Questions about Sonore ISO2DSD

[SeeMoreDigital]

Does anyone have a link to "Kal's existing QQ thread (for Oppo and Pioneer Blu-ray players)"? I can't seem to find it in a search.

There's also this SACD Ripping using an Oppo or Pioneer? Yes, it's true! topic over at audiophilestyle.com...

 

[Kal Rubinson]

There's also this SACD Ripping using an Oppo or Pioneer? Yes, it's true! topic over at audiophilestyle.com...

Ted's reliable.

 

[mandrix]

So I mentioned earlier that my Oppo 103 has jailbreak firmware. It gives the Oppo the capability to play .iso files of my SACD/DVDA/DVD/BD discs, and also allows me to stream them from the pc using an NFS server implementation I purchased from a gent in Germany. NFS from what I understand is more a Unix based file system but has some compatibilities in Windows. I am not an expert on this by any means and have little knowledge of Unix/freeBSD/openBSD or other implementations.
However If you look in Windows under Programs and Features/Turn Windows features on or off/ you will see a listing for NFS. You will also see listings for SMB as well.

I had given up trying to make Windows 11 simple file sharing work reliably with the Oppo so this is why I'm using the NFS implementation instead of the Oppo's older SMB v1, which has been about crippled in recent Windows versions, apparently, (as reported by another member in a separate thread) in favor of SMB v2 & 3. However I've been told that some/most NAS setups don't have the same problems with communication with the older SMB v1 protocol (SMB stands for Server Message Block which is a Windows file sharing protocol. Version 1 is reportably what the older Oppo networked disc players such as my BDP-103 use)

I just bring all this up as a preface to my reported difficulties ripping SACD's with my Oppo 103 after the firmware change. Knowing there are some other members that are well versed in the technical side of things is another reason to provide as much detail as I'm able.

Having occurred to me that the firmware change could be responsible, I reached out to OPPO-JB.com where I purchased the jailbreak/firmware kit, and specifically asked if SACD ripping was killed by the firmware change.
What I was told is that scripts, AutoScript, were disabled for security reasons.
However I was eventually able to make it work and successfully ripped a few SACD's. I reported this back to OPPO-JB.com and the guy was surprised to find that I was able to do this.

Final Note:
Perhaps this explains some of the difficulty I experienced ripping after the firmware change. But it's working now in spite of whatever they did in the firmware, I'm happy to report.
I thought I would add this as a final note as there may be some link between the jailbreak firmware and the (former) ripping problems. It has been the only thing I can come up with that may have interfered in some way. As I have only ripped a few SACD's with the new firmware, I can't be sure if/when it will stop working. But for now at least it seems to be OK.

As some forum members have insisted I provide more detail into my ripping problems, yet firm in their belief the fault lay with mistakes (sic) by me, I have now provided all I can give. While there is no clear answer, the firmware change remains an unknown but likely culprit regardless. This is all provided in the spirit of cooperation but will be my final remarks about it save some new discovery on my part, which I will be obliged to post should that occur.

As mine is a rather peculiar situation, perhaps confined to a few of us running particular firmware, I encourage all new to SACD ripping to not let my problems influence their desire to rip their SACD's as the process is actually quite easy. Credit is due to those that that came up with the methods for ripping SACD's, devising the scripts, and the GUI's which deliver us from the command line to an interface with a few simple choices.
Thanks for reading, and get busy and rip those SACD's!

 

[B&W Driver]

My main trick for getting out of trouble:
Keep a backup clone of my system drive.
If something goes wrong: Boot into the clone. Clone back over the primary. Boot back into the primary and carry on. (Oblivious to what I did or how to actually fix it manually.)

I know this thread is a bit long in the tooth, but we recently acquired our first PC in over 12 years, so I've been experimenting with cloning Win 11 system disk images - and, man, what a difference! Using Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) for cloning macOS vs Macrium Reflect 8 (MR8) for cloning Win 11 is the definition of comparing apples and oranges. For one thing, you can't use an external drive dock, like ours, to boot up Win 11. MR8 also requires an entire drive as its "target disk." When I make a clone copy with CCC, the unused space on the target disc is totally available for use. Anyway, this oldish post by @jimfisheye brought all of this back to me. Great post, Jim!

 

[mandrix]

I know this thread is a bit long in the tooth, but we recently acquired our first PC in over 12 years, so I've been experimenting with cloning Win 11 system disk images - and, man, what a difference! Using Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) for cloning macOS vs Macrium Reflect 8 (MR8) for cloning Win 11 is the definition of comparing apples and oranges. For one thing, you can't use an external drive dock, like ours, to boot up Win 11. MR8 also requires an entire drive as its "target disk." When I make a clone copy with CCC, the unused space on the target disc is totally available for use. Anyway, this oldish post by @jimfisheye brought all of this back to me. Great post, Jim!

Hmm. Not sure that's entirely correct old Bud, or I'm misunderstanding (not at all uncommon). In Windows, one can reduce the size of partitions or expand them, leaving the possibility to even create another drive on the same hardware, even on the OS drive.
Admittedly, Windows built in disk utils are lacking somewhat, no doubt.
The free version of Macrium has served me well for years for backups, (and I tend to back up whole drives, though partitions are selectable). Though, e.g., Macrium will not create a backup equal in size to a drive that has a lot of unused space, being more efficient than that.
As far as booting from an external drive, I think you might be losing me here....any bootable device seen in the BIOS of the pc should have no problems booting, at least in theory, be it a USB stick, USB HDD, etc. If it's a networked drive, well, beyond my experience.

Anyway, good luck with your endeavors back in the land of Windows, my friend! Reach out, if I can help, I will.

 

[B&W Driver]

As we've been doing it with our Macs for so long now, I thought that there had to be a way to boot from an external drive in Windows - but I haven't been able to detect another external Win 11 drive in Dell UEFI/BIOS after many attempts. As I don't like to be a PITA, especially to my friends, I've been asking questions about this on PC forums and the consensus is that Win 11 doesn't like booting from external sources.

As for the target drive, it's possible that I may have missed a setting somewhere, but, once again, after several "dry runs," I wasn't able to stop Macrium Reflect 8 (MR8) from warning me that every partition on the target drive was about to be erased. In the end, I wiped the target disk and created a single GPT-NTFS partition that was roughly 1.5x the size of everything on the internal system (source) drive. The actual clone copy process seemed to go without a hitch after that ... but I'm rambling on now ... I'm just giving you the road map of my own beat.

Once you get back to normal at home, I'll probably take you up on your offer to help out. Lord knows I'm gonna need it!

 

[DuncanS]

"consensus is that Win 11 doesn't like booting from external sources"

I wonder if that is related to the on-chip security function on all the new Windows 11 capable processors (though allegedly the security chip can be on the board) to stop BIOS etc. hacks and a 'hostile' take over of the PC.

 

[mandrix]

"consensus is that Win 11 doesn't like booting from external sources"

I wonder if that is related to the on-chip security function on all the new Windows 11 capable processors (though allegedly the security chip can be on the board) to stop BIOS etc. hacks and a 'hostile' take over of the PC.

Well that's possible, though differences in BIOS from manufacturer to manufacturer could be a factor. To my thinking, booting from an external drive should be no different than booting from a USB stick, since most people I guess buy USB external drives as opposed to other types.

I don't know if my case is relatable to what he is going through. I have an Asus board, and I use an LSI SAS board (with Lenovo extender card) to handle 16 drives, although I boot from an NvMe drive inserted into the motherboard.
I had to fight with the BIOS like hell to get the LSI card recognized and only with secure boot turned off in BIOS (Compatibility or non -UEFI mode), make some changes to the Pcie lane speed for the LSI card, then eventually was able to go back to UEFI mode and set the Pcie lanes back on "Auto". Some consumer boards are less forgiving than say, a server mobo.

 

[jimfisheye]

Probably not long before we get restrictions on booting from wherever you please in MacOS too. So, it's all changed now. We lost Carbon Copy Cloner two OS's ago. They weren't able to keep up with Apple's new disc format and their locking out of anything and everything 3rd party. It's just a 3rd party "Time Machine" now. No bootable clones.

I tried Rescuezilla and it just worked! It's a live install of a Linux OS with Clonezilla and a couple other things. The download and install basically holds your hand. It just worked! Copied the EFI partition and the open core bootloader and everything! I cloned a weirdo install for a Mac Pro with a less popular graphics card that needed special driver tinkering and that just cloned and just worked! It's cloning Monterey and Ventura installs.

One step closer to jumping ship from MacOS.

So even with Apple screwing around and putting up roadblocks left and right, this Rescuezilla just cloned it and it just worked. I'd give this a shot against that stubborn Windows clone job.

Download the iso image and put it to a USB flash drive. Boot from the flash drive. Clone or make backup images.

 

[B&W Driver]

Probably not long before we get restrictions on booting from wherever you please in MacOS too. So, it's all changed now. We lost Carbon Copy Cloner two OS's ago. They weren't able to keep up with Apple's new disc format and their locking out of anything and everything 3rd party. It's just a 3rd party "Time Machine" now. No bootable clones.

I tried Rescuezilla and it just worked! It's a live install of a Linux OS with Clonezilla and a couple other things. The download and install basically holds your hand. It just worked! Copied the EFI partition and the open core bootloader and everything! I cloned a weirdo install for a Mac Pro with a less popular graphics card that needed special driver tinkering and that just cloned and just worked! It's cloning Monterey and Ventura installs.

One step closer to jumping ship from MacOS.

So even with Apple screwing around and putting up roadblocks left and right, this Rescuezilla just cloned it and it just worked. I'd give this a shot against that stubborn Windows clone job.

Download the iso image and put it to a USB flash drive. Boot from the flash drive. Clone or make backup images.

Hi @jimfisheye ! I'm sorry to read that macOS seems to be moving in the wrong direction, and I'm especially sorry to read that Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) hasn't been able to keep up with the macOS generations.

It's a long story about being cash-strapped, but we're still at the macOS 10.12.X level. CCC carbon copies still boot in less than a minute - from an external drive - from shutdown ... so I had no idea about what's been going on with CCC and the newer versions of macOS.

Are you saying that you were able to employ "Recuezilla" to restore both macOS 12 Monterey and macOS 13 Ventura from an external drive?

 

[JediJoker]

"consensus is that Win 11 doesn't like booting from external sources"

Windows hasn't been able to boot off external media out-of-the-box for a while now. If you want to boot from an external hard drive, you'll need to make some edits to the registry.

 

[mandrix]

Windows hasn't been able to boot off external media out-of-the-box for a while now. If you want to boot from an external hard drive, you'll need to make some edits to the registry.

Well that just sucks. I would have thought if a flash drive will boot, an external USB drive would. Hard to understand. But I guess it is what it is.
I don't own any external drives, all mine are "normal" SATA HDD's and SSD's. But to boot off any of them I would have to access the LSI SAS card's BIOS on boot and designate the boot drive. Not tested but I think it would see an external drive same as the rest.
Ah Windows. A little bit for every one, yet not enough sometimes I reckon.

@jimfisheye suggestion about putting the boot OS or data .iso on a flash drive seems reasonable to me

 

[jimfisheye]

Hi @jimfisheye ...

Are you saying that you were able to employ "Recuezilla" to restore both macOS 12 Monterey and macOS 13 Ventura from an external drive?

Yes. Both to create a disc image file to restore from and to literally clone to another drive and boot from it. The cloned drive was/is identical to what it was cloned from. EFI partition, bootloader and everything.

I believe this has been the more professional clone tool for a good while now with IT people dealing with multiple OS installs and various weird stuff. Running a live install with the cloning tools from an external drive and unmounting the target drive to take it offline to clone has been their SOP. CCC running on the booted system drive while it also cloned it was the more unique approach I think. Now with the system files on a hidden read only partition and all that new style OS crypticness, this just must not be possible anymore.

I didn't know Windows was locked down like that already. Even more aggressive than current Apple! You can't just hold down option or some key at power on or restart and boot from whatever connected drive you want? That will be a hard show stopper for me the day MacOS crosses this line!

This current planned obsolescence dance with tying software to hardware with spoofing, blacklists, and lockouts is really getting old!

 

[mandrix]

Well on the external drive thing with Windows, I needed a portable drive so went ahead and ordered one. Curious to see if I can boot from it either directly through the BIOS or with my LSI SAS card.

 

[Letichou]

Well, I managed to find the right combination of files to get the newer SACDExtractGUI interface to play nice with the sacd_extract program. I've written an outline about how we (myself and other Oppo owners) went about it, so, if anyone's interested, drop me a PM.

EDIT: We're Mac OS X users, but I've been corresponding with some PC people about this, so the outline may prove useful to Windows folks as well.

Hello. I hope that you are doing well.
I have the same issue with the

Well, I managed to find the right combination of files to get the newer SACDExtractGUI interface to play nice with the sacd_extract program. I've written an outline about how we (myself and other Oppo owners) went about it, so, if anyone's interested, drop me a PM.

EDIT: We're Mac OS X users, but I've been corresponding with some PC people about this, so the outline may prove useful to Windows folks as well.

Hello, I hope taht you are doing well. I have the same problem with the sonore sowtfare. My pionneer is recognised but the software shows
that it can't open for reading. ending is 2002.
Could you please send me a link with your working software for win 11?
many thanks in advance
Jean

 

[B&W Driver]

Hi Jean ~

Unfortunately, the files that I employ for this purpose are for macOS - not Win 11.

 

[marpow]

IP Address is important with Sonore ripper.
Your IP address that you are using for your PC for instance could be different then the OPPO IP address.
My own problem.
I got new Windows 11 PC, everything got messed up, slowly over days got everything going. The last on my list was the Sonore software on new PC reading the SACD on the OPPO 105. I only use the OPPO 105 for ripping SACD, it is not connected to anything.
One day I hooked up monitor to OPPO105 and remote control clicked network, my OPPO network was different, everything I use is Ethernet cable connected.
I typed in the IP address of the OPPO ending in 2002 and bang, back to working.
Well, that's my story anyway.