zzzuppp

After all the things I read about Sonic Stage, I'm glad I'm a Mac user and have never gone near it.

Anyone got a busted portable? (hollow laugh) Are there any other emojis left on this site? seems to be the only one I can get. Well, it'll certainly do in this instance.

That's a bummer if it is the 105FX playing up. One of the best things about it is the ease of editing - and if it's not writing the TOC properly, I won't be able to edit on it and have to go back to the MZ-RH1s where the controls require elfin fingers. I have to say that the 105FX, potentially such a fantastic MD/HiMD standalone, has a number of annoying traits, the worst of which is that you're never sure if it IS going to work at all. It can take forever to read a disc when you first insert one, and certain functions randomly stop working, then restart hours or days later.

So I tried sfbp's idea of recording a track onto one of the 'Read Error' MDs, again recording on the Onkyo standalone. It worked, but inserting the MD into the MZ-RH1, I again got 'Read Error'. What's more, playing the MD back in the Onkyo, it took forever to start up, played about 2 seconds of the track and then ground to a halt before labouring again to play a couple more seconds. The Onkyo very occasionally behaves like this with certain MDs. Just to be sure, I played another MD in it, which behaved normally. I don't have the courage or knowhow to start monkeying around inside a standalone, but it seems as if there might be another problem anyway, perhaps with the disc, but since the same thing happened with THREE discs (see my initial post), I doubt that.

OWH = OverWrite Head???

Thanks sfbp. Actually I'm not about to record in HiMD mode, nor were the discs formatted that way before or after. None of them had any HiMD recordings on them and they were all in ordinary MD SP (80') mode when I inserted them to erase the contents, and I'm planning to record on them in normal SP (80') as opposed to HiMD. Nonetheless, I'll try what you suggested, otherwise I have 3 pieces of toast

Today I erased an old disc in my Onkyo MD105FX, and then formatted the newly blank disc into SP mode. I then inserted it into my Sony MZ-RH1 ready to do some recording - but a message came up 'Read error'. Thinking it was likely a problem with the disc itself, I did the same thing with another disc which was also in ordinary SP mode - wiped the contents, checked it was in 80' SP mode and tried it in the MZ-RH1 - and the same happened. I'm lucky enough to own two MZ-RH1s, so I tried both discs in the second one - 'Read error'. Just to be sure, I tried with a third disc. Same problem. They still read OK in the Onkyo, and I guess I can record them in there, but will they play on my other machines? Doubt it. I've never had this problem before. I usually erase discs in the Onkyo because it's very quick and doesn't involve those tiny buttons on the MZ-RH1 Does anyone who's more techy than me (that's probably most of you) have any idea what's happening here and where the fault may lie? Thanks in advance.

I didn't have that problem - it's not as fast for me transferring via a Mac as Sony's app used to be, (it's the conversion that seems to take the time) but I still made a 160' MD of LP2 tracks in c. 20 minutes - which is way better than real time, which I've had to use ever since Sony stopped updating the Mac app ten years back.

Stefano - another question. I'm using my MZ-RH1, it's worked successfully in MD SP mode (as opposed to Hi-MD). However, I'm currently trying to use the app to transfer files to an 80' MD in the MZRH-1 which is set to LP2 mode, so I can get 160' onto the MD. I formatted the disc before pluggng it into my Mac and conncting to your app. However when I 'connect' with your app, it's showing the blank disc as in the screenshot below - ie 1 hour 20 minutes rather than 160'. Before I go any further, is that just a default setting or can I continue to add files up to 160' without it cutting out after 80'-worth? I can't see anything in the app itself which overrides the disc format.

People are still buying them because they are fantastic little machines. Before trying to revive Sonicstage, go and have a look at this Thread - you came to this forum at exactly the right moment! Stefano has made a brilliant new app - it works with MZ-RH1

Legend has it that the Sony engineers persuaded the company to let them build the MZ-RH1 just because they COULD. I'm sure some of that team must have been passionate about MDs - but it all happened 15 years ago....and they all left to join Google... I quote: 'Shigatsu-Baka Wire Service Tokyo Sony executives today reported the settlement of a long-running power struggle that has raged between their electronics and entertainment divisions. The outcome allows Sony Electronics to introduce the MZ-RH1, a new portable Minidisc audio recorder that fulfills the format's long-held promise of versatility and flexibility as well as living up to Sony's sullied-but-not-yet-dead reputation for building innovative and desirable electronics gear. However, the agreement stipulates that Sony Electronics must stop further development of the format. "Sony Entertainment was harsh on us" said Miyazaki Kendo, head of Sony Electronics Minidisc development lab, "Everytime we explored adding features that every other modern audio recorder offered but that were glaringly absent from Minidisc, such as unrestricted uploading and downloading of audio, the entertainment division would start throwing their weight around and making everyone miserable, insisting that such flexibility would somehow be used for pirating audio." Sony MZ-RH1 Minidisc Recorder "Eventually, we engineers just got fed up and secretly built the device we had always wanted to make. By the time the project was discovered it was so far along, and so compelling, that an agreement was struck with Sony Entertainment allowing us to introduce the unit to market in order to recoup expenses they said we had wasted in developing it. But this agreement came with the proviso that we never innovate on our own again without explicit permission from them." "We did finally make the Minidisc machine everbody knew Sony was capable of," said Miyazaki, "but at a considerable cost." Some members of Sony's vaunted Shinagawa engineering labs have felt the burden has been too high however; since January over two dozen engineers and scientists have left to join Google Japan where, it is rumored, a wireless portable audio device with a wow-factor exceeding the iPod is under development.' I wonder what this 'device with a wow-factor exceeding the iPod' was? Surely not the mp-3 player??

AS you've read in the Web MiniDisc thread, Stan, I have the same problems with BOTH my MZRH1s. On one of them the display on the right of the screen has gone completely, on the other the display comes and goes randomly. It is well-known that the OLEDs don't last... I started a thread on the same subject a while back and krisnaadi's reply mentioned that you could pick up a Remote screen which might work with the MZRH1. Alas his link to eBay now leads nowhere...and it seems it was/is expensive . However, some people (with more patience and skill than I) have managed a repair but it looks really complex and fiddly. There are some YouTube videos. NB the third video goes really fast but you may know that you can slow YouTube videos down by clicking on the wheel at the bottom of the screen in YouTube itself -

Player controls on the App work just fine with my MZRH1, so maybe something specific to Stachu's setup? Meanwhile I'm not going to try deleting any songs via the interface in case I end up with the same problems as Stachu. I can delete them ordinarily on the machine itself.

Hi Stachu - it's been so long since my MD machines showed up on my Mac, just wondering where on the Mac you're seeing them? I'm having no problems with the app interface though (I downloaded Stefano's software).

Why use more plastic when you can use good old cardboard? Can't remember what originally came in these boxes but I have 3 or 4 of them and they each hold 66 MDs snugly. I made simple cardboard dividers to fit between the columns.

Where are you in Poland, Stachu? I have one MZRH1 where half the display is dead - the Right side, where all the useful information is, annoyingly; and on my other MZRH1 the entire display comes and goes randomly. Maddening. You can add the sidecar and see quite a lot of information there, but not everything. Recording is guesswork - and the controls are so fiddly. Luckily I have one of those standalone Onkyo hi-mds where the controls are big and easy to use; but I don't think I'll be able to use Stefano's app with that.

Me too!! and I like Italian coffee too! Thanks for your answers, Stefano. Greetings to you in Italy, we are watching you closely from the UK to see what's coming next for us corona-wise... Your app is almost the best thing coming out of Covid-19 for me! (no, that would be a little sad! I live in the countryside and the air quality and peace-and-quiet quotient has gone up massively - birdsong is my only soundtrack now - and I am still just about able to go out for long walks without meeting many people. I'd like to bottle that feeling - and maybe sell it to make some much-needed money!!). But your App is a Godsend. Several years back I made a special 'Leopard' drive for my Mac just so I could continue to use Sony's MD app for Mac - but then it just packed up and wouldn't work at all and Sony just abandoned MD users altogether, so this new possibility is great. It would be amazing if you could make it work for Hi-MD. I'd recommend finding an MZ-RH1 to play around with, although they're expensive (€200 and more) when you can find one on eBay or similar, but it's a fantastic little piece of kit. Just a shame that the OLEDs tend to die after a few years, which makes seeing what's going on difficult or impossible. I shall run some tests this afternoon.

Fantastic, Stefano, I got it to work on my MZ-RH1 with the SP mode! This is going to save me so much time transferring files after years of real-time transfers. A couple of questions - 1) why can I only access your link with Chrome? It would be more convenient for me with Safari, for instance, but not a huge problem. Is it just going to stay web-only? or could one download it? whatever, it's great, nice straightforward interface. 2) I threw a couple of different files at it, eg an .aiff and an .mp3 and it started 'converting' them before uploading. What does it convert them to? Once uploaded it didn't show the filetypes in the title info for me. I still haven't had time to try reconnecting my MZRH1 to see if I'm getting the same problems as Stachu was having with it not being recognised etc. Will check it out tomorrow. But... great!! Because of Covid-19, I have no income right now (I'm a musician/instrument-maker/choirleader) but I would be happy to donate something for this when the world morphs into a new 'normal'. Are you in Italy? I wish you well...

Another source for those cool folding CD-like cases which periodically surface and disappear on Amazon: https://www.retrostylemedia.co.uk/product/clear-minidisc-case

One point of interest is that they're selling these CD-like cases, which some of us have been buying from a source at Amazon (which now seems to have dried up) at widely varying prices https://www.retrostylemedia.co.uk/product/clear-minidisc-case

Trying to use it with a Mac going to a MzRH-1 (the ultimate HiMD). It pairs up, the MD says 'ACCESS' but when I hit the 'Connect' button I get this message 'The requested interface implements a protected class' and no 'upload' window appears. What does that message mean? I would love this to work, since for about a decade I've had to transfer soundfiles in real time from computer to MD because Sony's app for Mac to pair with MD stopped working several OS versions ago. Meanwhile it looks amazing - BRILLI-ant ! Well done Stefano.

Indeed, I wondered whether it's worth the bother..but it's just more plastic in the ocean if I bin it. Other uses for dead MDs??? Had a look at the cloning procedure - looks complex, and I don't have any of those machines. Hmm, microwave, sounds like a laugh........but I don't have one. :-(

I have a disc which has one track with a TOC error. I managed to delete all the other tracks, but I can't delete the offending track. I can still record onto the disc but during Playback anything in proximity to the TOC error track shows 'TOC error' and won't play. I've tried the disc in several machines - on an MZ RH-1, for example, it won't load at all but goes straight to the 'TOC error' message. Is there any way to wipe the disc or reformat it, or is it toast?

That seems expensive! I got 50 for £29.85...?

kieronkirk - just wondering if you got a further discount for buying 100? (buying 50 works out cheaper per box than buying 20 on Amazon). They only seem to have a shopfront on Amazon.