tmeg

I did not have this problem, but perhaps you should try the other setting. There is a small switch at the side for analog-digital and digital-only. Perhaps one of it works. I also found that I can not record from MD to PC if the music is track-protected and the soundblaster is in digital-analog mode. In digital-only mode it records everything fine :!:

I got recently a feedback, that my app needs SonicStage to be installed. I assume, you need OpenMG or SonicStage installed, then perhaps the app will work :!: P.S. thanks @mooter, nice that you like it

There are a number of applications available. A free one is "audacity". With Nero comes the Nero Waveditor. And then you could use my app win nmd, which has the advantage to work with NetMD and therefore eases the recordings so you do not need to cut, trim and name the recordings manually but let it do the PC automatically.

Checkin of recorded songs is not supported by NetMD but by the new upcoming Hi-MD. With normal NetMD you need to re-record to the PC with an audio connection. My app win nmd might help on this, too. There are not that convenient freeware alternatives like audiacity. (if I remember it correctly)

Funny thing would be if suddenly with the new SonicStage we could upload with our existing NetMD players :idea: But that would be a heaven wish, which probably will not be true.

a) Its "true and normal" SP, so no difference to other SP recordings. Only difference is, that the song is created from a LP2 file, so the qualitly does not increase but stays basically on the LP2 level. But as ATRAC3 (LP modes) is more advanced than ATRAC (SP) the quality is not that much worse as one would gues while looking at the raw bitrates. So no need to worry that much, especially as a car is not the optimal listening situation for comparing such small differences.

If your tape player has a headphone out, you can connect this to the line-in of your MD. If that is not possible, every old walkmen, which are even available new for 5-10 $ I would think would have a headphone out which could be used to record to MD. At least that is how I would try to solve the problem. :idea:

Sounds as if your player is really defective, probably only Sony can repair this. (but at what price :?

For MD to PC digitally currently you need a Deck with optical out and a PC with optical in. This works. For splitting the tracks at the right positions my app win nmd does this (uses NetMD to detect songs and control the MD and records the played audio with a sound connection), but without guarantee for "perfect timings" as the USB and also the PC has some "lag". Also the MD can not have arbitary song lengths and these are different to possible song lengths on CDs. But I found the timings quite good in my recent tests. My app also creates a CUE file if you record a number of songs continuesly as one song file. The CUE file is created by the actual song lengths, so they do not differ. (only by a small portion because of the different length-systems as stated above) For new buyers it is of course most interesting to wait what Hi-MD will offer, it is stated that this enables us to transfer our own recordings directly with USB to the PC. Then of course everything will be much easier and with highest possible quality.

I recently "repaired" a NetMD (N1) which did not record any more and said all discs are write protected. I added a little tape at the metallic frame, at a point where a small "tip" is, which detects if a disc is write protected. Now the player thinks that all discs are write-enabled and it works again. In this case I think the player was a little pressed so the mechanics is a little bit of its normal position.

You could try to burn the music from WMP with the Nero Plugin for WMP to a image file and load it with Nero Imagedrive, then you use SimpleBurner to transfer the music. This way you also do not have track protection and everything should run fine. Of course it is much more hastle to do this than one might expect and so you are right that Sony makes something wrong. Another possibility for CDs you buy is to listen to it one time and in the mean time record it directly to the MD with optical cable. I like to do that, too, because it gives best quality and I think its quite OK to listen to the music I buy at least one time :wink: so its no time or speed problem to do this. MD was developed without Computer in mind and the current NetMD just needs to be improved. Or I need a faster computer, perhaps the experience is then much better. I do not know...

USB transfer is not possible by NetMD :cry: So my app just makes it more comfortable to record to the PC, and it has some other features, too, like freedb album titling for albums on MD. The next update (V1.3) will greatly improve on the timing, so the length of the recorded files will be similar to the source music files you transfered from PC to MD. But there will still be a very small offset. One source for this small issue is e.g. with LP4 there is a certain "step size" for the tracks, so it is not possible for the MD to use any song length. The files will not be identical as WAV files are compressed, so even if you use a NetMD deck with optical out, the sound will differ somewhat. But with optical out and in (e.g. with the JB980) you should get the same music like on MD to the PC, but of course you get this also with any other recording app. (but in other cases you would need to cut and trimm the songs manually or be dependent on gap detection for the audio, which does not work e.g. for live recordings) I hope this helps a little :idea:

My app win nmd might help, too :roll: (but not freeware)

Tape would have been cheaper, but worse quality and comfort. Some digital recorders (memory or hard disc based) should be available, too. I think on minidisc.org there is a "uploader section" with a list of better devices.

It is not possible to use NetMD to introduce track marks for recorded tracks. You would need to use the auto-track mark feature of your recorder for that. Or you you record to PC and split it there. Unfortenately no other possibility seems to be available. (as far as I know)

You would need to record them to the PC with an audio recorder. There are a lot available, even free ones. My app win nmd could help, too. In case you need to record not just one disc and want to save some time on cutting and trimming the songs, my app recognizes the individual titles and song names through the NetMD API, but it also needs to do normal audio recording to the PC.

You import the songs again (I think from a different folder), to get more than 3 checkouts. If you do not like the track-protection, then the "simple burner" method will be your friend (seach the forum). Via NetMD currently only LP2 and LP4 quality is possible. For SP NetMD transfer a upsampling from the stored LP2/4 format files is used, thus no increase in quality is achieved. For maximum quality you would need to record opticaly from a CD player or from the PC in "real time". I think and hope "MDing" still makes fun If you experience software stability problems, check if you have downloaded all available updates from Sony.

If you regulary record smaller tracks from MD to PC this way you might check my program win nmd which could help on this. (see feature-list)

I think the confusion comes because Sony speaks of "Check-In"/"Check-out" and of "uploading" or so. Unfortenately we all (or most of us) know that a "real" Check-In is not possible.

No real answer for you, but I think at some time I read the info that the recent SimpleBurner updates make it possible to use less space on HD, so if you find it does not work, check if you have applied the needed updates. Btw. I think you need admin rights on the PC, and if you have that I think you normally do not have space problems. Perhaps this limitation is important in your case. Anyway, good luck on MD! MP3 might be more easy in some cases, but if you know the problems like not that fast transfer and not so comfortable software, than everything is fine. The sound is really good and the hardware is truly HiFi (I think), no computer toy

Hi Brian, I suggest to write me an Email, if you do not have done it yet. Reactivation is always for free. Use tmeg@gmx.de and include "win nmd" in the subject, this way I can keep my email folders clean, I get so much spam and worm mails lately that I have to delete so many mails.

Use SimpleBurner, and optionally m3u2sb + daemon tools if you want to transfer not CDs but mp3 files. With SB you do not get track protection

m3u2sb + daemontools + simpleburner: pro: track names, no track protection (deletion of songs with portable possible) con: a little bit slow compared to other methods, a two step work, first create audio images, then launch simpleburner realone: pro: does not crash as often as a not updated sonic stage or open mg, no check-in, check-out problems - checkout as often as you like con: slower than sonic stage or open mg if you use the option to delete the omg files imeadiatly (has to be re-encoded if you transfer again), track-protection sonic stage, open mg: pro: high speed (if you have N10 or N910 you can avoid TOC update by converting the first song of a playlist first, then check-out), direct ripping of audio cd --> creation of omg files and checkout at the same time quite stable if you apply all available updates con: track protection, used disc space is very high (duplicate sound files mp3->omg) I think thats all. I use Sonic Stage for Audio Albums where I know all tracks are good. m3u2sb+sb for mp3 files I downloaded, so I can delete bogus files if neccessary very easily. I hope this helps. chris

Not the only one :!: my "CD-Text for Simple Burner" (http://christian.klukas.bei.t-online.de/files/cdtext4sb/RealOpenMDhowto.htm) is the second option. But even me prefers m3u2sb :-) for complete albums you can also title afterwards with my app Win NMD, but this would not be free. chris

Also consider the speed of audio extraction out of the CD. If you use a CD image, that does not limit the speed, but if you use real CDs, then at least at my PC, my CD does not extract fast enough for higher speeds. If you need fast transfer, use SonicStage and convert the first one or two tracks of a playlist, then check the playlist out, the TOC update will only happen at the end of the whole playlist (with my N910), saving much time. Now the CPU is limiting the transfer (P3-800), so I would assume a big speed increase in this case.