Avrin

Any other SOPs for laser adjustment will be simply wrong. I would like to beleive that all this is just an error. But too many similar "errors" are just starting to prove something. I would also like to believe that disposing of a fully operational piece of equipment instead of replacing its old battery is good for me and the environment. And I would also like to believe that it requires a lot of scientific research to double the capacity of flash cards each year. And I would also like to believe that the more megapixels a camera has on its quarter-inch CCD, the better the quality. And I would also like to believe that modern remastered CDs sound much better than old ones. Believing in all this would make my life a lot easier.

Nice! Just a bit too many errant SOP manuals out there. And all leading in one direction - making you buy new units sooner. Trouble is that a technician actually calibrating a reading laser is not presented with any values. They determine the actual proper setting for each unit using the unit itself. The lower and upper limits of the possible range are given by the unit ceasing to read the disc, and the correct value is in the middle. That's the SOP.

Easily. Units are supposed to be calibrated at the factory. And they are, which is proven by the fact that all of them actually have different power settings. If these settings were randomly distributed around the nominal value, and only some of the units had the power set too high, I would have agreed that this is done by mistake. But when all units checked have their laser power set higher than needed (mostly 3F to 41, while the nominal values are in the 35 to 39 range), this looks like some unpleasant statictical result. You may check the state of the lens just by looking inside the unit. To check laser power settings, you'll need to enter the service mode. No disassembly needed. Something's wrong with the laser writing and/or reading mode for gigabyte discs. The process of recording and especially reading gigabyte discs is completely different from that for standard ones (even Hi-MD formatted), so separate settings are used.

Ah, this! Its function is much simpler - it lowers the magnetic overwrite head onto the disc during recording, and raises it after. In portable units it also drives a special lever to lock the lid when the head is lowered. No alignment whatsoever is performed during this. Reading a 3-layered DWDD Hi-MD disc is fully done by the laser pickup. Basically, the second layer is heated up to its Curie temperature in order to obtain a zoomed image of the third layer on the first one, which is then read out. Like in a cinema, where the third layer is the film, the second one is the projector lens, and the first one is the screen, and the laser functions as both the lamp and the eye.

Not some, but just too many of them. All RH1s we've actually checked at a Russian forum (and there are quite a few RH1 owners there) had laser power set way above nominal. Some had errors, some didn't. Most second-generation Hi-MD units also had laser power set a bit higher than needed. First-generation units were OK. And there's nothing theoretical about lifespan shortening - just plain old applied quantum electronics. Another argument here is that too many other devices sold today have similar or other misadjustments to make them break sooner. This is nothing special - just a common trend. This is definitely NOT NORMAL even with a miscalibrated laser. Is the laser lens clean?

I don't think it could affect the operation of the unit, unless it is really loose. The disc shell is still pressed against its support and pins, and the disc itself it secured on the unit's central spindle plate by a magnet, so it is properly aligned in the mechanism. And what's an alignment motor, anyway? The NH3D has no Edit menu at all.

"Fake" SP is also real stereo. It's a fully normal and compliant version of SP ATRAC. The only difference being that it is sourced from LP2, and not PCM. Same as if you recorded from an LP2 disc via optical to another disc in SP mode.

The NH3D is a downloader, so it does have a recording head. Thus it is fatter than the EH1.

Exactly. Both batteries should be full - a new alkaline AA and a fully charged gumstick. The idea of the prolonged operating mode with two batteries connected in parallel is based on different discharge patterns of an alkaline disposable and a Ni-MH rechargeable. It really involves the AA partially charging the gumstick at earlier stages, but after the AA is sufficiently depleted, the gumstick maintains the required voltage, while the AA gives out the remainder of its juice, which would not be used if the voltage dropped below the required limit. The actual process may be a little bit more complicated, but the main idea is as above. If you use two similar batteries (e.g., the gumstick and an AA Ni-MH rechargeable), their total operating time will be roughly the sum of their individual operating times (no synergy). Again, both should be fully charged. And I would actually advise disconnecting the battery case (or removing the AA from it), when the unit is not in use, so as to avoid unneeded transfer of current and possible leakage of the AA. The N10 with its Li-ion stick and an AA battery case operates differently. The batteries are not connected in parallel, and it has a voltage upconverter inside its battery case. When the internal battery is depleted, it switches to the case that provides 3.7V. Here I would recommend removing the battery from the case when not in use (disconnecting the case may not be sufficient to prevent leakage). Anything with a stable 3V output giving suffucient current (at least 1A) will work. But voltage stabilization must be good - minidisc units don't like voltage changes on their adapter inputs.

It is possible to make the original 4.4 work on an English XP machine by installing native XP support for Japanese and modifying the installation script. But I don't think it's worth it. The main part (the OpenMG 5.0 engine), responsible for encoding/communication with devices/transfers, from the Japanese 4.4 is already included in the "ultimate" English 4.3, along with new drivers. Basically, the "ultimate" 4.3 is the full engine from 4.4 with an English interface from 4.3. And, since no additional functions are introduced in 4.4 (except for HE-AAC support), the interface fits it perfectly. What's interesting is that SONY continues to provide all [Hi]MD-related libraries even in their latest version of OpenMG 5.4, included with non-MD SonicStage 5.2. But I'm not using OpenMG versions later than 5.0, since that was the last version used for a [Hi]MD SonicStage (4.4), and, as such, probably contains more thoroughly tested [Hi]MD components than later ones. Also, OpenMG versions later than 5.0 are no longer compatible with Windows 2000.

Installing this many versions certainly created a driver/library zoo on your system. Even the "ultimate" SonicStage setup won't be able to clean this up. Aren't you using a 64-bit version of Windows? If yes, then it is not possible to connect a NetMD player. Hi-MD ones will still work.

Exactly! Export units (both Made in Japan and officially made outside Japan) are good, reliable, and operate strictly according to their specifications. But those made for Japan are just a little bit better. Believe me, in many units this "little bit" is quite tangible, and can be heard/seen/measured. The NH3D and the EH1 are also made in Japan. --- Returning to the initial post and the clamshell of the RH1. Both my units have some clamshell play, the first one more, the second one less. This doesn't seem to affect anything - discs are still latched reliably. But the Japanese-only NH3D doesn't have any clamshell play. And the Japanese-only SonicStage 4.4 is better than the export 4.3.

No conspiracy theory here. Just plain marketing. No manufacturer wants its units to last for long. They would be glad to pass a law obliging everyone to completely replace their equipment once a year. Since this is not possible (yet?), they are finding other ways to make you replace your units on a regular basis. There are several ways to sell fully working equipment which will be useless in a couple of years: 1. A non-user-replaceable battery. This one is obvious - the warranty is over, then the battery dies, and they ask you the price of a new unit to replace the battery. You either pay (if the unit is dear to you for some reason) or buy a new unit. In both cases the manufacturer is the winner. But this approach won't work for the RH1, since many MD users have had similar experience with their E10s and the like turning into paperweights, and simply won't buy a flagship model to be certainly disposed of in a few years. They did use the proprietary battery for the RH1, but still it can be replaced/refurbished if you really want it. Or the unit simply ceases to be a portable, but can still be used at home. 2. Media limitations. Any modern recorder/player that accepts flash cards can be made to support terabytes of memory at no additional cost (I won't go into details about the fact that these terabytes of memory can be already made available without any additional effort, but they only continue to double the capacity each year - still within a few dozen gigabytes range). But no actual flash card unit is manufactured with this unlimited memory support. The most you can get from the manufacturer is a firmware upgrade allowing you to use memory cards with twice the capacity the unit supported originally. Then - stop. Buy a new unit. But this approach also can not be utulized for the RH1. The media capacity is already fixed at a rather low volume, but potential buyers are quite happy with that. 3. Decreased life of the unit itself. This one is the approach for optical and magneto-optical equipment. But the actual way to make the unit die should be selected very carefully. Unreliable mechanics can lead to trouble by causing units to fail while they are still under warranty. But the laser is the ideal component to manipulate. A good laser, operating at its nominal power, is quite durable. It will last many years (especially the reading one). But a relatively minor increase of power may shorten its life to only a fraction of it. And that's exactly what is being done. They kept doing this for some time - setting laser power above nominal. But they made a mistake with the RH1, by setting the power just a bit too high, so that it was beyond the normal operating range and caused read errors. That's how it was discovered.

Ripping to WAV (or PCM, if you enabled this via the registry) in SonicStage is perfectly normal. When using a non-scratched disc, it gives same results as EAC, only without any offset correction (which doesn't affect quality at all).

Unusual clicks and whirrs with a standard MD disc may mean that the laser is miscalibrated. This is common with European RH1s - the read power is set too high, for the laser to wear out quicker, and to make you buy a new unit. Address 0124 in service mode controls that. I've seen values as high as 41 there, and that's about 14% more than needed - the proper value will be 39 (values are hexadecimal). My first RH1, being brand new, even gave READ ERRORs when reading standard discs, then I set it to 39 and see no problems ever since. But it is normal that gigabyte Hi-MD discs take longer to load or edit when compared to standard ones.

Joint stereo is not fake in any way. It is just an encoding algorithm, designed for improving quality by more efficient bit utilization. It is based on the fact that most stereo material, when recorded and digitized properly, contains a lot of identical information in both channels. So, in joint stereo, one channel is used to encode this identical information, while the other is used to encode the difference. The end result depends on the material. At lower bitrates, most music sounds better in joint stereo than in pure stereo at the same bitrate. But it won't work for material with significantly different channels, e.g., containing inter-channel phase differences (there will be not enough bitrate in the difference channel, while the "identical" channel will be almost empty). Such differences mostly come from improperly aligned analog playback heads (a good example is the first King Crimson album, which was digitized from a third generation copy, before the original master was rediscovered in 2003), or are deliberately introduced for creating special effects in electronic music. You will want to avoid using joint stereo for such material. And for Beatles and Pink Floyd. On minidiscs, SP, LP2, and ATRAC3plus @ 352, 256, and 192 kbps are pure stereo, while LP4 and ATRAC3plus @ 48 and 64 kbps are joint stereo.

Are you sure that the European RH1 comes from Malaysia? It has no "MADE IN MALAYSIA" text on it, and this almost always implies that the unit is actually made in China. And don't doubt. Units can be different even when manufactured for the same region. E.g., the American NH600D is different from the Canadian one.

LP2 recorded on any machine is the same, Type-R or not. And it will sound better on a Type-S machine.

Doesn't the M100 have its own external battery case? This should be enough for most recordings. Simultaneously using a fully charged gumstick inside the unit and a good fresh alkaline AA inside the connected battery case gives a really long operating time. Actually, longer than if you use them one after another. Synergy at its best.

Does the recording play normally from SonicStage itself (i.e., gapless, no jumps, etc.)? Anyway, the only progam actualy able to properly burn Audio CDs on a PC is EAC.

No idea. Still glitchy with Cyrillics under an English OS. Even the interface. Not that I'm using it.

Any SP machine plays all SP codecs (they have to be kept compatible according to the minidisc specification). An ATRAC 1.0 machine will play Type-R, and it will sound better than ATRAC 1.0 on the same machine. And a Type-R machine will play ATRAC 1.0 better than an ATRAC 1.0 one. Codec compatibility problems may only arise in some cases when playing back discs recorded on a machine from a different manufacturer. Some Panasonic SP recordings are known to sound strange on SONY equipment. But they do play.

Type-R is a recording AND playback codec for SP only (including MONO). Type-S is a playback-only codec for all MDLP modes. Type-S came a bit later, so all Type-S chips also have Type-R. Surely they do. They have more than double the bitrate of LP2 (the best of ATRAC3). But ATRAC3plus may easily beat any SP or MONO recording. Hi-MD recordings can be manipulated in any way you want, using a computer. Much faster than realtime. And only Hi-MD offers the capability to record in true lossless (not CD-like, but actual CD quality). Better done on a computer though, than via optical.

Surely it should be slight. Differences are really subtle.

Updated the link in the first message with a newer version taken from Content Transfer 1.2.