help burning OMA files

[jeddeth]

I have two laptops, one at work, one at home. Both run XP with Sonicstage 3.3. My minidisc recorder is the MZ-RH10.

For whatever reason I could not get SS on my home laptop to recognize my minidosc (it has always worked flawlessly in the past). So I took the md to work and transfered the files off it there. They are personal recordings I made at a concert on New Years Eve.

I didn't have time to burn them at work so instead I uploaded them to a server and then downloaded them to my home computer when I got home. I just imported them into SS and it wont let me listen to them or burn them.

Is there any way to get these files to burn. I don't really understand why they wont or how Sony's copyright protection works, but I'm so annoyed. I just want to burn a cd of the music I recorded. Can anyone help?

As a side note, I always burn a cd from the original OMA files because I've found that when I convert to wav first the sound quality suffers dramatically. Anyone know why that is? Is it that my soundcard is not up to parr?

I really appreciate any thoughts!

[A440]

You'll have to burn them on the computer you uploaded them to. Every installation of SonicStage is keyed to the computer it is on. Your .oma files are encrypted to that key.

SonicStage is specifically designed to prevent you from playing the encrypted files on anything but the original computer. It's just about the only thing the program has always implemented well.

The way to make the files portable is to import them into SonicStage and convert them to .wav, which is not encrypted (or use HiMDRenderer to convert them to another format).

The conversion to uncompressed .wav (or .flac with HiMDRenderer) should not affect the sound quality. If you are listening to the .oma files from the minidisc and the .wav files through the computer, then you are listening to the quality of your soundcard and not the files.

Have you tried the MDAC Repair Tool (from Downloads, upper right on this page) on the home laptop? It might help SonicStage recognize the unit.

[jeddeth]

Thanks for the response!

You know everything about MD, I'm way jealous.

I will try the MDAC Repair Tool right now.

I just dont get why they have to lock files I recorded myself. Oh well. It just seems silly because I'm gonna burn a disc and then rip it back onto the computer so the songs are all eventually unlocked and remain completely digital.

As for the sound quality. I totally agree with you, there shouldnt be a problem. But when I burn a disc in sonic stage directly from the OMA's the sound quality (especially in the bass) is much cleaner than if I burn the converted wav files (the bass gets distorted).

I think it must be my computer.

Thanks for the info and the possible solution!