Andy

I've promised that when I get my own NetMD unit, I will do some fiddling around with it to try and work out how it works. If I can make any progress then I will definately make it public... and since I'm a nice guy (???) I'll probably make it free, just because I don't like paying for stuff (also it takes a lot of work to take something to being commercial). I can't promise that I will make progress, but I don't think anyone (except Sony) can Of course, you can always further the cause by buying me an MD with NetMD support

I'm fairly sure that the player itself won't degrade, thus you should still be able to get the same battery life as when you start. Two possible exceptions I can think of: - Lots of gunk building up on the motors would make it difficult for them to move thus it would use more battery - If the laser loses strength, then an MD *might* be smart enough to feed it more power (I don't know if this is true or not). In this case, more power would be used. Also, remember that the 56 hours on the box is 56 hours when done in a lab, at the correct temperature, at low volume, with the MD continuously playing (not having you playing different tracks) and even then, it might be the best out of a set of 10 tests. Still, you should get a very decent battery life, even 40 hours is nothing to be sneezed at

Being a Minidisc board, I have no problem if you decide to delete this post, but since the board description is "(etcetera)", then I figure that this is as (etcetera) as you will get I'm a hobbyist/professional programmer, and I have just finished a freeware game which you might like to play. I'm quite sure that it is very different to anything else you've played before - but if you've played any games like Age of Empires, Starcraft etc then you should be quite familiar with how to play: http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~b_owen/emoticon/ I *was* going to use my MD for the sound effects, but my soundcard is too crappy for getting decent sounding stuff onto the computer. Anyway, all feedback is very welcome. (once again, if this seems too spammy, then I'm quite happy for it to be deleted)

I've done it with my MZ-R70 in 2 different ways. The first (more expensive - but really good) was to use a standalone CD recorder - no computer involved. I got really good results from that, but those CD recorders can be costly. If you are using a computer, then depending on your sound card, quality might be an issue. But here is the basic process: 1) Restart your computer, don't open any new programs (the best way to make sure you have as much free memory as possible). Turn off the screensaver and anything else which is likely to happen periodically (like a virus checker which scans for viruses every 10 minutes) 2) Grab a 3.5 to 3.5 cable (headphone jacks on both ends) and plug it into the headphone out of the minidisc and to the line in on your sound card. 3) Double click on the volume icon down in the system tray. 4) Click on Options->Properties, then select Adjust volume for... Recording (make sure Line-In has a tick next to it) 5) For some sound cards, you need to select the line in. Use the check boxes at the bottom to select stuff. Keep this volume control open. 6) Double click on the volume control thing again so you also have the playback volume controls on the screen. 7) Start playing your MD. We aren't recording yet, just playing. Turn off megabass, AVLS, Beep and turn the volume up to the maximum. 8) Open the sound recorder that comes with Windows (Start->Programs->Accessories->Entertainment(?)->Sound Recorder. 9) Click on File->Properties->Convert Now. Select the quality you want (*) and press OK (twice) 10) Press record in sound recorder and have it record about 1 minute of stuff. When this is done press stop. 11) Save the file somewhere and do the following - Check the size of it. Will you have enough hard disc space to record your entire MD at this quality setting? - Check the quality of it - does it sound good? Is it too loud/too soft? - Is there hisses, pops and other stuff like that? 12) See if you can resolve all those issues before you do the actual recording. 13) For the recording, stop the MD. Start it, and press pause before it actually starts playing. Press Record in sound recorder and Unpause the MD. Try not to do anything with the computer while it is recording - a single glitch is extremely hard to get rid of. 14) When it is done, save it immediately. 15) You will now have a very big wav file. If you want to put tracks into it, then this is how: - Back it up (possibly to CD-RW if you don't have room on your hard drive) - Open the file in Sound Recorder. Using the two commands in the edit menu (Delete Before/After current possition) you can create wav files for each track. It might take a while to do it, but unless you have some fancier software, then this is probably the best way. - After you are done, you should have each track as its own .wav file 16) Making the CD. This depends on the software that comes with your CD burner - the main thing to watch out for is that you don't accidentally create a data CD. What you want to create is a music CD. I'm pretty sure most software can do these. Read the help that comes with it if you have any trouble. (*) Quality: My rule is to use the highest possible quality setting you can for recording and drop quality just before it goes to CD, but some CD burner software will only work with 16bit 44.1KHz Stereo wavs, so either test it out, or go for the safe option and just do 16/44/Stereo (which is what a CD is). Also, your sound card might not be able to record at some qualitysettings - try getting the latest drivers for it too.

Where did you get the idea that SCMS is the problem?

Any evidence to back that up? I'd be a lot more interested in NetMD if that was the case, since it would only be a software problem.

Actually, a NetMD transfer can never be as good as an optical out transfer. NetMD is limited to LP2 quality (the SP mode is actually LP2 quality, just that it is stored in SP mode so older units can play it back)

If recording from soundcard->MD then it *can* be real SP, but it doesn't have to be (you could tell it to record as LP4). The sound card doesn't need to good though, if it has a digital out and there isn't so muh jitter that there are errors then the digital out of a $5 sound card (if it exists) would be identical to that of a $5000 sound card. As has already been mentioned, NetMD transfers are digital. What I think you are not understanding is that although the transfer is "perfect", what is actually being transferred is not perfect. The sound is compressed first, and this compresed version is transferred perfectly across. The compression process will lose some of the info in the sound, usually just stuff you can't hear though. CD quality is about 1378 Kbps I think (2 * 16 / 44100 = 2 channels of 16 bit audio at 44100 samples per second). Yes, that is a lot larger than most mp3s or any MDs - that is why compression is used - otherwise it can be impractical to store a decent amount of music. Now an mp3 at 1378 Kbps would probably be able to store higher quality stuff than a CD, but not necessarily - if the encoder thinks that some of the stuff there isn't going to be heard, then even a 1378 Kbps mp3 could lose it. For your purposes though, most people agree that ATRAC (or SP - not done by a NetMD transfer though) is near-enough to CD quality (some people can hear the difference, many can't). For mp3s, the encoder makes a big difference, I believe the LAME encoder usually gives fairly good results, for stuff approaching CD quality, I think aiming for >300 Kbps is probably best. Of course, if you are the only person listening to stuff and you can't tell the difference between a 64 Kbps file and a 300 Kbps file, then go for the smaller one.

Are you running the signal through any (external) amplification? The fact that you only hear this when the volume is low means that the source of the noise is something which is constantly going and being introduced after amplification. I was doing some active listening to my MD (MZ-R70) before and comparing it with a pro CD player. I couldn't hear any noise in either of them. The recording was done through an analogue connection too. What actually gave away the MD was the bass response. Since my unit isn't particularly high end, I get the suspicion that there might be something more to your problem. Questions: 1) What is the exact signal path for playback (MD->???->Ears) and recording (CD?->Optical Cable?->MD) 2) How are you sure that the problem isn't the recording? 3) Do you get similar noise if you turn the volume all the way down?

I'd be interested to hear what it is that makes 5 hours not long enough. Care to elaborate? Just one thing to watch out for though - if you do go for another type of player, make sure the battery life is > 5 hours (that is, unless you are always using it connected to AC). Many mp3 players have terrible battery which I'd guess is also a concern for you.

But remember, the intensity follows a 'inverse squared' relationship. That is, if you double the distance (from the MD to the device it might interfere with) then you quarter the intensity of the interference. Assuming a 1m cord gives an 'acceptable' level of interference, you are sitting a fair way away from anything which shouldn't be interfered with, say 16 metres (16 is a good number becase it is 2*2*2*2 ). At 16m, the intensity is (1/4) * (1/4) * (1/4) * (1/4) what it would be at 1 metre, which is (1 / 256) =~ 0.4% intensity at 1m. Still, takeoff lasts for not very long, and if you can't last that long without music, then maybe it would be better that something failed - put some excitement in your life

...because alll bombs have flashing lights and lcd screens on them - hollywood taught me that - the giveaway is that it wasn't making a beeping sound

The minimum you need is a CD writer with an audio in. You don't even need a computer if you do it this way. Of course, this probably isn't what you are looking for (but it does give very good recordings) The main thing you are looking for is a decent soundcard. If you have an MD player with an digital out (such as some decks and most pro units) then it would be best to get a soundcard with a digital in and use that. Otherwise, you will need to go for an analogue connection, which isn't too bad, but if you have a bad soundcard, then there might be a bit of noise. Specs for doing the recording - more ram will help. You will also want to have a decent hard drive. If you have partitioned your hard drive, try and record to the partition near the edge of the drive (it will be a bit faster because the surface of the drive at the edge is moving faster than the surface in the middle). You will want to shut down as many applications as you can, so hit control-alt-delete and see if anything is running which shouldn't be. Disable as much stuff as possible. In the recording program, look in the options for an options to do with a recording buffer - make the buffer a generous size, just in case some rogue application decides that it is going to do something with your hard drive while you are recording. Finally, just record a couple of minutes first, and then have a listen to it. Record at CD quality (44.1kHz, 16bit, PCM) or even a little bit higher (24bit maybe), if you are happy with the quality, then record the whole thing - otherwise, identify the problem and try again. Don't waste an hour of your time recording something which sounds bad.

I don't get it, the complaint was one about SCMS... obviously the problem was that distribution of band's stuff was impaired because of this as no digital copies could be created. The solution? Well, lets use an IPOD - no SCMS there... sure, there is absolutely no way to make a digital copy... but at least if there was, then maybe it wouldn't be affected by SCMS. EDIT: I think I had a bad choice of words there. Uploading to a computer is a digital copy in every respect. But going from computer->iPod->computer is nothing special. If you have music on computer and are trying to distribute it, then CD is the best way of doing it, having an iPod doesn't really help (with the exception of if you have 2 computers - one with recording stuff and one with a CD burner) What would be the point of copy protection on a hard drive? The content has to get there via a computer, and obviously if it is on the computer's hard drive then copy protection further down the line is going to squat. A word of advice, the older units with digital in and out have a crappy encoder, thus you will get nowhere near CD quality. Get a decent deck or a professional unit, not only will it have no SCMS, it will sound awsome.

I took my MDs through the metal detector at the airport and they all survived. I can't remember exactly what they went through, but I'm pretty sure they will be safe.

The higher Kbps the MP3, the better sound quality you will get when it goes onto your MD. For best results, where available, use the original CDs. You might also find that your soundcard is noisy (puts out some hiss and stuff like that), in which case this will be recorded too - it shouldn't be too bad though. The headphone out on your CD drive is probably a lot cleaner (I know mine are), so when recording, if you can use a CD and the headphone jack on the drive then that is much better than the output on your soundcard. However what is even better is an optical digital out - these are on some higher end soundcards and many DVD players. If you have a DVD player and a CD burner, then you might be able to use the optical out on your DVD player. Realistically, I found that the headphone out on the CD drive was more than adequate and I used my soundcard's output when I had mp3s (except in one case where sound quality was pretty important, so I burnt (burned?) a CD). Your best option is probably to just do a few test runs, see if your soundcard is good, or crap (like mine ), test the difference between all the LP modes and even a couple of different versions of the same MP3 will different Kbps. I haven't heard of anyone having a problem with the sound quality of MD, but there are still ways to make sure it sounds "best" Finally - once the music is on the disc, the quality won't degrade. The only exceptions I can think of would be if you got a huge chunk of dust on the disc, in which case, sometimes your MD will make up stuff to replace what it can't read... it is very doubtful that you would be able to notice this though unless it was a huge nasty piece of dust.

I believe I have seen ES blanks at Sony Central Chatswood. I haven't been there for a while though so if they aren't there when you go, then I'll apoligise in advance

Actually, LP2(132Kbps + 30B) * 160m ~= 1239 Mb Why? Note that the 'b' in Mb is a little b not a capital b. Little b means bit and Big B means byte (8 bits = 1 byte). The calculations look a bit like this: (132kbps * 1024 / 8 + 30B) * 160m * 60s = 162489600B 162489600B = 158681.25KB = 154.962158203125MB Which then leaves a bit of room for the TOC I'm pretty sure that MD Data discs (the small ones) only hold 140MB, while an audio disc holds 160MB. Why? I have no idea.

My MZ-R70 is still going strong (as long as you hold it upside down, otherwise the laser can't focus properly after a bit, oh, and the remote control is a little bit cactus and the screen has what appears to be a rice-bubble in it ) (I can't see myself buying a new unit until this one is fully dead - I'm going to squeeze as much life out of it as possible Since I don't need NetMD or MDLP, I don't have much reason to upgrade)

Offtopic: STFU = Shut The Fridge Up - I'm not too sure about the 'fridge' though. I've heard it spoken, and it sounded like a word I'd never heard before. Possibly a different language On topic: Your unit should be able to handle a pause for long periods of time anyway. But as you've discovered, you can do it without having a disc in there Also, you can get some really good results from internal soundcards. Just they have to be really good internal soundcards . I know that some pro gear is going from external to internal because it is no longer effected by the noisy PC (I'm not sure why - possibly better shielding, possibly something else). The other option which can work really well is using an external CD burner with an audio in. This will do the trick and you can minimise the number of devices your signal has to go through (thus minimising noise), unfortunately, it is a little bit slower (and more expensive)

Just a bit of confusion I've found - SPDIF usually means coaxial connection. Occasionally, I have seen an optical connection referred to as SPDIF, but I'm pretty sure this is wrong. Although the actual signal sent is identical (substitute light pulses for electrical pulses), the method of transmission is part of the SPDIF standard. The proper name for optical is TOSLINK. If you've ever seen a graph of a sound wave, then you are most of the way there in terms of understanding what PCM is. The wave is broken down into samples (or points) which make up the wave. Each one of these points has an amplitude and a time. Usually, amplitude is on the up/down axis and time increases as you go from left to right. To make things simple, it is assumed that the time between each sample is constant - this way, only the sampling rate/frequency has to be stored along with the amplitude information. The amplitude is simply the position of the sound wave in the up/down direction. So, a PCM square wave could look like this: -5, -5, -5, 5, 5, 5, -5, -5, -5, 5, 5, 5, -5, -5, -5... Of course, if you open up a .wav file, it won't look very much like this. If you open up a .wav file of a sine wave in notepad then you might see a pattern. Also, there is a bit of header information which says stuff like sampling rate, sample size (the number of different values each sample could have) and for .wav files, it also specifies that the file is PCM encoded since a .wav file can use any type of encoding - including ATRAC3 and MP3.

Many DVD players have optical outs, and some (like mine ) can play back MP3 CDs. This would probably be useful for people (unlike me) who have a lot of MP3s which need to be transferred. I have really fallen in love with digital recording though. It is surprising how convenient it is now, setting levels was something I used to spend a fair bit of time on (probably in my search for getting it at that point just before it clipped so I could have the best possible results) - now, I know that I'm getting the best results without having to do any thinking or hard listening at all. To add to that - automatic track marks... I'm in love

I'm in Sydney (Northern suburbs of Sydney to be a bit more exact... but I'm not in the "rich" part of it), I buy my blanks from Sony Central in Chatswood usually, I get 10 packs for $30. Occasionally I pick up a few TDK discs from around the place, but they are usually a bit more expensive (and I don't like them as much ) I'm actually pretty surprised by the prices of Sony Central - they are often a lot cheaper than other retailers, even though they are a pretty trendy type of store (lots of polished aluminium, glass cabinets etc). When I bought my actual unit (MZ-R70... a while ago), I waited for a sale (a cost price plus 5% sale at Retrovision in Mosman) and asked them to match the price. They seemed happy to do it, but they didn't have the right colour for me and I wasn't about to spend $400 on something that was the wrong colour. Thus I headed up to Retravision (Chatswood) and asked them to match the price which they also did. Another tip for low prices is to make friends with a person who works at Sony. Every year, they are allowed to buy 2 products from each 'category' (excluding Vaios and Aibos and possible Clies) each year with there being no profit to Sony, which is usually about half price.

I would to a couple of test runs with different bit rates and stuff. They don't need to be long, just enough that you can pick out the differences. Once you have a couple of different versions, compare them (get someone to give you a blind test if possible) and make the decision. Also, do a recording using a low bitrate PCM encoded .wav file.

There are 2 types of recordable minidiscs - Audio and Data. Data discs are about 5 times more expensive compared to audio, and aren't very widespread. To use a data disc, you need a data drive, which are also not very widespread. If you have a NetMD recorder, then you are pretty much out of luck. They are only designed for audio discs and can only transfer audio (and only in one direction - from PC->MD, so if you disguised some data as audio data, and snuck it onto an audio disc, then you can't get it back off it) If you have a MD Data Drive, then read the manual . I don't see the point of MD Data though, it is too expensive and too small (140MB, AU$30 discs)