Hi-md Music Transfer Software For Mac

Hi,I have a Hi-MiniDisc MZ-NH700 with a lot of music,and I´m trying to transfer it to my Macbook Pro with an OS X Lion 10.7.4 software.

June 2002
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• NetMD Topics

1. Announced in mid-2001 and first introduced on the Sony MZ-N1 portablerecorder in December, NetMD is an extension to the Minidisc formatthat allows direct transfers of compressed, ATRAC audio from a PC toMinidisc via USB interface. Audio transfers can be conducted at ratesconsiderably faster than realtime (up to 64x for LP4 audio on certain units).
2. NetMD equipment requires complementary NetMD PC software for controland data transfer functions to be conducted. By standardizing thePC<->MD USB protocol, Sony assurescompatibility between NetMD equipment and NetMD software packages fromvarious manufacturers.
3. Commercial
   • RealOne w/NetMD Plugin (RealAudio/Windows only):RealAudio has announced a NetMD plug-in for their MP3/streamingmedia player software. The plugin can be downloaded from within thefree version of the RealOne application (download) by following these instructions:

     (Version 2)

     • On the View menu, click Devices.
     • Under Devices double-click Add A New Device
     • On the pop up Preferences Window, under Deivces click Add A New Device.
     • RealOne connects to its mothership server andlists all applicable portable device plug-ins.
     • Click the 'Sony Music Devices' check-box. It then asks you to 'Click the Install button', do this.
     • When RealOne player completes the download and installation, click 'OK' to restart it.

     For mac monitor. (Older Version)

     • On the Tools menu, click Check for Update.
     • In the AutoUpdate window, click Devices.
     • Select Sony Music Devices Plug-in and click Install.
     • When installation is complete, click OK to restart RealOne Player

     Sony also has instructions for downloading and using RealOne Player.

   • Sony Software
     • Sonic Stage (Sony/Windows only):Supercedes OpenMG Jukebox (see below) as principal Sony tool for downloading audio to NetMD devices. Shipswith 2003 portables (MZ-NE410, .. MZ-N10).
     • OpenMG Jukebox2.2 (Sony/Windows only): This is the primary tool Sonyprovides with their NetMD equipment. Also supplied with Sony'ssolid-state music players (MemoryStick and Network Walkman), it allowsdownloading of compressed audio to the NetMD unit, as well as titlingand track renumbering. OpenMG Jukebox supports the SDMI concept oftrack 'check-out', wherein at most 3 copies can be downloaded toMinidisc before a 'check-in' is required (the check-in operationdeletes the downloaded audio track from the Minidisc).
     • Simple Burner (Sony/Windows only): This software isshipped with Sony's US NetMD units (download) and simplifies the downloading of tracksfrom PC-mounted audio CDs to Minidisc. The SDMI check-in/check-outrestriction is absent in this software and downloaded tracks maysubsquently be deleted from the Minidisc. Unfortunately, Simple Burnerdoes not support SP mode downloads.
   • Beat Jam (JustSystem Inc./Windows only):Supplied with Panasonic's NetMD equipment (mech trans of BeatJam announcement).
   • Muria (Kenwood/Windows Only): Suppliedwith Kenwood's MDX-J9 NetMD boombox.
   • InterJuke (JVC/Windows Only): Supplied withthe JVC SS-NT1MD mini-compo system.

   Non-commercial
   (Note that none of the non-commercial packages providehigh-speed downloading from a PC or Mac since the secure DRM aspectsof the NetMD USB protocol have not been cracked)

   • Open/NMD Project (Open source community/Unix,Linux and MacOS): In development; currently allows tracktitling and renumbering via shell commands.
   • WinNetMD (Christian Klukas/Windows): In development, currentlyallows analog, realtime uploading from NetMD equipment to PC. Windows GUIand command line based versions available.
   • Xmdv0.1 (Open Source Community, Pete Bentley/MacOS X, Darwin,FreeBSD, etc.): In development, currently only playback and titling functions arepresent.
   • M3U2Sburner (Paolo Sessa/Windows) M3U2SB automatesthe download of mp3 files to NetMD, using the procedure suggested by Dino. It will also extract titles frommp3 files and put them into the Simple Burner database so they don'tneed to be inserted manually.
   • SimplerMD (ClintMers/Windows) Similar to M3U2SB, SimplerMD automates theNero->SimpleBurner route, even handling more songs than can fit ona single CD.
   • GNetMD (Pete Ryland/Unix/Linux). A free suite oftools for using NetMD on Unix and Unix-like systems. It currentlyincludes an xmms plugin and a GNOME2.0 GUI and a gnome-vfs layer iscurrently in development.
4. So far:
   • Sony'sMZ-N1,MZ-N707,MZ-N505,MDS-NT1,MZ-S1,LAM-Z1,CMT-C7NT.
   • Sharp'sIM-MT880.
   • Panasonic's SC-SV1,SJ-MR250.
   • Kenwood's MDX-J9.
5. • Protected Tracks Audio tracks downloaded to Minidisc byOpenMG Jukebox and BeatJam are marked as 'protected' and cannot bedeleted or divided by most Minidisc equipment; only a 'check-in' withNetMD PC software will delete the track. (This feature ironicallymakes Minidisc portables with NetMD downloaded tracks as inflexibileas solid-state MP3 players). Tracks downloaded with Simple Burner donot have these restrictions however and behave like normally recordedMD tracks.
   • PC to MD Download Only Only audio downloads (PC->MDtransfers) are possible. Presumably for reasons of digital rightsmanagement, audio uploading (MD->PC) is not possible. (If thisstrikes you as oppressive, please consider sending polite email to [email protected]; Sony staffers compile andreport customer email comments on NetMD uploading to Robert Ashcroft,US VP of Portable Audio. We petitioned Sony on this topic last year, but have yetto see any result).
   • SP-mode Quality not Available Users can create SP, LP2and LP4 mode tracks on Minidisc through OpenMG Jukebox downloads, butaudio imported into OpenMG Jukebox (from CD, MP3, etc. sources) isconverted and stored on the PC only in LP2 or LP4 format ATRAC3files. So even when these files are downloaded onto the MD as SP modetracks, the tracks cannot exceed LP mode quality. NetMD downloadsthrough Simple Burner create only LP2 or LP4 mode tracks.
6. NetMD hacking is still in its infancy. So far, however:
   • Known elements of the protocol: The Open/NMD project isdocumenting the protocol as it progresses.
   • Further Protocol Documentation: The FreeMD documentation sheet has low level details of(known) NetMD USB transactions.
   • Encrypted PCM transfers for SP mode tracks: Judgingfrom the careful experiments of Lance Birch, it appears thatwhen NetMD downloading is being used for creating Minidisc SP modetracks, the OpenMG software decompresses the [always LP2 or LP4 mode]PC file to standard 16bit, 44.1kHz PCM audio, encrypts it, anddownloads that. The fact that PCM is being used for recording SP modetracks is heartening since it indicates that NetMD downloadscould retain SP mode audio quality, given the right PCsoftware. Though current NetMD recorders reportedly offer only 1.6xspeed downloading for SP mode tracks, USB 1.1's 12Mbps bandwidth wouldallow downloads at up to 8x realtime. Certainly the technology inSony's MXD-D40 4x speedCD->MD dubbing deck could be directly applied for this purpose.

     The PCM is encrypted in transit because Sony is trying to preventunauthorized access to 'locked' ATRAC3 audio that may have beenpurchased from online music distributors; failing to encrypt the PCMdata would allow hackers an easy way of making off with an 'open' copyof the song.

   • Unadulterated OpenMG file data transfers for LP2/LP4 modetracks :Birch's experiments reveal that the audio datatransferred over the USB link (sent in blocks of 4096 bytes) is nearlyidentical to the original contents of the OpenMG music files on thePC. Marc Britten comments 'the data transferred is not 100%identical, approx every 3 1/2 blocks an 8 byte block of data isinserted (we think this is a key) and the 8 bytes of OMG data thatappeared just before that key is repeated.'
7. Dino Inglese, a Minidisc T-Station message board member offersthis tip for using Simple Burner to circumvent OpenMG Jukebox (see hishumorous original posting).CAVEAT: You will need Nero, and Nero's Imagedrive feature, orsomething similar that can create a virtual CD disc image and allowyou to mount it to your desktop.

   Five easy steps to a clean and hassle free MP3->MD download

   1. Open Nero, select Audio CD from the presets and drag all the MP3's you want into it. Nero is far less picky about formats and sample rates. I found this method foolproof.
   2. Save or 'Burn' your CD to your hard drive (not your burner). Nero will give you a default filename of 'image.nrg'
   3. Use Nero's Imagedrive (bundled with Nero) to mount the.nrg (CD-image) you just created. Lets say Drive 'F' for this example.

      I am not an expert, but I found these first 3 steps took around 2minutes or less for a regular size audio CD (i.e. burning andconverting about 10 MP3 tracks to an audio CD 'image' on my harddrive). I have a 1GHz/PIII, so that helps with the MP3->PCMconversion times. A faster machine would mean proportionately fasterMP3 conversion and image creation.

   4. Select your 'virtual F' CD drive in Simple Burner and burn it to Minidisc.
   5. When you are done, trash the large .nrg file sitting on your desktop.

   If your machine is fairly fast then Simple Burner'sCD->ATRAC conversion is done in on-the-fly in RAM with the diskhardly ticking over at all.

   Advantages of this Method

   • You are using reliable software.
   • Checkin/checkout is avoided.
   • Unlike OpenMG, files aren't left all over your hard drive.
   • You can delete and re-arrange the downloaded tracks on your MD without having to resort toconnecting it back to your PC.
   • It is faster and doesn't thrash your hard drive.
8. CurrentNetMD download speeds require less than 20% of USB 1.1's 12Mbps peakbandwidth:
   • LP4 audio @ 32x download requires only2.1Mbps (i.e. 66kbps*32)
   • LP2 audio @ 16x is2.1Mbps as well (i.e. 132kbps*16).
   • SP mode audio at 1.6x is 2.25Mbps(i.e. 1411.2kbps*1.6). (Observing this, perhaps driver or interfaceproblems that restrict NetMD USB transfers to roughly 2.5Mbps reallyare limiting the speed of SP mode transfers! If so, the answer is yes, USB 2.0 would help, butso would simply fixing whatever the USB 1.1 problem is).
9. • PlanetMG (general OpenMG FAQ) Sony Singapore
   • Sony ('Ask Sony' interactive FAQ)
   • NetMD commentary at IGN for Men.

Copying Status: Public Domain. However, no liability is accepted forthe correctness and safety any procedures or advice given here. ThisFAQ is distributed in the hope that it will be useful. Also, pleaseinclude a notice that this file can be found at http://www.minidisc.org/minidisc_faq.htmlin any copies that you post.

• The Sony Europe MD FAQ liberallyborrowed from this document, but nonetheless provides a good summaryof the more complete document below.
• MinidiscForum.de has authored a German language Hi-MD FAQ.

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As always, I would be much obliged for any updates and correctionsfrom Sony Engineering. -EricWoudenberg

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