Topic: Capturing MD to PC

[Carlos E. Martinez]

This week was the first time I tried downloading MD to my PC using the usb cable.

I was so absent minded, that when I got my Sony MZ-RH10 recorder in May 2006 I didn't care if there was a program that you need (and a Net MD driver) to download the MDs to your PC.

To my surprise, capturing is rather limited I should say, as apparently you need to record in Hi-MD in order for the program to download them. Is that so? What about MD PCM recordings?

I must confess that I thought this would be a simple process, and I thought a digital transfer would be nice. But I can go back to the tradiditional transfer through my Mia card, if necessary.

[M]

There is no md pcm setting.  The settings for md are sp, lp2 & lp4.  I think that only the rh1 can upload them and I have read here that it does not do as good of a job as a real time optical transfer.

Your recorder can only upload himd recordings using sonicstage.  If your having problems you may want to check this place out.   

http://forums.minidisc.org/

[boojum]

Carlos - I do not know if you got an answer but to U/L your recorded discs digitally you will need the RH1.  On the plus side it can also U/L all you legacy recordings digitally, too.  I have an RH1 and like it very much.  It has worked flawlessly for me and records PCM.  U/L's are converted to WAV unless you specify some other format.  I use WAV.

Cheers

[flintstone]

Hi Carlos,

The MZ-RH10 was introduced in March 2005.  It's one of Sony's Hi-MD recorders, so it does have the capability to record uncompressed PCM to WAV files (digitizing at 16/44.1, that's the same as CD quality).  The Hi-MD disc holds about 90 minutes of stereo PCM. The recorder also can record in several ATRAC modes.  You can fit 7 hours of Hi-SP ATRAC onto one Hi-MD disc (decent quality, like FM radio), and an amazing 35 hours in Lo-SP (not so good, like AM radio).

The MZ-RH10 has three types of inputs for recording.  First is analog mic input.  The mic input can provide "plug-in" power to a mic that can use it. Second is analog line input.  Third is digital optical SPDIF, available through the line in port.   

There are two ways to transfer your tracks from the recorder to a PC.  The first is to play back the track, and use the line output as input to the PC's sound card.  This is not the preferred method for two reasons.  First, the recording has to be decoded from digital to analog in the MZ-RH10, then transferred in analog form to the PC, and encoded back into digital form by the PC software.  This will degrade the quality of your recording a little.  The second reason is that this type of transfer runs in real time.  So a 30 minute track takes half an hour to copy. 

The second, and more desirable, way to transfer recordings from the MZ-RH10 to a PC is by using Sony's Sonic Stage software and a USB cable.   The process is digital, which keeps the quality of the copy on your PC as high as the original.  And the file transfer happens a lot faster, maybe six times faster.  So a 30 minute track takes 5 minutes to copy.

Nobody likes Sonic Stage software. Check to see that you're using Sonic Stage 3.4 or higher.  The 3.4 version fixed a lot of problems and added useful features.   3.4 definitely will transfer WAV files you created from the MZ-RH10 to your PC.

Here is the link to Sony's USA support page for the MZ-RH10.  You can download Sonic Stage 3.4 from here.
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-home.pl?mdl=MZRH10

Sony's most recent Hi-MD recorder, the MZ-RH1, adds a useful feature not available with the MZ-RH10.  With the MZ-RH1, Sonic Stage can copy almost all standard minidisc ATRAC files to the PC, not just the HI-SP and HI-LP ATRAC.  So if you have recordings made on mindisc recorders before Hi-MD was introduced, the MZ-RH1 can help you copy them in digital form to your PC.  (The exception: Sonic Stage still won't copy tracks made using Net-MD.)

The MZ-RH10 is a great machine.  If you use it with Sonic Stage 3.4, I think your file transfer problems will be over.

Flintstone

Flintstone

[flintstone]

I forgot to add:  See page 34 of the manual for the MZ-RH10 to
learn how to select PCM, Hi-SP or Hi-LP modes of recording.

Flintstone