samplehunter

So let's resume: There are units which store all the data with encryption in one single file There's virtually no way to "log on" to the unit to bypass SS and get the decrypted data directly from disc This all was done due to DRM reasons. Now SS3.4 allows you to upload any Track from the disc, even already transferred tracks, unlimited times. Well, sony, wouldnt it have been cheaper without the whole DRM crap at all? Why not simply storing the files as FILES on the disc (unencrypted)? This would even make disc backups possible and would enable Mac and even Linux users to use ALL features of the HiMD. they would just need the codecs. Ok, the Hardware was built before the great change of Sonys DRM Policies So, lets think about firmware upgrades via usb... But thanks although for finally understanding the users wishes.

If you have a NetMD recorder, it won't even have the code in the firmware to upload atrac data over usb. If you have a HiMD unit, it MIGHT be possible to hack it, that it transfers a track "accidentally" but the resulting file will be useless if it is a SP track since the Atrac1 (SP) codec does not exist in software. There is not one single SP Codec available. the initial Atrac algorithm seems to be one of the most protected secrets at sony. I think, they used a few patents from others for this algorithm and have only a licence to use it in hardware. the later algos (Atrac3/3+) might be completely invented by sony and therefore they can deliver software codecs for this. So a transfer of a LP2/4 Track MIGHT be possible. But sony wants to sell their new HiMD units...

i think mp3 frames are normally filled up with zeros or junk data to match sector size better or to be more compatible when used as live stream. But it's not necessary. some mp3 encoders allow you to save just the raw stream without these fillings. i suppose that if you upload a transferred mp3, transfer it to the unit and back to the pc the size will not decrease further. Otherwise they must drop some of the actual mpeg data and then the signal would not be identical anymore. btw are there any audio demos of the "bad" mp3 playback quality available here?

I think it's possible to re-upload the mp3s from the unit to the pc, right? If not, you couldn't haave done crc checks on both versions :-) ok, to check if the data itself differs you can do the following: decompress 1.mp3 to 1.WAV transfer it to the unit and back to the pc as 2.mp3 check, if 1.mp3 and 2.mp3 have exactly the same bytesize decompress 2.mp3 to 2.WAV in an audio editor you can now substract one file from the other. (invert the phase of one file and mix them) If they are identical, there will be nothing left but silence. else you'll get (hear) the difference. This would be unlikely because then the file must have been transcoded which costs cpu power. IF the decompressed files are identical, the mp3s may differ only in the kind of padding the data or different flag bits like "original" or "pre emphasis". mp3s can store the frames either with no padding at all or with iso compatible or cd-rom compatible padding. You can also try: transfer a mp3 with ID3v1 or v2 tag. does it have the tag after transfer back? transfer one without any tags. give it a title on the md. does it have a tag after transfer back?

This "Conversion" to pcm isn't really one if you use uncompressed WAV files. There is a Header at the beginning which is lost at DL and reconstructed at UL. Try saving a WAV with additional Chunks with META-Data or Sampler Infos like Loop-Points or Cuelists etc. You can do this with e.g. CoolEdit. If you transfer the File and get it back to convert to wav again, I'm sure you will lose the Meta-Data and therefor get a different Hash. Maybe mp3s are re-padded, or the ID3 Tags are stripped out before transfer. So the file might be physically different after back transfer even if they contain the same mpeg stream.

I have a nh900 which was euro capped too. I first set it also to the Hongkong Setting (25) but got problems in sonic stage with titling. I officially had an Hongkong MD unit with a european disc inserted (because the disc label and the track titles were set before the mod) and a US-Sonicstage. Then I set it to the US Settings (21 for nh900) without these Problems. I recommend the US settings because it seems to use the same character set as the european setting. The Hongkong setting seems to enable Kanji input which causes the non-Japanese Sonic Stage to "protect" the titles. But due to annoying Menu and Stop Button Problems i may have to "re-europize" the unit for the Support...

how did you get this odd "line numbers" or sectors? this seems to be the beginning of the visible "partition" of the HiMD. You can read it just with a disk editor like dskprobe. This is logical sector 0. Or have you managed to read physical sectors? Then the range 0-00D35D4 would be quite interesting...

You're right, it will take ages (at least with the defrag tool from win2k). So here's my way to defrag a HiMD / MD in HiMD mode: (Works at best with disks containing only music. with additional PC Files it will take longer) -Start defrag, but press "check" instead of "defrag". You will see if defragmentation is necessary. -Move the ATDATAxx.HMA (the big file in HIMDHIFI) from MD to the harddisk -if you have additional files on the MD, it's a good idea to move them also. -defrag the remaining files (They are small, it should take only a few minutes) -move the additional files back to the disk (if there were some) -At last, move the ATDATAxx.HMA from the Harddisk back to the MD. The file will now be on the MD in one single Fragment and hopefully at the end of the disk. Defragmentation is usually caused when you erase a track in the middle. CAUTION: If the big file is once moved to the HD, don't disconnect the unit until you have moved or copied it back to MD. Otherwise the unit tries to read the MD in "music mode", will fail to find it's HMA file and will probably ask you to format the Disk or will generate new keys, which makes the file unusable. If you do it exactly this way, the disk should be playable anymore. I've tested it with a not so important disk and it worked very well for me. It even works if the File is bigger than half the size of the disk. In this case the defrag tool won't even touch the file. So at last we CAN get a defragged version of our recordings saving battery power. Something we missed sometimes often the old MDs.

i have just tried but unfortunately this allows me not to batch-convert (which is faster than convert>wait for unit>transfer>wait for unit>convert>...) and then transfer a bunch of files. if i do batch convert before a transfer, the oma files will remain on disk. then i have to right click every file, go to properties, select the atrac file and press the delete button - for EVERY f**ing single file. The old menu was much more intelligent here. It was good, so why did they remove this? instead we get an annoying, un-turn off-able jingle after each transfer.

... which is quite silly because the same content on a CD could be easily transferred. another problem is that there is no legacy atrac codec on the pc. I think sony has never written a software codec for this. there was a modificated MDH-10 data drive which was able to grab and to put atrac data on a md but it cost about $10000 (the mod with the software). It was meant for rather professional use...

Some annoying changes were done in SS 3.2 I have no option to delete only the oma converted file anymore! I had SS 2.2 before and used to import wav or mp3 files into an album and converted it at a bunch and then transferred it to my nh900. After that I deleted this .oma-crap from the pc. don't want to store everything twice. I marked the entries in the album and pressed delete which brought up a nice menu where you could choose to delete the entries only or to delete also the pysical files. If you checked "delete files from disk" you had the choice to delete converted files (omg/oma) or to delete the original file too. With SS 3.2 you have only the choice to remove only the title from database or to delete "the file". As we all know, sony has much fun in deleting something and therefore "the file" means ALL versions of the file including the original. Is there any way to change this behaviour to the old style? I want to delete the converted files after transferring because i have no use for them but logically I want to behold my original files. The second thing which is quite annoying is this sound which is played after a transfer and there seems to be no option in the preferences to turn it off.

try to play a HiMD via usb in sonicstage when connected to the pc. if there are no dropouts then, the problem could be the remote cable or the headphones. if there are dropouts too, it will most likely be the unit. I luckily hadn't this problem yet with my nh900. It seems that sony made far better units in the past. my mz-r30 doesn't have one single software or hardware problem but the firmware of the new models seem to be programmed quick and dirty...

Hmm, could it be the reason, that Sony Music was bought by BMG ? Or is it the new Sony Boss? They seem to cancel more and more of their silly restrictions. at last they will release firmware upgrades for the first gen Hi-MDs

It depends on the signal (and if you encode it in your unit or with the pc i think) when i got my nh900 i wanted to test all possible codecs, so I've downloaded these EBU Test-Signals somewhere linked at minidisc.org . These EBU Tests are instrument and speech samples with which you can test a codec e.g. as a developer. The speech sample sounded VERY different to the original in Hi-SP with the PC. It sound somewhat grainy or so. It even sounded better in Hi-LP. the heaviest thing seems to be the Harpsichord sample. It was clearly different from the source with all codecs (Hi-SP/LP, LP2, LP4) i've tested. But on the other side I recorded a Concert via Line-In in Hi-SP and this recording had an excellent quality. But these test signals were carefully sorted to stress a lossy audio codec as much as possible and the Hi-SP encoding in the unit seems a bit better than the codec on the pc.

This was the first thing we all have tried i think. The files are changed indeed. Bit this doesn't really help. Just do the following: record some audio, make an image of the disk, transfer the file, restore the old image to the disk. It's now unplayable! There are kind of two partitions on the disk. One for the user data which is FAT formatted and shown as a removable drive. And [mystic sounds here] THE OTHER! The "dark side" of your HiMD. It's where the Content keys and the storage keys and other system data is stored. This part is not accessible from the pc. this part is maintained by the unit only i think. you can request a session key and a content key to encrypt atrac or pcm data to send it to the unit. So if you transfer something to the pc, there is something changed in the protected area and a flag in the file. If you restore the old image of the user area the checksums/keys/whatever wont match anymore and it cannot be played. I think it works as follows: You have to log in to the unit and request new keys which are used to decrypt the data from the usb. i think it's the unit that marks these tracks as transferred. So the second time the function will fail. the only thing you can do unlimited times is requesting to stream a track as pcm in realtime. this is encrypted too, but as it is not the original file there is a virtual content key generated which enables Sonicstage to "play" the HiMD via the soundcard. So we first have to do authentification to the unit: -Request a key or passphrase from the unit. -send the right answer to this phrase to the unit. -the unit recognizes you as a valid application and sends a session key. This would be the most difficult part. You'll have to find out where and how the authentification process is done in sonicstage.(Any success with debugging yet?) all further keys transferred from and to the unit are encrypted with this session key. To read a file, the unit sends the encrypted content key which you can use to decrypt the data. the 1:1 transfer of a file would still be possible only once. alternatively you can request (with another command) a pcm stream of a track. you get the valid content key for THIS stream, not for the file. If the track was recorded in pcm this doesn't matter, because it will be a "pcm->pcm" conversion which is identical. an atrac file would be first decoded to pcm. Unfortunately this is done only in realtime i think. If this is wrong and faster speeds are possible this would be interesting nevertheless. Otherwise Total recorder would be much easier to use. BTW: is there a freeware alternative to Total recorder?