RichM

I downloaded SonicStage 2.1 from the US site and installed it over, but I changed the url to the US Connect site in the registry to the European one about a week or two back, that worked but, when I tried to claim my three free downloads at the European Connect (specifically when I attempted to download them) it spat out a cryptic error at me. I lost my free downloads, not that I care that much, but it was possibly due to my use of 2.1 at the European site rather than 2.0, this is speculation though.

Don't count on it for a good while. Anyway don't you need a 64-bit operating system to use the Athlon64's 64 bit extensions. You don't need all of the SonicStage suite installed to run Simpleburner just the "OpenMG Secure Module". However it sounds like it's all screwed up in the Windows registry, possibly down to the number of failed installations (assumption). The way to get the best results is to reinstall everything from scratch on that computer including Windows, although this incredibly drastic, and only recommended if you have plenty of time and all the installation files/CDs. The next best way is uninstall all of the components for SonicStage, including SimpleBurner, the secure module, the "add-ons" and the patches. There is a stickied post somewhere (in the NetMD forum in fact) that describes how to do this.

Bluetin.com sell Hi-MD blanks for £5 ($9 US), and they ship worldwide.

I would think it might be worth using compressed air to blow the sand out whilst holding your N520 upside down. Hopefully the compressed air and gravity will do the trick. Probably the only true way of vanquishing the sand properly is to open your N520 up, and using compressed air to blow the sand out. However this is not something I would recommend, and I feel very irresponsible for suggesting in the first place.

It's a strange sensation alright, and it's more acute when it's somebody else machine you've built, and they're standing next to you. I guess he damaged the motherboard aswell then, it's lucky there wasn't a claw hammer lying around, else he would've taken your cards and drives out aswell.

Stock earphones, ie MDR-E838 in this case, are generally pretty bad (understatement), and are really for people who don't know any better. Some replacements are in order, the MDR-EX71s sound pretty good and are readily available in the UK (from Amazon.co.uk for example).

I can't help you directly since I don't have an Hi-MD yet (or a working NetMD unit for that matter) but since nobody else has replied I will have a go. This sounds to me like a streaming problem with your PC's optical drive (DVD-ROM, CD-ROM whatever). The data extraction technique used for streaming off CDs (that is employed by Sonicstage, Simple Burner, Windows Media Player to name but a few) is not flawless, if the optical drive has difficulty reading a CD it will generally make a mess of it. Some optical drives find some CDs difficult read in this fashion for some reason, whether it be the CD damaged, the age of the optical drive or whatever. Incidentally I had two Panasonic optical drives and they couldn't stream at least 50% of my CDs because they were poorly designed from the outset. Anyway back to your problem, this sounds like Simple Burner doesn't try to employ error correction, it just streams the whole CD and hopes for the best. However it looks like the extraction or buffering of the audio before it's copied to the MD is at fault (from here anyway), it's also seems to be an accumulated error (sorry to be vague but I cannot be at all certain). Is it possible to try and use SimpleBurner and your 600D on somebody else's machine to see if the same occurs? Also does this occur with Sonicstage 2? I do hope this waffle has helped. :grin:

Wow, this theme's easy on the eye.

Hello to you, I very much doubt there will be a high-end Hi-MD with radio because 'historically' radio equipped MD recorders were mid-range units typically. From a sales perspective a radio-equipped MZ-NH1 would command an even greater price than a normal one and therefore it's probable not enough would be sold to make it viable for Sony (speculation).

No me neither, I've had an NH1 ordered since the end of May from Amazon.co.uk. I had hoped it would be dispatched early like some other things I pre-ordered from Amazon, but it hasn't even dispatched today.

Amazon.co.uk supposedly have the NH1 and the NHF800 today, availability 2-3 days, but not the NH700 or NH900 which appear to have erroneous availability dates.

You cannot upload audio data from a NetMD unit to a PC I'm afraid. Nor is there any other way of transferring digitally from your N510. The only way is N510:Line out -> PC:Line in, a somewhat messy and inelegant solution not to mention analogue. This silly limitation (due to Sony internal politics) is what Hi-MD is supposed to address but that's proving a disappointment to many also.

Audio Cubes (www.audiocubes.com) sells replacement Sony remotes. Although you probably can't get a direct replacement you can get the RM-MC11EL which is a superior remote which was available with contemporary Sony MD recorders which should be compatible. The remotes are quite pricey though.

Hmmm... Analog this sounds similar to what happened to my N10 in April '03, I had to get mine fixed under warrenty, the system board was swapped. This was indeed the unit not the software. My symptoms were slightly different. My N10 would only say PC->MD when it connected to the USB port, but NOT the mains, but you couldn't transfer anything because the connection would drop (like a dial-up connection)if you tried. But often it wouldn't even do this. The driver not loading in Windows in probably another manifestation of your units' fault, since the N10 isn't sending the correct information or any information at all across the USB interface when it's queried by Windows 2000. The NetMD driver isn't especially problematic to install in my experience, furthermore it should say PC->MD on the unit whenever it's attached to a currently powered USB port even outside of an operating system. I hope this helps.

In reference to the first post: My N10, which pre-dates the N510 has two shuffle modes (and judging by the N510 manual the N510 is similar) - shuffle for the whole disk, and shuffle within the groups. The first mode is self explanatory, the second, group shuffle is odd. If repeat isn't on it shuffles within the group, when it has played all the tracks it moves on to the next group and shuffles that. I would expect it to stop at that group than rather continue, which would make it more consistant with repeat group shuffle, and ready salted disc shuffle. Humming the theme to DangerMouse... If repeat is on however it shuffles within the group and when it has played the last track, it starts again on shuffling that group. I might be nice to have scriptable play modes.

This is same behaviour my N10 exhibited when running off the internal battery only. However when I used the external AA battery case aswell, that is attaching the case from the outset using the internal battery and an AA until the AA died, when placed on charge the charge indicator would indicate 55 minutes. Another thing is that the battery life indicator is misleading (in reference to the first post in this thread). Each of the bars in the battery indicator are not equal on the N10, bars 1 (i.e. battery: full) and 4 (i.e. battery: supposedly nearly empty) are worth more than bars 2 and 3. So if you're on bar 4 you may still get a good few hours of playback still.

I had this exact problem, and I'm afraid the only solution (that I'm aware of) is to get it repaired from whereever you purchased it. My N10 needed a new main board I suspect yours may need the same. It took six weeks to come back - how I missed it. It has nothing to do with software since the N10 should display the PC>>MD when connected to any USB port that's powered even when there is no driver available including the ports on the Playstation 2. Rich