Re: [linux-minidisc] Current state?

[Kevin Ingwersen <ingwie2000@googlemail.com>]

Hey John!

Thank you for the very detailed response! And you totally nailed it: MZ-RH10 =). I would have gotten the MZ-RH1 if it wasn’t so expensive o.o…

The HiMDTransfer program that Sony offers is PPC only, therefore, a nono for intel-based Macs. So I am using a VM with WinXP at the moment, but bringing that up is not always very pleasant for just moving/copying some music data to the device. Especially when I am managing a whole audiobook, the software within the VM tends to become rather fuzzy.

I am glad to hear the project is still active, so I will keep my fingers crossed for when I can abandon my VM to actualy transfer the files using just my Mac.

Hope you can find some time soon - but good luck in general!

Kind regards, Ingwie.
Am 25.03.2014 um 22:16 schrieb 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