belletristik

Using the RH10 for playback: *An old SP mode disc recorded on my MD-X5 toggles between the recording mode and 99y06m16d04:51PM in the properties display of the first track. *A Hi-MD disc recorded on my MD-105FX deck (no clock) shows no stamp at all in the track properties, not even 01y01m01d12:01AM. It just shows the recording mode. *Hi-MD mode discs filled with USB transfered tracks (from Simple Burner to the RH10) show no stamp at all in the track properties, not even the time on the PC at time of transfer. It just shows the recording mode. *Several MP3 podcasts transfered via SonicStage to a Hi-MD mode disc show 06y01m01d12:00AM, some show 05y01m01d12:00AM and some show nothing at all. As if the MP3 file had only the year info for some tracks, and no info for others. *A track I just recorded directly to Hi-MD using the RH10 is not showing any date/time info at all in the properties display, not even 01y01m01d12:00AM. I suppose it displays what information it has, and fills in any missing months or days by 01 and any missing times by 12:00AM. If it has no time/date information at all it doesn't show anything (?). Why you should have seen 01y01m01d12:01AM if the RH10 didn't have any info I couldn't say. Mine doesn't seem to do that. The newly released RH1 seems to have a date/time feature. I wonder if this is just a 'read time/date where available' feature or whether it actually has an integrated clock...

I'm pretty sure that it is indicating when the track was recorded, but as far as I know the RH10 doesn't have a clock, so it just puts Jan 1 in the absence of any real data. However, if you have a disc recorded using a device thast does have a clock (like my old MD-X5) the RH10 can display the real time/date stamp. Unfortunately I don't have any such discs on me at the moment, but I'll check when I get home tonight if no one else has come up with anything definite.

Only Hi-MD can be used as a USB mass storage device in Windows XP, to read and write data like any other drive listed in My Computer. NetMD only allows transfers to the device (not from), and only ATRAC music files, and only using the Sony software.

As I write this the current Amazon price is USD 237.99, but MiniDisc Canada is selling it for CAD 250 (or USD 215.90 according to their own currency converter): MZ-DH10P on MiniDisc Canada I just bought one to add to the collection :-) Another good Canadian MD-related buy that I've found recently are these super nice 20 MD storage boxes from Best Buy & Future Shop. They've got a super-smooth spring-loaded push-button drawer ejection mechanism that really floats my boat ;-) Also, they're very sturdy and well-made, with rubber feet and a weighted base so that if you've got one on the edge of a shelf with the drawer full of MDs ejected into open space the whole thing won't tip over. Best Buy and Future Shop have been clearing them out for CAD 1.99 for the past few months. Just type webID no. 10041955 into the search on either bestbuy.ca or futureshop.ca and it should come up. Very often the website is sold out, but they usually have some knocking about in a dusty corner of your local shop. But you've got to have the webID number to give the young kid working there to lookup in the computer because he's never heard of MiniDisc (what are they teaching kids at school these days anyway?) and doesn't know where they keep the storage boxes. Cheers!

I don't use the optical input on my RH-10 as much as I did on previous units (all CD to MD operations now done using Simple Burner), but I still use it quite frequently to record internet radio streams from my PC's optical output. For me it's still an essential feature. I wonder though just what proportion of Hi-MD users have any use at all for the optical input... alrose312: I was wondering, what turntable is that? I had no idea that you can get one with SPDIF out. I was born just a bit too late to know anything about turntables and the like, but I am planning to get one soon. There's just too much good music that can only be found on old vinyl.

Thanks for confirming my worst suspicions! If the author of HiMD-Xtract says there is currently no solution, that's about as authoritative as you can get. As you suggest, I will retain the disc and hope that something will come along one day. I'm pretty sure that SonicStage was the problem here as I've never had this happen before while editing directly on the RH10 (or any other MD or MDLP unit for that matter). I can't say that I'm terribly impressed with my first experience using Sony software (I skipped from MDLP to Hi-MD without experiencing Net-MD). *sigh*

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately Hi-MD Renderer 0.52 gives me the error message 'Cannot connect to a Sony OMG/OMA filter'. It says that it can't do anything with a file if it is not playable in SonicStage, and it is true that the files extracted from my Hi-MD disc (via Hi-MD Xtract or Hi-MD Renderer) are not playable in SonicStage. And of course the disc itself is neither recognised by my RH10 nor SonicStage 3.3. I guess what it boils down to is this: all of the ATRAC data is still present on the disc and I have the ability to create OMA files on my PC using this ATRAC data. I don't have the ability to convert the OMA files to any other format. Is there any other software that will play back ATRAC Hi-LP data, one that ignores DRM? Thanks again for any help anyone may be able to provide.

Hello All, My first post in this forum is, alas, a desperate plea for help. After seven years using MD, I finally find myself with a disc full of audio that I cannot play. Here's what happened: I have about 20 hours of a favourite radio programme recorded to a Hi-MD disc in Hi-LP directly via the optical input of my RH10. While titling the tracks and arranging their order this past weekend using SonicStage 3.3, all of a sudden the Hi-MD window went blank. As far as SonicStage is concerned, there is no longer any audio on the disc. When I try to play the disc using my RH10 (while disconnected from my PC) I get the 'cannot play or record' message, along with an invitation to format the disc. The thing is, when I look at the disc in Windows Explorer, all of the ATRAC data is still there. I managed to find fishstyc's HiMD-Xtract application. It does find all of the tracks on the disc and enables me to transfer them to my PC. Unfortunately, once on my PC, SonicStage will not allow me to play or transfer the files due to DRM restrictions, despite the fact that they are my own amateur recordings of a radio programme. Does anyone have any idea as to how I might be able to listen to and/or transfer this ATRAC audio, either from the disc or from my PC? I would be much obliged if anyone could provide me with advice. Thanks!