Quick question about NetMD software.

[Thrush]

THinking of buying a NetMD (either deck or portable) to make transferring of MP3's to MD easier.

So couple of quick Q's I'm sure you chaps will know the answers to!

1) Which is better, OpenMG or SonicStage?

2) Why?

3) Which one, if not both or neither, will allow you to transfer from the MD back to the PC?

4) With these programmes, is faster copying possible, if you are writing to a disc at full quality (ie, not in LP mode) on normal 80min MD discs?

Thanks fella's, look forward to those reply's!

[belletristik]

1/2. I've never used the old NetMD software, but everyone seems to say that SonicStage is preferable. I think you are able to avoid check-in/check-out DRM restrictions and I think the software is faster and more stable.

3. Regardless of software, you can't upload to the PC using NetMD hardware.

4. I don't honestly know the answer, but I would doubt that SonicStage is the slower of the two.

I would say go get the new SonicStage 4.0.

[pata2001]

THinking of buying a NetMD (either deck or portable) to make transferring of MP3's to MD easier.

So couple of quick Q's I'm sure you chaps will know the answers to!

1) Which is better, OpenMG or SonicStage?

2) Why?

3) Which one, if not both or neither, will allow you to transfer from the MD back to the PC?

4) With these programmes, is faster copying possible, if you are writing to a disc at full quality (ie, not in LP mode) on normal 80min MD discs?

Thanks fella's, look forward to those reply's!

You CANNOT transfer MP3s without transcoding to Atrac with NetMD, and I don't think there are any HiMD deck supporting MP3 exist. If you want to transfer MP3 natively, buy a 2nd gen HiMD unit, NOT a NetMD.

1. OpenMG is OLD. Sonicstage has superseeded OpenMG LONG time ago. Currently, there is SS4.0 as the latest version.

2. No check-in/out limitation, MP3, WMA, AAC encoding, in addition to Atrac3/3+. Uploading with HiMD units.

3. What are you going to transfer? NetMD units CANNOT upload, regardless of software. If you want to upload legacy MD recordings (eg. SP), you need to get the RH1, as it is the only unit that can do it right now. Any HiMD units can upload mic/analog recordings. You will need SS3.4 or better.

4. Trasnfer speed on the RH1 has been shown to be faster, but still not as fast as USB2.0 DAPs. Regardless, it is still faster than realtime recording.

Edited May 27, 2006 by pata2001

[Thrush]

You CANNOT transfer MP3s without transcoding to Atrac with NetMD, and I don't think there are any HiMD deck supporting MP3 exist. If you want to transfer MP3 natively, buy a 2nd gen HiMD unit, NOT a NetMD.

1. OpenMG is OLD. Sonicstage has superseeded OpenMG LONG time ago. Currently, there is SS4.0 as the latest version.

2. No check-in/out limitation, MP3, WMA, AAC encoding, in addition to Atrac3/3+. Uploading with HiMD units.

3. What are you going to transfer? NetMD units CANNOT upload, regardless of software. If you want to upload legacy MD recordings (eg. SP), you need to get the RH1, as it is the only unit that can do it right now. Any HiMD units can upload mic/analog recordings. You will need SS3.4 or better.

4. Trasnfer speed on the RH1 has been shown to be faster, but still not as fast as USB2.0 DAPs. Regardless, it is still faster than realtime recording.

1. I realise that, when I said "transfer" I did realise that it would have to encode the MP3 to ATRAC. Transfer was just the term I was using to show I wanted to take MP3's from my PC and put them onto a MD, rather than the RECORD them onto an MD like I do now.

2. I don't know what check in/check out means, lol....

3. I mean to take music tracks off my current minidiscs, and put them onto the PC, probably as MP3 files. Again, I have never used NetMD and don't know a lot about it, so I had no ide if this was possible. I pressumed that since the operating software that's available is able to encode MP3/WMA/AAC to ATRAC, then it should be possible to convert ATRAC to MP3 etc... But as said, not having used it, I simply don't know!

4. DAPs?

Thanks for all your info and advice so far chaps, I look forward to reading more replies, as it's always usefull to learn new stuff!

[pata2001]

2. I don't know what check in/check out means, lol....

3. I mean to take music tracks off my current minidiscs, and put them onto the PC, probably as MP3 files. Again, I have never used NetMD and don't know a lot about it, so I had no ide if this was possible. I pressumed that since the operating software that's available is able to encode MP3/WMA/AAC to ATRAC, then it should be possible to convert ATRAC to MP3 etc... But as said, not having used it, I simply don't know!

4. DAPs?

2. With OpenMG and early versions of Sonicstage, the tracks you ripped from your own CDs are restricted, meaning you can only transfer them to a portable device (MD, AtracCD, NW, etc) only for up to 3 times. This restriction does not exist anymore with SS3.x.

3.

a. NetMD units cannot upload any tracks from your MD to PC via USB. Period. This is not software related, it is hardware limitation. As for now, the only unit that can upload legacy recordings on legacy MDs via USB is the RH1.

b. The music in your MD are not in MP3 format. They are in Atrac format.

c. Sonicstage cannot transcode Atrac to any other format (MP3, WMA, etc). The only way to do this is to burn the Atrac tracks to audioCD, and re-rip the track to any format you choose, or convert the track to WAV, and re-encode to your format of choice. Both precedures are called transcoding, and in general will reduce sound quality.

4. DAP = Digital Audio Player. Example: iPods, Creative Zen, Sony HD5/NW-Axxx. Most current hard-disk based or flash based DAPs use USB2.0 for data transfer, giving user really fast speed in transfering music (roughly 1 track every 2 or 3 seconds). In contrast, MD/HiMD still use sub USB1.1 speed, which is very slow.