Problems With Openmg Filetype

[mikeuk]

Hi

i've recently run into the following problem...

after my 1gb disc corrupted and i lost everything on it, there was 3 or 4 albums i lose that i don't own which i thought i'd lost for good. however, on searching through my harddrive i found that it had stored OpenMG versions of all the WMA files i'd copied to the disk, including these 3 or 4 albums. all the other tracks were replaced either from cd or from the original WMA files, but these 3/4 'lost' albums i replaced with the archived OpenMG files. they copied across fine but now they won't play back properly. Most of the tracks will just stop at random points, the counter keeps going up and i can still hear the beeps from my remote but the music won't come through. and it's happening at different points within the SAME song, so it's not a problem with the original recording. also, before the disc corrupted the same songs played fine, and at the moment all the other songs play fine, so i don't think it's anything to do with the history of the disc.

anyone had any similar problems? i haven't had the chance to recopy the OMG files to my disc to try them again, i'll give that a go as soon as possible.

thanks

Mike

[Guest tony wong]

1. did u play these "later found" omg songs in media player or SS?

2. many people here would be very interested to know : how would the 1G be corrupted?

[ksandbergfl]

on searching through my harddrive i found that it had stored OpenMG versions of all the WMA files i'd copied to the disk, including these 3 or 4 albums. all the other tracks were replaced either from cd or from the original WMA files, but these 3/4 'lost' albums i replaced with the archived OpenMG files. they copied across fine but now they won't play back properly.

Are you playing back the songs from the HiMD, or from SonicStage, or from Windows Media player?

Sony's OMG DRM does not like it if you delete or move the original source file outside of SonicStage. If you take MP3's or WMA's, import them into SS, copy them to a HiMD, and then delete the original MP3/WMA using Windows Explorer, you can have problems. You need to delete the original MP3/WMA from SonicStage, so that SonicStage adjusts its database and the OMG file's key appropriately (SS's database and the OMG file have to be in sync). If you can get these WMA files again (not new ones made from the same songs), and put them back in the same place on your harddrive, you might have success.

If you have the WMA files still on your PC, try playing them with Windows Media Player. If they play, try recording your "Wave mix out" with Total Recorder or Wavepad. Save the output to WAV files, then import the WAV's again into SonicStage. SonicStage will generate new OMG files with the proper keys and you won't have problems.

[Woodgnome]

As for HOW the 1G got corrupted - please read the thread with case number 140981444 in the title.

Faulty players - not discs - confirmed with three 1st gen Sony models NH900 & 2 off 700s

Paranoid Sony will not let you recover omg files. Sorry. However for next time..

1)Use Sonic Stage 2.1 to back up your library (this can take 20G + !!!!!!!!)

2)After corruption - restore your library. Sonic Stage retrieves the "KEY" from the Sony website during this process - allowing your omg files to work once more.

In my opinion it's paranoid, unacceptable and rubbish. In 15 years time - when Sony are owned by Nissan - and you've just got a box of old backup DVDs out of the loft - guess what - the omg files are locked forever!!! (Well that's why you use Norton Ghost to backup your system - but that's only of use if you can restore it to near identical hardware)

My opinion - use an uncopyrighted "ripping" strategy for all music i.e. mp3. Then - use Sonic Stage to convert to omg (leaving the mp3 originals in tact). View the omg files just as an intermediate format for making Sony "Copy Protected / Ultra Paranoid Discs"

;-)

P.S. I like Sony really - but they've gone a bit far with ATRAC3

Woodgnome

[mikeuk]

thanks for the responses.

"did u play these "later found" omg songs in media player or SS?"

i don't actually play the OMG files on my computer, as i say originally i didn't even know it backed up every song checked out to my player. the problems with playback are being experienced on my HiMD unit.

"how would the 1G be corrupted?"

read the reply before this one for more info. i personally haven't got a clue how it happened. i was using my unit to transfer some data files between 2 PCs when it just stopped half way and effectively 'crashed'. so i removed the USB lead, after a while the screen went blank, then when i tried to play the disc it told me to re-format it.

In response to the 2nd reply, the original WMA audio files were deleted to free up space (during numerous 'clearing out' and defrag sessions to free up as much memory as possible for the arduous task of 3d animation rendering. this was obviously, in retrospect, pointless as by copying the files to MD and deleting the WMAs i was simply replacing them with OMG files!)

i've just tried playing the OMG files through SS and they work fine, so i'm gonna try putting them onto my unit again and see if the same happens.

thanks

Mike

[mikeuk]

erm.. all appears to be fixed now

it's about 4 hours worth of music so i haven't listened to all the tracks, but i've recopied them to my HiMD and played a few of them randomly and they seem to be working fine. must have had some sort of transfer problem the first time round, guess we can mark this down as another SonicStage issue.

thanks for everyone's input anyway

Mike