pauljones52

Are you using sonicstage? If you are try using MD simpleburner (available in downloads on this site). Matt

Wow I forgot about that even though i lived in Hong Kong for 3 years! Everyone have a good one, Matt

At $300 ~ $230 would have been cheaper to buy a new unit!! (almost)

Discovered something interesting earlier, I can keep the backlight on my RM-MC33EL on throughout a whole song, here is how: (Note I am using a hacked European RH10 which has no option to keep the backlight on permanently) 1) Format a disc in HIMD mode (Net MD mode will not work) 2) Transfer a track in any bitrate, but name the Artist or Track title with 7 (seven) characters with no spaces (E.G. outkast). 3) Using the remote, cycle using the display button until the Artist or Track with 7 characters is displaying 4) The backlight on the remote will stay on throught the song until it finishes as long as nothing else is pressed. Not very useful but interesting! Matt

xp has a built in .zip opener so you dont need winzip. try redownloading the file, sounds like the whole file did not download properly

you need to get the lame.dll from the lame website or from the himd renderer 0.52 version on this website then it should work, good luck!

Hi, the description is not that clear but it is possible to do it in a one step process using it. you just choose mp3 instead of .oma for file output. You can also upload and convert multiple files quickly in one step, very useful! You have to click scan himd, then select the file(s) you want to convert and double click them

Hi, yes you can my friend! Marcs HIMD renderer does this, available in the download section on this site more information here http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=6087

Hi burns3016, wow i didnt know that thats really useful! If i find a cheap one I might consider buying it! Do you know what the battery life is like? I've seen AA's with 2900mAh capacity which would be amazing!

Using gumstick batteries means the players can have a recharge unit built into them. Would be hard to do for AA's due to different capacities/chemistry's, non rechargeables etc. Plus sony get the money when you buy a new battery, add on sales!

He is in a catch 22 situation, he needs to upgrade to remove the DRM which he cant do at the mo otherwise he might loose his files!

I think A lossless is not that bad! I mean its cleaver how it doesnt need to re encode the file when you transfer it (I always use HISP so choosing the right bitrate doesnt bother me) Thus saving time. It is cleaver in that it uses the ATRAC file within the lossless file, rather than having a lossless and ATRAC file which would take up more disc space. Dont forget that you can play Atrac lossless in windows media player (yeah i know its not the greatest but at least its something!) I dont have enough hard disc space to use this, but I could see how it would be useful. PS watch out when transfering Atrac3Plus 352kbit from atrac lossless johnobuttons as it will not improve quality over 256kb/s. For some reason it does not re encode the file using the whole file, just the ATRAC part (Max of 256kb/s when importing) If you want 352 the only way to do it is via .wav files OR windows media lossless (Which is why some people think it is pretty useless!!)

Maybe its because minidiscs are rewritable so many times. Or because back then there was no HIMD's for data storage so minidiscs were for audio only, whereas CD-R's could be used for data aswell. Still ridiculous though, your paying a tax for a service you might not be using. Then again isnt that like most taxes lol

The cable is the same as most digital camera ones

The turntable itself is probably giving off the hum, mine does. Some hum is unavoidable but to minimise it you need to use grounding cables (if your deck has a ground socket) which connects to the mixer/amp. If you dont try and connect any metal on the turntable to another metal object eg a radiator as this should reduce the hum by dispersing the electrical/magnetic charge on the system. Apparently belt driven turntables have less hum when compared to direct drives as the motor is not directly connected to the platter Matt

I second ZosoIV's comments. I would also add that lame has a great advantage in that it has a variable bit rate. I only wish that the mp3 playback in the second gen minidisc units was not flawed. I feel that the people who developed lame to such a high standard are legends and I want to give them money just for keeping it free!

I have some cdr's from 1995 and they still work. I think the lifespan is alot longer (although im sure there will come a time when they wont work). I think the lifespan is more like ~30 years, but i guess it depends on how well you keep them.

For me nothing will replace actually owning music in a physical form. I would only consider buying music online if it was uncompressed and cheaper than a CD.

you can block startup programs using msantispyware so it doesnt come back. if you use msconfig it will come back next time you run sonicstage. Prob not reccomended tho

i noticed my old gumstick batteries said made in japan, but the battery that came with my HIMD said made in china. I guess they will eventually move all their construction plants to china.

nice vids, the office quaterback is very funny!

hi funcleluke, sorry i misread your post! Maybe its a fault with the machine, it thinks the disc is write protected when its not. Does it happen with all discs?

Hi funcleluke You can only edit recordings which you have done through the unit's line in or optical in. You cannot edit tracks put on your unit from sonicstage. If you want to edit these files you need to do it from within sonicstage before downloading the tracks to the player. Dont know why this is the case, but it is the same with all sony minidisc recorders Matt

My cd drive reads at 24x, my dads is a 48x one. As sonicstage comes bundled with most sony VAIO laptops, it would make sense if the encoder was optimised for them (Pentium M and celeron M's). I have never seen a sony laptop with an AMD processor in it, so mabye this is the reason for encoding times?

charging and discharging a few times should help. Try pressing charge again when the light goes out and keep doing this a few times to sort of "force charge the battery" then let it run right down until the low battery message. then repeat. If you cant be bothered it may be better just to buy a brand new battery as they are only £5 or so on ebay. Matt