Re: MD: what is an SACD?
... pupu writes: I couldn't agree more. All we need is some noiseless ultra-sensitive analog storage medium...it's that easy! :) I thought I had heard sometime that laserdiscs used analog audio, is this true? If so, how's the quality? While analog storage has its merits, it does lend itself to different kinds of problems. For example, low batteries on tape players will lead to harmonic distortions (i.e.: that tape motors slow down, and the frequency falls), whereas low batteries on CD or MD units will just shut off the unit. Also, in VCRs, the more a tape is used, the more the heads stretch the ribbon (which is why you should never use cheap "ultra-fast rewind" gadgets). With stretched ribbons, sync signals get stretched, and the VCR has trouble with tracking. In addition, no modern computer can process analog signals without first running it through an analog-digital converter. Although I can see how analog equipment might produce higher "definition" sound, it would probably be pointless, since a lot of mixing is done in the studio with computers to start with, so the analog copy would only be as good as the digital master. - Anthony - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Recording level / Playback level
... Orange writes: I've been recording some of my own professional mixes using my MDS- JB920 and have noticed that the recording level indicator doesn't reflect the level of the audio on playback. Sometimes the level will peak and flash red (not very often) when recording, although I try to prevent that, but on playback the level seems to be one bar below and the peak indicator does not light up. This is true for almost all levels. Is there a reason for this? Perhaps to prevent users from recording at too high a level. That's because the red peak indication in record mode is telling you that your input is too loud, and that any samples over the peak (in the red) will not/can not be recorded. This is what clipping is; any samples over the red peak are clipped (discarded). Therefore, when you play back, the highest the recording can go is up to the peak, but never beyond. - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: OT: DVD Resolution
... las writes: Taking all of this into account, film still kills video. And film is analog. I can pick out any TV show that is shot in video vs film. There is a new TV show that is shot in HD video. At times it looks almost as good as film. But then the video looks sometimes creeps in. The reason why film usually looks better than analog video (i.e.: sitcoms) is because film is actual photography, and therefore has many times the resolution of video. A lot of the quality of any visual presentation (film or video) depends on the lighting. Because of the resolution of film, the director of photography (on a movie set, for example) can have the lights adjusted so that the smallest details are illuminated. On a video-based set, however, lighting probably won't be as precise, because the smallest little details won't be seen by the video cameras, and so there's no point in spending time and money on creating perfect lighting conditions. You can probably also tell which ones are film productions and which ones are video productions based on the placement and movement of the cameras. Film productions are usually shot with a single camera, whereas video productions are usually shot with 3 or more cameras. To the accustomed eye, the differences are quite visible. Regards, - Anthony Lalande - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: MD Music Trade Ring
... Stainless Steel Rat writes: Keep in mind that what you (or your "friend") are proposing is at best highly dubious, so publicizing that you are doing it is not a good idea. -- Rat [EMAIL PROTECTED]\ Happy Fun Ball may stick to certain types Minion of Nathan - Nathan says Hi! \ of skin. PGP Key: at a key server near you! \ You know what IS dubious? Happy Fun Ball! I don't trust that thing! :) There are other similar ideas on the internet. One interesting one is [1: The Art of the Mix] where people submit mixes, and an e-mail address. What happens beyond that is not the web page's responsibility... [1] http://www.artofthemix.org/ - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Listening to compression
... you can see details in dim light, and you can see well in bright light, but a sudden transition from dim to bright or vice versa leaves you blinded: the input has exceeded your dynamic range window, your visual system has "clipped" ... Hearing is not much different, except that you don't have the equivalent of the AGC that the eyes (pupil, iris) have.) While I'm not sure what exactly AGC means, I have heard somewhere that ears are able to focus and lose focus of sounds and noise in a dynamic way. I was once advised to buy full-ear headphones as opposed to ear-buds because sounds hitting the outer part of the ear actually help the inside of the ear adjust to what it's listening to, and can help prevent damage in a way that ear-buds cannot. Does anyone know enough about the working of the human ear to validate or deny this? - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: lossless compression
I beg to differ. The format is called MLP (Meridian Lossless Packing) and it is distributed by Dolby Labs. It can compress any PCM file, and yes, it is supposed to be used in DVD-A. So if CDs can hold 74 minute of uncompressed audio with 650 Megabytes, a (Single-sided, single-layered) DVD with 4.37 Gigs could hold... 509 minutes (8.48 hours) of uncompressed (CD-quality) audio 2545 minutes (42.4 hours) of MLP-compressed (CD-quality) audio 5599 minutes (93.3 hours minimum) of MP3-compressed audio * * I once read that MP3 gave compressions of 11:1 up to 20:1, but I don't know what setting (bitrate, frequency, etc...) this is at. Of course, none of this is related to MiniDisc, but interesting nonetheless. - Anthony L. - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: ATRAC loseless compression techniques...
No. In fact none do. Conventional compression algorithms operate on fixed-size blocks of data. Real-time compression of an audio stream is easilly possible with a bit of buffering. The issue is not that but compressing fast enough so that the buffer is not overrun. Well, in effect, the answer is yes. It does require a whole set of data before compression, but to combat this, the data is split into blocks, and each block is compressed individually from a buffer. I'm wondering if you would get better compression by treating the whole stream as 1 block, and then compressing that, or compression in many smaller blocks. I guess it all depends on the compression used. - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: ATRAC loseless compression techniques...
32-64K blocks is the norm for high-level compression these days. That is what bzip2 uses, and boy is it slow even on a fast Pentium-III. One minute of linear PCM is ~8.75MB. You would need a supercomputer the size of a refrigerator to utilize a block size that large. Well, I can go to sleep tonight feeling that much smarter. Large pattern-matches and combination-matches are the promise of quantum supercomputers, but that's another forum altogether. - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: md-l-digest V2 #854
Pretty much correct. Something to note: the ATRAC specification has never changed, but the sophistication of implementations has. The older versions all used fixed point arithmetic, because the readily available DSPs were all fixed point. Newer machines actually use floating point DSPs, at least in the home decks. This will have some impact (audible? dunno) on the accuracy of the math used to encode or decode the audio signal. If I understand the full ramifications of what you've just said, I think you've just answered my question, but because I'm curious, I'll ask anyway: Can the different ATRAC compression algorithms result in data loss that is not directly related to ATRAC? For example, is it possible to get more definition in a recording with a company's v1.0 compression/encoding engine (algorithm) than with the same company's later (and presumably better) v8.0 compression engine? - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MD: ATRAC loseless compression techniques...
Lossless compression is what people generally call programs like WinZip. When you compress a file with WinZip, it takes up less space and when you decompress it you get the exact same data that you compressed. In other words, it doesn't lose any data in the compression and decompression process. Right. Your analogy to WinZip gets me wonderin'... Does any loseless compression algorithm require the entire set of data for read access before it begins compression? If you wanted to encode audio with a loseless compression, could you do it in real-time or would you need to wait until the entire recording is complete, and then compress afterwards? Would the results be as good in real-time than as a post-process? This is, coincidentally, why audio MD equipment would be very poor for data storage. I believe this has been discussed on-list a few times. ...and if I understand correctly, data would have to be encoded into some sort of audio stream designed to be completely loseless when converted with ATRAC, right? ...or maybe embed some sort of error-correction mechanism...? - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: MD
I don't think cassettes were *ever* considered "high-end." When they were introduced, the quality of reel-to-reel tape was vastly superior... just hard to take with you on a jog ;) Cassettes were introduced as a portable, but lower-quality, music source. You're right. Regardless of the quality, technologies are bound to line themselves up in the consumer markets. Cassettes were only high-end when they were rare, and expensive, somewhat in the same way MiniDisc or DAT formats are in the consumer (not pro) markets today. It just so happens that MiniDisc and DAT are also technically high-end as well. - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: md-l-digest V2 #853
People today are so spoiled. Go back 15 years to the era of LPs and cassettes. Minidisc sure sounds like high quality to those of us who are old enough to have been music lovers in the pre-digital age. By the way, many of my favorite recordings never saw the light of day in the digital age. The music only exists on LP (or in some cases cassettes). The important thing is the music...not the technology! ... Then why do we have this forum?? :) I think it's all subjective. Cassettes are low-end, because of their low signal-to-noise ratios (I think; I'm not an expert in this sort of thing), but they were high end once. So were vinyl records and Victorolas. I don't think it's a question of being spoiled versus humble either. Though I understand what you're saying, I don't think I should be called 'spoiled' just because I want to listen to a good-quality recording of the music I like, and was never around when vinyl records were the 'big thing'. So far, I think this thread has defined 2 axioms: 1) Lossless compression formats are always technically superior to lossy formats. 2) Compromises in quality are perfectly acceptable, in accordance with certain external factors (what is being recorded, where it's being used, how much it costs, etc...) ...with more to come, I'm sure... - Anthony Lalande - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Sony E500 vs. E700 vs. E900
[snip] Where I can truly see a use, is for lecture / seminar recording, or personally for recording audio books. Agreed. As a student myself, I have toyed with the idea of recording lectures on my Sharp MT-831. Though it's not LP by any measure, I can still assure quite a bit of recording time on 1 MD by recording in Mono. In the same way that ATRAC compresses by removing imperceptible audio data, I can do the same by removing 1 of the redundant audio channels recorded with a mono mic. On the other hand, a friend of mine has discovered that he was able to get quite a clear sound by plugging his earphones in the microphone jack. I listened to a recording he made with a friend, each person talking in one side of the earphone, and the stereo separation gives interesting results when listening to the recording. If someone were serious about recording and perhaps archiving class lectures, it might be possible to get a [1] stereo microphone and attempts to record the teacher on one channel, and any class discussion on the other. [1] http://www.planetminidisc.com/ecm-ds70p.html Cheers, - Anthony L. - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Sharp MD 831 remote
Anyone else noticed that the remote on this machine is of a very poor build quality. Mine started to lose the silver coating around the round STOP button and I've only had it a week! One of the main problems reported on Minidisc.ch with the Sharp MT-831 is that the paint comes off the unit. I've had the unit for about half a year now, and haven't had any problem with paint peeling off. - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Playstation 2?
Does the system allow titling via USB keyboards as well? If you have a USB-PS/2 adapter, they can :-) Does such a beast even exist? - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Playstation 2?
| hey | from what i have read... why would you need one a keey board for a PSII | can u access the internet? what can u do besides play DVDs and games, and | cds? Umm... you can't play MiniDiscs on it, so I guess it really isn't an issue here. I think I understand the confusion (because I really don't understand that first message). A PS/2 keyboard is not the same as a keyboard for a Playstation 2. PS/2 is a type of connector that attaches a normal computer keyboard to a computer. PS/2 keyboards can also be used for titling. Can USB keyboards? Certain systems boast the ability to connect to a computer via USB. Does the system allow titling via USB keyboards as well? - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Analogue MP3 -- MD track markers
* Anthony Lalande [EMAIL PROTECTED] on Sun, 31 Dec 2000 | ...but keep in mind that many DVDs cannot read CD-Rs and certain types of | CD-RW. Apparently, some brand of CD-RWs are more easily read by DVD players | than certain other brands. Some DVD-Video decks cannot read CD-R, but all should be able to read CD-RW. Not so. My General Electrics DVD player cannot read audio CDs I burn onto CD-RW. There are DVD burners available, but they run in the neighborhood of about 5000$ each, and that's not counting the expensive and processor-intensive software that you have to use to compress movies onto DVDs. ...but that's for another forum altogether... - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: MD Minisystems, Aiwa XR-H66MD
I am looking to buy an MD minisystem on a very tight budget. I can get a refurbished (which is fine with me) Aiwa XR-H66MD for around $190 shipped. I don't know much about the unit itself, but I have heard that Aiwa stopped supporting MiniDisc technology in it's new products. I don't know what the corporate climate is like at Aiwa, but you may find it difficult to get support for the unit. I know this is a great deal, but I've heard some bad things about the unit and was wondering if anyone else had some experiences to share. Also, I was looking at the sharp MD-C2 and the new MX30 (I've been unable to find an MX30 cheap enough for my poor ass :) ) If price is a concern, you can always look into the MX20. I think PlanetMiniDisc is selling the MX-20 for 280$ US. With your 10$ off, that brings you to within 20$ of your 250$ budget. If anyone has any info about the MX-20/MX-30, I would appreciate hearing it. Regards, - Anthony - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Analogue MP3 -- MD track markers
Now, what I recomend doing is, if you have a CD or DVD player with optical output, use WinAmp (or whatever) to convert to PCM WAVs, and burn CD-Rs or CD-RWs with Nero. I like Nero over CDRWIN because I can easilly set the intertrack gap to whatever I want, and has an on the fly rec level normalization filter. Very spiffy. ...but keep in mind that many DVDs cannot read CD-Rs and certain types of CD-RW. Apparently, some brand of CD-RWs are more easily read by DVD players than certain other brands. Some DVDs are marketed as "CD-R ready" or boast "dual-discrete pickup". Don't ask me what DDP is, but I know that it allows you to read burnt CDs. CDs and DVDs seem to each have their shortcomings, which is why I think a lot of us subscribed to this list... :) - Anthony - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Recovering deleted tracks
=== = NB: Over 50% of this message is QUOTED, please = = be more selective when quoting text = === Yes, it has been, and I've answered it so much that I was hoping someone else would this time. No one has, unless there have been some posts where my copy was lost, so I'll do it now. | I erased 3 eight minute stereo tracks on a Sony MZ-R37 portable, | resulting in a blank disc. | I've not recorded anything on it since. I'm also getting a JVC XU-301 | deck soon. | I'd appreciate any help you could give me on how to undelete them. Once the TOC is saved after the deletion, the only means of recovery is to write a TOC on another disc that includes every address on the entire disc in an active track and, to clone that TOC to the disc where you made the unin- tentional (or regretted) deletion, and then to reinsert track marks and titles as needed. TOC cloning methods have been found for most Sony decks and some Sharp portables; check the MiniDisc Community Portal at www.minidisc.org under "Hacking." Nobody has shared a method for any Sony portable nor any JVC unit, though, so you may have to borrow a different MD recorder or visit someone who owns one. I think there are labs that deal with the recovery of data from Hard Drives where the directory (TOC) has been wiped out. If the data is really precious (and you're willing to pay the price), perhaps you can find a lab that would do this for you. - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: What is Sony thinking?
... The real culprit in this battle is the RIAA, whose silly rules create the problem in the first place. If it weren't for the fact that, for legal reasons, every consumer device capable of recording digital audio sold in the US must be classified as either an audio recorder or a computer peripheral. [...] But this was the era in which MD was born, and I think we're still bearing the legacy of that thinking to this day. Hello! First of all, I would like to introduce myself. I bought my first MiniDisc portable player/recorder (the Sharp MD-MT831; imported from Japan at considerable expense) last summer. I am now thinking of purchasing a MiniDisc/CD/Radio deck for my room which would act as a dubbing station and an alarm clock. This decision came after I recently realized that I've become a pretty big proponent of the MiniDisc format. Either way, with regards to the above, I have to say that I was extremely disappointed with the legislation imposed by the RIAA when I first learned about it. I've heard of many great technologies held back by legislation or politics, and I find it sad to see that the MiniDisc format is one of them. To conclude my introduction, I would like to know if anyone knows anything about the Sharp MD-MX20 deck. It was the first deck I saw that truly suited my needs and thankfully, the least expensive. Does anyone own one? Does anyone have any feedback that may help me in my buying decision? I've already searched C|Net, Minidisco, PlanetMinidisc, Minidisc.org and MiniDisc.ch, but the Sharp MX20 seems to be too new, and no one has any real information on it. Thanks for your time, - Anthony L. - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
