exe

I did first use the address found in the "Feedback" page and then click the red "update" button, above the news at the front page... But I only got following two error messages... <minidisc@amulation.com> (expanded from <md-webmaster@minidisc.org>): host amulation.com.s200a1.psmtp.com[207.126.147.10] said: 550 No such user <minidisc@amulation.com> (expanded from <news@minidisc.org>): host amulation.com.s200b2.psmtp.com[207.126.147.14] said: 550 No such user *** Following was my main message, but I did now cut away the detailed contact information at end... You wrote... Any other gear we're missing? You did actually miss to show any PHOTO or even info about the first really fine MD deck from Sony, the very elegant midsize Sony MDS-102 that probably had Atrac 2 but maybe Atrac 3 I did buy mine for about 650 euro on my holiday at Canaria Island 1995-01-09 and it came after the introduction of Sony MDS-501 and one year later did I buy a Sony MDS-302 instead (because I got it dirt cheap) before I sold my beloved Sony MDS-102 for more! Im sorry that I don't have saved more information, but I did just Google this... MiniDisc Switzeland has Sony MDS-102 it in the list, with a photo... http://minidisc.ch/equipment.asp?todo=show&key=92 Hmm... It did look more delicious in real life, so the photo does not make it justice... It had also a full alphanumeric remote and observe the fine display, with a BIG track calender, that become rare in time... I found also another page in Japanese, with a slightly better photo... http://audio-heritage.jp/SONY-ESPRIT/player/mds-102.html And a message to Eric Woudenberg OR the ne that took over after him... Since our last contact 25 Juli 2000 have I disconnected the technology part from my lifestyle magazine - www.eeplaza.com - and it's now under the name of Vantage Technology Magazine at - www.vantechmag.com - so you should change your old text and link... "Bj*rn Blomberg's EE plaza has a good section on Minidisc." to "Vantage Technology Magazine have still a good section on minidisc" - that you find close to the top of minidisc.org > Links > Home Pages... Yes, I still have best buy recommendations about MiniDisc here - http://www.vantechmag.com/bestbuy/index.htm#md And another section, about why MiniDisc (or high quality digital recordings) are smart, here - http://www.vantechmag.com/bestbuy/hifi-tip.html#whymd With hope, for a long great sounding future! exe@telia.com

I sincerely hope they are VERY durable... But I did for safety sake buy some extra machines lately, mainly because they are anyhow ultra sheap here in Sweden and in hope they will last until I die... I did just pay about 60 euro for my last Sony MDS-JB730 and 40 euro for a Sony ND-GR810 *hehe*

Very interesting, just wonder which ATRAC it has?!? And you have some portable MiniDisc recorders I drool after, the Sharp DR470 (that I couldn't afford when it was for sale) and the sexy Kenwood DMC-L7R, even if I have the sister model from Sharp in a delicate golden tone ;-)

They are new and never used, 23 of them are still in cellophane and they are probably made in Europe... They have a nice black & dark grey "hi tech" design and the bottom half of the protective case, is slightly transparent frosty dark blue... OBS - The topside of the actual disc (when you open the shutter) look almost dusty (as tiny spots or a pattern, that actually is much smaller than normal dust) but it doesn't seem to affect the quality... I sell all for 60 euro PLUS the cost of transport, payed in advance... Otherwise will I sell them locally, here in Stockholm - Sweden - Northern Europe Please answer directly to my email exe@telia.com *** And Im also looking for one of following portable Sharp models with Auvi 1bit OR one older beauty in silver, that is max slightly used... Sharp MD-DR77 (black, silver) or MD-DR470 / DR7 / DR480 (silver) max 130 euro (one of them in blue) max 100 euro, or Sharp IM-DR420 max 100 euro, or Sharp IM-DR410 / 400 max 90 euro Or the older MD-MT877 / 77 (not auvi, but a beauty in silver) max 90 euro (absolutely NOT the blue version) All my buy offers WITH transport included, sorry!

I did just buy 120 used MD's and I discover that 10 of the FUJI was "very light blue, almost milky white" on the top side of the actual disc (when I open the shutter, to clean off dust) not the case!! When I breath on the milky wite, does it anyhow look metallic for a moment... The under side was almost black, as usual and the very elegant slighty transparent black "disc case" is made in Japan... The disc DOES seem to play perfect and it was possible to write new TOC when I deleted all tracks, but should I use this disc for any vital recordings?!? Is it any easy way to view the discs ERROR RATE on any of my machines, that you can see in my signature??? Confused BB

When I was young (from 1960 and so on) did my dad get finer jobs and we did also move to finer homes, about every half year... So I was changing school more than many times... I did soon learn that the most aggressive "leaders" wanted to "try out" newbies and I did learn to handle that, by walking away and not show any reactions, before I was 9 years old... But the worse aspect, was that it took almost half a year before I got some friends and got "rather accepted" in a new class... And we did normally move on then!! And when I finally come to a class (then 11 years old) where I would stay, did I notice that it was impossible to become totally accepted, if you not grow up with the class... Ok, I got respected after some years and regarded as "one of the class" before ground school ended... But the girls did only have romantic affairs with "original" class members, with very few exceptions and it was generally only possible to have that type of relations with girls from other classes! I learned anyhow that a few close friends, did also help the general acceptance and that can be something for your kid too ;-) Hope my experience will help someway and it made me a lot stronger, but also not interested in "group" activities... BB

You are missing that the 16.5GB mini disc are 8cm wide and NOT 6.3cm as MiniDisc's... Then do they also make BluRay disc's that mix two metal layers when you burn them and that version is extremely stable, but not rewritable... So MD is still the most stable (safe) rewritable format ;-)

Did just cancel my order for a Sony MZ-RH1 because of this facts... My MD collection would take 45GB in WAV and I don't have that much space!! Okay, I did then find out a possible way around this... I can first copy some old MD to WAV before I hopefully could convert them to HiMD 352 if they then are possible to convert back to WAV or a better format for a future recording medium (when my last MD die) or at least to Atrac lossless that should be possible to convert later... But even that will take a lot of space from my portable hard drive and maybe even force me to buy a second hard drive... And that would be too expensive (totally) for "just" the backup** functionality... Then did I realize that I can actually make ONE digital backup copy of my MD collection (cost only 133 usd) and simply hide the original discs (that was made analogue because I always optimize the equalization) so if I get my collection stolen (the digital copy) is it only to make a new digital copy... Hmm, if it's possible to buy MD's then (used is ok) and my machines survive me, including the future supply of used machines... ** I did also figure out that I almost only needed a Sony MZ-RH1 for the backup possibility and wrote following to another member in this excellent forum... "This experience, before I even get my RH1 is very confusing... I recently realize that I will miss my old deck, if I move over everything to HiMD because it will be mush more clumsy to record stuff and even play the music, without my decks big display and jog wheel... And if Sony drop HiMD, will my RH1 die mush faster, than if I have four machines to play on and long in the future, will it naturally be harder to find a fresh HiMD replacement than any good MD player! And even if I still can listen to both my old legacy recordings and HiMD SP or 352kbps copies (for portable use) so will that also be clumsy - because the 10/11 extra discs will take even more place and when I record something, must I also record the same in the other format... But that will of course be a great idea, if I can move south over the winter, later on!! The solution is to simply forget about the HiMD aspect of my RH1 and mainly use it as a portable player... And naturally to do backup to my computer (or cheap quality MD discs) and use the new possibility (if it don't block it with DRM protection) to move tracks between discs, by playing them on RH1 and record digitally on my old deck! Yes I can then "only" have 80 delicious minutes on each disc (to be able to use my deck) but that problem is less than the troubles above... Then can I naturally use RH1 to record live with PCM quality, before I edit and copy (after equalizing) to legacy MD and I will anyhow make one 352kbsp disc, with the absolute best from my collection and my test disc"

I see that I didn't explain why I use the MiniDisc system... 1) I almost never use my portable machine mobile and when I do is it with just one or two discs, so I don't really need to store more than 74 minutes on each disc... 2) Then don't I want to loose any sound quality from my original material (CD or vinyl) and I got that level of exact copies, from the 3 generation of Atrac... Type I could not hear any difference in a direct AB test, with my extremely analytic speakers... But I don't remember if I did use headphones?! 3) And I never download stolen music or want to buy music of worse than CD quality... x) But it would anyhow be very convenient if I could reduce my 62 old MD discs to 10 HiMD SP discs - if I really don't loose any quality OR at max can hear a slight difference on some critical music, as long the difference not is annoying in any way!! Your answers did help a bit, raintheory ;-) Now must I first test extra carefully if HiMD SP is good enough... If not, must I save my old recordings as Wav... That would be a BIG problem, because I read somewhere that Wav need 10x more space and I don't like to loose 80gb for my music backup, especially not when I only have 20gb free... But I can maybe copy the WAV files to HiMD disc as Atrac3plus 352kbps IF that sound good enough and then save the Atrac3plus 352kbps files on my separate hard drive... Otherwise will I continue to record on my deck (in Atrac type-R quality) and only use my new RH1 to make backups of my old legacy recording, plus when I want to play my MD discs portable and make pcm recordings!! So if I can't make a safe backup with HiMD SP or 352kbps files, that then MUST sound as good as old generation 3 Atrac, must I also buy a bigger portable hard drive... Or maybe buy 65 MD cheaper and copy my old discs digitally from RH1 to my deck, if the 2 times DRM not longer stop that!?! But that alternative lock me in, if my decks and RH1 die... Comments to some of your nice answers... - So I should convert my old tracks directly to HiMD and then save them on my notebook with DRM unchecked, instead of go the extra way over WAV if I understand right? And it's still the same procedure with SS 4.2?? -- Depending on the original format of your legacy discs... If they are LP2/LP4 you can use the method in that thread and keep them in their original format (without DRM). If they are SP/MONO you can decide whether or not ypu want them converted to Hi-SP or WAV. Short answer to you question, yes. If you want to save a fairly large amount of space. - I would never dream of using LP2 and I don't want to save more space than my generation 4 Atrac SP already does, as I tried to explain above... - Note that I will NEVER burn music on CD or DVD anyhow... I was first thinking of record from my old JE500 deck optically and directly to HiMD SP on RH1 because I read somewhere that RH1 will copy old tracks with 2 times DRM flags... But I read also that RH1 make worse quality HiMD SP recordings (??) than SS and then can I anyhow not move HiMD tracks to another disc (because I don't have two HiMD machines) without using SS! -- I'm not sure I understand your question here, but i know nothing of 2x DRM or anything like that... - You could copy legacy SP digitally one time, but not two times... But if you then wanted to move that track to another disc OR make a backup on a second disc, was that not possible... But now can I hopefully use my RH1 to copy legacy SP recordings digitally to my deck (if HiMD SP or 352kbps not is good enough) when I want to move tracks that happen to be recorded on wrong disc, so I only have to use my notebook when I do backups... -- The conversion to WAV is lossless so going from say LP2>WAV>Hi-SP will in theory have the same quality as LP2>Hi-SP. - That was interesting, even if I only would use it to save legacy SP recordings!

My history of MiniDisc began before the first machine was realized... I follow the statements from Sony, that was a direct answer on Philips silly DCC system and imagine that MiniDisc might be the perfect way for me... In one of the first statement from Sony, did they confess that they still had 3 major innovation left to do, before they could realize a recorder and they did also declare that a MiniDisc recorder, need the same processor power as a normal PC at that time!! But they did manage that incredible objective and I was one of the first in Sweden who bought a MZ1 at the exceptional low prize of 987 usd (as a fine used car) and a 74 minutes disc cost 21 usd, but I made a deal with a shop that order 20 directly from Sony and sold them to me for the buy price plus 30 usd, reducing the price to 16 usd... But I mainly wanted a home deck, so I bought the first really fine home deck... A Sony MDS-102 you missed to list in this site, that has a jog dial and still is the most delicious designed deck Sony ever made (in black, bronze and grey silver) at "just" 900 usd at Canaria Islands and that was almost half the Swedish prize BUT it was only midsize... So when I got a deal on a Sony MDS-302 at buy price, did I change to that one and sold my exclusive 102 to a slightly higher price... After that did I get a Sony MDS-JE500 as payment for a job and I got just surprises, when I realized that it has worked about 4 hours every day (in average) since ten years back!!!! Yes I bought also a cute Sharp MD-MS701E because everyone said that Sony did sound much worse, but I almost never use it and the expensive Lithium-Ion batteries (have two) died years ago... I did loan it to an excellent composer that made 55 minute with music for me, in the same style and class as Enigmas first CD so I did have great value for it, anyhow. Now have I no job since 4 years back, so it took me serval years to save to my Sony MZ-RH1 that I will get next week... And at the same time will I buy a used Sony MDS-JE530 to replace and backup my old deck, because I will get it for just 50 usd! How I use my MiniDisc machines, can you find here... http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showt...17966&st=15

Yes I second that, even if I would buy a "pro deck" at max 400 usd... I will actually buy a Sony mds-je530 after Christmas, that was almost never used, as a backup or replacement to my je500 for 50 usd ;-) Yes I know I can't play any HiMD on that one, but if my RH1 brake down and are too expensive to repair, can I anyhow play my current music collection.

Thank you a lot, milomind... It was brave to answer what you did know, especially when nobody else did and when you wasn't very sure about most... I suppose that I have to find out the details myself ;-) But it was a great relief that you couldn't hear the difference, between an old MD recording and a converted HiMD SP recording!

If I not get any answers on my questions above and some good advice, will I do like following, when I hopefully get my RH1 on Wednesday... That can also work as a start up guide for other new RH1 owners... * Read the manual... * Make digital copy of my "test" MD from RH1 to JE500 (my MD deck with generation 4 Atrac) * Compare RH1 and JE500 to see how play old MD best... * Install SS and download the latest version... * Upload old "test" disc (uncheck DRM) both as Wav and HiMD * Make HiMD LP and HiMD SP from both Wav and HiMD * Compare my old MD from JE500 to RH1 with the different HiMD recordings * Select finally the most compact format that NOT give less quality, compared with my old MD music and copy everything to HiMD discs... * Or just backup my old disc to my notebook and separate hard drive (before I sell my 10 worthless HiMD discs) if they still sound best!!

Im still a bit confused... - Is the WAV way right even if I move old MD recordings to my notebook, to both make backups and convert them to new HiMD SP recordings on 1GB discs???? -- Following the method described in the thread richyu posted, you will have OMA files without DRM, so you can freely copy them to any computer/storage medium without fear of losing the rights to the tracks (which happens if the DRM is not taken off using the aforementioned method). - So I should convert my old tracks directly to HiMD and then save them on my notebook with DRM unshecked, instead of go the extra way over WAV if I understand right? And it's still the same procedure with SS 4.2?? Note that I will NEVER burn music on CD or DVD anyhow... I was first thinking of record from my old JE500 deck optically and directly to HiMD SP on RH1 because I read somewhere that RH1 will copy old tracks with 2 times DRM flags... But I read also that RH1 make worse quality HiMD SP recordings (??) than SS and then can I anyhow not move HiMD tracks to another disc (because I don't have two HiMD machines) without using SS! - And will I not damage the quality if I first convert my (old MD) tracks to WAV for the backup and then convert back to HiMD SP??? -- This won't be any different than going from the original format to Hi-SP. Although with the method posted previously, you will not need to convert to WAV. - That's surprising... Many posters mention elsewhere that every convertion lower the quality and if I first convert to WAV will that be one extra convertion... So why don't that reduce the quality?? Hmmm... I should also copy all my old MD to WAV so I can convert that DIRECTLY to the best format for a HD player - if Sony stop producing HiMD machines, before my RH1 eventually dies... So I get 4 backups, my old MD the new HiMD, the OMA files and WAV files!! If there NOT is a way to convert the DRM free OMA files, directly to the best format for a HD player???? - And what's wrong with SonicStage backup tool??? -- Nothing. It serves its purpose and works if you need to backup/move your entire music library. But for smaller batches and your own uploaded recordings, there are easier ways (plus with the backup tool, the files still have DRM). - That WAS two "wrong things" in my eyes... After my first big transfers (from my old reacordings) will I only back up the latest added tracks... And the backup will (if I understand right) be useless with DRM if the DRM stop me to write back the music, type if the hard drive with the SS program (yes I will save my backup on a external disc) dies!?!

Thank for the link, but that page did not answer any of my questions... Or the other promising threads I read, sorry! I might naturally be able to find out, when I get my machine... But it would be a great help, if someone did know the answers and I don't have to do some fatal mistake, on the way! Merry Christmas and a happy new year, by the way!

I did mainly order a Sony RH1 to be able to back up my old MD recordings... But in "A Guide To Hi-MD Uploading" http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=6330 that NOT mention RH1 did they write... "Of extreme importance: The OMA files that SonicStage creates are NOT SUITABLE AS A BACKUP MEDIUM. Many users have fallen prey to this, so READ CAREFULLY: Your current installation of SonicStage has a unique encryption key. If you back up your recordings by copying the files directly from the SonicStage storage folder, THEY WILL NOT BE USABLE FROM ANY OTHER INSTALLATION OF THE PROGRAM. This means if you need to reinstall your OS, or have a hard disc crash, or anything happens that means having to freshly reinstall SonicStage, YOU CAN NEVER READ THOSE FILES AGAIN as they will be encrypted with your old, now non-existent keys. * If you want to back up your files so they are usable, export as WAV and then do what you will with those files, as they are neither encrypted nor limited by any form of DRM. You can also backup your entire library with the SonicStage backup tool, though for most users this will be less convenient than dealing only with a few WAV files." This really make me wonder and OBSERVE that the guide above was written almost 2 years ago, long before SonicStage 4.2 and so on... - So is this still true with RH1?? - Is the WAV way right even if I move old MD recordings to my notebook, to both make backups and convert them to new HiMD SP recordings on 1GB discs???? - And will I not damage the quality if I first convert my tracks to WAV for the backup and then convert back to HiMD SP??? - And what's wrong with SonicStage backup tool??? My first language is not English and that may complicate something I write, sorry!

HiMD is still the best alternative, just as the "old" Palm OS still is totally superior for smartphones and much more easy to use than the closest competition... After I found out that DVD-R (that not even is rewritable) dies incredible fast and reported about that, here... www.vantechmag.com/bestbuy/video.html#dvdr Did I also add... "But the rewritable MiniDisc for audio, use a unique stable recording layer, that you only can change with a combination of a hot laser spot and pulses from a focus magnetic beam, which make MD recordings extremely stable!"

That was NOT a nice answer... I do also wonder which are the last "fail safe" and would like the minidisc org page (or at least the downloading links) to report that, when that change... Then does sometimes a new version include other bad news (except nasty bugs) type new restrictions!

I did finally order the masterpiece today and I did first try to find some answers to this questions in the forum... - Should I first update the included programs??? Yes, I would normally do that BUT newer programs have sometimes BIG limitations and not only improvements!! - Are there any smart tricks, that might improve me experience with my delicate RH1 in any way??? I will in first hand do backups on my old MD recordings - that only is sorted with titles, beginning with a number according to my grade of the track... And then move the old recordings to HiMD wish raise following questions... - Have you "golden ears" and can't anyhow hear any difference between an original MD recording and a copy / transfer to HiMD LP when you only listen to the music??? When you listen carefully and not just as background entertainment... Or if you actually can hear a difference... How is it different and how much if 100% is no difference, 95% is extremely hard to hear (type need special music) 90% very hard, 85% a slight difference and 80% is clearly worse?? - Or are at least HiMD SP safe in this aspect, producing perfect conversions??? Yes, I read that some consider old Atrac 4.5 recordings to sound better!?! - That lead to another quality question... Will the sound with old MD recordings, be better or worse from RH1 connected to my Onkyo TX-SR603E receiver, than from my old MDS-JE500 deck?? - Are there any things that I should think on, when I do the backups and copy?? - I did as example notice a huge high frequency difference between a late test (14khz for 64kbps) and 22khz (at same bit rate) in Sony's first test results... Is that because of some setting, bad transfer method??? - Then may I see following directly in the manual... But can I backup in the higher SP quality and then anyhow copy to HiMD LP ?? - If I did understand right, is it not possible to record in any quality setting between HiMD SP and LP and then play it on RH1?? - And I guess that I can sort the tracks in "artist" catalogues and then (as before) titles?? - But can I also select to play ONLY the tracks from one artist / catalogue??? Thankful for any help and I will also post any great advice in my magazine, to help more!

Did just "revisit" the test results from Intertek Testing Services (UK) that clearly show a frequency response up to 22khz for both 64kbps and 48kbps Atrac3plus... You find the PDF to the test here! So had the test of this thread wrong settings OR did they change Atrac3plus dramatically to the worse, before release????

This confuse me... When I wrote about HiMD in my best buy guide, did I write following, based on the information I found... "HiMD LP mode give recordings of true MD quality (according to Sony) or slightly better than MP3 128kbps (according to deep listening tests) and you can then store amazing 34 hours... Atrac3plus has significantly lower sideband noise and reproduce the original frequency response, at every bit rate... So if the music is 15-22khz, will the copy be the same and not as 15-17khz with MP3 at 128kbps, or lousy 15-10khz with MP3 at 64kbps..." But here was the higher frequency response, cut of at 14khz in HiMD LP mode and that is dramatically worse than MP3 at 128kbps, even if the frequency response may be of rather minor importance for the sound quality!! So was this mesurement wrong OR was my old info wrong??

I did finally order a Sony MZ-RH1 about two hours ago... That will be my sixth recorder and I did even buy the first "portable" and the first ATRAC 2 deck 1995-01-09 which was a VERY rare and extremely delicious designed midsize Sony MDS-102 with jog dial... I have 62 MD recorded to 75% with carefully selected and graded tracks, sorted with the finest first... So I don't record any track, just the few one that I grade as minimum 5 for interesting and without annoying aspects... Then are they divided in 11 categories and they are (with higher and higher dynamic) Romantic classic, Great classic, Spain, Cool, Sexy, Reggae, Great, Disco, Action, Rock and Test... Most music get recorded in "collection" discs and 30 truly great artist with more than 6 fine tracks (so I put sometimes two to four artists on one disc) get recorded on separate discs, in the right category... I do also a very careful equalization, before I record any track, to get as perfect and natural sound as possible, without any of the usual "boxy" effect and naturally optimized bass and treble... With help of a separate recording equalizer form Yamaha (ge-40) with +-15db adjustment range... This save many lovely songs, that is almost awful in their "original" state of misery ;-) And because of the great result, divided in categories that is in harmony with my different moods, does I almost only listen to my MD collection or radio... Many of this tracks (about 10%) are not possible to find on CD so I am incredible grateful that I finally can do a backup both to my Toshiba Notebook and a separate LaCie hard drive... Then will I move everything to 10 HiMD and anyhow get about 25% free space (from the not recorded part on the old discs) for new music ;-) By the way, the rest of my grading scale - that make it possible to grade music before I buy CD and not spend too mush - is following... Grade the tracks, with 5 for interesting (or a delicious track, with some irritating aspect) 10 for just delicious 20 fantastic 30 heavenly (you can still see the heaven) 40 magic (that I only found four times) and then buy any CD that get minimum 40 points...