1kyle

The easiest way as other posters have pointed out is to use SS to burn to CD. However rather than burn to a "Real" CD you could create an .ISO image file (or .NRG if using Nero) Then you just need to send the file to your friends. They also don't need a "Real" CD to play the music --if they have something like Nero you can mount the image with DRIVEIMAGE (part of NERO) and your computer will treat this as a REAL CD. They can import the music into whatever system they like (any CD Ripping program will work) or can just play the "image" as a REAL CD. If you give the ISO / NRG image away ensure you legally own the copyright. There are enough TOTAL SCUMBAG LITIGATION LAWYERS around now whose ONLY purpose on this planet is to screw working people into the ground while sticking their tongues up the bottoms of corporate giants. Cheers -K

Maybe a bit of overkill but a possibility is to use a Virtual Machine for uploading RH1 and another VM for uploading music from other MD units. You can use FREE M$ Virtual PC or VMWARE's VIRTUAL Player. On Linux you can use the Free Virtual Box as your virtualisation software but it's rather unstable. The best way is to create vmware capable Virtual disks with (FREE) QEMU and then use Vmware's virtual player to run your VM -- this gives you the capability of running and creating Virtual machines compatable with Vmware workstation without the cost of buying vmware workstation. For Windows follow this link http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2005/10/26/vmwa...windows-xp.html For Linux do similar -- download the QEMU Linux package and build the Virtual machine the same way--most Linux distros already have vmware player installed by default --if not just download and install for your linux distro. You only need to create minimal Windows virtual machines -- you don't have to install all your normal apps. You could probably run these in 256MB RAM easily so even a modest modern dual core laptop could quite comfortably run two of these concurrently. You might be able to create Windows 2000 virtual machines (avoids problems of Windows XP activations) -- although I'm not sure if the RH1 driver will run on Windows 2000 --in any case the fast usb driver might not work -- Net MD units will be fine on Windows 2000 BTW. I'm running Net MD transfers on Windows 2000 and the RH1 on Windows XP virtual machines. Cheers -K

Actually I don't think you've understood the post. -- Of course solid state cards aren't meant to be archived --similarly there is no point in storing all your archive data on a computer --what happens if the computer gets stolen, gets broken or you want to buy a new one --. By all means store music on to hard disks as archive --but you'll want to play the stuff sooner or later and hard disks do break as well. You might also run into a problem in the future -- a new version of Windows / Linux or whatever appears with a totally new file format. Have fun converting say 3,000 full CD's worth of archives. I've been using MD's ever since the format came out --I still have a load of the 60 Min Md's as well --and I can honestly say that in over 10 years of using this stuff I have NEVER had a SINGLE MD failure.. With MD's you just file them away like CD's and when you want to play something just pop your MD into a nice deck / player etc connected to a really great set of studio quality speakers and enjoy - preferably with a nice glass of malt whisky - or whatever else takes your fancy. You don't need to be stuck in front of a computer listening to hideously lossy compressed music with with crappy over emphasized bass. Also if your player breaks you can always pop your MD into another one. SP @ 292 is almost indistinguishable from the original CD -- and with 2 or 4X dubbing which I can do on my legacy gear -( have 2 CD<===>MD dual decks), I'm computer independent. In addition I have a JB980 deck - probably the "ferrari" equivalent of MD decks- which can also label tracks etc without needing a computer or an Internet connection. It also has an Optical Out and can even make LP2 recordings sound half way passable (although in a car LP2 is fine). The other coment about creating Vinyl from blank recording media was only to emphasize the point that LONG AFTER the basic medium has finished or ceased to be a mainstream product you can still get blank media for donkeys years afterwards. You can still get 8 track blank cassettes -- anybody remember those. Cheers -K

Hi Steve If you get somewhere with this please post. Currently I'm totally absorbed by Euro 2008 -- the European Football (Soccer) championships and the Wimbledon Tennis so I'm not really looking at computers at the moment very often. I'm sure given enough collaborative effort and the sheer power of modern computers --even a humble laptop will do -- we can crack this. Cheers -k

There's some encryption algorithm in all of these --I tried taking Hex dumps of the files and doing a Bit for Bit copy. Note the Bit for Bit copy is File system independent so Windows or whatever didn't get in the way. This didn't work (the copy worked and the target disk compared 100% bit for bit / sector for sector with the original but the target disk wouldn't play) so there is also something in the hardware driver that sets some bit or updates something that enables "Playability" on the disc that a normal data reading program won't see or can't access. Apparently nobody has managed to hack their way over the OMG system yet or if they have they aren't saying anything. I think about 2 years ago there were some threads on this board concerning this topic. I'd be very interested if someone comes up with a decent answer. I've also tried hacking the MP3 converter --also without sucess since this obviously "unscrambles" the OMA files so windows (or Linux etc) can cut and paste these to new music devices. My suggestion for anybody who'se got time to mess around with this stuff would be to poke at the most vulnerable area --this IMO would be the Import and Transfer functions of SS and then work from there. Please note -- Ideas presented here are for LEGITIMATE uses only --i.e you can get your OWN LEGAL Non DRM'ed music / recordings into any format convenient for you and to be able to play the music on ANY device you might own. I take NO responsibility for people trying to break DRM or other copyrighted material. Cheers -K

The real crunch of course with all this is the availability (or non availability) of the media. Even if EVERBODY stopped making MD blanks today you'd still be able to get these for AT LEAST 10 Years. Ok you won't be able to get them in every conceivable outlet but you certainly will be able to source the disks. The Hardware as has been pointed out in these posts is pretty robust and solid state cards now there are so many different types makes any sort of archive / compatability a total nightmare compared to having an MD library. You know a standard (60/74/80) MD disk recorded at SP 292 will be readable by ANY MD unit on this planet. With solid state devices --some use CF, some use XD, SD, Micro SD. etc etc -- it's a real mess. As for those guys who say well MD's are not convenient for recording --- you are not likely to run out if you take 3 or 4 1GB discs with you. Incidentally even solid state devices can get full --what do you do then --erase the material you might want to keep or try and insert a new tiny micro card into it during a force 8 gale. As for non availability of media -- well I have an old machine that can cut 78 RPM vinyl discs and guess what --I can STILL source 78 Blank discs for recording on if I feel up to doing it. MD's will still be around in some guise or another for "Donkeys Years" yet. Cheers -K

Hi again NetMD is a pain -- however you can still do it. Play the tracks and use an optical out slot on your computers sound card with a product like total recorder. It's real time but only needs to be done once -- you can then save your tracks and do whatever you like with them. I'm also lucky in that i have a high quality MD with an optical output so I can record legacy Net MD stuff to a PC directly (albeit again in real time). Another way to get round the net MD restriction is to use a modern DVD recorder with optical input. Record your tracks to a DVD via optical out and in and then rip the DVD to your computer.(Real time again though). cheers -k

Hi there -- We still unfortunately need to have SS installed however you don't have to build a library or whatever -- this is where my "Virtual Disc" query came from. After you've installed SS install SB (Simple Burner) as this is the only way to get stuff directly on to a MD without using SS. SB however uses some components from SS at run time so you still have to have SS installed. Now Burn a CD of the tracks you want to copy to your MD. Loads of programs will burn CD's from FLAC or almost any other format you care to choose. Now simply use SB (Simple Burner) to burn those tracks directly to MD. Note your MD will still be WAV or 256 kbs Atrac but the advantage is that you don't need to have any library of SS at all. Caveat here -- if you want to burn MP3 MD's (RH1 only) you HAVE to import the tracks into SS -- but since MD doesn't have drag and drop I'd say why bother with MP3's on MD's. For other digital music devices you can convert FLAC to MP3 on the fly so in any case you don't really need the SS library. It's not Drag and drop to get stuff to MD but since creating and ripping "Virtual CD's" is a quick and easy process the extra step(s) involved more than make up for the problems of having a large incompatable ATRAC database (SS). To get music / recorded audio the other way i.e to UPLOAD I'm afraid you'll still have to use SS for transfer -- convert to wav then store wherever you like. Delete the tracks from SS so you don't "have a library". Hope this clears it up a little -- sorry it's not as simple as drag'n drop but should help. cheers -K

Thanks -- that works as well as winamp etc. Having used SS for ages and coming up from the "Old School where you had to do your recordings in Real time or at best with a 2X CD ==> MD dubber all this computer manipulation of digital music files is totally new to me. I certainly don't want to rip 6000 CD's again --even if I could find half of them again --some have long since gone to "That great player in the sky". However thanks for your suggestion -- and I've backed up everything with at least 2 copies so I've got plenty of options. Pity Sony never made the whole thing simply drag and drop. While FLAC might not be the most efficient Lossless compression to use disk space is cheap enough, the codec is open source and will also run on Linux boxes so I'm not likely to have to go through this exercise again once I've got my files. I don't bother with "purchased" or downloadable music -- in general quality is HORRIBLE especially at 128 kbs and less, so I have no issues with DRM. As to the other suggestion from a previous poster - get a Mac -- not always possible especially if you have to connect to an Office / Corporate Workplace network and need to use their specialized Windows apps such as SAP applications etc which don't run on macs. Personally I'd much rather use a Powerbook but there we are. Cheers -K

Hi guys There's loads of programs out there that allow a CD Image (.ISO / .NRG etc). to be mounted as a Virtual CD and your computer then sees this "Virtual CD" as an extra CD / DVD on your system. This sort of program is built in to Nero (as Drive Image) ond doubtless other CD / DVD burning programs. However none of these programs seem to allow you to mount an Empty / Blank CD " Virtual Image". This would be really useful as you could then eliminate totally the use of SS. Your input library would be say FLAC (great lossless codec) -- create a Virtual CD from your FLAC libraray and use SB to burn to MD. For MP3 music devices there's zquintillions of FLAC ==> MP3 converters. I'm in the process of sorting out a CD library I've had for years and years -- been using MD's since they came out and my music library must now contain the equivalent of over 6000 CD's --- representing maybe 60,000 - 100,000 tracks. Although I intend to go on using MD's for years to come, It's now about time I think that I junked SS --even though the latest version is actually quite passable. Sony's dropping of ATRAC makes this inevitable anyway. At least they could have opened up the codec -- but unfortunately that's not going to happen and the latest generation of Sony Walkmans don't even play the codec any more. Fortunately my library is Atrac lossless so I can go to WAV then to flac without losing any quality. I've a few TB spare so I can do this over a period and have disk space for it. I've toyed many times with which codec to use but it seems for archiving on Disk FLAC is the way to go -- I rarely / almost never use the computer for playing music so it's no pain for me to create a new MD as and when I need one. I can also store the FLAC library off line as well and can share it between computers. If a new codec comes out in future -- no problem as the FLAC is lossless. Can always go to WAV and then the new codec. MD simple burner is a great tool -- although it doesn't run on Vista just have a Windows XP virtual machine with SS and SB installed. You can then run on LINUX or WINDOWS (or even a MAC). For Windows you can get free vm software -- Virtual PC, for Linux you can get Virtual Box. Otherwise commercial products are vmware and parallels. Cheers -K

I've had several (and still have) at least 3 generations of MD recorders. ALL except one have worked flawlessly over the years (I'm a Pro photographer and have taken these machines into some rough areas on assignments). The only ONE unit which was an absolute dog was the RH10 --this came actually with quite a nice 5 / 6 line screen - however manufacture was of poor quality, screen easily scratchable and the battery lid door was so bad that it invariably broke (even with careful handling) after changing batteries 2 or 3 times. All in all apart from the RH10 I would say don't worry about the reliability both from a mecahnical and an electrical point of view. The RH1 (current unit) is an absolute 100% WINNER -- I've dropped this on numerous occasion, it's been through security nighmares at airports etc etc --still works like a dog. I've now got 3 of these units -- they are available but don't seem to be getting any easier to find -- I might get another 2 just in case. I intend to go on using the MD format for YEARS yet whatever sony say or do. Whilst if all you are looking for is a pure music playback machine there are now other and probably easier options but the MD - especially if you use 1GB discs is still amazingly flexible even for a music player now it can play MP3 tracks. SS -- at least the latest version is not such a bad tool, and the latest SONY Conversion tool ATRAC-MP3 works better making music files more interchangeable between devices. Actually using SS to Rip CD's to ATRAC LOSSLESS (don't save as a lossy format especially when you want to do further conversions) and then convert to MP3's is fine since you can store the MP3 files on a different disc and you get all the track / album info which is generally a bit "iffy" when using say an open source LAME MP3 converter and the freedb music database to get music info. A 1GB MD disc will contain around 7 - 8 hours worth of music recorded at 256 / 320 and a lot more if it sounds OK for you at 192 or even 128. I find the large capacity ipods etc a real pain to manage -- just take 2 or 3 discs -- thats around 20 hours of music --should be enough for even those who never take of their headphones except when going to bed. Note also that with MD you have unlimited storage and "redundancy" -- if a unit breaks you can still use the recording on another unit. Solid state devices are fine but what happens when a) the memory becomes full the device gets broken c) the device gets stolen. If you are making one-off recordings that you can delete and will never be archived then solid state recording might be the way to go but MD's are fine. You can copy recordings easily enough and provided someone else has a player --no problem. It's much more difficult sharing recordings made on a portable solid state device. Memory cards also whilst getting cheaper all the time are a real "dog" to organize and store in an archive library. MD's represent just about the perfect size between convenience and practicality. Cheers -K

Thanks guys Marc's renderer seems to be the best choice here by far. Cheers -k

Hi everybody Unless I've mis-read the instructions Sony have again produced a stupid problem out of what was really a good idea. I finally succumbed and bougtt a Sony A818 8GB musical player -- the main reason for this is that it has a USB out that works with the USB in on my car readio. With the Minidisc I had to use the Audio in and changing tracks etc was a bit of a pain --however the USB interface allows simple track selection / playing etc. The only problem is that of course I need to convert the files to MP3 format to load on to the device. Then AT LAST DRAG' 'N DROP WORKS !!!!. The problem is that I have the equivalent to about 2000 entire CD's in my SONIC STAGE library which is a lot of tracks. Of course the Sony software designers on the ATRAC conversion tool haven't allowed you to select what tracks to convert -- or at least I can't find any options. It just finds ALL the atrac tracks on your computer. The only way round this I've found is to use NERO to mount a Virtual CD and then create an MP3 CD of the tracks I wish to copy to theA818 player. -- This is also a bit of a dog as you have to keep "Burning" virtual CD's. Why on earth could't SONY just say in the conversion tool -- select Albums from the library (or even tracks) that you wish to convert. Do the (usually highly paid) Software / I.T guys EVER speak to us poor users who actually have to work with the product. (Sony is by no means alone in this -- I've come across loads of cases where the idae of a program was excellent but absolutely lousy implementation. Cheers (Oh and BTW whiilet the MP3 player is OK in the car on a decent high end system the MD sounds far far better - even if the MP3 is ebncoded at 352. The Atrac source is Atrac advanved Losless at 352). Cheers -K

Vinyl is still alive and kicking (in fact I've NEVER seen so many adverts for USB Vinyl disc players making it easy to transfer old Vinyl to computers). I'm sure MD will certainly survive for a good few years yet. MD blanks are relatively easy to get hold of and problems with standard MP3 players - such as what do you do with your old music when you want to get a new one, recording format transcoding problems etc etc will ensure that MD will not disappear in the near future. Of course the original stupidity of DRM and lack of easy music transfer hobbled the MD format which made universal adoptation impossible --had it had an open format MD's could have replaced CD's many years ago. However in spite of all that and the dropping of ATRAC by sony the sound quality of MD still beats most solid state music players hands down and the sheer convenience of just inserting a new disk into the player beats hands down re-arranging music on a solid stae device - especially when it's full. And BTW if you use some type of VM software you can run an old version of Windows XP for DONKEYS YEARS after the OS is no longer supported so you can continue to use SS for as long into the future as you want to. I have an old HP plotter at home which actually only works on Windows 98. It won't run on Windows NT 4 or XP and certainly not on Vista. I run Windows 98 as a Guest OS on Vista when I need to use the plotter. Works fine. There's no way I could even FIND a new plotter like the one I'm using for anything like a reasonable price. How many new engineering projects even understand what a blueprint is anyway. However the plotter works fine and I'll continue to use it for as long as I need to. You can do the same with MD's. -K

Hi guys You can also use a Virtual Machine running Windows XP to load your music to MD using simple burner. Note that the VM software (Host system) needs to have some type of USB pass thru so the Guest (Windows XP OS) can access the hardware drivers directly. If your VM system doesn't support "Native" USB then only Dual booting between Windows XP and Vista will solve your problem. SS works in Vista and the current incarnations of SS aren't actually too bad -- so as long as you don't mind loading music to the computer in the first place you shouldn't have too many Vista problems. You can also delete the music from the library after transfer and in any case these days HD's are cheap --a SATA 1TB hard disk can cost as little as 100 EUR / 80 GBP / 120 USD so why even worry if the music is stored on the computer first. Processors are also faster --Dual Pentium etc so the whole ripping and transfer process is a lot faster now in any case making the necessityfor developing or maintaing such packages as Simple MD or equivalent these days more difficult to justify. Cheers -K

I know this is an MD forum and people have issues with SS However against my better judgement I looked at one of the newer Sony NWZ A818 type music players --8 GB, nice looking and "ostensibly" drag 'n drop. The software Sony came up with for ripping CD's direct to the music player makes SS seem like the most intelligent piece of software ever. The new Walkman media manager software just SUCKS -- you try and transfer tracks to the device direcly -- get ERROR cannot tranfer track to device. However using SS to rip a CD to MP3 @ 320 kbs works fine -- you can then drag and drop (via Windows explorer) those files from the SS library direct to the music device which actually don't sound too bad at 320 kbs. You also get the album and track info (whether you use ATRAC / WAV or MP3). SS actually isn't that bad these days --however why can't sony make decent software for ripping directly to the device (like Simple Burner does for MD). We shouldn't have to load the music in to a computer library before copying to the device and certainly using the supplied software shouldn't error out on every type of music transfer. I'm still not giving up on my Minidiscs however as I still think even a 256 kbs Atrac file sounds better than the 320 kbs mp3 ripped CD's. AAL is even better - these can be played on the RH1. Cheers -K

A possible solution could be to use a Virtual Windows Machine with Sonic Stage to do your music transfers. Most modern Intel based Macs will run Windows -- either via Bootcamp, parallels, VBOX or Vmware. To use VBOX you'll probably need to instal a Linux\system on your PC but it is FREE -- another freebie is Vmware VMSERVER --but don't go for the latest version (2.0). . -- however of drawback with vmware server 1.x level is that only USB 1.x is supported not the fastest modern usb 2.0. For minidisc audio transfer this is probably not a problem. VBOX and vmware workstation supoort usb 2.0 transfer but vmware workstation costs aound 170 USD. VBOX is free. Cheers -K

Not sure about Parallels but VMWARE virtual machine running XP runs fine (am using SUSE LINUX 10.3 as host system). The other alternative with a MAC is to try BOOTCAMP. BTW if you don't want to spend any money on VMWARE WORKSTATION you can download QEMU for any Linux platform, create a Virtual machine using QEMU specifying the vdmk (VMWARE) format and then use the FREE VMPLAYER to run your Virtual Machine. Just do a bit of googling on QEMU. If you can run any flavour of Linux here's how to create a VM which will work under VMWARE -- no need to spend 200 USD on VMWARE workstation. http://www.linux.com/feature/54411 Cheers -K

Hi all I made a mistake today of buying 2 CD's labelled Hybrid (Plays both CD and SACD). Now Ok on an SACD player these did sound absolutely fantastic but the CD gracenote recognition service couldn't get any CD information for these disks at all Using Simple Burner also failed -- Even on HI-MD SP (on a 80 min MD) I got Media full. These SACD discs are a NIGHTMARE -- unless you have to DO NOT BUY THEM ULESS YOU HAVE A SACD PLAYER. The CD downward compatability of these discs is very suspect. Cheers -K

There is a "Semi-Manual" way to label these (although some decks allow you to enter via a keyboard. First I assume you have your music on an MD whether via Optical In or using a CD==>MD transfer from an older deck. Now you'll need a computer and the original CD's. Start up either Sonic Stage or Simple MD burner . Insert the original CD .Don't do any transfer but get the CD track info via Gracenote. Now in Simple Burner or SS you can EDIT the MD track titles via Cut and Paste. Simple Burner is fine. DO NOT TRANSFER TRACKS -- Simply use the Track labelling facility --this is in TEXT so won't interfere with the SP recording on the MD. Save and your SP MD is now nicely labelled. It won't take too long even for 500 CD's. In SP mode I always only ever copy 1CD to 1MD. These are fine for playing on Decks etc. For music on the move I use RH1 and Hi-MD discs or one of those Sony Cigarette lighter looking players. Cheers -K

The Motorola chargers for the V RAZR type phones work fine with the unit. The Sony Charger doesn't work with the motorola phone - but the motorola charger is so tiny and light that I am happy to use that instead of the Sony one. Also means 1 less piece of kit to carry around. You can normally charge your RH1 as well from a Computers USB slot - even a laptop provided the laptop is powered on at the mains and isn't running on its battery. If you break one of these openrand stick a voltmeter across the ends it's around 4.9 - 5.5 V. You could make a battery case and solder the wires to the + and - parts. Use 4 batteries so you've got 6V to start with. The slight extra voltage won't blow the unit and if you are "paranoid" just add a small piece of circuitry to maximize the voltage at 5V. Cheers -K

I agree that you can certainly get stuff cheaper if you source it on the web. My point here was that if you wanted an RH1 you could pick it up directly without waiting (albeit at a higher price than you could have probably sourced yourself on the web). I know Luxembourg (and Andorra) are cheaper but all I was saying is that the gear IS available in Brussels right now. I'm also not sure whether Customer service has any particular relevance --In over 45 years of buying all sorts of Electronic gizmos I've NEVER had to return anything. The actual point of the post was also to say that supplies of RH1, MD blanks 80 min and MD HI-MD blanks seem still to be readily available in some locations even if the price is higher. Cheers -k

Hi guys Anybody in Brussels and wants an RH1 -- several available in the shopping centre just off Rue du Progres -- near Rogier metro station in the FNAC store. Loads of Hi MD blanks as well (and of course the 80 min stuff --also the Sony coloured variety were available.). I saw at least 5 boxes of RH1's available for sale in this store this evening (31/01 2008). I bought one myself tonight just in case I can't get any more as I intend to go on using the RH1 for a long long time yet. It's nice to have at least 1 backup unit -- I now have 3 - 1 for actual use and 2 backups. The Sony store itself (actually in the Metro station Rogier) also has loads of blank media both Hi-MD and standard 80 min types. So for anybody in Brussels there's still an opportunity to grab an RH1 (and MD media both standard discs and HI-SP). Cheers -k

Provided you haven't set the copy protection or you haven't got any "purchased" music tracks on do the following. 1) use Sonic Stage on the OLD computer to backup your music library to a USB external disk or another hard disk. 2) on the NEW computer RESTORE the library also using Sonic Stage. Note you will need to be connected to the Internet to validate the music library. If you haven't got any purchased music tracks then you won't have any problems. After the validation you can disconnect from the intenet. 3) after restore has completed you can using the tools in SS set the library files to where you did the restore to. Then your library will be fine. Note : IF YOU USE THIS METHOD ANY EXISTING MUSIC LIBRARY ON THE TARGET SYSTEM WILL BE DELETED. This is in caps since I'm not going to be responsible for people losing their music. Cheers -K

Doesn't work for me either. I'm currently connected via Vodafone Mobile Connect in Andorra ==> small independant country on Spanish French border. AFAIK in any case this stuff is only available to the AMAZON USA sites which is a bit of a letdown since the USA was probably the country most instrumental in advocating the whole idea of DRM in the first place --- you know the not invented here syndrome. If you really buy music wth restrictions on where you play it then I have ABSOLUTELY no sympathy for you whatsoever. Would you really buy a book for example with a similar restriction ==> e.g you can buy this book provided you don't read it while travelling by train or plane, or you are not allowed to read it in bed. I don't think so somehow. At least it's good to see that after the initial first generation of people buying music from the internet questions such as how do I transfer my music to a New Device are beginning to be raised. Even IPODS wear out or get stolen. An old fashioned CD allows UNLIMIITED transfers of music AT WHATEVER COMPRESSION (INCLUDING NONE) you like and to whatever device you want to play the music on. Cheers -k