belletristik

For reasons I won't get into here, I am in the unenviable position of being a Vista user, with no other OS options currently available to me. It's a new machine upon which I have installed SonicStage 4.3, as well as the vista drivers from Sony. SonicStage installed without any problems or errors, and works fine for playback and transferring from PC to MD. However, I can't get it to upload anything from a Hi-MD formatted disc to my PC. When I try to do this, the little status area in the upper right corner of the SonicStage window appears, with the message 'preparing to transfer', and then 'loading' while the green progess bar goes all the way across from 0% to 100%. All of this happens within less than one second, and then the status area disappears, the content of the transfer pane (Hi-MD (E:)) is refreshed (without any changes), but no transfer has taken place. The time elapsed from when I click the transfer arrow to the end of the process described above is about one second. Then nothing happens. There is not even an error message and SonicStage doesn't freeze or crash or anything. It just goes back to being idle. It's as if it thinks that the transfer has actually taken place. Meanwhile, the Hi-MD unit itself sits idle throughout. At no point is the disc actually accessed, and no error message appears on its screen. I've tried this with both the RH10 and the DH10P, and always get the same result. Similarly, I have tried this on several discs and with all manner of ATRAC and mp3 files, including downloaded podcasts, files that originate from Simple Burner and others that have been recorded via line and optical inputs on various units. I simply can't get an upload to take place. By the way, in case you were wondering, no the discs are not write protected. I can however upload various data from Hi-MD to PC in Windows Explorer, so it's not a physical problem with the USB cable or port or anything. The only thing that I can think of is that I am still missing drivers somewhere. I've downloaded and run the PA_Driver.exe driver update from Sony, and as far as I can tell the only *.sys files that have been added (to C:\Program Files\Sony\Personal Audio Driver as well as C:\Windows\System32\drivers) are: NETMD031.sys NETMD033.sys NETMD052.sys NETMDUSB.sys Shouldn't there also be some HIMD*.sys files as well? If anyone has a fully-functional SonicStage install running under Vista (does such a thing even exist?), I would appreciate if you could let me know if you have any HIMD*.sys files on your system, and where they are located. Similarly, if anyone has experienced this problem or has any ideas of how it could be solved, I'd love to hear from you. Thanks!

Very cool. Thanks for that. I imported a MD-105FX from Japan almost two years ago, and have been wondering if it would integrate via the RI port with other Onkyo components found here in North America. I'm planning to pick up an Onkyo receiver and CD player next year, and now I know that what I want to with them should work. Cheers. Off-topic: Speaking of the iPod and the Onkyo RI system, have you had any experience with the Onkyo RI dock for iPod? Just curious...

To be able to do live recordings, and then upload them via USB, you'll need one of the portable Hi-MD recorders (as opposed to players or downloaders) listed on this page. Hi-MD is the third-generation MiniDisc specification, and the first and only one to allow digital upload via USB. The R50 that you found on eBay is a first-generation MD recorder.

Here's how I handle podcasts: Ususally whatever podcatching software you use (iTunes, Juice, etc.) will always download all podcasts into the same directory (sometimes organised into sub-folders). In SonicStage, under the file menu, go to import, then scan folder, and then choose the top-level directory into which your podcatcher downloads podcasts. I leave my podcatcher running in the background all the time so that it periodically downloads new podcast episodes when they come out. Then, when I feel like putting a bunch of them onto MD, I simply open up SonicStage, go to import, scan folder (it remembers the folder I last scanned, i.e. the folder where iTunes or other software saves podcasts), and it will automatically import all new podcast episodes into SonicStage. From there, you simply transfer them to MD and Bob's your uncle. The only hitch, of course, is that Hi-MD devices prior to the RH1 don't handle all mp3 sampling rates, so it is sometimes necessary to convert the files to ATRAC. I hope this helps. If you have a more specific question about something in particular that's not working for you, I might be able to address that directly...

For battery life, I would assume that since Hi-LP is reading less data is would be more efficient, but I've never tested this theory. Where sound quality is concerned, I've never really been able to tell them apart, myself. This chart taken from the Hi-MD FAQ claims that they are essentially equivalent, and that they are also the equivalent of the first-generation ATRAC SP mode. I would be curious to have the opinions of the audiophiles out there, or at least those who have decent hearing (which is certainly not my case)...

For those few who might not be aware, Markham is a suburb of Toronto, the self-styled 'centre of the universe'... Onto the business then. These days, I always buy my blanks and hardware at the MiniDisc Canada internet store. Even when the format was reasonably popular in Canada, no one at the Sony Store has ever had a clue. Other than that, if you ever travel to other parts of the country, stores like A&B Sound (all over Western Canada), Advance Electronics (Winnipeg), Layton Audio (Montreal) and another store in Montreal on Mount Royal Avenue whose name escapes me all usually have the latest portable units. Although I've never been, people have always told me that the Pacific Mall was the place to go, so I'm surprised that you didn't find anything.

From the Evening Standard: If this is accurate, I certainly won't be shedding any tears. The full story is available at: http://www.technewsworld.com/story/51786.html

1/2. I've never used the old NetMD software, but everyone seems to say that SonicStage is preferable. I think you are able to avoid check-in/check-out DRM restrictions and I think the software is faster and more stable. 3. Regardless of software, you can't upload to the PC using NetMD hardware. 4. I don't honestly know the answer, but I would doubt that SonicStage is the slower of the two. I would say go get the new SonicStage 4.0.

Now the website is saying they're 'in-store demos'. I'm pretty sure it didn't say that last week...

Well, I keep finding more and more (I'm up to eight now), so I've created a YouTube playlist located here to keep them all together. I especially recommend the Sharp MD-J commerical featuring a Japanese boyband. Outstanding!

Does what it says on the tin: for a YouTube video of a Kenwood car MD deck mounted in a PC drive bay. Here's what he has to say for himself: It's crazy what the kids get up to these days, isn't it? It doesn't really seem to interface with the PC in any way, but it's interesting nonetheless, don't you think?

Does anyone remember the good old days, when you might actually see a MiniDisc advert on the telly? Does it still occur in some parts of the world? The only time I can recall seeing an ad for MD on Canadian television was during the 1996 Olympic Games. Sony bought a tonne of advertising slots on the CBC. I remember a guy hitchhiking in some desolate part of North America. The passing motorists all seemed a bit skeptical, but fortunately he had several thematic MD mixes in his backpack, so he always had some music that would win over the different types of people stopping to pick him up... Outstanding! In all honesty, that may have been the ad that really interested the young lad that I was in the format. That, or its presence in the old Consumers Distributing Catalogue. In any case, I found of couple of classic European Sony MD adverts on my hard drive that I've uploaded to YouTube for the world to enjoy. I've got one that aired in France and another destined for the UK but that never aired as far as I know. There's also this Japanese ad for MDLP (Quicktime) that is hidden away on the mothership. *Update: Here are three more that I just found hiding away on YouTube. Does anyone know of any other classic or contemporary television adverts for MiniDisc floating around on the Internet?

Thanks for the response Jaylen. I sort of feel a responsibility to this friend of mine, as it is I who got him into this whole MD business several years ago. He looks up to me to answer all his MD questions, but I don't really know that much about NetMD. *Update: The deal is now over :-(

Sorry, I posted too soon as I just figured it out. Lift the little latch and push down; couldn't be simpler. Oh, and spend several minutes on your hands and knees searching for the clip because you didn't know what you were doing and didn't expect it to go flying off the remote like that.

Howdy, After realising that North American portable Hi-MD units were not shipping with LCD remotes, unlike the Sharp portable MD units of my boyhood, I decided to import the RM-MC35ELK remote at the same time that I imported my Hi-MD deck. Today I came across the following posts (and found confirmation on the mothership) that suggest that the clip on my remote can be reversed or removed: and Could anyone tell me how this is done? All the printed material that came with the remote is in Japanese and I'm not clever enough to be able to figure this out for myself. Thanks!