&gt; The MD was from day one laden with DRM<p>Just SCMS<p>&gt; Had to format convert to Atrac via some crazy program<p>The HiMD machines did not make nice mp3 players because they really weren&#x27;t meant to be that.  Only the final HiMD decks had mp3 codec.<p>I never converted from mp3 to atrac because atrac was a better codec.  I didn&#x27;t like feeling like I was listening to computer files anyway, and usually dubbed from a cd player.<p>&gt; the only way to get them back out was via the analog hole<p>The last SonicStage update lets you download audio.  This is important because these devices were used to record original content.