Re: [linux-minidisc] Current state?

[John Paul Adrian Glaubitz <glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de>]

Hi Kevin!

On 03/25/2014 09:25 AM, Kevin Ingwersen wrote:
> I just picked up my MiniDisc for storing my school data again today,
> and remembered that I forgot to transfer an audiobook I need to
> listen for class to it. But then I realized, that the version
> of the QHiMDTransfer I have has this problem with transfering music
>  to the device. So I wanted to ask if this has been made working and
> available in the upstream version?

What kind of MiniDisc device are you using? Are we talking about NetMD
or HiMD? Guessing from the statement that you are using your MiniDisc
recorder as an external USB disk, I'm assuming you are talking about
HiMD.

Currently, transferring tracks to HiMDs is only supported as an
experimental feature for MP3 files which can only played back on
the more recent HiMD models (second generation, such as the MZ-RH10).

Transferring ATRAC3+ or PCM files is a bit more sophisticated as it
requires proper DRM keys to be calculated and the tracks to be
encrypted and signed. Thus, this is rather a goal that will be
implemented after all other features are in.

There is, however, an exception to this rule and it applies to the
MZ-RH1/MZ-MH100/MZ-MH200 MiniDisc models. These models were designed
to allow track transfers from MacOS X to MiniDisc. Since the very
minimal transfer application for MacOS X, HiMDMusicTransfer for MacOS,
does not know how to calculate the DRM keys, the aforementioned models
actually can calculate those keys themselves. It might therefore be
feasible to implement ATRAC3+/PCM track transfer for these models.

As for the project in general, it's not dead. Thomas Arp has sent in
a number of patches which add additional transfer capabilities for
NetMD devices which are due to be reviewed. However, I have been swamped
with work since January, both with my real-life job and my work in
Debian, so it won't probably be before April when I have time to sit
down and review the patches. I will need some more time for the review
since I have to test the patches with actual MiniDisc hardware to make
sure everything works fine and our users don't fry their MiniDisc
devices ;).

Cheers,

Adrian

--
 .''`.  John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' :  Debian Developer - glaubitz@debian.org
`. `'   Freie Universitaet Berlin - glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de
  `-    GPG: 62FF 8A75 84E0 2956 9546  0006 7426 3B37 F5B5 F913