Hi-md And Mac

[eMDe]

Hello MD Community!

After Years of recording and enjoying MD Sounds I'am planing to buy me a NH900 device to step into the 1GB/PC World of Hi-MD, but:

What possibilities come with an Hi-MD Recorder connected with an Mac?

1) Is it possible to share data over the FAT32 section?

2) Is there any alternativ programm known to upload live recordings to an Mac running OSX?

thanxs

[dex Otaku]

Hi eMDe. Please note that these questions have been answered many times before, and that the board does have a rather useful 'SEARCH' function up at the top of the page.

In any case,

1) Yes - Mac users have reported that HiMDs do work as a USB data drive. Word is not in yet as to whether it's reliable or consistent in this capacity, but I don't see why it shouldn't be. Technically, any OS that supports USB mass-storage devices should be able to mount and use a HiMD for data only.

2) There are no programs for uploading to Mac, and Mac support isn't likely to be forthcoming from Sony, who have a long history of ignoring that segment of the market.

[eMDe]

Thanks for your fast reply!

...the board does have a rather useful 'SEARCH' function up at the top of the page.

Sorry, I used the search bar on the end of the page and had no results searching after Mac, OS and others.

2) There are no programs for uploading to Mac, and Mac support isn't likely to be forthcoming from Sony, who have a long history of ignoring that segment of the market.

It's a pity!

Hi-MD could be (or is) the first choice of portable live recorders but so many studio or home producers running there progs on Macs.

But I'am happy to see, uploading works on PC

[dex Otaku]

It's a shame they don't support Mac, yes.

It's quite ironic in a sense, too. The commonly-held perception is that Sony look at the fact that Mac have <5% marketshare, and simply shrug their shoulders at the idea of support because of this.

If that's actually the case, they're being quite shortsighted about it. Macs have a much higher slice of the pie if you look only at specific markets such as audio professionals, film professionals, TV pros, &c.

[eMDe]

Yes exactly!

And the slice gets bigger if you look after the actual sales of the gateway drug "I-pod"

In the End apple comes out with an "Ipod live" or something else with great Mic and Line-In.

And weeks later it's common for Macs and PCs.

As well after releasing Hi-MD, Sony stay cramped.

but i love this format,,tsss

[ROMBUSTERS]

here's a question for those MD users with a mac

ive heard its not 100% reliable to use the HiMD as a storage drive on a mac

however does it become more reliable if you format the drive to FAT or FAT32 via Windows Explorer? In this way the disc is formatted strictly FAT and not Sony HiMD/FAT hybrid.

Any difference?

[Michael1980]

Are there any reports of SS working on VPC (perhaps win2k)?

[dex Otaku]

Only one user has reported trying SS and VPC, and their finding were that performance was absolutely dismal [to the point of being unusable, I would say].

[jmg]

I have a G5 Dual 1.8. I tried VPC/Windows XP Pro. I would say it’s about 0.3X. Yes it’s three time slower than recording in real time with an optical cable! And SonicStage crashed often after downloading a track or two... The only positive point is that you have automatic track naming with SonicStage. But I prefer the "optical cable" method for the time being.

JMG

[eMDe]

... it’s about 0.3X....

woow! amazing

And SonicStage crashed often after downloading a track or two...

And does it work with uploading analog-recordings from the md in the same way? unstable and slow...?

.... I prefer the "optical cable" method for the time being.

in a sense it's much more MD style, Recording everthing what's making a Sound.

But in my opinion, getting the Sound into the Computer without a digital-out (actualy there is no Hi-MD unit supporting this feature) it's second choice compared to the uploading thing.

[cfjh111]

JMG, what happens when you plug in your unit by USB? Can you see the unit as a volume, and do your recorded trackes appear? Does it make a difference whether you recorded them yourself as opposed to ripped tracks?

Is there even one large audio track for the whole thing?

I'm trying to see if recording in PCM would allow this to upload to a Mac without software.

Thanks.

JCH

[dex Otaku]

JMG, what happens when you plug in your unit by USB? Can you see the unit as a volume, and do your recorded trackes appear? Does it make a difference whether you recorded them yourself as opposed to ripped tracks?

Is there even one large audio track for the whole thing?

I'm trying to see if recording in PCM would allow this to upload to a Mac without software.

←

The short answer is that no, you can't get the audio off the disc, regardless of what format you record in.

All recording on HiMD is wrapped in encrypted and DRM, regardless of whether it's done with PCM or atrac3plus.

When plugged in via USB, a HiMD will simply present itself to the host computer as a USB mass storage device.

The audio data itself is stored in a file [i would compare this to a virtual partition, similar to how compressed volumes used to work under DOS if you're old enough to even have any idea what I'm talking about] which the filesystem can see when the disc is mounted as a USB drive.

This file, as I said, is encrypted. Several other files go alongside it, for the purposes of storing track metadata and DRM information.

Any messing with the contents of these files will apparently invalidate the entire disc. Even attempting to make a bit-for-bit copy of the entire disc and then restore it will destroy its contents. This is [at least partially] due to the fact that Sony's DRM as well as how the drive is use by USB are determined by the hardware itself; accessing the drive for audio purposes does not use the same protocol as accessing it for data.

It's possible that if, in the future, someone cracks the encryption and transfer protocol, a filesystem driver could be written to access the audio directly. In the meantime, SonicStage and Simple Burner are the only existing options for accessing HiMD's audio portion.

[cfjh111]

Thanks. Not to beat a dead horse, but there has been plenty of misinformation here and there. I wanted to make sure that you have observed this to be true even on home-recorded tracks, which really shouldn't be DRM'ed?

It is suprising to me, since for example you can burn your own DVDs with CSS if you really want to, but most home users happily churn out unencrypted DVDs. So the Hi-MD disc has an encrypted file even when you recorded it yourself in PCM, huh?

Thanks.

Jeremy

[streaml1ne]

Thanks. Not to beat a dead horse, but there has been plenty of misinformation here and there. I wanted to make sure that you have observed this to be true even on home-recorded tracks, which really shouldn't be DRM'ed?

It is suprising to me, since for example you can burn your own DVDs with CSS if you really want to, but most home users happily churn out unencrypted DVDs. So the Hi-MD disc has an encrypted file even when you recorded it yourself in PCM, huh?

Thanks.

Jeremy

←

Yep. Audio transferred via SonicStage or recorded on a Hi-MD unit has DRM attached to it. Data copied to the disc through Explorer or whatever do not have DRM associated with them.

[jmg]

JMG, what happens when you plug in your unit by USB? Can you see the unit as a volume, and do your recorded trackes appear? Does it make a difference whether you recorded them yourself as opposed to ripped tracks?

Is there even one large audio track for the whole thing?

I'm trying to see if recording in PCM would allow this to upload to a Mac without software.

Thanks.

JCH

←

There is only one (BIG) audio track, regardless it’s in Atrac or PCM, or recorded with an optical or RCA cable or a mic (I tried all the ways). Name is something like ATDATA03.HMA. It’s in a folder named HMDHIFI, with 7 other smaller files. Perhaps there could be a way to open this big file and access the tracks... but it’s probably encrypted. The only thing I did not try is to upload music to the computer. I would not be surprised it would be very slow...

[marcnet]

All data within the large .hma file is encrypted. If you fancy yourself as a decryption cracker then go ahead. All you need is the algorithm Sony uses and the decryption key(s).

[streaml1ne]

There is only one (BIG) audio track, regardless it’s in Atrac or PCM, or recorded with an optical or RCA cable or a mic (I tried all the ways). Name is something like ATDATA03.HMA. It’s in a folder named HMDHIFI, with 7  other smaller files. Perhaps there could be a way to open this big file and access the tracks... but it’s probably encrypted. The only thing I did not try is to upload music to the computer. I would not be surprised it would be very slow...

←

http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=6509&st=0

Has the last stuff that anyone discovered while trying to circumvent Sony's shizzle.

[Linguini]

Does anyone think that the fact that the president of Sony, Kunitake Ando, was introduced at Mac World 2005 by Steve Jobs might indicate that Sony could be thawing the releationship with Apple and they might - you never know - port SonicSoundStage accross to the Mac.

[Philgood]

All data within the large .hma file is encrypted. If you fancy yourself as a decryption cracker then go ahead. All you need is the algorithm Sony uses and the decryption key(s).

←

thanks marc for your great tool !!! it did a first great job in converting my friends concert to burn it from wavelab...

if it's encrypted it probably wouldn't help to use the raw-data import function of wavelab, right ?

phil