Is the new minidisc readable on Linux?
Bob van der Poel
I'm thinking of getting a Sony MZ-NHF800 or 900 to do some music
recording. From talking to guys in stores who don't know much more than
"payday's on Friday" and reading some Sony manuals I think that using
this unit to record in PCM mode will give me files on minidisc I can
read via USB on to my harddrive using linux.
Does anyone have any firsthand experience with this? Or, perhaps an
alternate suggestion for recording? I'd like to take a protable unit out
to a bar or coffee house and record my live band and (if the takes are
wonderful) transfer to a CD or other more perm. storage medium.
Thanks!
--
Bob van der Poel ** Wynndel, British Columbia, CANADA **
EMAIL: bv...@uniserve.com
WWW: http://mypage.uniserve.com/~bvdp
Bob van der Poel
Jose Maria Lopez Hernandez
>
> I'm thinking of getting a Sony MZ-NHF800 or 900 to do some music
> recording. From talking to guys in stores who don't know much more than
> "payday's on Friday" and reading some Sony manuals I think that using
> this unit to record in PCM mode will give me files on minidisc I can
> read via USB on to my harddrive using linux.
>
> Does anyone have any firsthand experience with this? Or, perhaps an
> alternate suggestion for recording? I'd like to take a protable unit out
> to a bar or coffee house and record my live band and (if the takes are
> wonderful) transfer to a CD or other more perm. storage medium.
>
> Thanks!
>
>
>
Surely not vey helpful, but I use to do the same thing in an analog way,
just connecting the minidisc to the line-in, and the sound it's very
good.
If you can use the minidisc as an usb-storage device then it's
done. By now every USB device that can act as a disk that I have
connected to Linux (digital camera, hard disk, cdwriter, phone with
sd card, even a Nokia Ngage) have worked with the usb-storage, but
be very careful, maybe your minidisc can't, I can't be sure of it.
--
Jose Maria Lopez Hernandez
Director Tecnico de bgSEC
jker...@bgsec.com
bgSEC Seguridad y Consultoria de Sistemas Informaticos
http://www.bgsec.com
ESPAÑA
The only people for me are the mad ones -- the ones who are mad to live,
mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time,
the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn
like fabulous yellow Roman candles.
-- Jack Kerouac, "On the Road"
jayaeromech
signals in a lab. Here's the thing... the data is stored on the
mini-disc in an encrypted, propriatary format, not as just files. For
example, when you use a digital camera, it usually stores the data as
.jpg or something and you can connect the camera and it appears as a
drive with all of those files on it. When you connect a SONY hi-md,
it appears as a drive, but the only way to get the acoustic data off of
it is to use Sony's software... which is only available for windows as
far as I know. It's really a pain.
-
Bill Unruh
]I've been using several Sony MZ-NHF800's to record underwater sonar
]signals in a lab. Here's the thing... the data is stored on the
]mini-disc in an encrypted, propriatary format, not as just files. For
]example, when you use a digital camera, it usually stores the data as
].jpg or something and you can connect the camera and it appears as a
]drive with all of those files on it. When you connect a SONY hi-md,
]it appears as a drive, but the only way to get the acoustic data off of
]it is to use Sony's software... which is only available for windows as
]far as I know. It's really a pain.
While the portable minidisks do not output digital data, AFAIK many of the
"desktop" minidisk machines do. (desktop=big box that you have in the stack
as part of your hifi system) Thus you could in principle output the digital
output from those and record them to your computer.
]-
Ed Skinner
> Does anyone have any firsthand experience with this? Or, perhaps an
> alternate suggestion for recording? I'd like to take a protable unit out
> to a bar or coffee house and record my live band and (if the takes are
> wonderful) transfer to a CD or other more perm. storage medium.
If you already know the "history" on this, then please disregard my
notes below.
When minidiscs first appeared, Sony manufactured a computer
peripheral device (I think the model number was P3A or similar) that would
allow the computer to read the digital information. The conversion
software (from the minidisc's digital format to, for example, mpeg or wav)
was proprietary, but available.
And then along came the RIAA, the Recording Industry of ...
To protect their interests, digital transfers of freshly recorded
audio were to be prevented. The most expedient route was to simply block
that transfer by prohibiting devices such as the Sony computer peripheral
device described above.
As of this date, you can only find these devices on Ebay, and only on
very rare occasions.
For the rest of us, if you want to record something and then end up
with a digital copy in your computer, you are forced to playback the
recorded audio (at 1x speed, of course) and re-record that from your
soundcard (via a jumper audio cable). Although the quality *can* be very
good (assuming you have good quality equipment and are careful about
setting both the playback and the record volumes for optimal quality with
a minimum of noise), the 1x speed is a royal pain in the ass.
To the best of my knowledge, this situation has not changed. (Should
you discover otherwise, I would *VERY* much appreciate an email.)
I would suggest that you review any claims that appear to be
different than what I've described above -- those marketing types can be
very clever with words -- and double-check the instruction book and,
preferably, talk to those who already have the units and ask specific
questions about how they do the "to computer" transfer because a lot of
them think the transfer is digital if the recording is digital on both
ends.
"It ain't necessarily so!"
Bob van der Poel
I'm not sure why this thread is suddenly reactivated ... but, that's
fine. As the OP I should add that I decided to forget and bypass Sony. I
got myself an IRIVER HP120 and have used it to record several live gigs.
I'm quite pleased with the results. It is not recording studio quality
... but I didn't record in a studio :) The HP120 lets me record as wav
or mp3 and the usb transfers are very fast back to my computer. And as
player, it does ogg as well. So, I'm quite happy to avoid all the BS
games that Sony is playing.
shakiro
> On Sat, 21 Aug 2004 12:29:55 -0700, Bob van der Poel wrote:
>> Does anyone have any firsthand experience with this? Or, perhaps an
>> alternate suggestion for recording? I'd like to take a protable unit out
>> to a bar or coffee house and record my live band and (if the takes are
>> wonderful) transfer to a CD or other more perm. storage medium.
Is laptop not portable enough?
shakiro