MZ R50 dodges SCMS

Sony's R50 dodges SCMS

All you need is a 24K resistor.

Follow these steps to make a digital copy of a digital copy with your R50:

Connect the TOSLink optical cable to the optical in on the MZ-R50 and the optical out of your digital source.
Slide the REC lever or push PLAY (Display should flash NO COPY if you pressed record and the source is playing)
Momentarily connect a 24K resistor to pins 2 and 4 (counting from left to right on the remote jack). (photo) A 24K resistor can be found at RadioShack for a fraction of a dollar. It can be bent into a U shape and inserted into the remote socket. There is little risk of shorting out the pins, but try to contact only the second and fourth pins. While inserting the resistor, watch the display. A very brief blip in the text area of the display will indicate that you have made the appropriate connection, and can then put the resistor away and continue with the next step.
Slide HOLD switch to hold (yellow dot now visible).
Push |<< or >>| repeatedly to scroll through the parameters tabled below to SCMS ON
Pushing PLAY Toggles SCMS ON to SCMS OFF. At this point, the recorder is still in record pause if you hit RECORD, or is playing if you pressed PLAY in step two.
Now slide the HOLD switch back to the normal position to record without SCMS. SCMS OFF must be on display during this step.

ROM version 1.40 and later:

If you have ROM version 01.40 or later, you may be out of luck. Sometime in February/March, Sony corrected this hole in a new ROM version. You can check the ROM version by inserting the resistor while the unit is off. Be very careful, as this puts you in Test Mode, where you can cause maladjustment of settings that may cause your R50 to not operate properly. Once you have checked your ROM version, remove all power to exit test mode.Permanent Modification:

See this other page about soldering the 24k resistor inside the back cover. This does away with carrying around and fiddling with the silly resistor.

Notes:

The recorder is now in a new mode of operation, and will remain so until you remove all of the three power sources (Alkaline pack, Li-Ion pack, wall adapter), not including the internal clock battery. The only operational difference with this mode is that the hold switch has a new function: to switch into (or out of) 'parameter' mode, where you can change SCMS setting, etc.
SCMS OFF will remain until all power is removed or you re-enter test mode (with hold switch) and toggle it back to SCMS ON. After cycling the power source, the unit operates normally, in all respects.
This is not the true test mode for this model. The real test mode contains some five categories (Servo, Audio, Mecha, Power, General Adjustment) and can be accessed by completing step 3 above when the recorder is off, then pressing PLAY. Do be careful in the real test mode, as some setting changes will render your unit inoperational.
Apparently, this scms-off feature writes copyprotection bits 10 to the disc, so you cannot make digital copies of this track the way you can with the Elektor SCMS stripper. Copyprotection bits set to 11 allows one generation copy, and is what consumer decks write to tracks recorded from an analog source. SCMS strippers actually convert bits 11 and 10 to 00, which allows unlimited digital copying, so they only need to be used once per tree.
If the recorder is stopped and in parameter mode, pressing the Title/Enter button raises/lowers the record head and unlocks/locks the clamshell.
It is not yet known whether this will work on the R30. Actually, four owners have reported it to not work. If it works for you, please notify me.
Those of you familiar with the old nintendo shortcuts will appreciate this resistor-less method of entering test mode on the R30's and R50's. While holding down the PLAY button, press the following buttons in sequence*:
You should now be in Test Mode. Note the difference between test mode where you can (mis)calibrate your unit, and what I call parameter mode, where you disable SCMS. To date, I've had about five readers ask about undoing their fiddlement in test mode (they broke their units). Be careful.

Here's a list of all the parameters visible using the track mark keys (In order):

RAMxxx:yy	where xxx is an address, and yy is a value. Pressing Pause repeatedly cycles through the addresses by increments of 16 (second digit in hex), and the volume keys cycle the address by one. Use caution here.
Ad:xxxxxx	Best guess** is this is the address of the current point on disc.
ch:xxxxxx	No idea
DRAM: xxx	This might represent how full the memory buffer is
ERASE OFF	Toggling to ERASE ON, then switching HOLD off will erase the disk.***
sd:xxxxxx	This counts as the disc is played; seems to be related to the position of the optical block
TEMP: 26c	The temperature inside the unit
Mk01/Md27	???
SCMS ON	Ahh. Push PLAY to toggle, then unslide HOLD switch to undo scms
18cluster	Don't know
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*Shaun Turner provided this for me.
** Edward Plese has contributed his ideas to the table above.
***Likewise Tao Cherm Lim

since February 1998

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streeter at sketchy.net