Reconnecting with Minidisc and a couple of questions

[Philster]

Hi all, I'm new to this forum.

I got into MD from the beginning. I purchased a Sony MZ-1 back in the early '90s. When that unit died I purchased my first NetMD unit, the Sony MZ-N420D (blue). I continued to make recordings but lost interest about 5 years ago when I started ripping my CDs to flac files. On a fluke, I purchased a second NetMD player, the Sony MZ-DN430 'PSYC' (black). I used my new player just long enough to make sure it works, removed the battery and put it away. I put all my Minidisc stuff in a box and put on my closet shelf and forgot about it.

Yesterday I dug it all out and began playing with it. Both my NetMD players work. I put my 'PSYC' back into mothballs as a backup for when my blue players dies. My computer runs Win7-64 so my first task is getting SonicStage to work on it.

Question: Will the Sony MDW80PL 80-minute Premium Gold minidiscs work with my two players? These MDs seem to be readily available round the internet. Also, are they still manufactured yet?

Anyways, I plugged my MD players into my sound system and am surprised just how good they sound. I have 18 pre-recorded MDs and, Wow!, Wilson Phillips and Eric Clapton Unplugged sound awesome! I also love the fact that my two players use AA batteries, I'm so tired of recharging everything all the time.

I have about 100 MDs that I recorded from various sources, many of these recordings are the only version I have. I also have about 20 blank MDs. I do have a couple of iPods, they tend to be flakey and constantly need to be recharged.. My Nano is used mostly for podcasts, my Touch is used mostly as a PDA.

If I can get SonicStage to work and if I can find new blank MDs to purchase, I'll be back in the game.

Philip

in East Texas

[mmp64]

Question: Will the Sony MDW80PL 80-minute Premium Gold minidiscs work with my two players? These MDs seem to be readily available round the internet. Also, are they still manufactured yet?

Welcome back. Yep - they will work. I don't think Sony is still manufacturing anything MD related - but - you can find basically an infinite supply of blank MDs on eBay, including my personal favorite - the Gold Sony's you mentioned. I have the distinct pleasure of having bought the last pack at the Best Buy in Gastonia, NC.

[Azureal]

Welcome back for sure Philster!

We have a great little community here with a wealth of knowledge in all things MD. Check out the downloads section for the most recent and possibly final version of SonicStage Connect Player 4.2 Ultimate. This will install and run great on Windows 7 64 bit, it will also read and write to HiMD as is. In order to get the install to recognize, and give you normal full support for NetMD, you'll need to also download the NetMD driver package NETMD760. There is a thread here in the forums relating to the installation of this package.

Basically, you should not plug the NetMD device into your machine until you have extracted the driver to a known location, then direct the driver installer to that location. If it finishes looking for a driver and fails before you can redirect it, you'll need to go into the device manager and locate the unknown USB device, drill down on it and locate, update driver, point it at the extracted drivers and it should pick it right up.

Let us know if you have any issues! Welcome to the forums!

[Philster]

Thanks for the replys so quickly.

I'm glad those Sony Premium Gold discs will work, right now they seem to be cheaper than regular discs.

Also, I'm finding new players online for around $200. If I'm going to get back into MD then I better make sure I have enough hardware to keep me going for many years to come. LOL

Philster

[Philster]

Update: SonicStage 4.3 Ultimate Edition installed on Win7-64bit with no problems and the NetMD drivers work also. Last night I ripped a CD to ATRAC Lossless and then recorded it on a blank Minidisc in SP mode. WOW! Take THAT iPod! Looks like I'm back in business with Minidisc.

One minor problem. My older, blue, NetMD player won't record anymore. It reports that the inserted MD is write protected, even when it is not. My newer PSYC player records properly. Is there any way to fix this problem with my blue player?

Philip

in East Texas

[Jimma]

Hi Philip. Welcome to the forums.

The write protect problem is most likely caused by the sensor switch. It is worth having a look at it to make sure it is not damaged. You will find it at the front left corner of the floor of the disc compartment. It is a small plunger type switch which should be spring loaded. When the disc isn't write protected, a small circular hole in the underside of the disc is closed, therefore the switch is pressed allowing recording and vice versa.

Unfortunately this switch is tiny and difficult to replace but with a bit of luck the problem may just be dirty contacts in which case repeated gentle opening and closing of the switch may just bring it back to life.

If this doesn't work, I'm sure someone else will have further suggestions.

Hope this helps,

Jimma.

[sfbp]

Update: SonicStage 4.3 Ultimate Edition installed on Win7-64bit with no problems and the NetMD drivers work also. Last night I ripped a CD to ATRAC Lossless and then recorded it on a blank Minidisc in SP mode. WOW! Take THAT iPod! Looks like I'm back in business with Minidisc.

One minor problem. My older, blue, NetMD player won't record anymore. It reports that the inserted MD is write protected, even when it is not. My newer PSYC player records properly. Is there any way to fix this problem with my blue player?

Philip

in East Texas

Glad someone has been listening to me raving on about importing to AAL (or at least has observed the same thing... I only wish I had one of the devices that plays this unmodified - would simplify life, but my new flash walkman doesn't support any ATRAC).

I echo Jimma's comments about the WP switch.

Welcome to our forums!

Stephen

[Odyssey]

Keep Those MDs Spinning... Why else are you here?

[Philster]

After playing around with SonicStage and my NetMDs I am still discouraged. SonicStage works on my Win7 64bit machine but not fully. I can only transfer a couple of tracks at a time or it locks up. Also I can't transfer any files longer than about 15 minutes. Since I like classical music, this prevents me from transferring some of my classical music to MD.

Are there any tricks to make SonicStage work properly?

Thanks,

Philster

[sfbp]

What driver are you using?

Are you installing in the XP virtual machine or in native 64?

If the latter, did you get the right driver? Are you sure it actually ever transferred ANYTHING? It may look as if it is going through the motions (buffering up second one before first one has completed).

My educated guess is you don't have the right driver installed.

You will need NETMD760.SYS from our downloads section.

Sorry I re-read the thread, mea culpa.

I am wondering if you installed onto the Virtual machine. The phrase

"and the NetMD drivers work also"

makes me suspect this (BECAUSE THE DEFAULT DRIVERS DO NOT WORK IN "NATIVE" W64 of any release)

[Odyssey]

Keep Those MDs Spinning! WHY ELSE ARE YOU HERE?

[THIS SUCKS]

After playing around with SonicStage and my NetMDs I am still discouraged. SonicStage works on my Win7 64bit machine but not fully. I can only transfer a couple of tracks at a time or it locks up. Also I can't transfer any files longer than about 15 minutes. Since I like classical music, this prevents me from transferring some of my classical music to MD.

Are there any tricks to make SonicStage work properly?

Thanks,

Philster

i think your laser is bad! try to record an entire disk in sp mode with the line or optical in and play the whole 80 mins back and see if its ok.. then go back and try the computer download again.

[sfbp]

On the contrary, if he can record anything at all, the fault will most likely be a timing problem caused by running in VM.

Assuming I am correct, the only fix is to deinstall, and reinstall not using VM, but using the 64-bit drivers.

There's one other possibility, I admit - if we have a terminology disconnect and the "NetMD" refers to HiMD there may be some strange problems caused by inserting uninitted 80 minute disks expecting them to be formatted as HiMD. The TOC doesn't even get laid down until WELL after the first track is buffered up. So at some point the machine may be waking up as NetMD, and without the right drivers, as they say "Bob's your uncle" (and Fanny's your aunt).

[THIS SUCKS]

On the contrary, if he can record anything at all, the fault will most likely be a timing problem caused by running in VM.

Assuming I am correct, the only fix is to deinstall, and reinstall not using VM, but using the 64-bit drivers.

There's one other possibility, I admit - if we have a terminology disconnect and the "NetMD" refers to HiMD there may be some strange problems caused by inserting uninitted 80 minute disks expecting them to be formatted as HiMD. The TOC doesn't even get laid down until WELL after the first track is buffered up. So at some point the machine may be waking up as NetMD, and without the right drivers, as they say "Bob's your uncle" (and Fanny's your aunt).

i have seen many units with bad lasers that will record the first 15 mins then stop or it will start skipping..

[Philster]

Well, I only have 2 NetMD players, no recorders so SonicStage is my only option.

I've recorded several MDs, a couple of tracks at a time, and they play all the way through perfectly. It must be the drivers, I will uninstall and reinstall and see what happens.

Thanks

[sfbp]

You mean WITH THIS SETUP you can successfully record 2 tracks at a time?

You don't answer my question(s):

1. are you running SS on the Native Win64; or in the XP virtual machine?

2. what player are you trying to connect?

Too many variables for us to give you sensible answers. Re-doing everything is unlikely to work unless you take different choices.

[Odyssey]

[sfbp]

His problem has nothing to do with the design by Sony. Something went wrong. Please keep your comments factual or I will have to start editing them (this isn't the first time), thanks.

Stephen