1kyle

Hi there Not sure what you mean by "Non Music" files - but if these are "Data" files you can just transfer to computer with "Windows Explorer". A MD device in Data mode is simply a Computer external Disk drive - there are honestly loads of better mechanisms for getting data in and out of a computer these days (I use a 350 GB WD passport drive - about the size of 2 X RH1's and thinner). These might play depending on your software you use to play these. You won't be able to play these directly on a MD unless they are in a codec MD recognizes and that they were transferred to MD either in Real time recording, Sonic stage or Simple Burner. If they were transferred to your MD in "Data" mode then you'll need whatever software you used to create the files presumably to play them - which means you'll only be able to play the files via a computer. There's no problem in using ANY codec / format you like on a MD -- the only problem is that you'll have to work in DATA MODE (approx 1GB on Hi-MD discs or around 280 MB on std MD's), and you'll have to use a computer to play / transfer the files. Cheers -K

Apart from the fact that Rhapsody tends to work only in the USA you still have the problem of getting only hideously "Low-Fi" compressed music -- artifacts and all. This might be OK for listening on those horrible "white" bud 'phones' but this stuff really doesn't wash on decent sound equipment -- perhaps this isn't important to todays consumers but there are still a lot of peole out there who appreciate and want QUALITY and UNCOMPRESSED music. Cheers -K

Hi all. If you have been used to using "Virtual CD" type software such as NERO Drive Image it's been a bit of a pain to find something that works with 64 bit vista. NERO itself seems to have dropped support for it's DRIVE IMAGE tool. Alcohol 52 has a FREE version which will mount nero (.nrg) images as well as others. The only limitation is that it will only mount up to 7 drives concurrently whereas the "paid for" version will allow you to mount up to 31. I usually only want to mount one at a time. It's a bit difficult to find the link to the FREE version but here's th link http://www.free-downloads.net/programs/Alc...2__Free_Edition. This works fine on VISTA 64 Bit . I use this a lot as when I want to download to MD I create a "Virtual CD" directly from FLAC files I have on my computer - I use NERO to burn the "Virtual CD" - NERO can burn an Audio CD directly from FLAC. I then use Alcohol 52 to mount the virtual CD and download to MD using Simple Burner --works a treat no SS needed. (You need a VM to use Simple Burner on VISTA as SB won't run on VISTA). I don't ever store any music permanently with SS -- Library structure is horrible, easily broken and can't span multiple volumes. Cheers -K

It's not all lost for Mac users -- If you have an "Intel" mac you can run a Windows Virtual machine under parallels etc. Then you can use the Windows tools for getting your music / recordings from MD to PC. I'm still using a Windows XP virtual machine for running Simple Burner as a very quick way of transferring music to MD as this doesn't run on Windows VISTA. I also use Linux a lot and if I need to run Sonic stage etc then I also use the windows XP vm for this. Your Windows VM will have full USB access etc. I also use a Windows VM to run adobe Photoshop. Note whatever OS you use you can ALWAYS transfer in "Real Time" which is not always as bad an option as might appear. Cheers -K

I charge my RH1 using a "Japanese" motorola RAZR USB phone charger. No probs with this whatsoever. Maybe the SONY chargers don't work properly --can't say as I don't use the standard chargers. Cheers -K

On reading about this device I actually checked the date to make sure it wasn't 1 Apr. I still can't believe that someone whose probably earning more money in a week than I'd get in a year could come up with something as idiotic as this. The real "Uselessness" of this format is that if you read the 'spec it says the music will be delivered in MP3 Format --- now one of the reasons I still buy CD's is that it's about the only decent source of UNCOMPRESSED music. I suspect some crazy CEO had the idea that people would buy these because they could be used in a mobile phone -- however just imagine taking out one of these tiny Micro SD cards out of your phone to replace it with another one whilst you are sitting in a crowded Underground / subway train in London's rush hour. -- This won't wash at all as far as I can see. I don't have ANY interest whatsoever in buying any music which comes in compressed or "Lossy" formats --one of the reasons as well why I never bother with things like itunes etc. The other problem with SD cards etc is that of storage -- they are not very easy to "archive" - it's fairly easy to rummage through a pile of CD's / DVD's but hunting down a particular SD card would be a nightmare. -- I already have considerable experience of this because I use several dozens of these wretched things in Professional Photography. Another HUGE disadvantage here is that (apart from Psanasonic's Net MD / CD / SD unit) you would be forced to play this music either on a computer or a portable music player. I can't see any high quality music decks incorporating an SD slot into the mix (although a Hard disc could be an option ). No I think this ome will die the death. Totally Bonkers idea IMO. Cheers -K

Great stuff here so MD lives to fight another day. What would be fantastic if Sony could copy Logitech and produce a device like the new squeezebox boom but also have MD built in as well -- so you could at least record in real time music either wirelessly from your own ciomputer / internet whilst listening.

Hi Guys This device is Brilliant since it can either CHARGE completely or be used as an external power source for your RH1 (or any other USB powered device such as some mobile phones etc). http://www.proporta.com/F02/PPF02P05.php?t...&t_mode=des The one feature that I felt was lacking on the RH1 was that there wasn't the option to power it from a portable external source such as an external battery pack if you were on the road. Also means you can use your RH1 even if the internal battery is empty. This device overcomes the limitation of only having an internal battery. Cheers -K

Hi all Since I've got a computer with 8GB memory and Windows XP will only use 3GB max I decided to try out VISTA 64 bit. Nero under VISTA (64) Bit has removed the DRIVE IMAGE option in the NERO tools. This is actually a very useful tool for mounting "Virtual CD / DVD" ISO's --the system thinks it's a real CD / DVD. I use NERO as it can create audio CD directly from FLAC (plugin still works under VISTA) and then mount the virtual drive which I could then either burn to MD (simple burner --this doesn't work under VISTA unfortunately) or import (temporarily) into SS and transfer to MD from there. Using CD Images makes the whole process of transfer to MD etc a load faster - and you can keep your music as FLAC - compatable with quite a few players now. You can compile your own "Virtual CD" without wasting actual media and of course make real CD's if you want to. Whilst there are other (free) programs that I could use it was much easier to use the same program for creating my CD image directly from the flac files. Anybody know a FREE program that runs under VISTA 64 bit which will BOTH create an audio CD IMAGE directly from FLAC files AND enable a Virtual drive to be mounted. Incidentally running Windows XP as a Virtual Machine either under Linux or Vista gives FULL functionality of SB as well as NERO so if you DO "Upgrade"??? to VISTA 64 bit then all is not lost. (I gave up on VISTA 32 BIT -- as far as I can see that OS runs and behaves like a Real DOG with at times the hard disk light permanently on even though I wasn't running anything --nor was I connected to the Internet-- and there's 8GB of memory with a Dual processor on that machine.) If you do something like this you only need SS whilst transferring music either FROM or TO MD --you don't need to keep ANYTHING in the SS library. Cheers -K

Any Forum members enjoy Stargate Atlantis -- I loved the Stargate SG-1 (have the entire 10 seasons on DVD) and think Stargate Atlantis is even better. I'm really please to see that The Sci-Fi channel have commissioned a NEW stargate series called STARGATE UNIVERSE which should hit our screens sometime towards the end of next year. If it's anything like the current series it will be a LONG wait. Cheers - K

Hi all -- call me possibly obtuse but if it is being compressed to LOSSLESS why should it make ANY difference what the bit rate is (other than perhaps creating smaller files). If the compression is truely lossless then even 15 kbs would be OK - if it were possible to achieve lossless at that low bitrate. cheers -K

I don't use SS too much now but in your OLD library you should have a set of .OMA type files. Just use SS to IMPORT this music into a NEW library --- make sure you have enough disc space. I think the import utility can scan a DISC / DIRECTORY for files to import. Cheers -K

Not really going to involve in politics here but m'sieur obama reminds me of "Phony Tony" or Tony Blair who was George Bush's little pet poodle. He was a total disaster for the UK leaving us with "Gordon Clown" who is taking the whole country rapidly down the drain. From the outside BOTH candidates aren't very inspiring either . Neither seems to have any solutions to getting the Money markets (hence most of the West's economy) moving again -- Ah well I suppose it's time to learn Cantonese. Getting back to the MD's again good luck. Incidentally during the Beijimg Olympics quite a few reporters were still using MD recording equipment so plenty of life left in MD at the professional recording level.. Cheers -K

Hi all For any FLAC users who also have NERO (Windows version) -- here's a link to a FREE plugin that can create an audio CD from FLAC files directly without having to decompress these to WAV first. The use of this is of course is that you can create a Virtual Audio CD from your FLAC files and mount it as an "Audio" CD. Use Nero Tools Drive Image to mount / eject the audio CD images you've made. You can then use SS or SB to create / transfer music to MD / SS Library etc. If the CD image you create is a copy of an original CD then SS / SB will retrieve the track info again via Gracenote CDDB. Note that sometimes if the flac file name is too long (depending on how you created the flac files in the first place - Winamp sometimes generates this problem) you can shorten these without any problems in retrieving the CD track information. Ensure the filetype however remains as .FLAC Here's the link. Nero can create an audio disc directly from FLAC files. You need the plugin to do this (free). download the flac plugin from this site http://www.bitburners.com/software/flac-v10033/3816/ copy this plugin to “\Program Files\Common Files\Ahead\AudioPlugins” directory. Note the site refers to Nero 6 but works for later versions as well. Hope this is of use to some of you out there. Cheers -K

Vista is an ABOMINATION. Easiest solution is to keep using Windows XP (use in a Virtual Machine). If you are unfortunate enough to have to use VISTA then you can download Microsoft's Virtual PC for free. Create a Windows XP Virtual machine as per documentation with just Sonic Stage, Nero (or other burning DVD /CD software), flac conversion codecs. and Simple Burner installed on it. Now to create MD files just either start SS (if you have music in your library) or as I normally prefer use Simple Burner after you've loaded an Audio CD ) on the Virtual Machine and this will create your MD --no problems. I actually save all my music as FLAC, then use NERO to create a "Virtual" audio CD of the disc I want to copy to MD,then use DRIVE Image (NERO Tools) to mount the image and then use SB to transfer to MD. Eject the virtual CD image with Nero tools, load the next Virtual CD and transfer again. Hi-MD will copy around 7 CD's @ 256 kbs to a Hi-MD 1GB disc or just over 2 CD's to a standard 74/80 min minidisc formatted in either Hi-MD or standard MD mode (use LP2). Nero can create an audio disc directly from FLAC files. You need the plugin to do this (free). download the flac plugin from this site http://www.bitburners.com/software/flac-v10033/3816/ copy this plugin to “\Program Files\Common Files\Ahead\AudioPlugins” directory. Note the site refers to Nero 6 but works for later versions as well. --otherwise convert to WAV first. Virtual Box(free) or vmware / parallels (both paid for commercial products) can also be used to create Virtual machines on Linux, Windows or Mac computers-- read the relevant documentation before starting. If you don't have a Windows XP installation DVD / CD you can also use Windows 2000 for this as well. You only need SS, Nero / other CD / DVD burning software, flac codecs and SB on the virtual machine. Cheers -K

The BEST IMO real time system which gives you the flexibility of ALL worlds is to do the following 1) Rip CD's to FLAC and save on your computer. 2) Use a SQUEEZEBOX DUET with optical out to record to your MD -- you can then chose SP or any of the other MD / Hi-MD recording formats depending on the disc. The SQUEEZEBOX will handle WIRELESS or WIRED audio streaming at very high quality. 3) Use SB (or SS) to add track info to your MD's -- if you are using CD's you can get the track info automatically. Use the computer to store the music. The SQUEEZEBOX handset allows you to choose what you want to play -- then just use real time to record if that's what you want to do. At this point in time I wouldn't recommend storing ANY music in a computer library that's in a closed or proprietary format such as ATRAC. A quicker way of creating MD's however is to use NERO and SB (Simple Burner) or SS if you must. NERO will burn Audio CD's directly from FLAC if you add this plugin to the Nero directory -- no SP here but you have LP2/LP4 or HI-SP/Wave etc depending on your disc. download the plugin from this site http://www.bitburners.com/nero-audio-plugins/ load to “\Program Files\Common Files\Ahead\AudioPlugins” directory. Note the site refers to Nero 6 but works for later versions as well. Burn the Audio Cd as an "Image" and use Nero's drive image to mount / unmount it --SB / SS will then treat this is an audio CD which you can then get track info etc etc. If your FLAC encoder has created very long file names shorten these before burning your "Virtual" audio CD. You won't lose the CD info when SB / SS does the lookup. You can create a virtual audio CD in literally minutes at the most. Works a treat. Cheers -K

Even better Blu Ray BE disk --25GB per side (50 Gb in total). Of course external hard drives are really cheap these days -- 250 / 320 GB wd passport drives (usb connection and no external power unit required) can be found in UK for around 70 GBP / 120 USD inclusive of all taxes. Blu ray is fine for permanent archives. The external usb disk solution is also a "go-er". Cheers -k

Hi there I think the pot has gone off the boil on this one now as I use a Squeezebox Duet (which has optical out amongst others) to audio stream music to where I want it. The squeezebox handles Native FLAC files as well as loads of others so if i want a new MD I just create it in real time whilst listening on decent equipment. Optical out on the squeezebox receiver to optical in on the appropriate device works just fine. Quality is perfect. I have 4 receivers -- it's a really easy way of getting high quality music to where you need it --especially AWAY from sitting at a computer. Quality transferred into the audio equipment seems to me just as good as the original CD / MD. (I still of course often use MD's as MD's tend to have my own compilations whereas in the FLAC library I have the music stored in "Albums" or original CD titles.) As for making MD's in non real time I find making a "Virtual" CD on the computer from the flac files and burning with SB does the trick just fine. I run this on Linux using a Windows XP pro virtual machine -- no fuss -- vista proof (Vista doesn't support SB anyway) and if I need SS then I just do what I need with SS and delete from the SS library -- I don't use SS library any more. Incidentally ripping your CD's to FLAC with something like Winamp adds all the metadata / tags so you've got all the track info (at least 99% of the time). In any case if you make a Virtual CD --it's an identical copy of the original CD then SB will look up in the gracenote CDDB so you don't have to edit the track info. Whilst this system is obviously not as quick / fast as pure drag 'n drop it works conveniently for me and is reasonably "future proof". Cheers -K

I've just been playing with a Logictech squeezebox duet -- I've now got 4 receivers. It's Brilliant This is the first device that I've seen that 1) plays FLAC natively so no conversions to WAV etc needed It of course handles WAV and a load of other formats as well. 2) has the full range of outputs -- including OPTICAL so you can connect the receiver(s) to any appropriate gear you like (including MD decks or even portable MD recorders) as well as great Home audio equipment. 3) works incredibly well using Wireless connections. (You can also use wired Lan if you want to --not as bad an opton as it seems as those new electrical sockets have LAN connections . I use the wireless capability usually. 4) incredibly simple to use Note this is purely dedicated to AUDIO streaming --which is great -- Video streaming is another matter and devices currently that try to do both fall short - especially if the Internet Bandwidth is not large enough (or your ISP caps usage). I usually have a Linux server permanently on so acessing the music files is not a problem. This is a really great way of listening to music AWAY from a computer and without having to serach for CD's / MD's etc etc. This is a really great not too expensive high quality device. Cheers -K

Try formatting the disc in ' Data Mode' first. Then just write some windows files to it with Windows Explorer. If that works then re-initialize the disc for music with SB (simple Burner). Ensure of course that you are in HI-MD mode. cheers -K

A very nice way of getting Optical Quality output from your MD is to upload the music to a PC or "Net enabled" disc and then use a Squeezebox duet system which has an optical out in the receiver which you can connect to the input of whatever device you like. I have 3 squeezebox receivers so I can listen in 3 different rooms. Upload the music as WAV and optionally compress to flac. Squeezebox plays Native flac files as well as WAV and a number of others. The Audio streaming capability of the Squeezebox duet system is of a very high standard. Cheers -K

Never had a problem with those either In a way it's like seeing people waste loads of money putting "Premium Grade" petrol into their cars when the standard 95 octane will do fine for 99% of petrol cars on this planet -- I use a decent BMW and always fill it with the cheapest petrol --save a slew of money --espcially at current petrol prices. I've even used "non branded" 80 Min MD's bought in job lots of 50's and these are still fine. For some stuff (including MD's) it's still absolutely OK to use the cheap brands. cheers -k

It's not that fragile -- take it from me as a working Pro photojournalist who'se covered some rough spots. It's smaller and more discreet than some of the (excellent) tascam gear a lot of pros also use --not Hi-MD of course unlike RH1 etc. Of course don't MIS-TREAT it but it's a professionally designed piece of kit which WILL take a few knocks in the course of a job. Enjoy. Cheers K

In over 10 years (or is it longer) of using MD's I can hinestly say I've NEVER EVER had a bad or failed MD and I travel to some pretty rough parts of the world doing photographic work. The first thing to see is if the MP3 files play on the computer as MP3 with any MP3 software player -- I suggest Winamp. If it does play OK then just copy the files to another directory on your disk and re-import into SS. What can sometimes happen is that the MP3 file names generated by the IPOD / other player are TOO LONG for SS to handle. I've had the same experience after using WINAMP to create FLAC and then trying to upload to MD (via WAV) on a few tracks --easily fixed if you realize the cause. Truncate (i.e shorten) the file names (your music tracks) and you should be fine. As I've said Bad MD's really are as rare as hens teeth assuming you don't do something stupid with them like drop them into a vat of boiling oil. Cheers -K

Hi there -- the trouble if you use a PROPRIETARY format is that you are "Locked in" to that vendor -- if it changes the format, adds rubbish like DRM or goes out of business (ok Apple so unlikely but it COULD get taken over by say M$ or another company) then you are stuck again with an incompatable music collection. If you stick with an Open format (such as WAV or FLAC) you can ALWAYS convert these to whatever new devices come out in the future without having to re-rip your entire CD collection. I NEVER buy music from Itunes or elsewhere -- first there's often too much DRM which makes it difficult in transferring music to different devices and secondly the compression is too high -- why should I pay for a relatively "Low Fi" 128 kbs mp3 compressed file when I can get the original UNCOMPRESSED and DRM FREE from a CD. In addition if you DO buy "downloadable" music the tracks you've downloaded are stored on some anonymous corporations data base - and if you share these the transactions can be logged ("Ipod Police" I believe a previous topic refers to). Stick with your own recorded music or CD's / Vinyl until people like Itunes supply music UNCOMPRESSED and DRM Free. BTW of course using an open format such as WAV or FLAC means you can access and manage your music library on Windows, Linux, Macbooks etc. You are not dependent on any particular OS. Cheers -K