OMA & OpenMG Horror Story

[saynotooma]

I am really surprised that so many people continue to praise MiniDisc like it was some sort of brilliant concept. Read my story and you may change your mind. I can happen to you.

http://www.shivasongster.com/news/87/108/Sony-Sucks/

PS: If anyone has any ideas on a reliable hack for OpenMG, I am willing to pay per file for a conversion.

[sfbp]

It's not beyond the wit of man (woman?) to beat the encryption. Currently all that is required is for you to decrypt your files periodically, rather like backup. This way you can keep the size advantage of oma but with no problem to access the files across a network, for example, or from a revived backup on a different machine.

There's a group working on defeating the encryption. Meanwhile Sony still has the master keys and the algorithm which will enable anyone to access anything, one day. But their goal was preventing "illegal" copying, doubtless in part because Sony also owns Sony/BMG Music.

I suggest you hang on to the files.

I too have suffered .oma, but I have also suffered .MP3

In the latter case most often I have ended up not even wanting to listen. Which is worse?

[BIGHMW]

It's things like the scenario the topic starter has that makes me glad that I have BOTH my master MD's of all of my compilations as well as CD-R copies of them (I own pro decks like the HHB CDR-850 and also the Sony MDS-E10 so I can do them with no SCMS or DRM to worry about), as well as the master CDs/LPs/tapes they were recorded from. I always knew that things like this would happen, but you are not the only one, many iTunes (yuck!) users have also been screwed over with a similar problem, yes even the most "convenient" players and their proprietary software systems have frustrated all of us. For instance if you are on Head-Fi.org you are not allowed to in any shape or form discuss what I am doing here on this particular board (I am glad Chris lets us do that here much to Sony's shagrin).

I also have been advised by the folks at Mobile Radio in Brenerton, WA, just 50 miles south of me here at BIGHMW.com Headquarters here in Port Townsend that I should back up my MD masters, in which most of them have been done already(before obtaining my first [and still working] MZ-RH1 of a total of 3 of them and also upgrading to SS CP 4.2 in my PC) due to the use of older versions of SonicStage software and my MZ-NH700 as my main Hi-MD driver and player, so I am preparing for the worst, I have already looked into getting a newer, higher-speed PC with a larger hard drive and that will run on Windows XP Professional OS as to not compromise my current software and its lack of or questionable compatibility with getting a Windows 7 PC. I have also stocked up on MD/Hi-MD/NW-HD home/pro/car players/recorders/decks so I can keep on using my now-700+ MDs and 50+ Hi-MDs (most of them are still sealed and more of coming) for a good long time to come.

[A440]

One sad thing is that this whole problem was avoidable. Not even by converting to .wav, which takes huge amounts of storage space, but by using a recent SonicStage and simply running the File Conversion Tool, which makes those .oma files into .OMA files that are playable on any SonicStage. They are no longer linked to the particular Windows installation on the particular computer.

I have no advice for the OP if Sony Media Services couldn't save the data. But for anyone else who has a library in SonicStage, please, immediately, right now, before you surf to something else, go to C:\Program Files\Sonicstage and run the File Conversion Tool with copy protection unchecked. You owe it to your recordings.

[Stuge]

**Please do not post the same article in every section of the forum**