jadeclaw

The NH900 uses a gumstick battery. Depending on your source, you can get them as low as 9 US$/Euros. From this thread: http://forums.minidisc.org/viewtopic.php?t=5711 Btw, the NH700 can upload as well, but the NH900 has better editing functions. and a LCD-Remote. The included batterycase takes one AA-cell. You can use rechargeables in it, but you have to charge these separately. The NH900 charges only the internal gumstick.

It is an internal audio-only MD drive for Sony Vaio computers. Think NetMD downloader. I suggest getting a Hi-MD recorder instead - It is simply more useful...

When decoding LinearPCM, there should no difference between multiple playbacks. However, due to the imprecise positioning, you need overlap as well, otherwise you lose samples. The ATRAC framesize might play a role as well, but since the directshow filters don't allow frame based positioning, it won't help you here...

Simple. Support means converting into Atrac3/3+ before transferring. That's all...

It will either not record at all or it will be identical to recording from a normal CD. Infact, depending on the quality of the SACD/DVD-A player and the A/D-converter in the MD-unit, an analog recording could be better. So, why is that? First, to prevent copying of High-Res audio, SACD/DVD-A players downsample the audio data to 16bit@44.1 kHz. Depending on the quality of these downsamplers, the quality could be below that of a regular CD. Sometimes, instead of downsampling, digital out is simply switched off, when playing back High-res audio. Doing an analog recording, a higher number of bits can be preserved, but that needs very good components on the player side as well as on the recorder side. With very good equipment, like Sony's ES-series MD-recorders, you could end up with a clean 20-bit recording compared to the 16 bits of the digital out. Ripping DVD-A / SACD is not possible on the PC. I don't know of any drive, that is able to read the DSD bitstream format used for SACD, DVD-Audio is a similar problem, as that one uses stronger encryption. Compared to the weak CSS-encryption of DVD-Video, this one takes a bit longer to decrypt, as that one uses a longer key length. DVD-Audio and SACD are explained here: http://www.disctronics.co.uk/technology/dv...vdaud_intro.htm Finally, when buying a player for these formats, make sure, that the player takes both.

I don't think, it is the case. There is a distinct difference between 'Moderator' and 'Official Advisor'. Only Moderators have any privileges here, like locking threads and kicking out unruly members. Official Advisors have simply built a reputation of being informed and able to give reliable advice. Since these Advisors are among the more active members, you'll see them of course more often, than members, who sign up, asking a few questions and going back into the background until the next question arises. However, being more active does not only means answering newbie question, it also means participation in other threads as well. And of course, moderators, who actively participate are a good thing as well.

You can always reformat a disc to the other mode. MD-formatted: Menu --> Edit --> Erase --> All Erase --> confirm with "|> ENT". When you then select Hi-MD from the Disc Mode submenu (Options), the disc is then used as a Hi-MD disc. The way back to standard MD works similar: Menu --> Edit --> Format --> Yes --> confirm with "|> ENT". Then select "MD" from the Disc Mode submenu (Options), the disc is then used as a standard MD disc. If a disc contains tracks, the mode used for recording these overrides the Disc Mode setting to prevent accidential erasing recorded material. Hi-MD formatted disc reports "CANNOT PLAY OR RECORD": Use the Format procedure from above. The Format option is only available on Hi-MD formatted discs. Erasing all tracks (All Erase) on a standard formatted disc has the same effect. The separate Format for Hi-MD discs has a simple reason: The normal All Erase deletes only the Audio tracks, data files are not affected. The Format deletes everything, returning the disc to factory new condition.

I'm going a bit out on a limb here... When the decoder recreates the audio from the compressed data, then the data from the previous frames is part of the process. Yet, when the decoding process is restarted, these frames are missing, thus the difference, which slowly averages out. Now add the unprecise positioning of the directshow filters, which is partly to blame on the filter and partly to blame on the operating system, that is what makes the whole process so tedious. The alternative would be to reengineer the whole encryption/atrac-decoding process, which takes quite a time and effort. We're talking about a few man-years here...

Clean means in this context, that the soundcard driver has no chance of adding unwanted stuff to that data.

I vote for FLAC and OGG. Btw. libvorbis has reached the next version just a month ago. Distribution licence is BSD-style, so no problems for that... http://www.vorbis.com/index.psp In addition, we had a few people here, who record lectures and interviews. Speex might be interesting for those as well: http://www.speex.org/ as that one is specifically designed for voice recording. 16 minutes of good a quality voice recording fit on one floppy disk. Oh, it is freely distributable too.

It is. It is simple: Fire up SS. Connect MD. Insert disc. No 1GB. Standard disc. Select NetMD from the dropdown in the topleft of the transfer window. Click on the 'Transfer Mode' button between the two windows. A dialogue pops up. Select the lowest radio button 'SP transfer mode'. Confirm with 'OK'. Now transfer. There you are.

It's simple. It has to do with money. Infact, by sounding as loud as possible, the song stands out more and is more likely to be remembered. Commercial radio stations, especially the Top40 stations, use compressors like the well hated Optimod to push up their loudness for the same reason, while maintaining the limits set forth by the FCC. Luckily, the classic radio stations here on the public network are refusing to use any form of compression...

£70 is on the cheaper side I say. In addition, the R900 is from a time, when warranty was shorter anyway and Sony is in no obligation to fix it for free. Personally, I agree with atrain here, get a new one and if you don't need a microphone input, the european NH600 is a good choice, as it isn't as crippled as the US-version... For the FAQ: Never use cleaning solution on a laser lens, regardless, if it is a MD or CD player. These lenses are made from plastic, which can be damaged/dissolved by the solution.

Clean the lens very carefully. If it doesn't help, you might have a dead laser.

Don't get overexcited. I will sit back and relax with a nice cup of tea. I have seen to many press releases dissolving in thin air. Let's hope, that atleast SonicStage gets fixed.

380 tons - That's a lot of car bombs... :ohmy: Things like this happen, when ammmunition storages aren't guarded because of lack of personnel. I say, expect more craters and coffins... Btw. caught the end of a documentary about the Bush family here on public tv. In that the reporter reiterated the reason, why George Bush sen. didn't went to Baghdad. He wanted to avoid exactly what we see now. Food for thought, I say...

Point is, SonicStage has a lousy error reporting. Unless it gets so bad, that Windows itself ticks out, the user is left in the dark about what really went wrong. Continuous refusal above a certain filesize points me to a space problem, while size independent upload failures plus trashing are definitely a SonicStage bug. I strongly suggest, that you check, how much space is available on the harddisk - for each logical drive. Another point (especially when the library is on the system/boot drive), when uploading, you need twice the amount you want to upload in free space on that drive (because of the subsequent copying). Oh, and from time to time it is useful to remove unused stuff/emptying the recycler and defrag the drives.

Steve, now you're getting childish here... I brought in that thought, because Windows tends to freak out, when it runs out of space for the buffer file. And SonicStage stores the data somewhere else before copying it into the database directory.

Set the unit on REC-Pause, then Menu --> REC Set --> REC Volume --> Manual. Unit shows REC xx/30. xx is the value, you had set the last time. Rotating the jog-dial adjusts. The lowest line shows the input level, Sony recommends to keep the level around the center. (Marked by a dot.) A second dot is at the right end, levels shouldn't touch that, as that is the OVER mark.

Hmm, interesting I say... Didn't test 2.2, have it on for a few days, with 2.1 big files failed, small files failed, big files went through unharmed, small files went through. It wasn't consistent. However, a few times a consecutive group of files where trashed in one go. The biggest I've transferred was about 500 Megs and that one survived. I could reduce the number of failures, in transferring group for group instead of transferring the whole disc in one go. Since SonicStage might use the Windows default for temporary files, make sure, you have enough space on the system/boot drive - 2, 3 Gigabyte are recommended. That could be the reason for generally refusing to transfer big files.

Total recorder grabs the Audio data before the soundcard driver gets it, so that is definitely a clean digital copy. However, you have to remove the gaps manually in a subsequent editing step, using a wave editor.

Since Simpleburner doesn't store anything, the only way back is the soundcard...

Only realtime through the soundcard.

I'm more interested in resetting the upload counter, so if anything goes wrong with the Library despite a backup, that I can rebuild it from the MDs. And of course other tricks as well... I'll have more time next week, then I will take a close look here. Thanks streaml1ne for the work.

Thanks for the info.