ROMBUSTERS

another important fact is that the lower the bitrate the more information can be stored into the buffer and thus a longer amount of continuous shock to the device before actual skipping occurs. Because HiMD's support PCM I suspect that they buffer at least 10seconds of PCM/WAV. Doing some math PCM has a bitrate of 1411kbps. This is roughly 1411/8 = 176.4KB/s (note this is slightly different than a CD-ROM 1x speed of 150KB/s - maybe someone can explain why>) Anyways assuming there is at least a 10second PCM buffer that means we need 176.4KB/s * 10 = 1,764KB/s or ~ 1.8MB buffer. Using this very basic math (and assuming a very small buffer of about 2MB) you can see by the following how long you would have before it skips. PCM 1411kbps ~ 10seconds Atrac3+ 256kbps ~ 55.125seconds Atrac3 132kbps ~ 107seconds Atrac3 66kbps ~ 214seconds Atrac3+ 64kbps ~ 220.5seconds Atrac3+ 48kbps ~ 294seconds So as you can see using a decent bitrate of LP2 (132kbps) and assuming a very low (i actually assume HiMDs have a larger buffer than 2MB but I have not done any tests) you would get nearly 2mins worth of music before noticing a skip.

Haha I wasn't refering to Atrac > MP3 in my opinion, I meant that, that is probably the argument being present by Sony and why he/she was confused. However in practice (not that anyone encodes low bitrate MP3s) I'd probably have to give Atrac3+ a bit up over MP3

i've never had my skip once, but theoretically it still can

The main argument being made is that Atrac/3/+ sounds better than MP3 at lower bit rates. Also it is fair to say that Atrac3+ is a more advanced codec then MP3 and may in fact be closer to m4a. However transcoding from one codec to another or re-encoding into a lower bit rate is always not as good as going from the original CD source

try using the usb cable for another device (like a printer) to see if it is indeed the cable. If the cable is crap dont worry to much, they only cost about $5~10

That's odd as my recordings seem to be 100% gapless with songs that are designed to be played back with no gaps. HiMDs have a set accuracy of recordings to a certain amount of miliseconds so perhaps your unit is loosing some accuracy and is not giving you correct recording results. My point however was that unless you go from a CD source, that was designed to be gapless, straight to Atrac you will have gaps introduced into your audio. This is because like PCM, Atrac has set block lengths (which is something MP3 does not)

he's always got inside info

Ok so here's how it goes. As far has HiMD is concerned Atrac 256kbps (also known as HiSP) is the best Atrac sounding compression you can use. While sonicstage does encode Atrac into 320kbps these are as of yet not supported on HiMD. Here is a list of supported bitrates and my opinion on them. PCM (1411kbps): CD quality, this has no compression and is by far the best sound quality available. -My rating: ***** (5/5) Atrac3+ HiSP (256kbps):Highest quality Atrac compression. Very comparable to the original Atrac (which had a bitrate of 292kbps), this compression is almost impossible to tell apart from the original PCM source. -My rating: ***** (5/5 because the whole point of compression is to let you store more audio in the same space and for all intensive purposes this sounds the same as PCM) Atrac3 LP2 (132kbps): Standard LP2 compression from the first days of netMD. Decent for the bitrate although for some plagued by bad artifacts. This is for me (and many) the standard bitrate as it offers one of the best quality vs space -My rating: *** 1/2 (3.5/5) Atrac3 LP3 (105kbps): Very similar to LP2 although with a bit more noticeable loss in sound quality. For noisy listening areas still a decent compression. -My rating: *** (3/5) Atrac3 LP4 (66kbps): Poor encoding, uses a different joint-stereo encoding scheme instead of the same ones used by LP2 and 3. Sounds pretty garbled. -My rating: ** (2/5) Atrac3+ HiLP (64kbps): Very surprising in how good this low bitrate really is. While LP2 still has somewhat of an edge on this, HiLP is perfect for storing a huge amount of music and still enjoying good clean audio. -My rating: *** (3/5) Atrac3+ 48kbps (48kbps): Utter garbage. Horrible sound quality for music but damn you can fit a lot on one disc. -My rating: * (1/5) Hope that helps

not entirely true... The way transcoding works is it takes the source (in this case MP3) and converts it to PCM (wav) then it takes that PCM (wav) and converts it to Atrac (in this case) MP3>>PCM>>Atrac The way lossy codecs work is by stripping out the information you usually cannot hear and overlaying stronger sounds (those that usually overpower weaker ones) so again you can not tell the difference. Obviously in straight MP3 playback the higher the bitrate the closer the encoder can come to the original PCM wave line (i.e. better sound quality). However, assuming your original source is the wave line of an MP3 (i.e. MP3>>PCM) you are only hurting the audio quality more by transcoding into a lower bitrate. If you've already lost a lot of audio quality going from the original source to a compressed one (i.e. PCM>>MP3) then going from that lower quality MP3 to an even lower quality Atrac (for example) is very bad. What this does is takes the 'garbage' that the MP3 encoder spit out and tries to compress that even further. Only through the use of a higher bitrate atrac (or just keeping it in PCM (wav)) can you hope to at least attain a level of quality. The higher the bitrate the less information is thrown out. Converting from one lossy codec to another is always bad. However converting from one lossy codec to another lossy codec of an equal or lesser bitrate (note: codec bitrates are not universal) is even worse. My recomendation: if you cant tell the difference between the original MP3 and a transcodec MP3 into something like Atrac3/+ 132kpbs/105kbps/64kbps that don't worry about it. However if you can, always convert to something like Atrac3+ 256kbps or if you have the software convert the MP3 to wav and transfer the wav as PCM. Yes it takes up a lot more space but it is the ONLY way to retain the quality of the audio. Garbage in ~ garbage out

the only advantage to burning a CD would be to have an audio CD of the original MP3s in he best quality your gonna get out of them (for use in a car or CD player). As for using it to transfer to an MD the CD route is useless.

Is there anyway to isolate the Atrac codec? It has been known for a while that Windows Media Player can play back OMA and OMG files because it taps into the Atrac codec. Does anyone know where this codec is located and if/how it is possible to install the codec seperately from SonicStage? Thanks in advance

WMP can playback OMAs because it uses the Atrac codec (decoder) to play, the same was as SonicStage. The problem with the files you backup is that they contain DRM info that restricts them to that specific SonicStage computer. Only using the new SonicStage 3.2 can you choose to leave the DRM off

if the Atrac songs are downloaded from connect.com (or made with pre SonicStage 3.2 software) then the .omg/a files are DRM'd and you can not do anything with the file itself. Actually scratch that I don't think you could do anything with the file even if it didn't have DRM... Anyways moving on, I think the only real way to do this would be one of the following: 1 -Burn an audio cd with your Atrac files. -Rip this audio cd to your pc in desired format (i.e. mp3/wma/ogg/wav) 2 -Play back the song in SonicStage -Record from your computers digital sound using audio software

yes anytime you transcode form one lossless compression to another it makes the sound quality worse. if you still have the CDs try ripping them to SonicStage in Atrac3+ 256kbps, that way they will be compatible will most of your Sony devices (ie you wont have to transcode in the future) and it'll sound good on your Audio CD

i believe it only remembers the disc bookmarks for 64 discs not the EQ, but I could be wrong

there is so much of this crap going around these days its crazy!

awesome job on the purchase!

take the minidisc itself out of the unit (i.e. the 60/74/80min disc that you music is located on). On the very bototm of the disc (opposite the arrow pointing to the correct side to insert into the unit) is a small (usually) grey 'protection tab'. In order to be able to write information to the disc (i.e. transfer music or edit) the tab music be fully open (i.e. the entire tab showing). If the tab is pushed to one side (and you can see a little into the disc) then you are not able to record. Please see a MiniDisc FAQ for more information

but will the new discs be backwards compatible with the current generation of HiMD units?

however doesn't it say in Sony's original HiMD technology release that the MO technology used in HiMDs allows for upwards of 4GB in a disc the size of a current MD?

292kbps SP 132kbps LP2/SP Mono 105kbps LP3 (not used in MD until the advent of HiMD) 66kbps LP4 And there is no way to make a mono SP recording in SonicStage No current HiMD unit has digital output

The link to the gallery section currently returns a MySQL database error

also the write protection tab is on the minidisc itself and not the minidisc player/recorder unit

probably depends on the future of HiMD if they intend to release many more generations of the HiMD platform then there is no reason why > 1GB discs cant be made (although they may not work with existing models)

it's probably the bit rate you are using with Atrac3+ try using a higher one like 256kpbs or 320kbps