Sony Net MD mini disc player questions

[spyordie007]

Generally we dont provide support for our students hardware like this, but a student came in today with one of the Sony Net MD players (MZ-N505 Gold) and he has music he put on it with his computer. Recently he ended up formating and reinstalling windows and lost the copy of his music on his computer, this MD now has his only copy of the music and he wanted to know if there was any way to get the music back off in a digital format. He has a way that he can bring it back onto the computer by an analog connection however he doesnt want to loose the sound quality (digital to analog to digital). At first I sent him away and told him that I couldnt support it and didnt know anything about them but later in the day he cought me as I was getting food and conned me into taking a look at it, besides I havent looked at any of the MD players recently so I was a bit curious.

My question for you guys (and girls) does anyone know of a way to get the audio off it while leaving it in a digital format?

And if there isnt a way to do this why would Sony cripple their player as such? How do people who record music they write to MD get it off in digital format (which I was under the impression was one of it's applications)? It seems absurd that Sony would allow you to put music on it but not have a way to take the music back off.

He left it with me tonight to play with but it's starting to sound like MD is not the way to go for portable digital audio.

Your input?

-Spy

 

[rival]

i think in sonys software that comes with it you can browse whats on it, possibly xfer it off of there?

not sure

 

[isekii]

well they have the dual cd-r + md player recorder

i guess he can get one of those~ which are quite cheap nowadays and transfer them to CD

 

[spyordie007]

he left the software with me, It allows me to copy audio onto the thing however not off.

Isnt one of the big advantages of having one the ability to record? It would seem pointless to say it's a great thing to use for recording if you cant get the audio off... :|

-Spy

 

[dethman]

i don't believe there is a way to get the music back off digitally, netmd wasn't designed that way. if someone knows better feel free to correct me. they cripped it becuase of all the copyright issues...it'd be too easy to transfer/share music files, using the md recorder just as a file transfer device. the few MD units that can do digital-digital record off of it without copyright protection are professional units, not consumer units.

best option would be do an analog record using cooledit or something.

 

[pulse8]

Analog is his only option. Or, he could just download it again.

 

[spyordie007]

Originally posted by: pulse8
Analog is his only option. Or, he could just download it again.

remind me not to buy myself a net md player...
I should just go get myself one of those iRiver SlimXs

-Spy