No, there is a read-only label track on each MD that distinguishes an MD Audio and MD Data disc, MD equipment looks at this label to determine what kind of disc it is accessing. An MD audio disc inserted in an MD Data drive shows up as having 1k in disc, 0k available. The ATRAC encoded music information is not accessible. An MD Data drive user has written some information about the MD Data drive and cross compatibility.

This information came in part from a Japanese magazine "MJ" and the 9/96 issue of the German Stereo magazine: In a word: No. The perceived problems with optical interconnects relate to an optical cable's greater theoretical potential to distort the digital signal, particularly to create small inaccuracies in the arrival time of data bits ("jitter").

Sony claims in their Magneto Optical FAQs that data may be stored with magneto optical technology for more than thirty years without loss or degradation. Once written to the disk, data are safe from the magnetic fields and heat found in normal environments. However, strong magnets placed directly against the MD can destroy data, as evidenced by informal experiments conducted by users. In contrast, a modern (ca.

Using TOC cloning techniques, tracks recorded in one mode can have their UTOC bits changed to allow them to masquerade as audio data of a different mode (see the track mode bit assignments in the UTOC). David Tamkin has kindly conducted experiments that allowed him to produce this table:

For a stereo signal it's 292162.5 bits/sec. ATRAC compresses 512 incoming 16 bit samples (1024 bytes) into one ATRAC ''sound group'' (212 bytes) giving an audio compression ratio of 4.83:1. Here is the math: 44100 samples/sec (incoming single channel rate) bits/sec. ATRAC3 (used in MDLP) runs at 132kbps (LP2) and 66kbps (LP4). See the MDLP FAQ for further details. ATRAC is 292kbit/sec, giving ''CD like'' audio fidelity. MPEG Layer 1 (i.e.

On recordable MDs, 32 out of 36 sectors in every cluster (the smallest recordable unit) are used for storing audio data. Of the remaining 4 sectors, 3 are needed to accommodate the start up and run out of the error correction code, as stated in the Minidisc IEEE paper: ''Because of the long interleaved ACIRC error correction code, three sectors must be used as "linking sectors.

According to Minidisc Rainbow Book recommendations (a ''remark'', not a mandatory requirement) the virgin space that runs to the end of the disc (if any) is always the first allocated, followed (in ascending disc address order) by the remaining free segments located throughout the disc. Free segments smaller than 6 clusters (one cluster is slightly more than 2 seconds of SP mode stereo) are not allocated until enough adjacent area is freed to make an open space of at least six whole clusters.

With the proper cables, yes. You would use the same analog cables listed above for recording to another audio device from MD, simply switch the inputs/outputs. For a computer, this would mean connecting an analog cable (usually a 1/8" male to 1/8" male miniplug cable) between your MD unit's line out to your sound card's line in.

SonicStage (download) mediates all uploads from Minidisc to PC (or Macintosh, with Sony's MZ-M10 and MZ-M100 Hi-MD units). Conversion of uploaded audio to .wav format is done by SonicStage itself as of version 3.1. In prior versions audio may be converted to .wav file using Sony's Wave Conversion Tool (only for mic or line-in Hi-MD recordings) or using the MarcNet Hi-MD Renderer. No. Sony has stated that only analog-source recordings created on Hi-MD equipment will be eligible for upload.

ATRAC stands for Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding. Atrac is a very intelligent compression method; it doesn't just blindly toss out data. ATRAC attempts to follow the perceptual model of human hearing to determine what the human ear can and cannot hear. Anything determined to be inaudible or masked by other sounds is where the compression occurs. The end result: Audio that sounds (to the human ear) exactly like the original, but at 1/5 the original size.

For calculating available Hi-MD capacity when using a mix of recording modes, Peter Ravn has made a Javascript-based Hi-MD space planning calculator.

Access the PilotGEEK web site, optimized for your PC. The briefing page provides a report for a route or a single location where you can view: Notificaiton of active TFRs for the requested airport or route’s NOTAM area, with a link to the faa’s TFR site To get to this site, just point your PC’s browser to www.pilotgeek.com/briefings.php to get a fixed size pop-up page or add the page www.pilotgeek.com/routing.php to your favorite's list.

Here's a page that describes how to make wavs from MP3s and WMA's with Winamp or Sonique: http://www.geocities.com/cdrippers/mp3tocd.html. Here is a good freeware program that converts between wav, WMA and MP3 (in either direction, MP3 to wav, WMA to MP3 etc). dBPowerAmp. (Homepage for dBPowerAmp).

The speech output audio format is a simple WAV (a.k.a. RIFF) file. The sample rate is 16KHz 16-bit linear, i.e. 16,000 samples per second, each sample a 16-bit integer, mono (not stereo). The website uses these wideband voices for best quality. We also ship 8KHz versions of the voice (8,000 per second, one 8-bit Mulaw value per sample) for a 4-times reduction in voice database size.

To ensure that the Blu-ray Disc format is easily extendable (future-proof) it also includes support for multi-layer discs, which should allow the storage capacity to be increased to 100GB-200GB (25GB per layer) in the future simply by adding more layers to the discs.

Login to "My Blackboard," > Tools (left side of screen) > Personal Information > Set CD-Rom Drive >Submit Login to "My Blackboard," > Login to specific course > Tools > Personal Information > Set CD-ROM Drive > Submit.

Run Cakewalk's Clean Audio Disk routine (Tools | Clean Audio Disk). To prevent any loss of audio data, make sure your .WRK files are stored on the computer's hard drive (not any removable media drive), and carefully follow the directions presented in the Users Guide. (Back to top)

You must log on to your computer with Administrator rights or Power User rights to fully use the disc. Normally, you should have Administrator rights, unless you are working in a corporate environment in which case, you'll need to contact your IT department to have them install the software for you. On Windows XP Home Edition system you will need Administrator rights (typically the default setting) as well, not User rights.

There is not much information about this other than what Sony says in their brochures and what appears in occasional magazine articles (thanks primarily to Japanese MJ and German Stereo magazines for their detailed reporting). Since ATRAC's transform window size (11.6ms) and signal processing structure are fixed, the improvements come primarily through improvements to the signal processing step's mathematical accuracy and refinements to the bit allocation process.

In order to get ATRAC files onto compatible devices, you must first use the MUSIC PLAYER application to import the files from the disc. From MUSIC PLAYER you can then export these files to ATRAC compliant jukebox software (supplied with ATRAC compatible portable devices). If you already have such a jukebox on your computer you may set MUSIC PLAYER to export the files directly to the jukebox. To do this please go to Menu -> Options -> Export within MUSIC PLAYER.

According to the Blu-ray Disc specification, 1x speed is defined as 36Mbps. However, as BD-ROM movies will require a 54Mbps data transfer rate the minimum speed we're expecting to see is 2x (72Mbps). Blu-ray also has the potential for much higher speeds, as a result of the larger numerical aperture (NA) adopted by Blu-ray Disc.

Maybe. The Sony HiMD minidisc recorders, released in mid-2004, promise to allow file transfers over USB from the minidisc to the computer, but we haven't had a chance to try this yet to see how it works. It's unclear how easy this will be, and seems likely that it can be done only via Sony's own Windows-only software. Most minidisc recorders do NOT allow movement of data from the minidisc to the computer vis USB.

One of the keys to getting the most out of your audio investment is choosing gear that will go to work for you now, and won't become obsolete as your system grows. Most car audio amplifiers boast a design flexible enough to keep them in the game as your set-up expands. If you go with a 4-channel amplifier, powering a pair of front speakers and a subwoofer is a breeze. You'll simply want to run your amp in what we call "true" 3-channel mode.

MiniDisc (MD) seems to have a better future than Digital Audio Tape (DAT) or Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) which don't seem to have appeal to the public. Ease of use seems to be an important factor and the CD formats allows direct access to musical tracks at an instant. Although MD doesn't match the sound quality of the standard CDs it will probably be popular since the players have a buffer to eliminate skipping.

First, try enabling the "Uses Wave Out Position For Timing" setting under Options | Audio | Advanced. If problems persist, disable the Wave Out setting and consult the chart available at /Docs/DMASettings.htm for the proper settings of your sound card. (Back to top)

Yes, it can. But if you're interested in this, make sure you visit the Logical Volume Manager for Linux page. 'Tis really neat stuff.

Sony announced some time ago that the PlayStation 3 will make use of Blu-ray technology. Sony and Toshiba had been in talks to combine the competing Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats into a single standard, though those talks have been disbanded. The drive itself is slot-loading.