Table of Contents
linux-minidisc
Welcome to the linux-minidisc wiki, dedicated to collecting as much information as possible regarding NetMD/HiMD hardware in order to get it to work on Linux, MacOS X and *BSD.
The project is managed over at Github:
- Issue tracker: https://github.com/glaubitz/linux-minidisc/issues
- Submit patches: https://github.com/glaubitz/linux-minidisc/pulls
If you came here for the upload (from MD to computer) of ATRAC tracks as announced by the ffmpeg project, you want to go directly to NetMDPython. Digital upload works only with the RH-1 and on all unprotected tracks on MD formatted media. It does not work with Hi-MD formatted media, but on the other hand, the application QHiMDTransfer also offered by the linux-minidisc project can transfer all MP3 tracks and unprotected LPCM recordings from Hi-MD media.
Download
- Linux (Ubuntu/Debian packages):
- Windows and macOS:
Source Code
The current source code can be checked out with git anytime:
git clone https://github.com/glaubitz/linux-minidisc/
Donations
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Current amount of received donations: 519,92 Euro
The money is intended to buy new hardware to support development. We already bought two MZ-RH1 HiMD Walkman to support hardware development.
What and Why ?
The original software supplied by Sony supports Windows and, for some MiniDisc models, Mac OS X only. We want to create a simple transfer software for HiMD and NetMD walkman which will run under our preferred operating systems and is free of any of the annoying "features" of the original software. Unlike iPods or other well-known portable MP3 players, Sony MD devices employ a highly secured and encrypted storage and transfer system of the audio data, which makes an understanding and implementation of software for these Sony models much more difficult. However, thanks to the stubbornness of some guys on the net, there has already been some progress in understanding the Sony software and thus there might soon be free transfer software for at least the HiMD models.
Contact us
Some of the information posted here is only accessible to users of this wiki. However, you can easily request a user account for the wiki by simply dropping me an email. If you have any technical questions, please refer to the mailing list.
If you would like to participate more actively in this ongoing development and documentation effort, feel free to join us anytime on IRC. The channel is #linux-minidisc on the popular FOSS network FreeNode (irc.freenode.net). Be prepared that you may have to wait some hours before you get an answer to your questions on IRC since, even though most of us developers are logged on the IRC channel, we're not sitting in front of the computer all the time. We always try our best to answer all questions, however. Just be patient.
Mailing List
The mailing list can be found here:
Status
FAQ
Please also check out the FAQ which covers most of the questions we receive.
Current feature / functionality matrix
| Feature/ | MP3 files | AT3/3+/PCM | MP3 files | AT3/3+/PCM | AT-SP/LP2/LP4 | PCM/AT-SP/LP2/LP4 | Edit disc | List disc |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hardware | to PC (HiMD) | to PC (HiMD) | to MD (HiMD) | to MD (HiMD) | to PC (NetMD) | to MD (NetMD) | meta data | meta data |
| HiMD (any) | YES | YES | YES *1 *2 | NO | YES *4 | YES *3 | NO | YES |
| MZ-RH1/M200 | YES | YES | YES *1 | NO | YES *5 | YES *3 | NO | YES |
| NetMD (any) | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES *4 | YES *3 | YES *3 | YES |
- 1 = Write support is still experimental, use with "toy" media only.
- 2 = MP3s can be played back on 2nd or 3rd gen HiMD devices only.
- 3 = Use either Python scripts (see Python NetMD) or libnetmd (through qhimdtransfer or netmdcli).
- 4 = Analogue upload only, MiniDisc device will be controlled by PC, audio data will be transferred over analogue cable.
- 5 = May not work with some tracks previously transferred with SonicStage.
Building and Running
CompilingOnMac - Compiling this software on a Macintosh (building on a Mac requires XCode and MacPorts)
CompilingOnLinux - Compling this software on Linux (the original development platform; builds easily on Debian/Ubuntu)
CompilingOnFreeBSD - Compiling this software on FreeBSD
CompilingOnHaiku - Compiling this software on Haiku
CompilingWithMingw - Compiling the software with MinGW on Windows (MinGW builds can be cross-platform built on Linux and on Windows; they run natively on Windows)
NetMDPython - Python scripts to upload NetMD via analog output and to perform digital upload of unprotected tracks with the Sony MZ-RH1
Development
WriteAndSubmitPatch - How to write and submit your first patch
Translation - How to translate the software into other languages, help us !
Features and Roadmap
AutoDetect - MD/HiMD media auto detection
AutoUpdater - Mechanisms to automatically update QHiMDTransfer on MacOS and Windows
PortingNetMD - Porting the Python NetMD to C and integrating with QHiMDTransfer
ExtendingLibHiMD - Tasks to extend the functionality of libhimd
SCSISupport - Implementation of SCSI commands into libhimd
Releases - Planned releases and milestones
MiniDisc documentation
HiMDMusicTransferforMac - All about the transfer software from Sony for Mac OS X which might help development a Linux-clone of it (not public).
HiMDDiskFormat - Debugging information about the on-disk format of the HiMD
NetMDLinux - Things known about NetMD support in Linux
HiMDLinux - Things known about HiMD support in Linux
MDUSBIDs - Paste the output of lsusb of your MD Walkman here
QHiMDTransfer - Ideas for a Qt-based (http://qtsoftware.com) software for HiMD transfer under Linux
libhimd - Documentation of and notes for the libhimd library
HiMDSCSI - The HiMD Walkman is a USB block device, i.e. SCSI over USB. This page documents the SCSI commands used
ScsiDrmInfo - Information about the HiMD SCSI DRM-commands (non-public)
WindowsDLLs - Information on the HiMD/NetMD DLLs used in the Windows software (this is not public, contains confidential stuff)
Hardware - Our hardware for testing
Integration - Integration of the software into existing operating systems and applications
Tasks - A list of things that need attention
Brainstorming - Collect new ideas here
Miscellaneous
SonicStageWineHowTo - How to get SonicStage running under Wine (German).
VariousSonicStageInformation - Various texts collected from forums, unfortunately in German.
MiscInformation - Information collected by other users in the forums
Links - Related links.
Contributors - People, who have helped 
.