marcnet

Thanks for the support

Slightly wrong.... sonicstage stores the LP2 file on the PC, yes. When sonicstage transfers it as SP it actually decodes the LP2 to PCM on the PC and transfers the raw PCM data to the minidisc. The minidisc device then encodes from the raw PCM to SP for storeage.

Sonicstage is unable store/transfer SP data. What it does is internally convert the track to PCM and send that raw PCM data to the minidisc. The minidisc hardware would then convert the raw PCM to standard SP Atrac.

My bad. It is a bug. Ill get it fixed. Also, Im putting HIMDLister into HIMDRenderer, so there will be a HIMDRenderer release soon and possibily no HIMDLister release.

Thats assuming they use straight XOR to encode the data.. If they using bit shifting / subtraction / multiplication / other mathematical or logical operations then it will make the key more difficult to obtain. Also, byte X in the encrypted stream could depend on byte X-1... X-100 ... X-Y .... X+1.... X-1+key[1].... X-1 >> key[5].... you get the point.

I bought my MZ-NH1 for music playback as its primary use. Removable durable media is better than fragile static harddisk in my opinion. Plus the MZ-NH1 is smaller. Also, does the Ipod have EQ or bass/trebble adjustment?

Sorry for advertising my own software, but HIMDRenderer will do this. ANY .oma file that is playable on your PC via Sonicstage is convertable via HIMDRenderer. You can convert directly to .mp3, .ogg, .flac or .wav

Easy as eating pie: Starting at position 0x8050 you have all sorts of information for each track. Each entry is 80 bytes big. Offset 8 and 9 (16 bit value) describe the position of the track name Offset 10 and 11 (16 bit value) describe the position of the artist name Offset 12 and 13 (16 bit value) describe the position of the album name If any tracks have "00 00" for any of these fields then that track does not contain that attribute.

How about a VBR (variable bitrate) mode that selects between the various existing and (currently) non-existing bitrates dynamically. That would be extra nice .

New version 0.04. Download: http://www.marcnetsystem.co.uk/himdlister004.zip Changes: * Track lengths calculation improved. * Added "Track length rounding" option. If a track length has a fractional part that is over 0.500 seconds then the track length is added by one second. SonicStage dosn't seem to do this so turn this option off for the track lengths to match what SonicStage does. * Corrected spelling of "Sensitive" * New group listing mode. Only track groups are listed in this mode. Tracks that are not in a group are not included in the group length calculations.

Its not as easy as that. With tracks you've recorded yourself (ie: they didnt originate from SS or Simpleburner) there is no DRM info. HIMDRenderer wont be able to convert them because the Sony DLL's it uses refuses to load the file due to the lack of this DRM info. Further more, the encrypted audio data of such material differs from the audio data in the resultant OMA file that SonicStage produces after upload. This means that SonicStage decrypts the HIMD audio, re-encrypts it and stroes the DRM info of the new re-enctpyted version. So attempting to restore from the HIMD data would result in failure since the encryption keys differ (and hence the DRM info) between the HIMD version and the OMA version.

Dont be sorry Ill get it fixed in 0.04 The rounding issue.... I dont know - ill have to look in more detail... But, for example - 3 minutes 14 seconds 300 milliseconds ... I call that 3 minutes 15 seconds and sonicstage may call it 3 minutes 14 seconds..... which would you prefer?

Yup. I can do that for version 0.04 And you only needed to ask once. I do read this forum as often as I read my own web site message boards. Thanks.

Okay, im working on it. For some reason I cannot reproduce this problem with my own HIMD collection so ive asked someone to email me the HMA files (except the really really big one) from a HIMD disc that causes this problem. I was wondering if one or more other people could do the same..... PM me if your willing to help Also, any other ideas about how I could improve the progam? EDIT: There. Ive worked on it. Version 0.03 is available here: http://www.marcnetsystem.co.uk/himdlister003.zip

Check this site: http://ukcdr.org/issues/cd/bad/ Its a list of copy protected audio CD's and is updated quite often. Speaking for myself, I have some of the Cd's listed on that site but have had no problems ripping them. I think maybe because I have two good dvd writers. One by LG and one by Liteon. Both companies produce drives that are very good at ripping copy protected CD's

Okay, I know someone has already done a listing program. So I decided to continue and finish the one I was working on. And this is its first release. Im in the process of starting a nice guide with pretty pictures and everything. However, until that is finished, here is a short guide in plain text: 1) Start the program 2) Connect HIMD device with a HIMD disc to PC. Make sure SonicStage isnt running and press "Get Tracks" 3) Select how you would like to order the tracks in the output listing file. The top sorting option has highest priority, the second has the next priority and the last has the lowest priority. 4) Select how each track in the listing file will be presented. You have up 21 components to do this. Remeber that carriage returns are NOT placed in the listing file by default, so it might be a good idea to use <CRLF> or <CR> as you last option if you want carriage returns. 4b) If you previously have saved a format configuration (see step 6) then press "load format" and select the .hfc file. 5) If you select a track in the track list then the example at the bottom of HIMDLister will show you the selected track in the selected format. 6) If you wish, you can save the format configuration for re-loading in the future. The format of these configuration (.hfc) files are pure binary, so dont go an edit them. If you do then dont complain my program crashes! 7) Press "Export List" to create the list fle. Ive missed some things out, such as the Amount/Custom fields and the "case sensative" options. I hope the functionality of those options is obvious. I will include them in my fancy guide that I will get round to writing at some point. You want to download and try it? Well here are some links. A message board has been created on my site for the program: http://www.marcnetsystem.co.uk/himdlister/ And the program itself (version 0.04) is here: http://www.marcnetsystem.co.uk/himdlister004.zip

Yeah. In your Sonic stage library click the files/groups you want to delete. You will get a window asking if you also wish to remove the .oma/omg tracks from your PC.

All data within the large .hma file is encrypted. If you fancy yourself as a decryption cracker then go ahead. All you need is the algorithm Sony uses and the decryption key(s).

Renderer was around before the sony wav converter. Ive just maintained it and improved it because there are still a lot of people still using it. Even after the Sony wav converter was released. The advantage is that my program can convert oma files that have been made by SonicStage (CD-rips, mp3->oma conversion, etc). Also, I dont think Sony Wav converter allows conversion of uploaded tracks that were recorded via an optical digital connection. Mine does. Oh, and my program can convert oma to flac,mp3,ogg directly. And I take in feedback and try to improve my program to how you lot want it. Within reason and my coding ability

Ive re-done the HIMDRenderer guide.Please take a quick look: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=6087 Any comments on this guide? Anything ive missed? Please tell

In addition.... sort of.... SonicStage is absoutly rubbish at resampling from 48khz to 44.1khz ... I have several radio shows (BlueJam .. ) in 48khz mp3 ... If I directly import these into Sonicstage at 66kbps ATRAC3, then the sound quality sounds much worse than if I convert to a 44.1khz wav via CoolEdit 2000 first... and then import these 44.1khz wavs into sonicstage at the same 66kbps ATRAC3 bitrate.

hint: use the "Latest version" button Its version 0.31 ... few bug fixes and stuff...

Yeah ... If you can somehow get the Kernel function of IsDebuggerPresent() to return FALSE, or if you can replace all references to that function in the sony dlls to nops (bare in mind that the function is not linked directly - its called via LoadLibrary and GetProcAddress) I caught a luckey glipse of the debugging prevention code when I was looking at NetMD stuff a while ago... Never figured out how to remove it though.

Just create a new group in sonic stage, browse to it and drag & drop mp3 & wav files onto the libary browser (left half of SS window). SS converts them but doesn't transfer them to the unit.

Slighlty related :smile: http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Gene...y/blue_sky.html Google is great :smile: