Killroy

Hello, Windows explorer and the DOS format command can format a HiMd disc, but the MD unit will report a "Format or Disc error" whenever you insert a such formatted disc, and it will offer you to "format: yes-no" this disc, although the contents are still accessible for Windows. If you choose the wrong option then, your data on the disc will be lost... Another point to consider is the fact, that data on MiniDisc can only be accessed by MiniDisc devices which are less commonly available than CD/DVD-drives, for example. Just because of this, I'd strongly recommend to use a more common format to archive your data. Cheers - Killroy

Hello, I guess, that no one here ever understood this silly restriction :-) However, in SonicStage V3.2 it has been removed! So hurry and migrate to the most recent version 3.3 of SonicStage. It is available from the Sony Connect website as well as the download section of this forum! Cheers - Killroy.

When i was about 20 years old, the only possible way to make copies of my favourite music from vinyl was a cassette tape deck. Analogue copies in realtime, but not that bad however. DAT and MiniDisc have been a geat advantage at this times, with a high boost in sound quality and reliability. In 10 years, when my son will be of that age, it seems like it will be the same for him; history always repeats itself... But to help him out, I'll collect high quality playback and - especially - recording devices like some of our beloved MiniDisc recorders. The more DRM stuff they will add until down to the hardwarel level, the more precious high quality analogue recording devices will become, so handle your MD decks with care :-) Pure accident, that the most popular and high sophisticated "streamline" audio devices like iPod or Creative Zen are NOT capable of high quality, uncompressed analogue-to-digital recording? I rather think, that their designers already included their vision of the future's perfect "pay-per-listen-and-don't-even-think-of-making-copies" media consumer too... (The beyond-future consumer will require an DRM-chip implanted straight into his head to be able to listen to DRM protected music, but that's hopefully still a long way to go...) So, thanks to Sony for still offering affordable Minidisc recorders for advanced consumers who think a little bit about the future! Chhers - Killroy.

Hello, just to add another 2 (Euro-) cents to A440's precious tips, for those who don't already know: to permanently disable Windows AutoPlay for ALL CD-drives, do as follows: > Log in with an administrator account. > Launch the Windows registry editor (Start -> Run -> type in "regedit"). > Locate registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdrom\AutoRun > Open the key with double-click or <enter> and replace the standard value of 1 by 0 (it makes no difference, if you specify THIS value in binary or hex- format ;-)) > Close the key edit box and the registry editor - almost done. > The change will take effect after the next reboot (that's Windows...) Cheers - Killroy.

Hello, there is no way to edit a downloaded track on the unit - it would give you the opportiunity to apply insignificant changes to it, and thus change it to become a "new" track which could then be uploaded again to Sonic Stage. This would tamper Sony's DRM scheme and is not allowed therefore. To solve your problem, you can record your CD digitally through the optical line-in, if you have either a CD-player or computer with digital optical line out available (in real time only, of course). The tracks you get on the MD this way, can then be edited and so you can simly cut out the parts of digital silence. Alternatively, you may rip your CD to .WAV (with db poweramp for example) and edit the tracks in question with an audio editor like Audacity. The resulting .WAV-tracks can then be imported to Sonic Stage and transferred to your MD. Cheers - Killroy.

Hi, possible, that the LAN you connect to is a private one and shielded through a firewall outside your computer? In this case, you should check SonicStage's proxy settings (you find them somewhere unter the 'Extras' - 'Options' - menus). In my case, the new install of SS 3.3 over SS 3.2 did NOT preserve the proxy settings I've made in the previous version! Cheers - Killroy.

Hello, I've tried yesterday and yes, it works on my NH600. But I have to admit that I can hardly hear any difference to Hi-SP@256k - but this is probably because I'm already in the fourties+ :-) Just too bad, that the device cannot record at this bitrate too :-( Cheers - Killroy.

To be honest, I noticed this behaviour when I tried to "Export as WAV" a track with SonicStage. I wanted to store the WAV straight back to the disc I uploaded it from before, but the unit simply did not show up in the file selection list... Cheers - Killroy.

Hello, additionally, Windows will not show your MD-unit in any Explorer window as long as SonicStage or MD Simple Burner are running and accessing the device concurrently; Cheers - Killroy.

Hello, my 2 (Euro-) cents to the wishlist: * Make the ENTER/PLAYBACK (>) - key function as pause (!!) key too when in playback mode. This will be helpful for people who frequently quick-scan large contiguous recordings, since really fast forward (time shift) works in pause mode only. This way all necessary steps could be done with a single key. * Add a menu button or reverse the functions of the navi/menu key. In my mind, it's rather boring to always have to wait 2 seconds to enter the menu, and I think most people use the menu far more often then the navi-function (I have to admit that I don't know if it still works that way on the 2nd gen units). * A reader slot and copy function for the most commonly used flash memory card types would make a HiMD-unit a perfect backup storage device for digital photographers! * A timer function for unattended recordings should not cost the world to implement. * The disc format function should issue an additional warning in case the disc contains 'invisible' computer data too. * I repeat many others here - but with intention: even the cheapest and most basic cell phones have a backlight for display and function keys that lights up automatically whenever you hit any key. This high sophisticated technology should already be matured and relaible now, so that Sony could apply it almost riskless to MD-units without OLED-display too. * Bluetooth and/or WLAN connectivity, as well as an USB input jack (for memory card readers or digicams for example) would make some of my most hidden dreams come true, but maybe, that would be a really hard challenge from the technical point of view - if not impossible at all. Cheers - Killroy.

Hello, I just wonder, why Sony did not achieve to put a more durable coating to the MD-units (or at least their displays) since they should have a lot of experience in doing so on cell phones, CDs, DVDs and other stuff they produce as well... If the MD-unit's surfaces were just half as tough as their implemented DRM-stuff :-) Cheers - Killroy.

Hello, What's still not clear to me: did SonicStage succeed in uploading the tracks at the first time? If yes, then they ARE in the SonicStage library and you can re-download them to your disc from there. And no, the .HMA files on the disc are of no use for you. Although they contain all the tracks and associated information, they are part of a proprietary file system that is accessible only by the unit itself and SonicStage. Even if you just copy this files to your computer and then back to the disc, the disc becomes unusable and you have to format it! Cheers - Killroy.

Hi, I'm sorry for you, but in this case the disc seems to be really lost - looks like SonicStage wrote an erroneous or incomplete TOC (aka "System File") to disc during upload (and it updates the TOC just before it really starts uploading any tracks, so that you cannot even think of byassing the wonderful DRM by interrupting the upload process at the right time). However, since you did nothing weird with your equipment (as I assume), maybe it would be worth it to return unit and disc to your vendor and ask him to resolve the problem. Cheers - Killroy.

Hi, I guess, you did some editing on the unit before upload (setting/deleting trackmarks, moving or erasing tracks etc.)? Well, some HiMD-units have a firmware bug that may leave disc in bad condition after you've done such things! This is documented in various threads here. However, at this point, do NOT allow the unit to format your disc now - press the STOP/CANCEL-key after inserting the damaged disc when the unit asks you to confirm the format! Usually, the most of the disc's contents is still readable for SonicStage, so you may save your recordings this way: Playback the tracks in SS and record them simultaneously from the computer's soundcard (at least analoguous, or even digitally if you have a capable soundcard and a tool like TotalRecorder available). Be careful and do not try to upload already uploaded tracks, since SonicStage will delete them from the disc without prior warning! Cheers - Killroy.

Hello, as a last resort, you could try to enhance the transferred recordings with an audio editor like Audacity. This one has some useful rendering tools (fine-adjustable equalizer, noise reduction/removal, dynamic range compressor) which might enable you to make it a little better at least... Cheers - Killroy.

Hi, You're right, deleting a trackmark = combining two tracks. Period. What I rather meant here was combining two tracks after a gap was created betrween them by erasing or moving things out before. However, I agree to close this discussion, except the part that I cannot promise to not complain as soon as I experience the first problem with my methods too - just to warn the others :-) Cheers - Killroy.

Hello, as I mentioned in the last sentence: my own experiences are not the complete experiences there are... I frequently record radio broadcasts at night with time mark set to 3 minutes and delete the timer trackmarks out of pieces I want to upload to SonicStage then - without any problems by now... In fact, I really never combine tracks during edit, so that may be the source of problems indeed-? Cheers - Killroy.

Hi, according to my experiences, this bug does only apply if you try to combine different recordings (i.e. "record" was stopped and the "system file" (TOC) was written to disc in between) by deleting the trackmark which separates them. Within any contiguous recording, where trackmarks were only set by auto track mark, time mark or even manually with the T.MARK.-key, I never experienced any problems after removing some or all of this kind of trackmarks! However, my own experiences are not the total experiences of mankind, of course :-) Cheers - Killroy.

Hello, its not a big deal also, to delete unwanted trackmarks after recording: just playback tha first track, enter pause mode, skip to the next trackmark with FF (>>) and press the T.MARK/REC-key to remove it and repeat the FF/T.MARK/REC. -sequence until only track 01 remains. Cheers - Killroy

Hello, sorry to correct you here, but digital line-in recordings CAN be uploaded to PC as well, although they are not exportable to .WAV by SonicStage 3.x or the Wave Conversion Tool afterwards. Cheers - Killroy.

Hi Volta, thanx a bunch for trying it out on your unit and confirming, that it works with it too! I apologize that pure accident forced you to listen to your favourite music - the next time I will try to find out a trick how to bypass a DVD recorder's copy protection, so that you can at least look at Shakira while funneling with the device. Even if you don't like her music - I guess that watching her is still a pleasure :-)) Now I hope, one of the MDCF moderators will find this trick so useful that he will add it to the pinned Upload Instructions Topic in the Live Recording Forum...? Cheers - Killroy.

Hello, maybe, this procedure offers exactly what you are looking for? (In case you did not already smash your MD unit as you announced in this thread :-)) Cheers - Killroy.

Sorry, but this does not work! You may start playback of a SP/LP2/LP4 track in SonicStage, but NO SOUND will be passed to the computer's sound system! Cheers - Killroy.

LupinIV, I swear that I was not aware of this thread before, but indeed it MUST be the same bug that I detected independently. I only wonder that nobody found out earlier how to use it as a feature! After having read this thread, I'm rather convinced now that my method will work with almost any 1st gen HiMD unit - and I'm just a little disappointed because this useful bug seems not to be available anymore with the 2nd gen ones :-)) Cherrs - Killroy.

Hello, I agree, that this method might be of most interest for those users who make actual live recordings (perhaps I should have posted it better to the Live Recording forum then?), because I assume that their unique and unrepeatable recording originals that were sometimes made under really hard conditions (in "stealth" mode and so on) become some kind of precious jewellery to them. And yes, they want to upload their recordings and burn CDs out of it, but they do not really want a thing like SonicStage to put their jewels into a sealed container which does not allow even their owner to touch and change them anymore afterwards. For those people, this might be an opportunity to upload things AND preserve the original as it was as well. I did not test it with 80 min blanks since I do not buy them - 50% more money for not even 7% more capacity does not convince me - but I see no reason why it should not work with them as well, since the only difference to 74 min media is, that the tracks are slightly closer together (afaik). I'm also almost convinced that it will work on other units too, because the used editing functions are common to all of the units and so, most probably, the described bug will be that common too :-) And, of course, the procedure will also work on a disc that already contains some recordings - I only proposed to use a blank disc for initial testing because the risk of rendering the disc unusable IS there and - although not very probable as stated above - it is still possible that it does NOT work on units other than the NH600 (or even just mine alone) until appproved and confirmed by other members. So thanks to you in advance for being willing to test it with your unit anyways - I'm already very curious about your results!! Cheers - Killroy.