tommypeters

I guess the problem is there, it wants a Hi-MD with a Hi-MD formatted disc...

Here in Sweden the shops that before stocked ten different models from Sony and Sharp, now have one or maybe two models. Those who had a few models before now don't sell them at all. The NH600 initially cost 2800SEK, last week it was 495SEK. According to a research company almost 550,000 MP3 players were sold in Seden during 2004, 75,000 of the HD based. In 2005 that will be over 700,000. MiniDisc no longer has a category in there. I think that MD will go down to a pretty stable level and can stay there almost forever, but I'm not sure Sony is going to continue with MD if it's going to be like that. It might give them a bad image, and Sony anyway sell both flash and HD players so they are competing with themselves...

You would want to anyway, without a brother, since you would be very vulnerable otherwise since the backup routine is clumsy on restoration on another machine usually doesn't work.

It also depends on the laws in the country what standards a manufacturer has to follow. They often try to bully you, but if you know the consumer laws you may have the rights on your side. Otherwise, try to lead it into a situation interesting for the papers or consumer programs on TV and you may suddenly have a barand new players, some extra blanks, and an excuse...

It's not that you're on XP/2k and not logged in as admin?

The question that started the thread wasn't "Is Hi-MD quality detoriating" but rather " Is Hi-MD on the way out?"...

With DRM they have never really had the chance.

The installation program is at least very poorly written. In the "Dark Ages" of Windows computers it was common here in Sweden to get to folder C:\Program automatically opened when you booted up your computer. We use C:\Program here as default instead of "C:\Program Files", however some years back badly written installation programs forgot the "" around the path. And they wanted to be installed in Program Files. Instead of the program "C:\Program Files\xyzdriver.exe" being executed at startup, C:\Program was executed - which resulted in that folder being opened at startup. This hasn't happened for years now. Except for when I'm installing SonicStage. It's easy to fix, but anyway... I have tried to email Sony Sweden, but they have secret email addresses for support and all other functions. Their web site only gives info@sony.se, but email to that address bounced.

Well, as I wrote, it's not as practical as using two portables that can be placed almost anywhere and serviced by me while I sit by the computer. But it's the best possible solution for me, and I will start with the most valuable recordings and then add some more "as time goes by".

OK, it's the JB-940 then Not as practical since it's in the living room. Or otherwise analog copy. Record to PCM, upload to PC, convert WAV to FLAC, archive on DVD.

Yes, so it was Recordings made using optical-in on a Hi-MD can be uploaded to PC, but not converted to WAV? Analog recordings can both be uploaded and converted? Then an optical cable would be fine for me between my N910 and NH600, the stuff is safely still on the original disc and also on a Hi-MD and can be transferred to PC. Can these "unconvertable" tracks also be backed up on a DVD without making the old "SonicStage all or nothing" backup?

No, that wasn't cheap, more expensive than this shop here in Stockholm: http://www.larsbengtsson.se/produkter/63/64/1011/ 70SEK = €7,32 = 55DKK, if you buy ten they will each be 63SEK = €6,59 = 49,50DKK (prices including VAT) They will also sell over the net, but the information says nothing about if it's only inside Sweden or not.

You can record DTS 5.1 on a CD and play it on a normal CD player that knows nothing about DTS, it's just 16/44,1 PCM of static noise, But if you connect it to an amplifier/reciever with DTS decoding you suddenly have 5.1 DTS sound. So the same track would be possible to record as uncompressed PCM on a Hi-MD and played through Toslink (for example) through something with a DTS decoder.

OK, that's a good reason But what I asked was if it was possible to use a Hi-MD player to upload the data, but maybe their HW can't handle that either from a legacy MD?

As I have understood it, if you transfer analog between the players you will then be able to upload to PC from your Hi-MD with newest version of SonicStage, if you transfer optical you will not.

No, don't quote that out of context... Looks like I wasn't clear, but it won't be more clear if you leave out important stuff I wrote: "I can only find two plausible reasons for Sony not allowing this: 1) SonicStage is written so it would be major coding work to add the possibility to upload from a non-FAT formatted minidisc, which they're not going to do. 2) The original MD doesn't write info on how they were recorded, upload to PC were never thought of. SonicStage can't know if the tracks are "safe" to upload or digitally recorded. This would hurt their massive pre-recorded Minidisc sales..." ...which means these are not factual statements but merely guesswork. I think Sony would have sold more NetMD players if SonicStage hadn't been such a rotten program and had so many restrictions. I think they now would sell some more Hi-MD players if they actually helped people move their stuff over from their original MD disks to new Hi-MD disks. The reasons I can find for this (apart from stupidity, but that's always a plausible reason when Sony is involved) are the two listed. I don't know if it's hard to allow upload from an MD disk (new routine because of different disc format?) or if it's just to set "AllowLegacyUpload=True". And I don't know if any info about if the source was analog or not is saved on an original MD disk. I guess I used too few question marks... So, does anyone have any information (or more guesses) on why legacy upload of analog recordings still isn't possible in SonicStage 3.2?????????????????

What I mean is that Sonicstage allows your analog recordings to be uploaded to PC from your Hi-MD (FAT) formatted disk. Not only once, but indefinite. They rightly feel they can do this without creating a Piracy Heaven, but lets users play their own recordings on more than one of their computers - and outside SonicStage. They could make SonicStage so it allows upload of the music from an original MD, but if they want they could check that a HiMD player is used. What the user then could do is consolidate several old MD's to a Hi-MD disc, possibility to convert to WAV isn't necessary. These old MD's could then be reformatted to 300+MB size. I can only find two plausible reasons for Sony not allowing this: 1) SonicStage is written so it would be major coding work to add the possibility to upload from a non-FAT formatted minidisc, which they're not going to do. 2) The original MD doesn't write info on how they were recorded, upload to PC were never thought of. SonicStage can't know if the tracks are "safe" to upload or digitally recorded. This would hurt their massive pre-recorded Minidisc sales...

Does the NetMD not write source info on the disc, or why would they never allow upload of analogue recorded material from an MD when they now do from Hi-MD?

I guess the 800 is a better value, they sold the 600 dirt cheap here in Sweden last week (AUD 82) but the 800 has not been on sale...

Well, 56MB RAM is a strange number... It may be 64MB with 8MB used for shared graphics memory, but I have never seen it listed like that. RAM Sizes are usually 48, 64 or 128MB on older computers and 256, 512 or 1024MB on newer. I don't think 56MB RAM can possibly handle the necessary SW for a minidisc.

Is it still no go for analog recorded NetMD disks? We have several MD's either recorded on a JB940 through analogue in or on a N710 using a microphone. None of the recordings have come close to a computer... Is it impossible to MOVE the recordings from MD-->PC-->HiMD (through USB) , or is it just impossible to COPY them that path (and still have them on the original MD)? Or is this possible in 3.2?

Since I don't care for mp3 and only start from CD source it was a no-brainer for me to buy a (or two) 600 at SEK 495/each...