SimplerMD Support/Discussion

[Webmaster]

Clint Mers develops SimplerMD, a Windows program that scripts together Sony's SimpleBurner and Nero to provide one shot downloading of a full MD's worth of MP3 audio.

http://www.minidisc.org/clint_mers

Clint has offered to provide troubleshooting help (at weekly intervals) for up to 3 months through this forum (and possibly longer as time allows).

[Guest Anonymous]

It work on my windows 2000 and sony n10

well done!

[Clint_Mers]

Thanks for letting me know it works with Win2000! The next time I release an update to the program I'll make a note in the documentation that it has also been tested in Win2000. Thanks.

[tmeg]

:roll: hehe good work. I wonder: does it send key-strokes or how does it control Nero? I think there is a Nero API available?

Another thing I thougt of. The windows media player (9) does now even support a Nero Plugin for writing to CD and therefore I think also to an Image. Perhaps this is somehow useful too? I need to think later about that.

Ah, and what do you think would be the advantage to use your program instead of m3u2sb? This works now for me very very good. Or nearly perfect, because with the daemon tools I don't even need to bother about burning the virtual CD, everything is automated.

Perhaps I should try the software before posting

[Bazirker]

I can't get it to work on my computer...

Originally it wouldn't work because I was running a funky version of nero. I fixed that, but now it messes up when it tries to load the image onto imagedrive. I always get an imagedrive internal error, but if I load the image myself it works. Seems strange to me that I can load it but the program can't...and the other problem is that I'm not getting track names in simple burner, but that's probably because I'm having to load the image myself. Any ideas on how to fix it?

PS - I'm 100% sure all my locations have been entered correcting in simpler md. I'm running a 2.0GHz 512 DDR SDRAM comp with windows xp.

[Clint_Mers]

Hiya,

SimplerMD doesn't launch ImageDrive and "control" it like it does Nero and SimpleBurner. The file dialog in ImageDrive is f***ed up and doesn't allow you to enter a complete path (ImageDrive isn't a very polished app -- looks like a quick and dirty utility added as an afterthought -- but handy nevertheless!), so I went a different way.

Instead, SimplerMD relies on the file association (not sure of the correct Microsoft-speak) with image files which should get created when you install ImageDrive. SimplerMD just tries to "execute" the image file, and relies on Windows to know what to do with it.

Try this: find the image file in Windows Explorer and double-click it. If that action mounts the image file, then SimplerMD should work fine.

I'm suspicious that that won't work on your system for some reason. If it doesn't work, fix that problem first, then try running SimplerMD again. You could try uninstalling/reinstalling ImageDrive. Let me know how it goes.

HTH!

[Bazirker]

Originally, when I double-click a cd image Nero opens it. I changed it so that imagedrive opens it, but it still didn't fix the problem...and I still don't get track names. What I really want are the track names, it's easy for me to load an image.

[Bazirker]

No, it unfortunately doesn't allow sp recordings....and please post your question on a thread that is relevant to the discussion.

[Guest Anonymous]

can someone explain how I can make the blank audio project saved on hard with the extension of 'nra' in Nero? The manual for simplerMD says that for the first run of SimplerMD, this step should be done.

Thanks,

Sam

[pookyhead34]

Clint, thanks for coming up with this!

I have a question -- when I make full CD's (i.e., albums or copies of CD's) in Nero to burn using my CD burner, I normally set the pause between tracks to zero seconds each. That way live albums or albums in which the songs run together will not have a two-second gap between the tracks. I normally do the same with the Nero-Simple Burner combo when I'm transferring to NetMD.

Does SimplerMD take care of this or automate this somehow?

Cheers,

M

[Guest Anonymous]

Bazirker: When you double-click an image, it should not OPEN ImageDrive, it should MOUNT the image. Deinstall/reinstall Nero and ImageDrive to fix the associations in the registry. It basically needs to call the ImageDrive program with the image file as a command-line parameter, I believe.

SimplerMD has no facility for skipping ahead to the track naming. Get the ImageDrive to work properly and everything else should proceed normally.

[Clint_Mers]

Newbie: Open Nero, create a blank audio project, save it to your hard drive somewhere. See Nero help files for more information.

[Clint_Mers]

Pookiehead34: How are you setting the gap to 0? If you're just setting disc-at-once, then I think Nero will remember the previous setting and use it when SimplerMD runs. If you're opening each track and manually adjusting the gap, then you're out of luck -- SimplerMD isn't doing that.

HTH!

[Guest Anonymous]

Thank you very much for developing this neat software.

OK, three issues I'd like to address- First off, the latest version of Nero has changed the way Image Drive's interface in a way that breaks your current method of "Ejecting" the currently mounted image and deleting the temp file. Is there any reason why you can't simply Execute a second dummy image instead of ejecting whatever one is currently loaded? That would prevent you from having to load up ImageDrive and mess with it, thus saving us a few seconds of the process.

Secondly - I can't get the titles to work.

Will SimplerMD automatically cancel the "GraceNote" messagebox that comes up? Doesn't seem to work for me.

Thirdly, I appreciate the option of omitting anything but alpha charachters from the title, but I would like to be able to keep the spaces in between the words, and just omit the track number. How about, any option to omit a predetermined amount of charachters from the beginning of the filename, or to omit all of the charachters up-to a certain string (such as " - ", or whatever.)

Again, thank you very much for developing what looks to be a very useful automation tool.

[Clint_Mers]

Omer: What OS and versions of software are you using?

[Guest Anonymous]

Bazirker: When you double-click an image, it should not OPEN ImageDrive, it should MOUNT the image. Deinstall/reinstall Nero and ImageDrive to fix the associations in the registry. It basically needs to call the ImageDrive program with the image file as a command-line parameter, I believe.

I wouldn't suggest you deinstall/reinstall Nero. I would suggest you change the actions taken by the file type - takes like, 15 seconds. Just in case you're not sure how to do it:

In XP

1. Go to the Tools menu/Folder Options.

2. Click the 'File Types' tab.

3. Find NRG files. Click Advanced

4. Select ImageDrive and click the 'Set as Default' button.

Much quicker than deinstalling/reinstalling.

[Guest Anonymous]

I actually figured that out and already did it...but it still doesn't work Thanks for the suggestion though, changing the file association is a lot easier than re-installing. I had to re-install anyway because only nero express was working for me, but that still didn't change the file association, so I had to do it manually. I just don't think it's gonna work for me...but that's ok, I don't mind using other programs.

Hey Clint, even though I don't think it's going to work on my computer, it is a really cool program. Thanks for taking and time and effort to make such a neat proggie!

[Guest Anonymous]

Well, let's see

WindowsXP +SP1 slipstreamed

Nero 5.5.10.20 (latest)

Simple Burner 1.0

As I've said, everything works fine up to the SimpleBurner stage, when the the GraceNote popup comes up. Then it just doesn't do anything.

[Guest Anonymous]

The above post is mine, forgot to enter name.

[Clint_Mers]

Baz: I apologize! I was in error when I said SimplerMD relies on the file association to work properly. Your original file association was fine -- my default open action for a .nrg file is to open it in Nero like yours was before I had you mess it up. Getting too old to trust my memory, I guess...

Ok... What SimplerMD is doing is calling ImageDrive with the .nrg file as a parameter. On my version of ImageDrive, that mounts the image. To figure out why this might not be working on your system, please reply with the following:

-Contents of all the settings text boxes in SimplerMD

-Your version of ImageDrive

Thanks!

[pookyhead34]

Pookiehead34: How are you setting the gap to 0? If you're just setting disc-at-once, then I think Nero will remember the previous setting and use it when SimplerMD runs. If you're opening each track and manually adjusting the gap, then you're out of luck -- SimplerMD isn't doing that.

HTH!

Clint: I select all audio tracks except the first one (pre-gap has to be 2 secs on first track), right click, go to properties, then set the gap to 0. Unfortunately, Nero doesn't remember track pre-gap settings for compilations -- see http://home.austin.rr.com/michaelc/nero.jpg -- it defaults to 2 seconds even in disc-at-once mode.

I think Ahead sees Nero as a CD-Mastering program, so you can specify the layout as exactly as you want, etc.

[Clint_Mers]

Pookiehead34: I don't see a workaround unfortunately. That would have to be a future enhancement of SimplerMD. Maybe if lots of people ask for it? I didn't address it with this version because I rarely listen to music (live albums, for example) where the default gap is really annoying. Sorry.

Omer: I thought from your earlier post that ImageDrive was the main problem. Now I can't tell from your more recent post whether you have an ImageDrive problem or not. Please provide more detail and your ImageDrive version. Regarding the dialogs in Simple Burner -- SimplerMD waits a while when you open Simple Burner, then sends ESC to cancel any dialogs. That could be either the "I found a match" or "I didn't find any matches" CDDB dialogs.

*How long are you waiting before you're deciding that SimplerMD has failed?

*Are you clicking anything during the process? (Important to leave the keyboard and mouse alone so you don't change window focus.)

*What exactly is in the dialog that you say SimplerMD is failing to dismiss?

Tell me more so I can help fix this.

You asked about dismounting images by loading a second image... I agree that may be more reliable, but it seems "cleaner" to me to unmount completely when done. If more folks complain of ImageDrive troubles, maybe I will either implement your suggested approach by including a tiny .NRG file with the setup program and mounting it when I want to unmount the real temp file. OR I could see if it's easy to issue the "Eject" command via Windows and ask the user what drive letter they use for ImageDrive. Either way would avoid having to find and press the button in ImageDrive by name. I'm still surprised, though, if ImageDrive changed enough since I wrote this two months ago to break SimplerMD. Please provide your ImageDrive version so I can see if it is different from mine.

Thanks!

[Clint_Mers]

I appear to have some mental block that keeps me from writing Pookyhead correctly. Oh well...

[Guest Anonymous]

Clint,

Great program - I had run into some initial problems that I resolved through a changing of the settings in Nero, but have recently run into an issue I cannot resolve. I see, however, that I'm not the only one with this problem.

I unfortunately am running into the same internal ImageDrive error with which Bazirker seems to have trouble. Like him, I can go through the process manually - create an image and burn it to MD using Simple Burner without issue; however, also like him, this same process encounters and internal error message in ImageDriver when I run your program. Subsequently, I can't get the process to run to completion.

I've followed your previous directions to resolve (save changing the file association for *.nrg (currently to Nero)) but continue to encounter the same issue.

I'm running W2k with a 1.9G processor and 512 RAM. I'm running ImageDrive 2.23, Nero 5.5, and Simple Burner 1.0.03.09100.

Finally, my SimplerMD text box settings currently are:

Path: E:My Documentsnero cacheAudio1.nra

Temp folder: E:My Documentsnero cache

ID path: C:Program FilesaheadImageDriveImageDrive.exe

SB path: C:Program FilesSonyNet MD Simple BurnerNetMDSB.exe

This looks like a great program, and I'm hoping to be able to use it if I can. Any help is appreciated.

-s

spavined@attbi.com

[Clint_Mers]

I updated my version of ImageDrive to 2.23 and sure enough, they changed the program a bunch (they made it look more professional) and this is breaking SimplerMD. I was using 2.20 when I wrote SimplerMD. I'll work on an update to work with the newer version of ImageDrive.

[tmeg]

Hello, apparently good work so far on your software Although technically m3u2sb is still a little ahead :roll: but I know that you have slightly different targets.

What I want to say is, that your app does not work on my German install of Nero and Windows. Probably because the keys and shortcuts have different names. So I would be glad for me and probably others if you read the keys from a text file. So we can provide different "versions" of this file for different settups. It is then also more easy for you to just modify this.

Another thing, you mention that your app is more reliable if no other windows appear because of focus problems. You could use my app "activate" to put any window to focus. (http://chrisxp.no-ip.info/files/activate.exe)

Like "activate Editor" or so. (parameter 1 is part or complete title of the window that should get the focus) I could send you the (Delphi) Source if you need it. But you could also just use the .exe file. Or just leave it as it is. Perhaps the developer of m3u2sb can even be so good and help you with his code for creating the Nero compilations (nrg) I think he worked on this file format.

You could also use my app for "polling" if the desired window has allready appeared. The activate program returrns error code 0 if it was successfull and error code 1 if it could not find the title. This way you would have not need to stick to fixed delay times in some cases.

Thats all for now! Happy coding (if you have time) or just have a happy day with MD music! :idea:

[Guest Anonymous]

Tmeg: I currently have not intention of adding multi-language support. Sorry.

[Guest Anonymous]

he doesn't want you to write the other language files yourself..he's just asking if you could perhaps make the facility to change the names of windows more accessible, so that he could do it himself

but then again I've got no idea how difficult/easy it would be

[tmeg]

he doesn't want you to write the other language files yourself..he's just asking if you could perhaps make the facility to change the names of windows more accessible, so that he could do it himself

but then again I've got no idea how difficult/easy it would be

Right, I don't even want to change some window names or so. For example in SimpleBurner (the English version!) a message pops up and asks "delete all tracks?" but the buttons are autmatically translated by windows to "Ja / Nein" and not "Yes / No". So I think if the app sends "Y" for yes, it does not work, because the app should send "J" for "ja" (space for the default would work on all languages in this case). But its not _that_ important. I use m3u2sb at the moment and I am quite happy with it. I could even change the interface of windows to English because of the multi language interface setup I did. Perhaps only Nero is German, but I could install the English one too. But then again, it is just a suggestion, for me alone there is no need for this.

I think it is not that difficult to read the keystrokes from a text file and not hard code them in the source. This even makes development and updates easier, but thats just what I would think without looking at the actual code.

Greetings :idea:

[DynamicSamurai]

Hey, I don't own a NetMD player, I own an MZ-R505, but I had a thought that ties in with the software you are discussing. Is it possible to use an MD Data drive to write these images to disc in a way that is readable by a sony atrac-3 compatible player?

just a thought :wink:

[Clint_Mers]

All: An updated version of SimplerMD has been posted to http://www.minidisc.org/clint_mers/

It has a fix for the ImageDrive problems. I implemented Omer's suggestion of mounting a dummy image in order to free up the temp image for deletion rather than trying to control ImageDrive. (First I tried using the Windows "Eject" feature, but found that wasn't releasing the image file for deletion.)

Please give it a try.

[PigeonHead]

Does it transfer names to MD as well or just the song with no title?

[Clint_Mers]

It can name tracks on the MD from the original source filenames.

[Greg_]

I have gotten this to work under Windows 98 SE with one problem. When the program gets to the point of burning the CD image in Nero I have to click on the button to burn and I have to manually enter ~TmpSimplerMD as the image name. After that it is all automatic unless I have a second group to burn and I have to click on burn again. I also had to change the file association for ImageDrive to work properly but that was a one time fix.

This isn't a big problem other than it is not fully automated so I can't start it and walk away.

[Guest Anonymous]

How do I get an early version of Simpleburner so I can use Simpleburner MD?

[Clint_Mers]

I have gotten this to work under Windows 98 SE with one problem. When the program gets to the point of burning the CD image in Nero I have to click on the button to burn and I have to manually enter ~TmpSimplerMD as the image name. After that it is all automatic unless I have a second group to burn and I have to click on burn again. I also had to change the file association for ImageDrive to work properly but that was a one time fix.

Sorry to hear that. I had not tested in Win98, but suspected there could be problems. Sounds like the file dialog used by Nero in Win98 is different enough from Win2k and WinXP to break the automation. Thanks for letting me know so at least I can update the documentation to say that it has problems in Win98. If you upgrade to 2000 or XP it should work fine for you, otherwise, as you point out, it won't be automated and there's not really any point in using it.

[Greg_]

Sorry to hear that. I had not tested in Win98, but suspected there could be problems. Sounds like the file dialog used by Nero in Win98 is different enough from Win2k and WinXP to break the automation. Thanks for letting me know so at least I can update the documentation to say that it has problems in Win98. If you upgrade to 2000 or XP it should work fine for you, otherwise, as you point out, it won't be automated and there's not really any point in using it.

It's still worth using for the ease of compiling disks and naming tracks from mp3 files. Full automation would be nice but it's still less work than naming tracks manually.

[UlyssesMo]

I kept getting an error message when SimplerMD went to mount the new image, just before it opened SimpleBurner to record. Internal Error #1001 or something like that. I tired playing around with some command line entires to see if I might be able to figure out what the problem was.

It seems to me that the command line doesn't like it when you have parameters and file locations with spaces... somewhat odd, considering it doesn't seem to mind the spaces when you are simply executing a single file with no parameters, but my guess is that it is unable to tell what is a parameter and what is a directory/filename. With SimplerMD, this matters only for the temp folder for the CD image.

Example:

doesn't work -

C:Documents and SettingsMrElephantDesktopSimplerMD Temp

works -

C:Docume~1MrElephantDesktopSimple~1

I don't know if my logic is right about the command line bit, but I do know that it took my way too freaking long to figure out how to get this to work.

Mo

Edit: I meant to add that I like the program, though, even if I was having problems with it. I didn't mean to sound unappreciative. Thanks!!

[Clint_Mers]

I kept getting an error message when SimplerMD went to mount the new image, just before it opened SimpleBurner to record. Internal Error #1001 or something like that . . . doesn't work -

C:Documents and SettingsMrElephantDesktopSimplerMD Temp works -

C:Docume~1MrElephantDesktopSimple~1

Thanks for posting that! I can check the next time I update the program and see if I can stick quotes around the filename to try to avoid this problem for other folks. I thought I had done that, but maybe I missed this. Missing quotes around parameters with spaces can cause this sort of problem.

I'll add this tip (no spaces in filenames and paths) in the troubleshooting section of the help file. Thanks! And glad you were able to figure that out.

Clint

[Guest Anonymous]

the exact error message that I (and Im assuming "we") receive when SimplerMD is trying to mount the image automatically is:

An Internal error has occurred

Error: 1001

Image file was not opened

File may be corrupt or used by another process

I tried changing the Temp folder name so that there are no spaces, tried directing NRG files to open using ImageDrive in the folder options area, and am using the SimplerMD version that was downloadable 3 days ago. Is there anything I'm missing? Anything more that I should be doing, or something that I shouldn't be?

Sorry to just be another person with a problem....apart from this complication, I'm stoked about the job you've done here. THanks!!