Thrush

1. I realise that, when I said "transfer" I did realise that it would have to encode the MP3 to ATRAC. Transfer was just the term I was using to show I wanted to take MP3's from my PC and put them onto a MD, rather than the RECORD them onto an MD like I do now. 2. I don't know what check in/check out means, lol.... 3. I mean to take music tracks off my current minidiscs, and put them onto the PC, probably as MP3 files. Again, I have never used NetMD and don't know a lot about it, so I had no ide if this was possible. I pressumed that since the operating software that's available is able to encode MP3/WMA/AAC to ATRAC, then it should be possible to convert ATRAC to MP3 etc... But as said, not having used it, I simply don't know! 4. DAPs? Thanks for all your info and advice so far chaps, I look forward to reading more replies, as it's always usefull to learn new stuff!

THinking of buying a NetMD (either deck or portable) to make transferring of MP3's to MD easier. So couple of quick Q's I'm sure you chaps will know the answers to! 1) Which is better, OpenMG or SonicStage? 2) Why? 3) Which one, if not both or neither, will allow you to transfer from the MD back to the PC? 4) With these programmes, is faster copying possible, if you are writing to a disc at full quality (ie, not in LP mode) on normal 80min MD discs? Thanks fella's, look forward to those reply's!

I don't think my in-car MD player will even play MDLP - it's a pretty old unit! Gotta be 6years old or more! Thing is, it's a great unit and still works fine, so no reason to change it.... In a way I am leaning towards keeping my current set up and getting a NetMD portable purely for transerring to and from MD and PC- mainly cos a) I'd save a lot of money, my set up at the mo sounds superb! On the other hand, at some point I will need to change it as the CD part is on the way out. Tho I could always play CD's from my PC through it's amp, I wouldn't be able to do as good copies to MD as I do now if the CD bit dies... Tho I could always cross that bridge when I come to it.... I never know what to do, I think I over analyize everything lol.....

Hi Bob, thanks for the reply. I have thought about HiMD, but I would never take full advantage of it. I used to use MD all the time, but with the advent of the MP3 age, the only place I really use it these days is in the car - rather have a bunch of MD's kicking around in the glove box than a bunch of CD-R's! I don't want to fully stop using MD's as I still love their user-bility (as I said before, they are easier to use and re-write to/add to than CD-R's, plus the lack of skipping, scratching etc) but I also want to make use of MP3's. When I think about it, I don't really copy CD's to MD much anymore anyway. Well, I still do to an extent, but I rip all my CD's to my PC and I use my PC as my media centre anyway, which plays through my hi fi. So I copy either CD's or, more lately, MP3's from my PC to MD via optical cable from my PC. So I am thinking that the MDSJE780 NetMD deck might be the one for me. Only has 1.8x times copying from USB, but thats not a loss to me as at the mo I only have 1x real-time copying anyway.... Only thing is, I would also need a CD deck with optical out, and an amp with at least 2x optical in and 1x optical output... Course, the other option is to keep my hifi, and just get a NetMD portable, and use that to copy MP3's from the PC to ATRAC directly to an MD.... Might be cheaper also...

The MXD-D3 is still available second hand tho

Thinking it's about time to buy new hifi stuff.... Bit of backround for you - I have been using MD now for years n years! I started off with a Denon portable recorder which I just hooked up with stereo RCA to 3.5 jack from my hifi to record to MD. Then moved to optical recordings when I got a DVD player, then got a (second hand) Aiwa (XR-H33MD) hi fi which has built in MD slot, so I could do "linear" recordings (correct terminology?) Anyway, with the advent of the MP3 age, I must admit to using MD less and less nowadays in favour of MP3's My current set up actually mianly revolves around my PC, which thanks to the nifty optical output soundcard I got, allows me to hook my PC up to my hifi (via the optical input) to enjoy my MP3's in crystal quality using my Aiwa hifi as an amp and speakers basically. It also lets me copy MP3's to MD, albeit in real time, from the PC to the Aiwa system. Mainly nowdays, MP3 is for the car/work van, as to me, it is still better than CD-R's as it is wipeable and re-recordable as much as I like, aswell as being able to add to discs, unlike CD-R's.... Right, back on topic! At the mo, the only way to record MD's to my PC is by using the Denon portable, linking it to the soundcard's aux input with a 3.5mm to 3.5mm jack cable. Not great high fidelity there then! But my Aiwa only has optical out for the CD part of the system So... I was looking about and found this; http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/mo...Product_ID/1123 NO this sounds great! 1.8 times recording from MP3/WMA on PC to MD via USB cable and supplied software, and also by the sounds of it, the same thing again from MD to the PC. Then I also found this; http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MXD-D3.html Which struck me as great aswell, with 4x CD>MD copying. Now, the only thing is; With the first one, the USB one, it's limited to 1.8x copying, and I would need a seperate CD deck (unles sI just used the PC's CD deck - I pressume I can do this to copy from CD to MD?) With the second one, the MXD-3, it has great 4x linear copying, but has really limited inputs and outputs - again NO optical output!!! Plus, it has no PC connectivity, and with the lack of optical out, I am stuck with analoge RCA-converted-to-3.5mm jack connection to my soundcard So I am at a bit of a quandry as to what to do really.... One hand says I don't generally copy CD's to MD's much these days, so the USB deck would be good for copying albums from the PC to MD, but then the other side says that losing CD>MD copying would be poo, specially since the MXD would let me do 4x copying.... Hmmm.... Advice?

my "deck" isn't actually a deck tho; it's a midi "all in one" system, and doesn't have an analog out. Has analog inputs, along with optical input, and an optical output, but no analog output..... So it's gonna have to come from the portable's 3.5mm stereo jack output....

Does anyone know of a minidisc headunit for a car (single din) that has a front mounted aux input, preferrably 3.5mm jack plug? Reason being, I use my phone as an MP3 player, and will soon (hopefully) have a 1gb mem card for it which will make life nice n easy to transfer mp3 files and albums to it to play on the move. Since I can't find a minidisc headunit that accepts either MMC/SD cards or USB flash sticks (I can find plenty of CD headunits for this, but not a single MD headunit) my next choice is an MD headunit with aux input so I can connect my phone.mp3 player to it to play MP3's. I can get a Sony CDX-GT300S mp3 CD headunit with a front mounted jack input, but having an MD one would be even better, as it means I wouldn't have to also have my MD changer in the car also..... Any idea's guys?

Arse! I thought someone was gonna say that! Bugger..... Thanks tho! Now, since neither of my MD players support digital TOS or digi-coax OUTPUT, I am limited to using my portable Denon DMP-R70 and an analog 3.5mm to 3.5mm stereo lead only... What sort of sound quality loss will I get? My soundcard is a TRUST 514DX 5.1 digital soundcard (same as this one --> http://www.trust.com/products/product.aspx?artnr=12950 ) but it's internal (PCi slot...

Hey guys, just registered! I have used the minidisc.org site now for a while for finding info but somehow managed to miss the fact it has a forum! Anyway, I have done a brief search thru the forum, but am getting a bit puzzled, so here goes.... I have a pre-MDLP portable and a pre-MDLP hifi. In the past all I did was connect my portable upto a hifi and record a CD onto MD, and then when I got the hifi with MD built in, did a direct copy to MD from CD - in both case of course, the copy was done in real time. I have been using MD now since about 1996/1997.... Shortly after that I got my drivers lisence, and naturally put an MD unit in the car, which to this day I still use! I have an MD head unit, and also a CD headunit with MD changer (which I got when I got a second car, nowadays the MD headunit sits in my works van and the CD + Md changer is in my car) Anyway, then came the computer and MP3 age. With this, all I did was connect my MD hifi upto to my PC via optical TOS cable and copied MP3's to MD, again in real time. With my vast collection of MD's, a lot of it I have doubled up on CD, but much of it is stuff I don't have on CD, and some it there is no way to get a copy of it on CD, or probably even get an MP3 of it, even using P2P networks and filesharing..... So my question is this; Is there a way to "rip" the contents of my MD's to my PC to create digital audio files (like MP3's, WMA's, etc) without having to connect my portable or hifi upto the soundcard and record in real time? Neither my portable or hifi has optical out for the MD (hifi has optical TOS out, but only for the CD - both units have optical in for the MD tho) Basically what I want to do is back up my entire MD collection to the PC, convert them to MP3 or similar files (at around 128-192kbps quality) and then burn them to disc or to an MP3 player. After that I will pretty much discard most of my MD's, as I have found over the last year or so, 90% of the music I listen to is either ripped from CD to the PC, or downloaded as MP3. Once upin a time I borrowed or bought a CD, copied it to MD (for portable use or in the car/van), but now everything is much easier with MP3 files. My phone acts as an MP3 player for a portable, and my pc is hooked into my hifi via optical cable so that I can play out my MP3's from the HDD thru the Hifi (rather than use tinny PC speakers) and I barely even play CD's when at home now! So I have looked at the NetMD stuff but can't get a straight answer on how to rip all the music from my MD's to my PC without having to record in real time, or use an analog cable to connect up. My soundcard has both optical TOS input and a digital-coax (RCA type) balanced input, but neither of my MD products have optical output and neither have digi-coax inputs/outputs. My hifi is a bit old now and only has a 1-bit DA converter anyway! So what to do? Minidisc has been my saviour for years and years now, and I still think it is far better than recording CD's as audio disc (due to being able to edit, move, delete tracks and add to MD's later - which you can't do with CD-R's if you finalise them to be able to play em in a normal CD player) but I can fit probably 10MD's worth of audio onto a single MP3 CD (or even more using a 1gb memory card or mp3 player) and it is all a lot cheaper than buying blank MD's (£10 for 10 MD's is the best deal I have found so far, or I can pay £10 for about 50 CD-R's!!!) Advice please?