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!

A friend of mine has just pointed out to me that The Source in Canada are clearing out MZ-NE410 NetMD downloaders for only CAD 29.99, with free shipping in Canada. He wants to get one so he can title his collection of SP and MDLP discs (recorded on another unit) in a less tedious manner. Is it possible to keyboard-title (yes, it is a verb!) SP and MDLP discs using NetMD, like you can in the transfer window in SonicStage with a Hi-MD device? I would expect the answer to be an obvious yes, but I haven't been able to find a definite answer going through the old posts here, and all I found reading the manual was information on titling in SonicStage and then transfering over, but nothing about titling directly on the disc itself. When I've got a legacy disc in my Hi-MD unit, SonicStage reverts to NetMD mode and allows me to title without any problems. This is how a NetMD device would work too, right? Also, can one use old(er) NetMD units with SonicStage 3.4? Thanks! (Please pardon my NetMD ignorance; I jumped straight from MDLP to Hi-MD without ever having used NetMD)

SonicStage 3.4 is recommended and can be found right here on this very website. Watch out for SonicStage CP (4.0) coming out later this month.

In the chart the diagonal lines are meant to indicate equivalence. So the chart (authored by Sony when Hi-MD was launched) is indicating that Hi-LP is equivalent in quality to SP 292Kbps ca. 1992 (see here for more details). I'm not saying it's true, but I was wondering what others thought. If that is the case, why bother to develop ATRAC3+ 256Kbps if it is no better than ATRAC 292Kbps? They might as well have just released ATRAC @ 256Kbps and saved themselves the trouble of developping a new codec, non? I think there is something to the chart. I think that ATRAC3+ did bring some improved efficiencies to the table. I don't think Hi-LP sounds as good as the SP I was listening to in the late 90s (I wasn't around in 1992), but to my ears I think it sounds as good as ATRAC3 132Kbps (LP2) and Hi-SP sounds at least as good as late 90s SP 292Kbps. Again, all of this comes with my standard 'I ain't no fancy audiophile or nuthin' disclaimer. :-)

There doesn't seem to be a lot of data yet. The RH1 hasn't existed in the public domain for very long, and Google Trends works only with trends and proportions and doesn't give any absolute numbers. So you can see that interest is spiking now, but only relative to the fact that it didn't exist in the popular imagination only two months ago. It doesn't show us exactly how many people are searching for it, just that more are searching for it now than were when it didn't exist ;-) Over time trends will emerge, and it could be compared against other models, but for now there's not too much to look at. It's currently more popular than the RH-10 at any rate... Google Trends results: RH1 MZ-RH1 RH1 & MZ-RH1 MZ-RH10 vs. MZ-RH1

To transfer from MD to PC using USB you must use SonicStage, and you must be using a Hi-MD device. Additionally, if your songs are not on a Hi-MD formatted disc, you can only use the newly released MZ-RH1 to be able to transfer them to your PC. Your only other option is line out on your MD unit to line in on your PC soundcard, using some sort of sound recording software. Time consuming, tedious and most likely not digital (unless you've got the unlikely combination of optical out MD and optical in soundcard, and even then SCMS will probably prevent you).

So I've been using the new Google Trends service to see where the most Google searches for MiniDisc originate. The rankings are based on the number of Google searches for a given term relative to the total number of searches from that city or country (using IP address analysis). It would seem that Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, searches for minidisc more than any other city on earth. Having cracked the German Enigma Code at Bletchley Park, I suppose it is logical that they should be on the cutting edge of technology :-) Actually, what I didn't know is that the Milton Keynes area today is a 'purpose-built, high technology city' (Wikipedia), so it all makes sense. Where Hi-MD is concerned, it would seem that Chiyoda, Osaka and Tokyo lead the way with number of searches as a proportion of total Google searches. The helpful charts that Google Trends produces shows us that interest in Hi-MD seems to have peaked in 2004 and that both the MiniDisc and Hi-MD trends seem to be headed in the wrong direction. :-( It is also possible to break it down by country or linguistic community. For example, the UK and Ireland search the most for MiniDisc, while Japan searches the most for Hi-MD. Additionally, you can compare the volume of MiniDisc vs. Hi-MD searches, but I don't recommend comparing them against iPod search volumes. You'll find that even in Japan the number of MiniDisc searches is almost insignificant when compared to iPod searches. How accurate Google's geographic analysis of IP addresses is and what this tells us about MiniDisc I couldn't say, but there are worse ways to kill off the dying hours of a lazy Sunday ;-)

After losing touch with the MD scene for a few years I decided to upgrade from MDLP to Hi-MD about a year ago (I completely missed that whole NetMD thing). While trying to figure out just what Hi-MD was and how the bitrates compared, I came across this chart. I'm not an audiophile and I couldn't tell you how accurate it is, but it suits my purposes to believe it. Would the group agree that Hi-LP is as good as 1992's SP? Returning to the topic at hand, my bitrate selection system has evolved as follows: *Old skool MD: All music in SP and all speech in mono. *MDLP: Classical music in SP, pop music in LP2 and speech in LP4. *Hi-MD: Classical music in Hi-SP and both pop music and speech in Hi-LP. Sometimes I downconvert speech from Hi-LP to ATRAC3+ 48Kbps to squeeze all the episodes of a long-running BBC radio series onto a single disc.

Me too! I picked one up as a collector's item, but since it arrived on Thursday it's pretty well supplanted my RH10 in daily use. Simply too much fun. I love how when I'm listening to a ninety minute podcast on the go and stop to take a picture, it remembers where I was in the podcast after I've taken the photo. Very handy indeed!

It should be possible. I've never used this particular machine, but it was possible with every portable Sharp MD recorder that I've ever used.

I bought the MD-105FX from Audiocubes and it works great. The shipping from Japan to the centre of Canada was quick too (less than a week). Also, if you don't live in Japan, they throw in the appropriate voltage converter for your country at no additional cost.