Avrin

The quality of RH1 assembly is quite poor. I had to tighten all external screws on both my RH1s. Internal ones probably need tightening too. As for recording quality, the recording circuits of the NH1 and the RH1 (and all other Hi-MD units) are either almost or absolutely identical. Although this is not true for the playback circuits.

I would reinstall SonicStage completely in such a case. Removing all folders, registry keys, files and stuff.

The only right move for SONY now would be to release a tool that would authenticate the database locally, wihout connecting to their server, and remove any DRM even from files purchased from CONNECT. Anyway, there is a person at the minidisc.org forum, who actually hacked the OpenMG protection. For now he refuses to release any details, being afraid of being sued by SONY. But at least there's hope.

This one has been known since last fall, and its optical digital output is AFAIK from CD only.

They only ship within Moscow. But don't worry. They are selling the euro-crippled RH1s, which need to be hacked AND resoldered to become really good-sounding.

Looks like the keys for SonicStage are damaged. You should allow the System Information Restore Tool to run and to be able to access the Internet (it needs to connect to a SONY server for authentication). The tool is not present in any menus, and is supposed to be automatically started by SonicStage itself, but the executable file is actually "C:\Program Files\Sony\SonicStage\Ojbsir.exe". In any case, when ripping music from CDs to SonicStage always make sure that the "Add copy protection" box is unchecked in settings.

What's an ACC? It doesn't look like an audio format to me. On the other hand, the NW-E002F is able to play AAC files, but you'll need to update its firmware (see here: http://www.atraclife.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1721), and use SonicStage 4.0 or later (I recommend using SonicStage 4.2, unless you are running Vista).

A totally different sutiation is here in Russia: http://www.pleer.ru/_14308.html - the RH1 currently sells for about $240, and the price actually dropped by some $70 during the last two or three weeks. In the beginning of the last year I paid about $410 for my first RH1, when it was really hard to find here, and about $320 for the second one, when it became available through SonyStyle.ru.

The holes in the bottom cover of an MD-disc are different from those in the bottom cover of a Hi-MD disc. This may cause problems with write protection and disc type detection. Taping the holes will make the disc permanently write-protected. A solution may be to use the bottom cover from the original Hi-MD disc.

Actually, there IS a full Japanese-only installer for SonicStage 4.4 for VAIO 'puters: ftp://ftp.vaio.sony.co.jp/pub/vaio/downlo...01198009-UN.exe It doesn't contain any drivers, as usual. Drivers are separately available here: http://dl1.aii.co.jp/contents/connect/_dat...r/pa_driver.zip

Simple Burner is not compatible with Vista. The only option is to use SonicStage 4.3. Or SonicStage 4.4, if you have a Japanese operating system.

I think you should try disabling or even uninstalling anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall programs. To make sure the computer is not infected during this, disconnect from the Internet. Another option would be to check you computer with your anti-vuris program to make sure you are not already infected. It is possible, for example, that the boot sector of the Hi-MD disc is actually infected, so the computer sees the drive but the anti-virus program blocks any access to it.

Welcome to the forums! Actually photos don't tell much about what blanks are actually being sold. But the item code may sometimes do the trick. Old 1 Gb blanks with the red border are designated as HMD1G, while the newer clear blue ones are designated as HMD1GA.

Second-generation units play 44.1 kHz only. The RH1 plays all three frequencies.

They may also damage the unit by swelling inside it or even exploding. Get a GP gumstick!

This is exactly how it should behave when SonicStage is loaded (it locks the drive). As soon as you close SonicStage, the drive becomes accessible.

This is exactly as it should be. Hi-MD units in Hi-MD mode are using the USBSTOR.SYS driver from Microsoft, with some additional settings provided by SONY in the SonySDK2.INF file. If you do not install any drivers from SONY, then the USBSTOR.SYS file will also be used for Hi-MD mode, but you'll get the "Unsafe device removal" alert everytime you disconnect the unit, and the NetMD mode won't work at all (it works with SONY drivers only - NETMD052.SYS for the RH1, NETMD033.SYS/NETMD031.SYS for older units, and NETMDUSB.SYS for really old ones). Maybe something is "stealing" the Hi-MD unit from SonicStage. The thing is that a unit in NetMD mode is recognized as a "device" only, but when the unit is in Hi-MD mode, it also acts as an external drive, and is seen by the OS and programs as such. And some program, like anti-virus or other protection software may overtake it and not give SonicStage full access needed to work with the unit. 1. See if the unit is seen and accessible as an external drive by the computer when SonicStage is not started. 2. Try disabling anti-virus and other similar software (reconnect the unit and restart SonicStage after that).

I am actually using the nice grey USB/mini-USB cable that came with my SONY DCR-TRV460E camcorder to transfer music to/from my Hi-MD units. Works perfectly, and is much more convenient. Haven't tried Hi-MD cables with the camcorder, but I think they will also work.

The only new things in SS44 are HE-AAC support and new drivers for the new Japanese-only player series. If you are not interested in the HE-AAC format, and your devices are working perfectly, then you don't need to upgrade.

I'm checking regularly, but it seems that there won't be a version of SS44 other than Japanese. Same as the new ATRAC players.

There's no way to transfer 96/128/160/320 kbit/s ATRAC3plus to a Hi-MD unit. 192/352 kbit/s transfers also have been disabled initially, but were enabled later.

I am running SonicStage 4.2 on a W2K SP4 machine. Everything is perfect. But I did have problems with 4.3 on the same machine a year ago.

The high end of ATRAC3@105 kbit/s is cut off at 13.8 kHz (same as ATRAC3@66 kbit/s). In ATRAC3@132 kbit/s the highs are cut off at about 15.5 kHz. ATRAC3@105 kbit/s is actually quite good for portable listening. The way to directly rip to 105 and 66 kbit/s in SonicStage is described here: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=15928

For Vista, you may try installing the drivers that come with SonicStage 4.4: http://dl1.aii.co.jp/contents/connect/_dat...r/pa_driver.zip

It is the best. Trouble is, it can be used on a computer only. There is no way to fully transfer it to a portable device, since only the lossy part is transferred.