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C: drives, MP3s and Five Gigs
OK here is a digital audio problem that I have.
I have a 40 Gig hard drive in my notebook and a really freaking big USB 2.0 external hard drive for massive storage.
When you import music into the Sony Sound Stage software it stores the files in ATRAC3 files in your User Documents folder on the C: drive when in fact I want it to store the data on F: my external hard drive. There is no way I can change it to store the audio files on much larger external drive.
I realized that I only had five Gigs left on my notebook HD and that I had to do something. Now my Minidisc can't be hooked up to the CD player in my new Dodge Neon and I would have to buy a new car stereo to hook it up. It ends up my car stereo can not play MP3s burned to a data CD-Rs but it can handle CD-Rs in standard audio format. CD-RWs don't work in it either.
So I bit the bullet and decided to have my digital audio library in pure MP3 and some WMAs on my eternal hard drive with a small selection on my Notebook HD. Thus I deleted seven gigs of Sony ATRAC3 files. I still have the CDs that I ripped them from but I now must re-rip them to MP3 using iTunes.
I got to mess around with one of the new iPods yesterday but even with one of those I would have to get a new car stereo to hook it up. What I think I will do is migrate to a pure MP3 music library and just burn some mix CDs for listening in the car. I really do not do that much long distance driving.
I don't know what to do with my Minidisc player. I might keep it around or give it to a family member for Christmas.
My God. When the hell did five gigs become cause for concern? I used to have an external 40 Meg hard drive in the early 90s that was so insanely large.
Jake at December 18, 2003 
Stuff
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Comments
I think I've seen some devices that plug into portable music players and rebroadcast as low-power radio signals. Could you use one of those rather than a tape adapter?
Posted by: Jeff at December 18, 2003 12:33 PM
this might help you. http://shop.store.yahoo.com/xmfanstore/pieauxinput.html don't know what you are you looking for spend.
Posted by: garrick at December 18, 2003 12:33 PM
Garrick I do not have an XM radio in my car stereo just AM and FM
Posted by: Jake at December 18, 2003 12:36 PM
I will try to find you a solution as well. There has to be a way to do this without buying a stereo and/or getting rid of that cool-as-heck MD player, I saw the deluxe model at target for 169$ pretty good deal....NOT! I will wait for it to hit 150 after Christmas.
Posted by: pete at December 18, 2003 3:33 PM
Well I just got a check for that free lance job that I did and I will probably get some christmas money.
I could get a cheap cassette car stereo deck that had a front audio in jack for 30 bucks and I could get a hard drive based MP3 player for $250. Or I could get a MP3 CD-RW car stereo for about a hundred bucks.
Posted by: Jake at December 18, 2003 3:45 PM
If you happen to get an iPod, I know there is a FM transmitter you can get for it. Then all you have to do is tune your radio to a particular station and listen to your iPod. It's the Griffen iTrip and they have them at the Apple Store's website. This would mean not buying a new car stereo. Granted if you stay with the cool MD player, the iTrip won't work for you, but there might be a similar solution out there.
Posted by: Rick at December 18, 2003 4:15 PM
For the running out of disk problem i would recomend finding in what ever software you are using, the path name to store it to and changing it. also your minidisk player is not useless, Radio Shack and such stores sell an adaptor that goes from a headphone jack to a caset deack. and if nothing else you could probably manually splice in an audio in jack.
Posted by: Shawn at December 18, 2003 7:01 PM
Shit, with my basic knowledge of saudering electronics and basic wire setups (from my knowledge of explosives) I could modify your stereo for a line input through a standard wire setup that your stereo already has...Oh GAWD, did I just say that? Contact the justice DEPT. WaIT! DONT! And don't tell my mom.
Posted by: pete at December 18, 2003 9:16 PM
I agree with the "What happen to my storage" idea, I remember using 100mb Zip discs for everything I had in school, not I have files bigger than that, jeez. But yeah get an FM transmitter for the MD for like 30$ and be done.
Posted by: Anthony at December 19, 2003 1:08 AM
I've had mixed luck with FM transmitters in the past. It always seems to depend on the positioning of the unit. I've even read reviews where people said they had to put it in the backseat or on the rear parcel shelf to get decent sound (which will still be FM quality sound at best). For the extra money, I would just invest in a car stereo with a jack (especially if you can find one for around $100, as you said) or modify your existing stereo.
FM quality sound may not be an issue for you though, especially if you are using MP3s and not your MD player.
Posted by: Jeff at December 19, 2003 7:08 AM
I might buy some new hardware with some Christmas cash but I think I will just consolidate all my music into a huge MP3 library on my external HD
Posted by: Jake at December 19, 2003 9:46 AM
An eternal hard drive? Cool, I wish my hard drives had such permanence.
Posted by: Ken at December 19, 2003 1:18 PM
Whoa that is a Freudian slip.
If you check my pants you will find my eternal hard drive
Posted by: Jake at December 19, 2003 1:20 PM
silly boy, you don't need a new car stereo... http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/itrip/index.html
iTrip. nuff said.
Posted by: jen at December 19, 2003 3:21 PM
Well if I get an iPod I will get one of those. Honsetly I am more tempted to get Dell's Music device. It is cheaper and has twice the battery life
Posted by: Jake at December 19, 2003 6:42 PM
the adapter I linked doesn't really need XM radio. It uses the CD Changer port on the back of the factory Head Unit to give you an aux input so you can plug anything that makes noise as as long as you can make it out up to RCA.
Posted by: garrick at December 19, 2003 10:06 PM
Would it not have been much easier to move your userdocuments folder's physical location to the F: Drive than deleting and re-ripping all the stuff? also, what quality do you get from the sony software and is it time-limited?
Posted by: frugle at December 29, 2003 5:49 AM
The Sony software did not have the options of changing the locations of the files. The sound quality depends on the compression setting you are using but it was very very good.
Posted by: Jake at December 30, 2003 9:50 AM
I have a NET MD walkman here (MZ-N510). We record our jam sessions with it, and bought it for the sole purpose of having it to record these sessions so we could grab the files, burn them as MP3 and distribute them amongst the band for pratice purposes. UNBEKNOWNST to us,...at the back of the manaul in small print, it states:
"Can Tracks recorded on the Net MD be checked in to a computer?
No, They cannot
Audio data that was originally checked out from a computer can only be checked back into the same computer. Tracks that are recorded on the Net MD using a miscrophone or through an analog or digital connection cannot be transferred to the computer or copied
Computer->MiniDisc: OK
MiniDisc->Computer:OK only for tracks originsally checked out from computer
----------------------------------------------
Well SHIT! Wahaddya think about that? I mean the SOLE reason we bought the thing for, it cannot do. WHY? is the first question,.I mean,.why make something like this WITH a mic that you cannot transfer it back and play with it is beyond me.
Is ANYOEN out there having the same problem, and more importantly,, has anyone found a way around it?
Thank you for your time.
Posted by: ELoRPS at January 28, 2004 10:53 AM
Sounds like Sony has more DRM locks in the Net MiniDisc than people know about.
Posted by: Jake at January 28, 2004 11:00 AM
