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Strange record mode recognition problem.

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Jimma

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I first noticed this problem when I recorded a disc for my five year old niece a couple of months ago. I recorded onto a TDK MD80 using SonicStage in sp mode with a Sony MDS-NT1.

When she played the disc on her Goodmans GMD-16RB it incorrectly identified the recording as lp2 and played each track at half speed. I took the disc back home and tested it on various Sony portables and there was no problem. I re-recorded onto the same disc and tried again on the Goodmans and still had the same issue so I just used a different disc which was all good and thought no more about it.

Today I recorded an album onto a TDK MD RXG80 using the same equipment and then played it on my Sony CHC-CL5MD bookshelf unit which incorrectly identifies it as lp2 and plays each track silent. I then tested this disc on several portable including Hi-MD units and an sp only MZ-R55 plus an sp only MDS-JE510 deck all with no problems.

I then dug out the disc I had previously given my niece that had problems. I had re-used it and listened to the recording in the car on an sp only player with no problems at all. I put this in the bookshelf unit and it wrongly identified it as lp4. All the portables were ok with this disc but the MDS-JE510 only works with it on and off. Half the time it correctly tells me the disc has 11 tracks and lasts 54m 05s, and the rest of the time it says there are 35 tracks with a run time of 148m 11s.

It then plays the tracks at half speed and instead of the track titles it just says LP:.

This all seems very strange to me, as an sp only deck would normally just remain silent if an lp disc is used.

All other discs I've recorded with the MDS-NT1 and SonicStage this week have been fine.

Sorry that was a bit long winded.

Has anyone else experienced this problem and do you have any suggestions as to what might be causing it.

Thanks.

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Were these disks by any chance the ones with transparent cover? There's a "stray light adjustment" on some MD drives, and I think it only kicks in on these transparent MD's. I recall having very strange problems with exactly that one from TDK, recording using a portable, and then playing back in the car in my MD changer.

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This picture is of the exact two discs involved. I have used masses of each of these disc models before and have had no trouble with them or in fact, any other type of disc. Very strange.

I'm just hoping it's not a sign of an imminent problem with the deck connected to my computer.post-30423-0-80504600-1363790493_thumb.j

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I've definitely had trouble with the one on the right. Tres tres bizarre. Could it be the diagonal patterning on the underside, rather than the transparency of the top? Does the red one look like that too?

Also wondering what happens if you paint the underside (I don't have to tell you to be mindful of how MD mechanisms work!)

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one time i had an sp only deck play an lp2 recording at normal speed. it was a lp2 track that was already deleted from the disk before i recorded some sp on it. it never happened again no matter how many times i tried to duplicated it.

Maybe that's it - disk (at least TOC ) imperfectly erased?

I know the TOC is used by all formats including HiMD, and the rules for updating it are quite different to the rest of the image, at least for HiMD. So perhaps some info relating to old lp tracks got left around.

I only mentioned the disk because I had had trouble. Quite different trouble, except that it varied depending on the units i tried to play it in.

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I just tried recording over one of the suspect discs with the CHC-CL5MD to try and test the theory that there could be some sort of TOC hangover from a previous recording. The disc played fine on all decks.

I then recorded on it again using my computer and the MDS-NT1 and when I put it back in the bookshelf unit, the lp2 error was back.

I'll just have to record those two particular discs using something other than the drive on my computer.

It's quite frustrating that I'll have to check discs that have been recorded using my pc for compatibility from now on unless I can figure out what is going on.

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The error I got was quite unrelated - it just would not play (in one case the sound was messed on LP2 tracks, in the other I got no sound at all) in my MDX-66XLP. But the two disks fingered were almost the exact two you showed, the RXG80 series and the orangey one (74 instead of 80).

I have noticed that some NetMD units don't do that good a job from the PC. I recommend using HiMD portable to transfer to MDLP disks; I think the fact that all the HiMD units draw power from the USB may be something to do with it - it's too easy for a NetMD unit to get transient brownouts especially if running off NiMH batteries.

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I'm actually transfering to (fake) sp and very rarely use MDLP. The unit I'm using, the MDS-NT1, is designed specifically to be used as a computer drive and can only run off mains electricity.

It's strange as I've used this setup for years with masses of different types with no problems until now.

post-30423-0-37123700-1363914099_thumb.j

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Almost like there's some alignment parameter which is at two opposite edges of tolerance on two units, and the disk is closer to the one it was made on (of course) - when you try to play it on the other machine, it sees the data as outside its comfort zone.

I'd be inclined to do a full work up on the machine making the disks.

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