[bangraman]

I'm utterly confused by this. I bought a Sony MZ-N707 a few weeks ago and I've installed all the software, etc and had a go at transferring some of my MP3's. It claimed a 32x transfer speed, and I'm not sure how that works out. On the Athlon 1700+ I installed the software on, it takes about 5-10 minutes to convert an album and when successful, it takes about another 5-10 minutes to transfer to the N707. Not exactly 32x.
That's when it is converted, as about 9 in 10 MP3's so far don't convert, and I don't know what's causing the problem. Entire albums go through the process of being converted and result in a blank playlist. I've found the OMG files and trying to double-click them results in an 'illegal file type' error in OpenMG. I can't return the recorder because I've given the remote to someone already (I bought the N707 to sit at home and convert my MP3's that I could listen to the on my Sharp MD-MT888). Surely this can't be normal? What's going on?

 

[archosman]

Yeah... I had alot of trouble with mine as well. Just gave up & use it for portable playing/recording. Got it cheap.

 

[bangraman]

That's not very enocuraging. Did I buy a turkey?

 

[PodMan]

The 32X transfer speed is for LP4 only and it does not take into account the time it takes to convert to ATRAC on your computer. "up to 32X" is only when transferring to your minidisc player via the usb cable AFTER it is already converted to LP4 form on the computer.

I've given up on the openmg software and have uninstalled it. I only keep the NetMD simple burner to convert audio cds. At least that is relatively easy to use although I dislike how it only gives you the option of LP2 and LP4.

 

[bangraman]

I've found out about Simple Burner, I've downloaded it and installed it but I haven't really used it in anger yet. I'm keener to transfer MP3's not audio CD's. I can rip CD's already to MD, it's the MP3 that I wanted. So is the upshot that it doesn't work? Because missing remote or not, I'm going to take it back then.

 

[Mystic]

I also have an N707 but I do not use OpenMG to transfer MP3s. It's filled with bugs, hate VBR, and just plain sucks. I use Nero to burn a CD image of the MP3s to Nero's ImageDrive. This converts the MP3s to .wav and basically creates an audio CD, but on a virtual drive, not CDROM. ImageDrive will then mount that drive and SimpleBurner will see it. Then use SimpleBurner to transfer to MD. For more details, visit the minidisct forum at:

http://www.minidisct.com/forum/index.php

Very close to the top you'll see "Most popular thread is An Alternative to OpenMG for Clean, Hassle-Free MP3 Downloading". Click on the link for all the info.

 

[bangraman]

Ah... crappy minds think alike. I'd already figured out exactly the same method yesterday as I use Imagedrive a lot while I was struggling with Simple Burner and how to get it to work over a firewall, but it really is too much bother. I'm calling Richer Sounds soon about returns possibilities even with missing bits.
Are the full sized NetMD decks any better? Because it's a pain to move my MP3's to my MD collectin the way I was doing it before (burn CD, dub) but I'm sure that's on the whole quicker and certainly more reliable than using OpenMG. Bearing in mind my experience, perhaps now they can slap a sticker on all dubbing decks saying 64x transfer as it's less than half the arsing around of NetMD

 

[bangraman]

Ah yes, regarding my hassles with Simple Burner and with CDDB lookup not working... It would be helpful to have it connected to the Internet wouldn't it? The NIC on that PC was partially disconnected, was about to throw the MD against the wall when I realisd that I didn't have Internet access at all.
I am such an idiot. OpenMG still doesn't work properly though and all in all it's quite slow. Any other tips anyone?

 

[Mystyler]

bangraman, what are you PC's specs?
OMG is the ultimate resource hog - try to throw as much RAM an CPU power at it as possible, and close every single running program you don't need.

 

[bangraman]

I tried it on two PC's, 1Ghz and a 1.7Ghz. oth with 512MB DDR RAM. Surely any application can't need more than this!
So far it's translated about 2 in 10 tracks, not a good ratio. Sometimes whole albums don't transfer. Some of these are downloaded, some of these are from CD's I have. Most of the CD's I ripped are with 192K VBR and the ones I downloaded are usually 192K non VBR. It's the uncertainty I can't stand, you wait and wait and find out it's transferred bugger all.
Simple Burner now I have it working is much quicker, about 10 minutes at most to do a CD on the 1Ghz PC, but still not 32x is it? It is quite reliable though.
I've gone from utterly gutted to extremely disappointed. Looking on the bright side at least my opinion of it has gone up!
Is there an alternative (not the burn CD in imagedrive method, which is a right old hassle) proper commercial solution for high speed MP3 to MD?

 

[bangraman]

Quote:

Originally posted by archosman Yeah... I had alot of trouble with mine as well. Just gave up & use it for portable playing/recording. Got it cheap.

I was quite excited when I got mine (well I'm excited whenever I go for a retail therapy session

). I got the MZ-N707 for the same price as the MZ-N505 in the cheaper shops on Tottenham Court Road (the electronics mecca in London).
I was waving it in front of Duncan when we met and he didn't look too impressed

It's a deep really nice shade of blue, all my other MD's have been silver so it was a nice change... The excitement wore off in, about 1 hour after I started to use it

 

[Mystyler]

OpenMG absolutely hates VBR MP3 files - perhaps that is part of the problem?

Unfortunately, at the moment, Simpleburner/Nero method is the best way MP3-->MD, and yes, the 32x is more or less BS, and you can only get anywhere near those speeds in LP4.