iceeedtea

The R500 is a non-NetMD unit. This means you must record your MP3s in real-time. The PC-Link device which you have requires no software. Plug it in, and change your sound options in the control panel to have it as a sound card instead of your internal card. Proceed to playback the MP3s using a media player of your choice.

1. Do a Google search for "EAC 0.95pb3". Use the "TOC Altercations" option. Rip the disc to .wav files. Reburn to a new CD. Put CD-R disc into optical source, and copy. Return disc to store. 2. Buy a better drive that can bypass copy protection in the first place. Copy disc, sans copy protection session. Put CD-R disc into optical source, and copy. Return disc to store. Either that, or (more likely) your optical source is botched. "cheap" DVD players have a tendency to randomly insert track marks, or refuse to insert them at all. Try a different optical source. Oh, yes. EAC > CDEx. Not bashing on CDEx, I love open source. It's just that EAC does a much better job.

Well, that makes no sense. Could this be a bit of miscommunication to cause this reply from Sony Japan? This just got a bit more interesting. I wonder what caused them to reply like that?

No word yet from Team Digital. Either my email got labeled as spam and got eaten, or they're just not responding (which I doubt). Since I haven't gotten a bounced email. I talked to one of the mods over on T-Station; he says that he would try to contact them as well, but I don't know if he's done so yet. I suggest that you try to contact them again, by emailing, and trying to contact them via MSN/ICQ. link. Other than that, I don't know what else. Execpt, if it's a world model, it has a 1-year warranty, so you could maybe take it to a nearby Sony center and have them take a look...

That is quite an ambigious question. When you say, "burned music files through MusicMatch/Rhapsody" services, do you mean, standard Audio CD format? Does the resulting CD play in a normal CD player, or are they stored as .wma files on the disc? The slowest (but resulting in higher quality) method is to play the desired files to be copied through an application that will play them back and to copy them in real-time, utilizing a digital or analog source on your computer. That is, if your MD unit is one that has a 'digital in/analog in' port on your sound card. If you have a NetMD unit, take a look at the Nero/SB method for high-speed transfering; however, it will result in lesser quality than the method stated above. I do not know the restrictions on the files purchased through the services you have stated; thus, I am unable to say much more on this matter (unless you would care to elaborate).

.... VMWare Workstation for Mac? VMWare Workstation is only available for Linux (yay) and Windows (...). Both of which I own and use. Last I checked, VMWare, Inc. only supported x86 systems. I have yet to test it under Linux, since VMWare does not work properly under 2.6 kernels. It seems to be still broken under gentoo-dev-sources 2.6.1-r5. (No, I will not use the "official" kernels. Gentoo > *.) For Macs, you should be able to run SonicStage through a copy of Windows installed in VirtualPC in OS9, not "Classic" mode. OSX doesn't work properly. However, that would mean that you would need to dual-boot your Mac. Messy. And costly, if you don't already have a supported version of Windows somewhere on disc. MacOS 9 == space. Windows in VirtualPC in MacOS 9 == more space. And slow performance. Plus....it's Windows. :rasp:

That is quite odd. I shall do some asking of moderators on another MiniDisc forum where they have more power than I in contacting e-tailers like this, and see what they think. They are a highly reputed seller, but I do not see why they would refuse to respond. [Perhaps, your email got tagged as spam in filtering...] Team Digital warranty policy

Not exactly. If you want to quickly transfer files using the computer by utilizing NetMD software, your music will be taken from the source [original CDs, MP3s, etc.] and converted into Sony's ATRAC3 format. 9-10 CDs is incorrect; the amount of storage ranges from 120 minutes [in LP2 mode, medium quality] or 320 [LP4 mode, low quality] on an 80 minute disc. Assuming that a CD is 40-60 minutes, you are looking at 2-3 CDs. Even if you were to 'rip a CD' to MP3 format - SonicStage would still convert it to Sony's ATRAC3 format for transfer to MD. Encoding music in an already-lossy audio format with another lossy audio format results in an even further drop in audio quality. Bad. Of course, if you wish for quality, you could always connect an optical cable to your N920 and to an optical source [such as a DVD player with optical out] and transfer that way - although, only in real-time, not like the high-speed transfers of NetMD. The problems with SonicStage 1.5 were that users were limited to 3 "checkouts" - all sorts of restrictions on files, in addition to unstable software that would consistantly fail. Quite inconvinent. With SonicStage 2.0 [which, I am assuming you have, albeit in Japanese], users are allowed unlimited checkouts, but, some restrictions still apply. It is, however, much more stable than the older versions. I have not tried the "M3USB" program, but I have heard things about it. It is just a more "user-friendly" process for the Nero/SimpleBurner trick. This method only transfers in LP2/LP4, but transfered tracks have no restrictions, unlike the old SonicStage.... So, to answer your question - DRM should not be a big issue if you use SonicStage 2.0. You will just have to "transfer" tracks back into SonicStage to delete them. Unlimited transfering out, but you still need to transfer in. However, you could always attempt to install MD Simple Burner, which should be included on your N920's CD. Transfer is still restricted to LP2, as it was in Simple Burner 1.0, however. We currently await an English build of the software to surface.... Logic would dictate that, yes; however, the newer Hi-MD units beat out the "older" equipment in every way. With these, you can store more than 4-5 CDs, with decent, listenable quality. It is my personal opinion, however, that they will not be improved as much; look at the time period from when NetMD was introduced, until before the announcement of Hi-MD/SonicStage 2.0. Angry customers, dissatisfied with a product that failed to deliver [bad software, no digital uploading via USB, no data storage, etc.] I rarely use any NetMD-related software on my computer. It only serves for titling tracks recorded optically in real time in SP mode and for assisting troubleshooting of NetMD problems. As the NetMD moderator of MDCF, and after assisting many users on T-Station [another MiniDisc BBS], I must say that I am quite biased against the software. Think, to levels where "anger management" is required. C'est la vie. And....for other reasons, as well. :smile:

No. It will most likely not, and function like the old NetMD units did - only delete the track from the disc. If you mean, converting a .omg file on your computer to a .mp3 file, no.

Welcome to the MiniDisc Community Forum. :smile: Please post in the correct section in the future. Your post has been moved.... I forsee no problems with the usage of a Japan-domestic unit. I, myself, own a Japan-domestic NetMD unit, and it works fine with both Japanese and English versions of the software. As you have mentioned, using the correct power adaptor is a must. Regarding software - the N920 is bundled with SonicStage 2.0J. Stick around for a few days, and an "unofficial" version of SonicStage 2.0E should appear around here. However, regarding the instruction manual: I highly doubt that there will be an English version of it to surface, as other Sony divisions [Europe, US, Asia Pacific] have not announced that they will be releasing the N920. The assumption is that they are all waiting for Hi-MD. There is not really that much to be translated in the manual, only general operating instructions. The product is simple enough to use, that The "official" version of SonicStage 2.0E, however, will not surface until the release of the new format, Hi-MD, during the summer of 2004, later this year. The only problems that I could forsee that you should take into consideration are the problems with the warranty. the release of the new format. If your unit were to break down within the warranty period, you would be unable to send it to Sony Japan to repair [although, you could always attempt to have a regional Sony repair center try to fix it]. In addition, the new format, Hi-MD, can store audio on 1GB media and can double as a mass storage device of data files. That may make you wish or consider to return the N920 to the store :smile:

Study, study, sleep. :whatever: I was going to go plan to hang with a few friends of Irish background today (planned for it to be today, but /self is not Irish). Mainly, hit the arcade and scare everyone with Dance Dance Revolution-ing :happy: Happy St. Patrick's Day, to those out there!

Try running Program FilesSonySonicStageOsjbir.exe. Copy back the database files (Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication DataSony Corporation) as well. I'm 98% sure that will work; I do not remember the exact process at the moment....

'Optimized for IE' == breaking W3C compliance == bad. Luckily, more web developers have started to realize this, to the relief to us who contribute to OSS. [shameless pimpage] Mozilla FireFox 0.8. Faster than the Mozilla suite, since it's a standalone browser. Conforms to W3C standards. Renders pages quickly. Light and zippy. Best of all, free and no security holes. And there are ways to get around 'this page cannot be viewed because you don't use the crappiest browser ever, Internet Explorer'. Like this, which fakes the useragent string. [/shameless pimage] Web designers who break compliance should be stabbed. Repeatedly. Until they bleed out.

Just to test, put in your bootable restore disc and change your BIOS settings so the boot order == CD-RW drive first. If it is able to boot from it, that signifies it's not a hardware failure, at least. Better yet. Go complain to the manufacturer of your computer.

Favorite artist at this point would be 浜崎あゆみ. Rather, her older material, not most of the new crap that Avex squeezes out of her. Her songs - they're just....sad. You just get this feeling of deep sorrow from listening to the lyrics. Listen to 'still alone' or 'Memorial address', and....yeah. You get the idea. And, somehow, she can turn a song with a fairly fast and 'moving' beat into a sad song - 'Naturally'. That, and....because I like the trance remixes of her songs.

Team Digital had problems with someone who was screwing with their server recently. They went offline for a little bit, then they came back up. You might want to try contacting them again until they respond.

It's a hardware issue. It's been documented before. I think your best bet would be to try it on another computer, and then, failing that, send it back to Team Digital for a replacement.

I don't care if you're 'not writing an essay'. Too bad. Learn to spell/type/use proper English before you come into NetMD asking for help. Locked, because a) problem solved, you've just put me into a pissant mood, and c) you make me question why I continue to stay online when society is reduced to pieces because of an inability to spell. Thanks for playing!

Is it really that hard to spend 30-some odd more seconds to type in English that normal humans can understand? My word. Read. The. FAQ. Before. POSTING! There are download links. And no, I will not email them to you. Too bad. Don't like .rar? Too bad.

Re: Original post of the thread Blah blah blah. --- Now that that's been said and done: a) Please don't dig up old threads. Especially one which can be considered 'flamebait'. iPod ! = MiniDisc. Don't compare the two. They have different purposes and user bases.

No. Uploading is only supported by Hi-MD units.

It's still running as slow as ever on my end. Can someone remove the 'Your message has been posted, click here to...' screen that you recieve after you preform an action? It is quite annoying; I think it would be better for it to directly send a poster back to the new post. 'nother user posted in the 'Old News' section. Link. Eh? While viewing the NetMD subforum: Moderators: None Total Words: 3,229; 33 posts. Holy crap! Chris, do you mind if I take down/revise [more of the latter, however, as I am quite lazy :pfft:] a few of the NetMD 'stickies/announcements' in the subsection? They're quite old, and some of them are quite outdated and need to be changed to reflect newer times. Ooo. I want to do some tweaking of this forum, too! :pfft:

Welcome to the MiniDisc Community Forums. Please take a look at the NetMD FAQ 'stickied' at the top of the NetMD subsection. However, later this year, with the release of the new format, Hi-MD, users making new recordings onto Hi-MD discs with Hi-MD units will be able to digitally upload recordings, but unable to upload older recordings on older discs.

Welcome to the MiniDisc Community Forums. :smile: First, are the MP3 files that you are attempting to transfer Variable Bit Rate LAME files? Or are they of CBR variety? You mention using LAME as an encoder; thus, why I ask, since LAME by default encodes using VBR. OpenMG software does not play well with VBR MP3s, as it has been documented in the past by many, many users. If you wish to transfer the files over to MD, I suggest that you take a look at the Nero/Simple Burner method. It will allow you to transfer MP3s -> MD in LP2 mode. Better yet; you mention that you own a Sound Blaster MP3+ USB (I am assuming that this is the model, as it is the only one being sold now). Have you considered copying files directly to the MD via optical out in real time in SP mode? It should result in higher quality copies than if you were to use the high-speed functions of NetMD, as copying MP3 files via NetMD -> MD requires an extra step - recompression of an already-compressed file using the ATRAC3 codec. Which is bad. In addition....you mention that you use RealPlayer/RealOne to transfer to NetMD. If I may be as so bold to ask, why do you choose to use such a poorly-coded product? My suggestion to you is to uninstall RealPlayer/RealOne and all other NetMD related software, and take a look at SonicStage 2.0 + MD Simple Burner 2.0 instead, which are fully compatible with your MZ-N505. Related links, which may be of interest to you: SonicStage 2.0 [Full?] - a build of SonicStage 2.0 is located within this thread; however, downloads are only available by means of BitTorrent/eMule. The download lacks Windows Media 9 components and DirectX 9. SonicStage 2.0 [36.4MB]. - yet another build of SonicStage, but is downloadable via HTTP. The installer lacks DirectX 9 and is slightly larger. Very close to finding Sonicstage 2.0/MD Simple Burner 2.0 - could use some help! - the thread which sparked "iceeedtea" of T-Station to release instructions on how to get SonicStage 2.0 working using the 'update' installer. SonicStage 2.0: Reloaded. [56K: WARNING.] - Installation guide for the unofficial workaround utilizing the 'update' program provided by Sony Japan/Asia Pacific. Consider this to be 'reading material', and not as a guide, as this version is discontinued and unable to transfer to NetMD, unlike the versions linked above!

Welcome to the MiniDisc Community Forums. Please don't double post in the future, even though your problem is frustrating. I merged your other post into this thread. What's the error message that you recieve? Did you install OpenMG before installing Simple Burner? If not, uninstall everything, and do just that. Simple Burner requires OpenMG/SonicStage core files to be installed to work properly. In fact...Simple Burner is far better than OpenMG in some respects, since there will be no restrictions on exported tracks.