Minidisc or Recorder Problems?

[trustthex]

I know many people's opinions about minidisc here, esp the old atrac only ones, so this wasn't started to turn into a minidisc flamewar. I intend to upgrade my deck sooner than later, probably to a creative jb3... so, all of that aside.

I taped McCoy Tyner Trio last night at Denton Arts & Jazz; the first disc came out beautifully (10' from left stack, clipped to the railing to keep the crowd back from the stage). I swapped discs about 40 minutes in because I didnt know how long they were going to play, but knew the festival closed last night at 11. My second disc, when I came home, reports that it is still blank, even though I know i recorded ~15 minutes of audio to it. Ive tried it in 2 different decks and had it report blank. I had a similar problem with the Ben Folds show that I taped 2 yrs ago (and just now posted the second disc of...). It might have been the same disc (?, uncertain, did not label disc after it reported blank (probably my first mistake)). I have used many other discs and had them record the TOC (i guess that is the problem) correctly. So, what do you think, is it the deck (sharp md-ms702) or the disc? I am at work right now, so i cant test any suggestions, but am curious what others think.

Also, is there any way to extract that data from the disc that says its blank?

Thanks in advance!

ps. discs are sony premium 80 minutes, if that makes and difference, have had no problems with regular grade memorex or sony discs.

[diggrd]

Originally Posted by trustthex

I know many people's opinions about minidisc here, esp the old atrac only ones, so this wasn't started to turn into a minidisc flamewar. I intend to upgrade my deck sooner than later, probably to a creative jb3... so, all of that aside.

I taped McCoy Tyner Trio last night at Denton Arts & Jazz; the first disc came out beautifully (10' from left stack, clipped to the railing to keep the crowd back from the stage). I swapped discs about 40 minutes in because I didnt know how long they were going to play, but knew the festival closed last night at 11. My second disc, when I came home, reports that it is still blank, even though I know i recorded ~15 minutes of audio to it. Ive tried it in 2 different decks and had it report blank. I had a similar problem with the Ben Folds show that I taped 2 yrs ago (and just now posted the second disc of...). It might have been the same disc (?, uncertain, did not label disc after it reported blank (probably my first mistake)). I have used many other discs and had them record the TOC (i guess that is the problem) correctly. So, what do you think, is it the deck (sharp md-ms702) or the disc? I am at work right now, so i cant test any suggestions, but am curious what others think.

Also, is there any way to extract that data from the disc that says its blank?

Thanks in advance!

ps. discs are sony premium 80 minutes, if that makes and difference, have had no problems with regular grade memorex or sony discs.

There are a number of ways I have found of recovering discs like this, they all require a minidisc home deck. There may be some other method but I don't know it.

1. Is to clone a new TOC onto this disc. My deck will not allow me to do this but some do, what you do is put in a blank and record the full MD then pull the power before ejecting. Put your disc in and then plug in the deck and write the TOC to it, usually ejecting it normally will do that.

2. Is to record a full blank as above and pull the plug, switch discs and do a transfer to PC. This way you do not end up with a playable MD because when you eject the TOC is not written to the disc. My deck holds the TOC from the freshly recorded MD after pulling the power but will not write it to the swapped disc as the first method does.

Google for MD TOC clone and you may find more info.

I have sucessfully used the second method on a Rory Block show MD for a member here but I still need to get a copy back to them. Next week is finals and I hope to find time after that to finish the job and get the show back to the taper.

If you want to PM me about doing a transfer for you feel free I hope to see Mcoy Tyner soon as I just missed him in my area and I heard he's looking a bit frail, where as Sonny Rollins who I saw and recorded on a JB3 recently is still doing pretty good considering.

[Five]

there's been a couple threads about this here before, one with a few good links here and the other I can't find for some reason.

[trustthex]

well, i recorded brave combo tonight, and both discs came out great, so it appears i have a bad disc... well, that makes me feel slightly better