arenson Posted September 9, 2004 Report Share Posted September 9, 2004 1) According to the article on minidisc.org about the new format, one needs to have Windows (for SONY). Is it the same for the other companies (JVC, Sharp?) I saw a note here that one can use Virtal PC with the SONY. Any further caveats, clarifications, etc. re any and all brands? 2) The article I read here mentioned one needs SONY's proporietary software to transfer music to and from the computer. Yet, it also said the machine can function as a USB drive with no drivers. Ok, I am dense. If one can tranfer a file to and from the machine like with any other USB disk drive, why would one need to woory about this proporietay software for music files. Can they not be transferred the same way? (3) Miscellaneous. A guy in the shop (here in Tokyo) implied that SONY's machine can go both ways, but Sharp's can only go one way (I forget if it was computer to MD or MD to computer).] Any comparisons of theese and other brands in terms of functionality, reliability, etc? I want to buy something that still allows me to use an English manual...is this a problem? I note that tehere are some manuals being listed here. Anyone know of machines with functions not covered in manuals issued in English? Primary use: Recording of interviews and live acoustic music, for uploading to the Internet (streaming mps) on sites such as Indy-media, etc. I have a Mac OS 10 portable (latest model). I plan to use Garageband or other similar audio recording software to mix tracks---IE, voice on tracks one and two, music on tracks 3 and four. Any advice anyone has is welcome. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qwakrz Posted September 9, 2004 Report Share Posted September 9, 2004 Ok, 1st If you have a Mac and want to use MD.... Nope, aint going to happen without a lot of fiddling afaik Macs are only supported if running virtual PC & even then I would get an oppinion of someone who owns MD & a Mac. 2nd Hi-MD machines can copy from Hi-MD to PC under the following conditions. The Hi-MD must be used in Hi-MD mode, use in MD mode will NOT allow transfer to the PC. All copies to the PC will have DRM (Digital Rights Managment) added to them which means that you cannot edit them or copy them except using sony's crippleware. You can get around this using some software to record the output of playing the MD back into your PC in realtime. (search the forums for the thread) 3rd Hi-MD can be used to store data information, the audio information is locked away in a heavily DRM'd file on the disc. It is stored at a specific location & encrypted. Only SS & SB have access to this data for putting the songs into it. The Hi-MD cannot see any audio tracks unless they are in Atrac format and stored within this file. Drag & drop audio will NOT work. 4th Sony are the only company that are making Hi-MD, all others are still making NetMD's. NetMD's as mentioned above will NOT copy audio from MD to PC. Hi-MD will but ONLY when in Hi-MD mode. Using a NetMD disc in a Hi-MD machine will NOT allow copying back to the PC as it will act just like a NetMD. If you dont have access to a PC I dont think that a Hi-MD is for you. It will record and do everything you want but you will not be able to get the recording back onto the PC / Mac without using realtime recording and either an anologue connection or USB, Virtual PC and some software to record the output of SS in realtime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dex Otaku Posted September 9, 2004 Report Share Posted September 9, 2004 1) Sony's software, which is required for transferring to/from HiMDs and to netMDs, exists on the Windows platform only. Sony has a long "tradition" of not supporting Mac for pretty much anything, from the network music players to video cameras et al. No other companies are producing HiMD units yet. netMD players are available from various companies but as far as I know, the basis for these on the computer side is still the same OpenMG software from Sony - meaning Windows support only. I have heard that SonicStage et al work on Virtual PC running under OS 9, but have not heard conclusively on this. Try searching the fora here for "mac Hi-MD" as there have been discussions on this before. As for caveats, clarifications etc. - Sony determines the standards for both netMD and HiMD; they require the same functionality of all liscencees, i.e. othre companies making compatible hardware. While you will find minor differences between, say, Sony and Sharp's offerings in terms of user interface and how certain features work, the basics will remain the same. 2) HiMDs, when connected via USB, show up as a USB mass-storage device. You can do drag&drop transfers with them for any kind of data files. Transferring music to be played on netMDs and HiMDs must be done using SonicStage [or the older OpenMG Jukebox]. netMDs play only the atrac3 format; HiMDs play both atrac3 and atrac3+ formats. There is no native support for any other format, including mp3, m4a/aac, WAV and AIFF, ogg, wma, etc. Anyting you want to play on netMD or HiMD must be transcoded to one of Sony's formats in order to work. Sony's DRM [digital rights management] is also a part of both the players and the software. DRM requirements [and no native support of alternate formats] are what keep simple drag&drop of music files from working; data files that are dragged and dropped are ignored by the player, and music files that are transferred using SonicStage are encrypted and "invisible" when HiMDs are used as data drives. There is actually one large [encrypted] file on the discs that contains all audio data, like having a file system running overtop another filesystem, if that makes sense to you. 3) HiMDs can transfer in both directions, keeping in mind the limitations that Sony's DRM impose. netMDs can be transferred to, but not from, regardless of who makes them. The limitations imposed by Sony's DRM include: * You can transcode and download [to the player] non-DRM'd wma as well as mp3 files and WAV files from your PC. You cannot upload these to another computer, though you can play them in any player and should be able to play them through SonicStage on any computer. Rephrased: you can connect via USB to a computer other than the one your music was transferred from and play [digitally over USB] using SonicStage, but can't upload. [someone please correct me if this is wrong, as I haven't tried it myself] * You can upload your own recordings made on HiMD only once; after uploading the original recording is marked as uploaded and can only be played from the original disc, not uploaded again. You cannot burn uploaded tracks to CD or export them in any way other than to other Sony network audio components, such as another HiMD disc, atrac3/atrac3+ CD as used by Sony's newer players meant for such, and Sony's hdd players. While the above are serious limitations, there are workarounds [see the thread here] that permit fully-digital transfer, which takes place in real time only. Sony have promised to release sometime this fall a wave converter utility to be a companion to SonicStage that will permit open export of uploaded recordings to WAV files for editing and writing to CD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Latexxx Posted September 9, 2004 Report Share Posted September 9, 2004 Primary use: Recording of interviews and live acoustic music, for uploading to the Internet (streaming mps) on sites such as Indy-media, etc. I have a Mac OS 10 portable (latest model). I plan to use Garageband or other similar audio recording software to mix tracks---IE, voice on tracks one and two, music on tracks 3 and four.ThanksA new version of Virtual PC for MacOS X will be available soon. It should be possible to run SonicStage using it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arenson Posted September 15, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2004 Thans all for the advice. Seems MD is not there yet. That said, if the workarounds just make more work, I guess I can either do MD in analogue real time or use another format. Any recommendatiosn on a decent recorder (MD or NOT) that will record music nicely enough, but mostly is relaible for interviews and the like? Thanks paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joseph23 Posted September 16, 2004 Report Share Posted September 16, 2004 greetings md people my q is related to q2 of arensons original post... am i right in thinkin that i can tranfer/back up all the files on my laptop to hi-md by just dragging and dropping? but to transfer music files onto hi-md i will need to convert them atrac3/+ and the drag and drop procedure will not work? does the DRM only stop me dragging and dropping music files or will this affect the likes of say movies or games that i want to back up to hi-md? any help would be GREATLY received as i am having real trouible getting these type of questions answered thnx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jadeclaw Posted September 16, 2004 Report Share Posted September 16, 2004 You can copy all kinds of file from and to Hi-MD using Explorer on windows or the Finder on MacOS or Konqueror on Linux and of course use Hi-MD to transfer data between all of these systems. To play music ON the Hi-MD unit, you have to use the supplied software (SonicStage) for that. The DRM-stuff has only to do with music transferred to and from MD with SonicStage. The files copied in data mode are completely unaffected by this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joseph23 Posted September 17, 2004 Report Share Posted September 17, 2004 cool, thanx jadeclaw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joseph23 Posted September 21, 2004 Report Share Posted September 21, 2004 so i can drag and drop and store music files in other formats as long as i dont want to play them back? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jadeclaw Posted September 21, 2004 Report Share Posted September 21, 2004 That is correct. Of course, you can point Winamp or any other Mediaplayer directly to the MD and play from there like from any other diskdrive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joseph23 Posted September 22, 2004 Report Share Posted September 22, 2004 thanx (again!) jadeclaw... i think im beginning to understand the potential and possible limitations of hi-md 's pay day next week and im now more tempted than ever to go buy a mznh1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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