inside for the mod. (RM-D7M-s are available from the US at very cheap price, like $7 each or so, but it does not have the +/- buttons, that is worth a lot for many decks.) (Instead of a modded original MD remote, a universal remote can also be used, if and when it is programmable to such modified Sony IR code as below.) 2. Build a circuitry into those decks (up to 3) that need to be independently controlled (actually, only into second and third, because the first one can remain intact). This small circuitry will "understand" the modified remote, and transform the IR signal back to the original Sony protocol (again see point 3.). This device must be between the deck's IR receiver, and its main processor, therefore, the deck itself must also be tinkered (the line that runs from the IR receiver to the main IC must be cut at the most appropriate point, plus two power lines must be connected to the added circuit). The device can be "hard wired" to selection 1-2-3, or can also have a switch (say wired onto the back of the deck), to be able to select its ID. 3. Now, before you say it is "way too complicated" (like I did earlier), here are those "little circuitries": in fact they can be very small, like a coin - just a microcontroller (an SMD one), one or two transistors plus a few passives. The microcontroller in the remote takes the signal of the original remote (naturally, for deck 2 and 3 only), changes the device ID code (but nothing else) in each and every button sequence, and drives the IR LEDs. The same microcontroller (well, different microcode) in the deck then replaces this "fake" device code with the original Sony MD ID ("15"), and sends the "clean" signal to the deck's main IC. As simple, as it gets. The thing here is that Sony's IR protocol is fairly simple, so we can play with it. We can also find two unused device ID-s for this purpose, to avoid bothering other Sony gear. So anybody who dares, raise their hand :-).

I'd love to see it too. I recently collected the photos of ~50 different Sony MD remotes, and I had some surprises.

That's right, the 930 does not have this functionality, not even in the Setup. (Unfortunately. And I sold my 920.) But the 940 does have it, regardless there is no DO BIT button on the RM-D49M. The JA20ES also does, and it's remote has both the Filter and DO BIT buttons on it.

Thanks for the input. May I ask you to take a good photo of the two different RM-D33M remotes? With and without the DO BIT button. It sounds interesting. And I am going to check my 33 immediately :-). The DO BIT button is there to set the bit depth of the digital out, 16-20-24 bits, if I recall it correctly. Normally, this button would have its own IR code different from those I am looking for, but I will certainly check it. --- UPDATE: my RM-D33M does not have the DO BIT button :-( .

I can't hold my breath... Did you have time to look at it? Before "it's off to the Hifi graveyard in the sky", I would be happy to give it a chance.

Price? ;-)

Yes, but what if someone wants to record from the radio of the unit? (And, this unit is clearly having a problem, that should be fixed, even if used for play back only. A mechanical trouble for example can lead to other damages.)

Strange symptomps, and somewhat contradictory. When the disc is blank after a record attempt, in most cases it is the sign of the OWH being faulty. If you are able to produce a recorded track occassionally, then the OP is the suspect, either out of factory adjustments, or getting weak. However, to delete a track, both the OP and the OWH must be in working condition. (To erase a disc the OWH is not necessarily needed, only the OP). A few more experients might be needed to better locate the fault. I would begin with a simple title change of an existing track. If the result is a blank disc, then the OP is probably good, and the OWH is faulty. If the result is no change, then the OP is faulty. Then I would try to record on a known good disc that is nearly full. Again, if the result is a blank disc, then the OWH is not working, and if the result is no change to the original content, then the OP is faulty. Mostly, because there can be other issues too, but these are the ones to begin with. (You may want to probe with discs you don't mind if their content will be lost. Or you can do TOC cloning on another machine, and restore the TOCs after the tests.)

OK, I have also found that the closest match of the RM-D49M is the RM-D19M. Only two buttons are missing, REC MODE and INPUT, one single button, FILTER is at a different position, all the rest is right there. Very close. Other alternatives can be the RM-D17M (REC MODE, INPUT and FILTER buttons are missing, the rest is just as covered), or simply the more frequent RM-D15M (P.HOLD is missing on top of the three above, plus the two DATE buttons on "D" and "E" need to be checked if they work - I would expect they do). I think I will just get a VL600 and program those missing few buttons not on the RM-D15M, for both the 22 and the 49 (and maybe others), and put it next to my extra RM-D15M. This seems the easiest way to fix the remotes issue - true it requires two remotes for MD, but in return I can control any of my MD decks using only those two, and have the convenience of the most used buttons on an original Sony MD remote, with the usual layout. Nevertheless, I keep my WANTED topic open ended - anybody having an RM-D22M RM-D21M or an RM-D49M for sale, please let me know, I still would like to complete my decks with their original remotes.

No, this does not work, for the reason Stephen pointed out above. Technically, it would not be a big deal to create the disc ID/information cddb uses and have it looked up for, so theoretically it could be possible to get the track titles for an MD, that is recorded straight from a CD. However, in case of custom mixed MD-s it would just be close to impossible - cddb is not designed to look up for individual tracks, even for CD-s (there could be huge number of song titles that could be associated to the same track length). I tried the thing though, just to see, how MCrew works: once a CD is inserted, MCrew looks up in the cddb database (you need to be registered), and fills the CD track information. Then I copied a CD to MD via synchro rec, but first I deleted the cddb track titles in the CD window, to get an MD without any track titles. After recording completed, I ejected both discs, then re-inserted the MD, but MCrew did not bother. There is no cddb button at the bottom of the the MD window either (while the CD window has it). All you can do with MCrew is to copy the cddb track titles during recording a CD to MD, or, cut&paste the text information you get in the CD window, into the MD window.

So is this what you mean: you insert an MD into the PC3 and you get the track information from cddb to the disc in MCrew?

I have a PC3, also an S50, and use MCrew. Never recorded a CD directly from the PC CD player though, so I cannot tell its cddb capability, but I can check this for you.

In fact it does: ”As a derivative of RIFF, WAV files can be tagged with metadata in the INFO chunk. In addition, WAV files can embed any kind of metadata, including but not limited to Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) data or ID3 tags[27] in extra chunks. Applications may not handle this extra information or may expect to see it in a particular place.” (source) And you can even edit in Audacitiy: (Picture taken from the net, as I am not at my computer that runs Audacity. Will replace it later)

That's right. But oversampling is done on the same basis of audio data: namely 16/44,1 read from the CD (or, the WAV, if ripped). So I think we can say - distinguishing between two independent questions we touched here: - the CD audio (if ripped properly) WAV can be converted back and forth to FLAC lossless, i.e., FLAC can return the original WAV bit by bit, without losing quality of the original, and - the original 16/44,1 CD audio data can be enhanced in different ways, to correct/smooth/ increase quantization errors/noise/dynamic range, etc., and ATRAC as a native 20 bit format is very good at it (although, it is a lossy format on the other hand) My view is that for lossless archiving CD audio (when file size is a matter) FLAC is 100% appropriate (again, with a proper rip), and an ATRAC encoded CD or WAV audio played on appropriate equipment can be audibly (I think this is the right word) better, than the original CD (similarly to those 20 bit oversampling CD players).

The original audio can be digitized at any sample rate and bit depth, like 20/48, 24/48, 24/96, 24/192, etc., once it is converted into the standard CD Red Book format, all information that is present in the higher resolution digital audio master but cannot be translated into 16 bit 44,1 khz is actually lost. Forever. No method can bring back 20 or 24 bit original digital audio from 16 bit data. When you rip a CD, whatever the intended output format is, the ripping application first reads the data on the CD, saves it into WAV file(s), then does the actual conversion. In other words, the same WAV is the base for any further step, no matter what the output codec is. If the data on the CD has only 16 bit 44,1 khz audio, the output format, FLAC, mp3, ATRAC, etc. converted files can have that much information only, at max. None of them can reproduce the original bits and samples of the original master. I can imagine, that when recording a CD or converting a WAV to 20 bit ATRAC format, the ATRAC codec does apply some sort of enhacements after dithering 16 bit to 20, and that it can result an audically (does such word exist?) better sound. But that 20 bit data is not identical to the original one, because it is impossible.

I am not sure I get this. In the past, I have archived near 700 CD-s into FLAC, and whenever I converted those files back to WAV I did get the exact copy of the original CD. I used EAC, with "superparanoid" settings, i.e., for gap detection, offset correction, etc. To verify file integrity I used CRC check and md5sum. I did some comparison at the very beginning, burnt a CD from those FLAC/WAVs with the appropriate CUE file, then ripped it again and compared to the original CD. I got bit for bit copies, so I stopped this time consuming process when saw the back up was identical to the original. I might have missed though something I was not aware of, but I still convert those FLAC files back to WAV with Audacity instead of spinning the original CD-s, when I need an MD copy.

I thought I'd share this (been searching the net for some IR information): "In '89, a Customer brings in their VCR for me to fix. It won't accept tapes, plus their kids misplaced their remote, so they wanted a price on a new one. Well, after taking the unit apart, I called them and said, "Sir, I've found the problem with your VCR. BTW, you don't need a new remote." (From: Bill Samuel) " Too bad that no chance the missing remote of an MD deck finds like this :-) .

Thanks, I have just downloaded the user manual and the code table. Will dive into it sometime. [UPDATE2: I have just learned, that the RM-D21M is the remote I was really after, as this is the remote for the non-Japanese W1, while the RM-D22M is for the Japanese model.] Just out of curiousity, I compared the photo of a RM-D22M to the other remotes I possess, and the RM-D33M is the closest. What I found is that only seven buttons are missing, three other are potentially OK, all the rest (56 out of 64) is there. Here is a photo, and the color code: - green: these buttons are the same and are in the same position on both remotes - yellow: same buttons, but located in different positions - red: buttons not on the 33M - these are Deck A, Relay, Deck B, Input, Output, MD-Sync, Timer - blue: 1) second function of the +/- record level buttons are used for menu select on the 22M, while analogue output level on the 33M, I suspect it is decided inside the units, so they should work. 2) There is an unmarked button on the 22M that can enter the parentheses in name edit mode, same button exist on the 33M, marked A.Space - again I believe this has the same code, and works OK. I will test them on the W1 once I can. [UPDATE: yes, +/- buttons of the 33M do work for menu select on the W1, as well as the A.Space button for the parentheses. So these blue dots are actually green ones :-) .] With that, the 33M can be used with the W1 for majority of the functions, though for selecting decks or inputs/outputs the deck's buttons are needed. Not bad, especially when the W1 is not the main recorder or playback unit, when those seven would be handy. Disk to disk operations need the user next to the deck anyhow, and working from the menus is also faster with the AMS knobs.

It depends on the cheese ;-) !

Thanks Stephen. I will take a look at the Sony RM-VL600 - seems it is a fairly inexpensive model. The biggest shortfall for me is that these universal remotes have all the generic buttons, like power, navigating, numbers, etc., but very few of the programmable buttons. For me, those would make the most sense, as all I need is a couple of functions from the 22M and the 19M, that are unique to them. Rest (the generic stuff) is working with any other MD remote, like my 15M or 47M I use the most, no use to replicate them on a universal remote. My understanding is that - at least on the MD remotes - one button is one code, flat, and the interpretation is done inside the unit. I need to verify it though, once I get a little deeper into this IR stuff. As for selective control of multiple MD decks: no, Sony never implemented this. Very simply put: the IR code of a given button is built of two parts - one is the device ID, the other one is the actual command. Sony reserved only one single device ID for MD decks (”15”), that's why it is not possible to select a given MD deck to operate from the remote, without "bothering" the others. (We touched this question here a few months ago, there are ways to solve this, but way too complicated.)

Well, when I was last in a math class, there was no Minidisc to listen to, as it had not existed yet! LOL

Thanks, Philippe. I saw this site, very informative. There is a file, that describes Sony IR codes in details, I am using it as a reference. While I would like to stick to an original remote, if ever possible, my backup plan is to use my ipad as a remote. Another plan is to build a small ir box with only a few buttons, that would cover the missing functions only, as most of the functions are common on all MD remotes.

From MD-X=R and 2R=MU-X we can eliminate R: 2MD-2X=MU-X /+2X 2MD=MU+X /-MU 2MD-MU=X Say 100 min. music on a 74 min. md (instead of 80): 148-100=48. 74-48=26, 2x26=52, 52+48=100 There you go ;-)