ROMBUSTERS

not that 128kbps MP3 is good by any means but man i can't stand the 48kbps Atrac lol you are very lucky to be able to enjoy that because as they say ignorance is bliss, enjoy the loads more music you can put on a disc - just dont do anything to change your opinion about 48kbps lol or you will regret it (as you will never use it again )

i thought this topic cropped up a long time ago before the announcement of the 2nd generation, and at the time it seemed a given that Sony would introduce higher capacity discs.

I agree with this line of thought Anytime you transcode something you are changing its properties and thus the way it handles data. We have known for a long time that when you transcode WMA or MP3 to any Atrac it is not gapless. I guess the same applies for transcoding from one Atrac bitrate to another (i.e. 132kbps > 64kbps, etc or 256kbps > anyhthing) This would also explain why Simple Burner doesnt introduce gaps, its just encoding the PCM source which is always gapless.

have you tried this: -record your LPs in PCM mode on your Hi-MD -transfer the tracks to PC -record transfered tracks to MD (in SP) via digital (if possible, may require burning a CD or other measures) -compare that track to the one that was originally recorded straight to the MD in SP So basically you would have the following Track 1 SP recorded from the source Track 2 SP recorded from the PCM of the source see if you can tell a difference.

windows 98se *should* have the generic driver needed for any USB mass storage device, however in a test i did with my dad's old machine (before it got an OS upgrade), the machine refused to recognize the Hi-MD as a storage device until the Personal Audio Driver was installed That said, anything beyond Windows 98(se) (including Mac OSX, WinME, Win2K, WinXP) should be able to see it right away

what bitrate were the WMAs at? anything lower than probably 160kbps will introduce excessive noticeable noise when transcoding

It seems to me (and generally everyone else on here that ive seen) hi-lp sounds loads better than LP4. Picking out how it is better isnt as easy but heres some things that I have noticed: -hi-lp has a much cleaner dynamic range then lp4 -lp4 at its worst sounds like your inside a washing machine while the world around you is banging drums and crumpling paper next to your ears -hi-lp at its worst introduces slight artifacts (again metallic sounding) -sometimes (with the right music) i dont notice the difference between hi-lp and say lp2 (at first) however I can ALWAYS tell the difference between LP4 and everything. -IMO the only thing worse sounding than LP4 is Hi-lp48kbps

just remember use real time recording via digital input if possible as SonicStage only transfers SP with LP2 quality

im sure you could send it away to get fixed by sony and i should not even cost as much as a brand new unit

i suggest turning both the car and especially the MDs EQs off and seeing if that cleans up the sound at all. Then slowly adjust them and see which one gives you the best sound Also for best results i place my MD on 20+ volume and then adjust it from the car volume controls

agreed it probably needs to be precharged in order to get accurate temperature and voltage readings

a HiMD unit (1st Gen) can still record MD discs in SP mode and may even do it better because it uses Type-R Atrac support (which is the best Atrac 1 codec) Alternatively all HiMD units can record in HiSP which is very close to the quality of SP (most people cannot tell the difference between the two, or between it and a CD track) plus you it gives you the ability to upload these tracks digitally to your PC if you so desire. Downside: -2nd gen units can't (to my understanding) record legacy MD formats (i.e. SP/LP2/LP4) on the unit itself. They do however gain the MP3 compatibility. -You cannot use both SP and HiSP on the same disc, and you cannot upload SP recordings. -You cannot use SP on the 1GB discs

maybe hi-lp uses some rediculously inefficient use of addressing space on the disc and requires a set amount of padding (like LP2 or LP4 or even SP). On second thought the bit rate of hi-lp is 64kbps which is 8KB/s HiMD uses FAT If its FAT16 that means every 'block' of data is 16KB If its FAT32 that means every 'block' of data is 32KB if the audio stream ends midway through this block there may be a slight pause afterwards. However this doesn't explain the other encoders. Then again it might not be as obvious in a higher bitrate (because it takes up more of the block). anyone notice the same problem with 48kbps? More than likely however it is a problem with the encoder or the source. Some CDs have a pause break (usually SS ignores this in my tests however). Or some CDs have fade outs and ins which may be a factor. Here's what I suggest: Try encoding the same CD in a higher bit rate (i.e. Atrac3 132kbps or even better Atract3+ 256kbps - that way they are both A3+) See if you notice a change. Try encoding the CD at 48kbps (JUST FOR TESTS, it sucks for music), and see if you can notice it there Best of luck

actually any edits you do in SS (artist, title, album, genre, etc) update the MP3 tags in the files themselves (providing SS has the rights to said files)

How does SonicStage's MP3 encoding stack up to that of say WMP10 or LAME? Obviously LAME will be the best, I'm just wondering how crippled Sony made SS

weird maybe ill do a clean uninstall and reinstall, see if that fixes anything

Anyone else notice an mp3 problem when upgrading to SS3.1? when using 3.0 i could transcode every single one of my mp3s however now that im at 3.1 itll fail to transcode random mp3s for no reason what so ever (same setting and encoder used for the rest of the album) any ideas?

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normally i'd agree (if we were talking about CD players) however it isnt just straight PCM we're talking about. its PCM inside a WAV encased file. And no that in itself doesnt take the power, the pushing out of that kind of bit rate does

supposidly this question came up in regards to the sony 1st gen HDD players as well. The answer to this tehnical question was more or less another technical question (if that makes sense). Supposidly the Atrac decoding chip has more than enough power behind it in order to read the software instructions and decode MP3s in real time as well. Also all HiMD players have a PCM decoder chip as well, surely that requires some horsepower right there...

In netMD mode it should act with any software that supports netMD transfer (not sure if WMP does support this however) Nope DRM stops this as it could be a form of piracy

taken from Equipment section of this site

Yes you can search for one on an online dealers website like Minidisco or Minidisc-Canada Nope, well unless you want to convert to PCM instead. Only second gen players have direct MP3 playback. Currently no players have native WMA playback The D model includes a line in on the player

so does HiMD