Avrin

1. It IS possible to transfer LPCM to your Hi-MD unit using SonicStage, exactly as the wizard of oz says. The maximum time is 1 hour and 34 minutes per 1Gb blank, and 28 minutes per reformatted 80-minute MD blank. And you better do that using SonicStage, and not via optical recording, since SonicStage preserves the original PCM signal, while the unit, when recording via optical in, passes the signal through its level adjusting circuit, where it may get changed, even when the level is set to 23 (which is supposed to mean "no change"). 2. 352 kbit/s is simply the highest possible ATRAC3plus bitrate. Very fortunately, Hi-MD devices support it (ATRAC CD players do not). Transferring this bitrate, along with 192 kbit/s, was not originally enabled in SonicStage. SONY enabled it only in SS version 3.3 or 3.4 and later. Both these bitrates may only be created in SonicStage (no realtime recording). 3. ATRAC3 132/105/66 kbit/s can be transferred in both MD and Hi-MD modes, and will have exactly the same quality in both modes (for each bitrate). The only difference is that in the MD mode the music is padded with additional bits for compatibility (without any effect on the original quality), so 132 and 105 kbit/s actually take up 146 kbit/s, and 66 kbit/s takes up 73 kbit/s. Also, 132 and 66 kbit/s can be recorded in realtime by the unit on an MD blank (without a computer). In the Hi-MD mode (on both 1 GB and reformatted MD blanks) the music is not padded, so it takes up exactly the specified amount of bits per second (forgetting about the small Hi-MD padding, which actually increases with the bitrate). 4. It is possible to record MONO to MD blanks in realtime on first-generation Hi-MD units (like the NH600).

All legacy recording modes (SP/LP2/LP4) are disabled on all second-generation Hi-MD units, despite them having the required circuitry/codecs. SP recording can be enabled as described above. Ways to enable LP2/LP4 recording are yet to be discovered, but those are not that critical, since you may transfer perfect LP2/LP4 from the computer. Also, no second/third generation unit is able to record in legacy MONO, although the prototype RH1 (with firmware version 0.960) had this mode.

No. Pre-recorded discs, on the other hand, may carry the full frequency range, since they are pre-encoded before mastering, and the equipment used may be powerful enough to handle the entire range.

1. Not that little. There is quite a lot of data (including noise). And this data is the hardest to encode. LAME.EXE also cuts off high frequencies by default, but this can be controlled and/or disabled. 3. Yes. I got this info by simply looking at the Frequency Analysis window in Adobe Audition with these recordings opened, and comparing what I see to what was there for the original CD. And yes, there are more factors. And a complicated computer algorithm on a modern processor is able to take care of these factors much better.

1. Signals above 15 kHz are usually not "heard" by a human ear directly, but they make the sound more natural. And the ability to record higher frequencies gives the capability to better preserve phase information for lower frequencies. That's why vinyl sounds much more natural than CD. Encoding time cannot be compared directly between a unit and a computer. The power of the unit's processor is in all probability less than that of a first-generation Pentium. What the unit's processor does in realtime, may be done is split seconds by a modern computer processor. So, there's no need to simplify any algorithms. 2. Gapless = no silence where it shouldn't be between tracks. Very few MP3 devices support true gapless playback. Most devices that claim this are actually masking gaps by short crossfades. That's the inherent problem of the format - it was never meant to be gapless. Only additional extensions (such as binary tags from LAME.EXE) allow to encode/decode music to/from MP3 so that information required for gapless playback is maintaned, and can be used.

1. Software-encoded recordings are better than hardware-encoded. The reason is simple - hardware encoders are simplified, since processors inside units are not powerful enough to encode the full frequency range in good quality on the fly, Hence, SP and Hi-SP are cut off at 19 kHz, and what is left is encoded. Software (SonicStage) encoding, on the other hand, keeps the entire frequency range when encoding to ATRAC3plus @ 256 kbit/s and above. 2. In an ideal situation a recording made though a digital input will be better. But in reality, especially when using modern CDs (and this article http://www.cdmasteringservices.com/dynamicdeath.htm is quite old and optimistic), a good CD deck may actually improve the sound of a CD, and output this improved sound via analog, after which it gets digitized again by a minidisc deck/portable, and recorded in somewhat better quality than the original. But of course you can rip the CD on your computer, clean/adjust/restore the sound of it, and put it onto a minidisc through SonicStage, achieving even better results. 3. The ATRAC Type-R codec only applies to SP recordings. But ATRAC Type-S is a chip containing the ATRAC Type-R codec for SP, plus improved LP codecs. 4. If you don't mind losing gapless playback - go ahead and convert your music to MP3. I would advise using the console LAME.EXE encoder with some front-end (like RazorLame) to control it from Windows. LAME.EXE is known to support gapless encoding (and decoding of files encoded by it), but the only hardware player known to support gapless playback of these files is Rio Karma, if you can find it.

I'm afraid the firmware algorithm itself is crippled, so there's no way to adjust it.

I don't think so. On first-generation Hi-MD models address 0114 has a totally different function - ClearVNV, instead of DistFH, and is set to 00. On the RH1 it has the DistFH function, but is also set to 00. Changing it to 80 on the RH1 doesn't lead to anything. And DON'T TRY TO CHANGE IT on a first generation unit - you'll clear the non-volatile memory. Heads look really similar, but you need PRML to write to/read from Hi-MD.

Well, after almost two years it turned out that this hack is actually useful. If you press REC and PAUSE in step 7, you may go to the Rec Settings menu, disable SYNC REC, then switch the level to Manual, adjust it (yes, it took me almost two years to find out that this works!), enable SYNC REC back again (if needed), and start recording. What you actually get is perfect ATRAC Type-R SP from a unit officially unable to do it. And yes, the RH910 may also be hacked this way. Can anybody try this on the RH710?

WinZip (like the entire ZIP family) is not the most efficient compressor. Try WinRAR from http://www.rarsoft.com. I have seen it providing a 10 times better compression in its native RAR format, than WinZip on simple Microsoft Office documents (200 kb v. 2 Mb). It can also create ZIP files, in addition to its native RAR format, plus it opens and decompresses 12 more archive formats WITHOUT the need for any external programs.

The compression ratio doesn't depend on files being mono or stereo. A mono file is already half the size of a "stereo" file in which both channels are the same. The actual lossless compression ratio (and also the quality of lossy compression) depends entirely on the complexity of audio material. Styles like jazz or trance are quite hard to compress, while most classical music compresses much better. For example, "Take Ten" by Paul Desmond (the track I'm using to test almost everything) occupies 33,833,564 bytes as a WAV file, 22,825,780 bytes as a RAR archive containing the WAV file (compressed with default settings), and 20,117,246 bytes as a FLAC file (also compressed with default settings).

I don't currently have an LZH archiver configured in my system. But I do have some others. Let's take the most famous Brian Eno track, called "The Microsoft Sound.wav", which is 135,876 bytes long, and compress it using various archivers from the command line with their default settings. That's what we get: The Microsoft Sound.ace - 33,959 bytes The Microsoft Sound.bz2 - 45,634 bytes The Microsoft Sound.cab - 60,556 bytes The Microsoft Sound.gz - 63,272 bytes the microsoft sound.ha - 45,113 bytes The Microsoft Sound.imp - 61,377 bytes The Microsoft Sound.j - 64,921 bytes The Microsoft Sound.rar - 35,049 bytes The Microsoft Sound.z - 73,702 bytes The Microsoft Sound.zip - 62,015 bytes. The CAB here is Microsoft CAB, and the Z is InstallShield 3.00. And I only used archivers supporting long file names. All the above files perfectly decompress to the original WAV file. Now for some lossless audio stuff (APE using Normal compression, and FLAC using default settings, both from the command line): The Microsoft Sound.ape - 38,703 bytes The Microsoft Sounf.flac - 46,324 bytes These two files perfectly decompress to the audio part of the original WAV file, but lose the final 826 bytes containing copyright, author, and other non-audio information. And there is absolutely no way to compress this file to AAL directly, since it is 22,050 Hz, 8-bit, Mono, while AAL only supports 44,100 Hz, 16-bit, Stereo.

WHAT???!!!

Yes, you'll get an even lower quality. E.g., CD->ATRAC3plus@192->ATRAC3@132 will sound worse than CD->ATRAC3@132.

I'm afraid we'll run into trouble when trying to change OMA headers, since it looks like OMA files are still encrypted in some way, even if stripped of DRM. The music itself starts after the EA3 token in the file, but looks totally different from what follows the WAV header in a non-encrypted ATRAC3 WAV file made in Audition. And, unfortunately, there is no ATRAC3plus codec for Windows. Windows Media Player can play ATRAC3plus files if SonicStage is installed, but this is done in some obscure way by using some SonicStage decoder files, which are not standard in any way.

Not at all. PCM is a data format, while WAV is a Windows container for audio. A WAV file may contain whatever you put into it - PCM, MP3, or other format. If you have the atrac3.acm codec installed in your system, you may even put ATRAC3 into a WAV file (e.g., using Windows Sound Recorder to convert to ATRAC3), and it will be perfectly playable by anything, as long as the codec is there. Check out the attached file. Same as AVI is a Windows container for video. It may contain uncompressed video, DivX, DV, etc. Another example of an audio container is OMA, which may contain PCM, ATRAC3[plus], or MP3. Encryption included. EDIT. Turns out you can even use Adobe Audition to save ATRAC3 into WAV containers, if you have the codec installed. Just choose ACM Waveform as type, press the Options button, and select ATRAC3 as a Filter. ATRAC3.wav

Which version are you trying to install? Only version 4.3 works with Vista, and there is no wayto install/use Simple Burner with this operating system.

Start with the service manual for the unit: http://forums.minidisc.org/downloads/download.php?file=75. And be very careful.

To make SonicStage play WAV files gaplessly: 1. Make sure the "Microsoft PCM Converter" audio codec is not disabled. 2. Install the latest driver for your sound card. 3. Install the latest version of DirectX.

Just couldn't resist the nostalgia: Got it used, but in great condition (and the display is just starting to show the signs of burning out in the PLAY sign and battery areas). The complete package plus a PHILIPS SBC ME570 electret mic and two 1st generation Hi-MD blanks for just $150.

I once bought a fake NH-14WM (grey). The packaging was superb, but said MADE IN JAPAN. The battery itself said "NH-14WM" on its face, but "USE ONLY WITH SONY BATTERY CHARGING SYSTEM DESIGNATED "FOR NH-10WM"." on its back. It was only able to power my RH10 for 2 to 3 hours. It never had a chance to swell - went to the trash can the next day. One more thing - it was totally flat when I bought it.

They only ship within Russia.

The price of a brand-new European RH1 here in Moscow fell to about $150.

No, it is not...

Couldn't this, by any chance, be linked to the "Remember each folder's view settings" checkbox in Windows Explorer? Try unchecking this box and resetting all folders (these are some of the first things I do after installing Windows).