Search the Community

Thought this might be of interest to anyone who has an MZ-RH1/MZ-M200 with a failed/failing OLED display: MZ-RH1 Compatible Display Modules Apparently @asivery is working on something similar for the MZ-RH10/MZ-M100 (some info in the comments on Reddit)

After Sphig's success with finding a method of replacing worn out batteries for the MZ-N10, MZ-E10 and MZ-1, I thought I'd look into a solution for those of us who have units that run on the almost impossible to replace LIP-4WM using the same inexpensive 3.7 volt battery sourced from eBay. The link for the battery is at the bottom of this post. Please only attempt this if you are confident in what you are doing and be sure not to short circuit either the old or new battery as this can be dangerous. I cannot be held responsible for damage to either you or your valuable MD equipment. For this you will need to sacrifice your old dead LIP-4WM as we will be using parts from it. 1. Carefully remove the sticker from the old battery. 2. Once the sticker is removed you will notice that the opposite face of the battery from the contacts is black and shiny. This is another sticker and you should also carefully remove this. It is very sticky so you may need to use the edge of a blade to lift the edge of it. 3. After removing the second sticker, you should see the silver metal casing of the battery itself. The battery is glued to the plastic casing and will need to be very carefully revoved without damaging the plastic back battery housing. I did this by gently flexing the end of the plastic casing furthest from the contacts away from the battery slightly and then sliding the end of a wide plastic cable tie in between the battery and casing to separate them. 4. Using a pair of scissors you should now be able to cut through the two metal tabs connecting the battery to the PCB with the battery contacts. Cut these as close to the battery as possible to leave as much of the metal as you can attacked to the circuit board in the platic casing. 5. You should now have the plastic back battery housing with just the contact PCB and its small plastic cover. Your new battery can now be placed in the plastic housing and secured using piece of very thin double sided tape or glue. 6. The wires from your new battery should now be soldered onto the tabs that the old battery was attached to, making sure that you get the polarity correct. You can see the correct way to connect the wires in the photos below (the negative connection is next to the diagonal cut off corner of the casing). 7. I then used a piece of regular sticky tape to go over the area where the wires and connections are just to keep it slightly more secure and less prone to accidental short circuiting of the new battery. I used thin sticky tape rather than electrical tape because there is very little room in the battery compartments of these MiniDisc units and electrical tape is a little too thick and causes fitting problems. 8. Finally I added a piece of sticky tape to the underside of the end of the battery housing that doesn't have the contacts and folded the end of it over to make a battery removal tab as shown in the photos, as the newly fitted battery is a very cosy fit (certainly in the NH1 I tested it with), and this gives you something to hold on to when removing the battery from the unit. You should now be good to go. As you can see from my pictures, my MZ-NH1 is now happily running on its new battery and I see no reason why this shouldn't be a success in any other MD unit that uses the LIP-4WM although I don't have anything other than the NH1 to test this for myself. The NH1 operates exactly as it should and charges fine from its charging cradle. I hope this helps any of you who, like me, are having problems with batteries that have seen better days. Good luck:) http://www.ebay.com/itm/181291308343?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

pretty much given up using my mz-rh1 to listen to mp3s on the go anymore in fear or dropping it or having to dig out the old g4 powerbook to transfer some tunes across from another hd on a recent incompatible mac and the help of a usb stick to bridge between the two. A terrible shame, and chore but I still do it sometimes anyway because i love minidisc, let me get to the point, my question to the forum is this - to make some minidiscs that i can use to play in the Onkyo MD-105FX; i need to get the music first from my computer to the disc somehow using my mzrh1 is this possible? am i going to have to literally make mds using my old mac with music transfer app and the mzrh1 to put mp3s on the hi md discs to then have to re record them back onto a disc in the Onkyo MD-105FX through the phono input in order to be able to use it,? i have a load of hi-mds and regular ones too and all i want to do is fill them with albums to play on the Onkyo MD-105FX I was hoping i could use my mzrh1 to do the transferring of tunes from the mac computer to put either wav or some other format that the onkyo can play im not even bothered if i will just be using the hi md disc as regular sp as long as i can get some decent stereo sound quality out of the playback on the 105FX. will anybody be able to help me or tell some tips on how (what formats and what software options i have to be able to do this) if you get what im trying to accomplish? i would massively appreciate any tips or guidance because this is gonna make me cry. what i can do is convert some flacs or mp3s to decent bitrate files or wavs to put on the discs with the mzrh1 but im not sure i can do all of this with the music transfer app. thanks j

Hi guys After a number of years, I recalled I still have the Sony's MZ-RH1 Hi-MD and found out it's still working and in an almost perfect shape. Even its original battery works fine, other accessories, too. Said "almost" because once I started to use it again, its OLED display faded quickly and it's almost unreabdable now - except when in total darkness. I know it's a common issue so I tried to look for a spare display and to learn is it possible to replace it but no luck. I wonder if any of you have any information is it still possible to buy the diaplay and how to replace it? Except the display, th unit looks/works like new so that would be a pity to put it back into its box... Any info would be much appreciqated! Greetings Stan

Hi guys Just re-discovered I still have the Sony MZ-RH1 and cleared some dust from it and begin to enjoy it again ;D I wonder which ATRAC version it uses when it comes to MD/LP2/LP4 SonicStage transfers and diect recoding in non Hi-MD modes? bests Stan

Hello again Please read my first topic how the problem started and what i fixed so far: http://forums.sonyinsider.com/topic/29962-mz-rh1-recording-problem-hardware-solved/ After the recording mode worked like new, i have still recording problems. I know my workbench isn't.... but i did it with all my patient i can get in to it. So i think i didn't bend anything.... Reading normal disc = no problem Reading Hi-MD = no problem Writing normal disc = problem in the beginning = now normal Writing Hi-MD = not working.... Normal disc not recorded, but after i push with some force on the upper head it worked. So i forced bending the upper head a bit down, now the normal disc works. format, record, move, pc and mp3 (still i believe a bit slower than my working model) Hi-MD only plays. But in the middle of my adventure a short period of time it worked. also from pc and mp3. I just pushed the upper head (metal bending part) down with force..... Sometimes it works and other times i tried 1 hour and not a single time it worked. Does anybody have a solution? Is the problem the lower head/lens part, is the problem the upper part (to strong, to lose)? Is alignment needed or is the upper head not so important? Do i have to edit the parameters in the service mode? I hope you can see in the pictures how i push on the flex part to lower the upper head for testing. (really sometimes it worked, sometimes not.....) I know from opening my "good" RH1 the flex part in recording is flat on the metal part. Mine is still a bit in the air but i feel a good amount of force the head is pushing down on the disc in record mode.

Hello all Here are a problem i found on a recently bought minidisc from ebay with no working recording. I really didn't know what is the problem. I only found interesting in recording mode the tray was not locked. So i open the minidisc to the all its single parts and found the issue. -->-->--> The problem was in the gearbox for the lock mechanism (the lock mechanism also lower the upper part of the read/write head). After a little autopsie and with some super glue i managed to fix the gearbox. What i beauty it work like new again. I hope you can enjoy the pictures and it helps others with the same problem. PLEASE WATCH THE ONGOING PROBLEM AFTER THIS MECHANICAL PROBLEM I SOLVED: http://forums.sonyinsider.com/topic/29963-mz-rh1-new-recording-problem-hardware-unsolved/

I have a MZ-RH1 unit , black, almost new, original box, in mint state, I used it for 12 hours in total. included are: 1GB HIMD MINIDISC AC charger 100-220V RM-MC38EL remote control with LCD and backlight USB CABLE SONY E0921 headset Rechargeable battery lip-4wm Manuals I could sell the unit at an interesting price and to somebody who takes good care of it. The MZ-RH1 is located in Spain, but could be sent to anywhere is needed. Nothing to hide. Here is a set of pictures taken yesterday, with different views of unit, package box, manuals, etc.

I ordered the MZ-RH1 MiniDisc item but I was advised that the products were shipping from Japan and would therefore work only in Japanese. I have downloaded the product manuals in English, but there do not appear to be any options to change product language. Is it possible to change the language of the device to English from Japanese, or is this unsupported? I would very much like to be able to use the MZ-RH1 unit - so please let me know!

So it's finally happened; both of my LIP-4WM gumstick batteries have died and will no longer hold charge. I see many of the LIP-4WM for sale on ebay and random places, but to my knowledge these are all original run Sony brand and are surely pretty old (bad news for lithium-ion batteries). Does anyone make replacements or equivalents for this battery? I dont care if its some tiny specialty place that charges $100 a pop, just would like to snag a couple of new ones

Also next question: What mike do you recommend (stereo) for use with the MZ-RH1?

Do you really need the mz-rh1 to transfer recordings on a MD to the PC? Why not use the optical output that is available on a number of minidisc decks to the PC for a perfect copy of the recording?

Hey folks. I'm head-banging again. Any creative input would be sincerely appreciated. I apologize for the long post, but I've tried quite a bit before asking for help. Background: I had SS 4.3 working fine with my MZ-RH1 on the old PC (Windows XP, SP3). Then it crashed. The hard disk was still fine, so I bought a new Windows 8 machine and added the old hard drive. Great, I can copy between the old E: drive and the new C: drive. So far, so good. I was excited to find SS 4.3 Ultimate on the forum here, and installed it on the new drive. Connected the RH1 to the USB drive and Win 8 started working with it, no problem. I use the RH1 for voice recordings, using Hi-MD. Problem: But SS 4.3 Ultimate won't let me play the files in my library! When I try to play one, error message says: Cannot play this track because its licensing information cannot be retrieved. For more information, contact the source from which you received this track. (000084e0) What source? Me?! The RH1? OK, so then I try to set this copy protection thing straight. Importing the files from the old drive didn't work. So I copied them to a new folder on the new drive and pointed SS to the new folder. Same error. Then I uninstalled & reinstalled SS. Same error. I selected all the files and tried using SonicStage’s command Tools > Convert format to convert all the files in the library to ATRAC3plus 352 kbps files. I unchecked the copy protection box to remove copy protection from each file as it was processed. But the “Result” window that appeared after the files were processed said: Conversion to OpenMG Audio (ATRAC3plus) 352 kbps. A file conversion error prevented some of the files from being converted. The following files were successfully converted to the OpenMG Audio (ATRAC3plus) format. 2011-10-12 17:48:52 [Note: This file (with a time stamp for a name) is the only file that got converted?! It's one of my recordings, just like the others, except out of the whole friggin' library, this is the ONLY file I can play using SS! Then the message continued:] Playback is not allowed. The file format may not be supported by SonicStage. [Followed by a list of every other file in the library other than the one listed above] Next, I optimized the database. No help, although SS seems to open faster. Next, I ran the SS File Conversion Tool. This is the one that you have to close SS to complete. But the last screen that shows after running says: The conversion is complete. Some tracks could not be converted. Note: Tracks to be converted are the tracks recorded as ATRAC format and imported from CDs. Tracks purchased from a music service (EMD service) will not be converted. The digital recorded tracks recorded by Hi-MD or some Memory Stick supporting devices cannot be converted. Then I clicked the “Details” button, and saw a list of files that failed to be converted (a list of my files, which were recorded on the MZ-RH1). A big fat help that tool is, since the only files I've ever used SS for are the ones I've uploaded from the RH1, using Hi-MD discs! Any ideas? I'm dumbfounded.

I have tracked down and bought in Japan, some LIP-4WM lithium batteries for the MZ-RH1 and similar. They will be expensive after fees and import duties.I will price them after import duties have been paid. Please contact me if you want to buy one. RB

So i recorded from TOSLINK using JA50ES. It had some 3 tracks. One from CD and 2 from Computer. The first track i recorded using sony SACD to JA50ES using TOSLINK. The other 2 tracks from analog. The minidisc was playing fine in my portable MZ-RH1 also Then a few days later i recorded more, but this time all from CDS using TOSLINK from sony SACD player SCD-XA5400ES to JA50ES. Now JS50ES shows 7 tracks, but MZ-RH1 now detects as HI-MD blank disc !!! why ?? disc is SP using ATRAC1 4.5.

I'm an owner of some old Sharp minidisc recorders - an MD-722 and an MT-877 - that I used early in this century to do live concert recordings. I haven't used either of these recorders in a number of years but during the time I used them I accumulated a collection of several hundred minidiscs, both 74-minute and 80-minute format, with recordings stored on them that I am interested in transferring to a PC so that the recordings can be catalogued, archived and backed up. I am also interested in being able to convert some of the recordings to WAV format so that they may be burned to compact disc or mp3. In the past couple of weeks I have done a bit of reading which has led me to conclude that the Sony MZ-M200/MZ-RH1 recorders would enable me to upload my recordings to my PC. I see that these come up for auction on that online auction site we are familiar with, but before committing to the spending the amount that these recorders seem to be selling for, I was wondering if I could possibly get some questions answered here on this forum. Any assistance would be gratefully appreciated as I have many recordings that I very much desire to migrate to the PC. My PC is running Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit, SP1. It is my understanding that these recorders are backward-compatible with the 74/80 minute format minidiscs. 1) Do I need the SonicStage 4.3 software that came bundled with these recorders to upload my recordings to the PC? I ask this because, in one of the auction listings, the seller stated that she never used the SonicStage software to upload recordings because the recordings could be moved to the PC by "drag and drop". 2) If I do need the SonicStage 4.3 software, will it run under Windows 7, 64-bit? I have read comments here on the forum that some have been able to run SS without problems, and some have not been able to run it. Any advice on this would be appreciated. 3) What file format would my recordings be in once they are uploaded to the PC? My only concern is that I can move my recordings to the PC in WAV format, or a format that can easily be converted to WAV. 4) Any other tips/caveats that would be useful knowledge in my effort to move my recordings to a PC platform would also be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Hello Minidisco Community- I'm seeking advice: now that my RH1 is starting to act up, I need to get a new one! But do I have to have an RH1? My RH1 had a NO DISC error that seems to have stopped(the error that is). I can play it as before but for how long? There is a good looking lightly used RH1 on Ebay right now for $550. That's not too much for me to spend on a unit I can hopefully expect many more years of life out of and enjoy so much. Having a HiMD unit means I can play my HiMD discs at any time. I'm hesitant to use my existing RH1 now. . . . There are lots of Std MD units on Ebay, and they're MUCH MUCH cheaper. But all my HIMD discs, and all that great music on 'em, become less accessible to me. As I see it, for portable use, I can: buy another HiMD portable unit and play everythingrecord all my CDs to my Sony JE520 deck(which makes GREAT sounding discs), and use either my MD-510 portable or another Std MD portable unit. Would require the purchase of a Std MD unit and a bunch of Std discs, which are still available and relatively cheap. Got any suggestions on the better quality Std MD units they sell on Ebay?maybe a more forward thinking possibility: use either SS or Sound Forge to record the CDs into a high quality codec, and play them either with my Sony MZ-E385 portable unit or another, better quality one?As I understand it, any HiMD .OMA files I have in SS cannot be converted to a Std MD format, transferred to the MD-510, and come out sounding as good since SS does not really have the 292 kbps codec in it- they get converted to LP2, correct? Thanx for the advice. . . .

Hello, I'm new here to the forum and I'm looking for a Sony MZ-RH1 MiniDisc player. Many thanks

Sony MZ-RH1 for sale ! LIKE NEW ! Hi, I am now selling one of my Sony MZ-RH1 walkman, since I dont really need it (I have 1 more). It have been used MAXIMUM 3 hours, it have no scratches and is working perfect. Included is original package, manuals, remote and headphones (which has never been used). Original reciept is also included from Mediamarkt in Germany. I can post here from Denmark anywhere in Europe at 30 EURO, and we can use Paypal for your safety of payment. This is the best MD ever made from Sony I think, it plays and records all MD formats and is very very rare now. Grab the bargain. 500 EURO or best offer over 400 EURO. First come first serve ! These units go for over 6-700 EURO now when they are hardly used ! PS: Also check my other adpost of the Onkyo MD-133 here: Contact email: peter_marquardsen@yahoo.com Peter, Denmark

can you use the mz-rh1 without the battery only with usb power? i just bought one and the battery is on the way from HK I was just wondering thanks for the help.

I'm listing my collection of minidisc players on eBay. Just posted here because I would not one of you minidisc fans to miss this opportunity. Any questions, please feel free to e-mail or message me http://www.ebay.com/itm/280939195683?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649 Thanks