Abby Normal Posted July 11, 2009 Report Share Posted July 11, 2009 (edited) I'm a bit confused about something.It seems like a lot of people are left with the impression that you cannot get transfers of the highest quality in all cases for all formats to and from any particuliar MD unit and a computer (or another MD unit) unless your MD unit is an RH1 or M200. In reality, though, with only minimal additional work, can't you get the same quality from real-time upload/download via optical out? I know, you need to make trackmarks--but isn't that fairly trivial once you have it on the computer?My reason for wanting to know the absolute truth on this matter is that I'd like to consider other HiMD units as uploaders/downloaders--units that are considerably less expensive than the RH1/M200, but have optical out. I guess the other thing I'm not clear on is whether there are any restrictions on downloading--and if there are, in what circumstances. Am I correct in assuming that anything that gets uploaded in real-time over optical is free of any DRM restrictions?Let's leave the minidisc-linux project out of the discussion for now since we don't really know in the end what its full capabilities will be. Personally, I do hope there will be breakthroughs that help answer some of these questions.I'd like to hear people's experiences on this--not guesses or suppositions.Thanks. Edited July 11, 2009 by narp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfbp Posted July 11, 2009 Report Share Posted July 11, 2009 Very simple. There is NO HiMD unit with optical out.Now there's an idea, how about a MOD to build one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pata2001 Posted July 11, 2009 Report Share Posted July 11, 2009 (edited) never mind. Edited July 11, 2009 by pata2001 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abby Normal Posted July 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2009 (edited) Not never mind. Oops--okay, is that really an issue though? I know I mentioned HiMD, but really I'm talking about uploading content from non-HiMD discs. There are plenty of traditional MD decks with optical out. I guess the next obstacle is to find a good MDLP capable deck--those are currently more scarce than RH1/M200s, aren't they. Sigh.What I will backtrack on is my comment on linux-minidisc. Does anybody have any solid information on where that's headed and whether it can help people with these issues even if they don't have an RH1/M200?Very simple. There is NO HiMD unit with optical out.Now there's an idea, how about a MOD to build one?never mind. Edited July 11, 2009 by narp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfbp Posted July 11, 2009 Report Share Posted July 11, 2009 well.. you specifically said HiMD.Yes, long before Sony confused things with NetMD I was happy as a clam uploading via optical out. Not sure that LP really matters, if it's quality you're looking for. In any event, the following commonly available decks have MDLP and optical out:MDS-JE640MDS-JE770MDS-JE780 (has Type-S also, and USB *in*)MDS-JB930MDS-JB940MDS-JB980 (Has Type-S also, and USB *in*)MDS-JA333ESMXD-D400 (the only Combo deck with MDLP and optical out, also the only combo with Type-S) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abby Normal Posted July 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2009 (edited) Well, I said HiMD in the naive belief that HiMD units are newer and thus would be more likely to have the necessary accoutrements. Obviously when you're dealing with Sony, all bets are off. Very useful list, thank you. I guess that would be the other point--what's to be gained by uploading LP2 over optical, anything?well.. you specifically said HiMD.Yes, long before Sony confused things with NetMD I was happy as a clam uploading via optical out. Not sure that LP really matters, if it's quality you're looking for. In any event, the following commonly available decks have MDLP and optical out:MDS-JE640MDS-JE770MDS-JE780 (has Type-S also, and USB *in*)MDS-JB930MDS-JB940MDS-JB980 (Has Type-S also, and USB *in*)MDS-JA333ESMXD-D400 (the only Combo deck with MDLP and optical out, also the only combo with Type-S) Edited July 11, 2009 by narp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfbp Posted July 11, 2009 Report Share Posted July 11, 2009 what's to be gained by uploading LP2 over optical, anything?Well you can recover NetMD recordings this way. LP2 cannot be uploaded via USB except with RH1 (and even then the RH1 won't let you upload a NetMD download). You can even edit them, but I don't know exactly on which models. I have the first and last in that list - the 640 allows it, the D400 doesn't. But in between, somewhere Sony decided to restrict that.Coming back to your question about uploading (presumably NetMD since there is no problem with HiMD) with the project, the answer is a big fat "I don't know". Yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abby Normal Posted July 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2009 (edited) I got an update from one of the minidisc-linux developers. Resolving these issues is definitely one of their goals, but it is still very uncertain whether they'll be able to clear the hurdles necessary to do so--the main one being a full understanding of the encryption scheme used in the various operations. The best thing I got from his response is that it sounds like it is very much a focus of their work and they haven't given up trying to solve this problem. Edited July 11, 2009 by narp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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