steve77

Thanks for trying. Where do hackers make their creations available? Somewhere within minidisc.org?

Does anyone know of a way to have the contents/tracks of a minidisc be accessible to a Windows machine as regular files? Each track would ideally appear as a file in Windows Explorer or a similar application. (The minidisc would essentially appear to Windows as a CD or diskette.) This would then allow me to easily copy to hard drive, backup, and organize the "homemade" audio I have stored on a multitude of minidiscs ... put them onto CD ... etc. (In other words, I would like to easily catalog my songwriting snippets and band recordings.) The main thing is to retain the minidisc tracks without "babysitting" the copy process or doing tedious editing/chopping afterwards. Having it done in real-time and losing a bit of sound quality would be OK as long as each track automatically becomes a separate PC file. But, of course, non-real time would be best. I am open to purchasing any of various electronics to make this happen: an accessory, a portable MD player, a MD deck, ... maybe even a laptop if necessary. Regarding the latter, Sony sold a laptop in England that came out around around 2001-2002 that had a minidisc drive but I'm not sure if this offers the functionality I am looking for and upon doing a bit of web surfing I could only find sites selling parts for it. Anybody familiar with it? (I haven't seen anything about this on minidisc.org.) I did read about a special "box" from England that does somethng along these lines but I can't justify spending the money (2,000 pounds or more). By the way, what is the advantage of USB and digital/optical out over the headphone jack? I am currently using the latter to copy the whole minidisc into one big PC file real-time. I believe USB and optical offers better sound but it is no faster and there is still no way to automatically recognize the tracks. Is this true? The discs I have are standard (not NetMD and not Hi-MD). Thanks. I would really appreciate any info/suggestions. (I apologize if this has been covered elsewhere in a forum. If so, please point me to it.)

I just did a bit of investigation ... perhaps what I would need to connect to a PC is an adapter to convert a Toslink plug into a miniplug ... ??

I need to do a lot of uploading from MD to PC hard drive. My understanding is the best way to do this is via a deck with optical/digital out. The Tascam MD-350 is listed as having "optical (TOSlink)". Does anyone know what what TOSlink is? Will this deck do what I need? Thanks.

Anyone familiar with the Tascam MDCD1 ? How does it compare to the Sony MDS-JB980. I know the Tascam has the CD player but what does the it lack relative to the Sony? And generally, any known shortcomings? Thanks.

I just went to the "where" page within ... http://www.minidisc.org/minidiscv.html and clicked on the North American establishments which had the word "deck" next to it but could not find the JB980 deck. This was not a comprehensive search - so perhaps I'll do more tomorrow or next week.

I wish I could help. I'm in the same situation. I live in Boston area (MA, US). Have you had any luck finding a source?

I have loads of MD’s filled with stuff recorded live. For the purposes of CD production and backup creation, I need to get much of it onto computer (selected tracks). They were recorded via a JVC XM-R70 (standard MDR – non-Net, non-Hi). The editing has already taken place so I am really hoping to avoid having to lose that upon uploading (i.e. having 1 big file created on the PC and chopping it up again). So here are my questions: 1. It looks like there is no way I can digitally upload – even with a deck, right? And I see that Hi-MD does not help with recordings created non-Hi. 2. It looks like there is NetMD technology that will retain the tracks. This forum has info on the software requirements. Re hardware … do I need a NetMD player to do the upload? 3. If so, is the player only needed for the upload or did the recordings need to have been made with one? If so, I guess there is no solutiuon for me. 4. If I do need to get a new MDR I’m wondering whether I should get a Hi-MD unit. If I do, I believe I will be able to quickly and digitally upload future tracks. But does Hi-MD offer a superset of the NetMD features. That is, if NetMD allows me to retain track markings for “old” recordings (as stated above), does Hi-MD offer the same ability? 5. Are my needs at all facilitated by using a deck? 6. Any other suggestions? Many thanks to anyone who can provide info ! Steve