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Something I don't really understand...

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darkangel

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So far, every review I've read for a sony DAP (md or hdd) has said how aweful SS is, and the reviews always suffer greatly becuase of this IMHO. personally, I never thought SS sucked, I thought it rocked all the way from v 1.5!

I guess it's because ppl can't be bothered to learn how to use a new piece of software? I mean I hate iTunes because it's too easy and simplistic...i like options! :D

If people just took their time and sat down w/ SS 3.xx, I'm sure they'll be singing a different tune...

what do you guys think?

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So far, every review I've read for a sony DAP (md or hdd) has said how aweful SS is, and the reviews always suffer greatly becuase of this IMHO. personally, I never thought SS sucked, I thought it rocked all the way from v 1.5!

I guess it's because ppl can't be bothered to learn how to use a new piece of software? I mean I hate iTunes because it's too easy and simplistic...i like options! :D

If people just took their time and sat down w/ SS 3.xx, I'm sure they'll be singing a different tune...

what do you guys think?

I tend to agree that people just love to bash SS without really putting any time in. I've have used it from 2.1 thorugh 3.3 and never had any issues. A lot of questions can be answered by going through the online help, or just going through the options screen. It has evolved into a pretty mature piece of software.

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Hi, I am new :) , but i have been using SS for god knows how long, (since OPEN MG jukebox and the early years of MP3 players) my first was the SONY MS9 (i think it was called :P)

Getting to the point, i 'll just state some of the main reasons why i hate sonic stage: (notes that the following are my opinion)

- it eats RAM

- it takes ages to start

- it's ugly

- it's got lots of useless crap, eg. animated menus, connect/Mora shop

- it don't support unicode (didn't for me anyways)

- it does't like multi-language titles

- Have to add to the library crap first

Reasons why i am still using sonic stage:

- There aren't many good alternatives

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because SS shouldn't even exist! Hi-MD should just record straight to .wav or atrac files, drag and drop over usb.

Or at the very most it should just be one simple small program that converts the .hma files / HMDHIFI directory into the separate tracks of audio, maybe including a file conversion feature for atrac from other formats.

The whole media library bullshit should be a different program all together! I don't want to categorise or import songs, all i want to do is convert my recordings to CD, and SS is the most convoluted way of doing so. but unfortunatley, the only way so far....

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Sonicstage runs real well on my PC and pretty much has since v2.x -- it really depends on how you take care of your system. More than half the problems that people experience are not a direct result of Sonicstage, but rather another component that was not up to date or something along those lines. Plus there's the random variable that a virus can induce, and I would say more than half the people who visit these forums have a virus in one form or another.

Edited by kurisu
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I'll second what Chris says and as has already been mentioned, people only generally write about SS on forums if there is something that doesn't work. If everything is working fine they have got nothing to write about. The silent majority and all that...

Edited by richyhu
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Personally I've had no issues with 3.2/3.3 I think its a very ungainly piece of UI design, and really its very limited. Its like something a decent programmer would knock up as a beta. I'd have expect something 10 times better from Sony. iTunes has it limitations certainly but its very good at doing what its intended to. Getting music on/off an iPod. Its also very slick.

If you've never had a problem with SS then its a bit naive to dismiss the problems others have had. From what I have read, the majority of problems are not ease of use issues, (though they certainly exist) but major crashes and bugs in the software. Memory leaks, and terrible performance. These are the worst kind of bugs and crashes since they lock the data and libraries from being recovered. They also leave behind lots of debris on the system, preventing a clean re-installation of the software, in some case damaging the OS itself.

They all symptoms of very poor coding of the application, and very poor development practise. Basically its a shoddy piece of work.

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See, all the old problems with SonicStage is why i abandoned MD.

I've now got a PSP..i'm using SonicStage 3.3 (heh....3.3..anyone..anyone..Bueler...Bueler....*cough*DOS*cough*) to transfer ATRAC3 over to it, and, i will say, it's been a dream...it occasionaly does lock up and i have to unplug my USB cable and let it just..reset and plug it back up...and the fact i have to manually add album art to each track for it to work (PSP displays album art)....but..i can live with those.

it does eat RAM (suggestion: get a gig of ram)

it'll eat yourhard disk if you don't tell it not to.

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...and the fact i have to manually add album art to each track for it to work (PSP displays album art)....but..i can live with those.

it comes up through the cddb most of the time though, the litte floating covers to be assigned with a drag is good i think

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it comes up through the cddb most of the time though, the litte floating covers to be assigned with a drag is good i think

not if you're importing from MP3/WMA or WAV files.

MP3 and WMA files have provisions to allow you to add album art...which..that does work..no problem there...but i got stuff in odd formats (FLAC/AAC/MusePaCk) that i have to go to wav. it will only do CDDB on albums you import from audio CD.

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I hate it because of this message: Cannot locat the files required to open the database file. Exiting SS. Sofar i haven't found a way how to reinstall it so it works properly...it's impossible!!! i've cleaned the regs deleted everything i found and after reinstall the same problem occures...tell the name of antoher persoal audio product, which needs to install any software to let you play your tracks. The policy of sony is fuc*ed up!!! :angry:

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I'll second Sparky's one-word critique: shoddy. While many users have clearly experienced zero problems, it seems that once you get away from the vanilla XP setup specified in the system requirements, all the app's flaws are exposed: it's fragile, cranky, badly behaved, and badly documented. The install process is inflexible and opaque and just about impossible to trouble-shoot. If it weren't for the good folk on this forum and their willingness to re-package the install files, I doubt that I would ever have gotten any version to work. (And I've been a tech journalist and product tester for almost 20 years.)

And that's just the implementation. The thinking *behind* the program represents the kind of proprietary paranoia that protects a product by making it dysfunctional: it encrypts *my* data, makes ordinary backup procedures difficult or useless, and puts arbitrary limits on how the device it serves can be used.

I finally got SS 3.2 working on my main computer, and now I hesitate to upgrade to 3.3 because it's entirely possible that I will not be able to reproduce the steps I took to get a reasonably stable system--or that a new set of glitches will show up.

Short answer: SS in any version is a design and implementation mess that is both a symptom and a cause of MD's problems in the US market.

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Short answer: SS in any version is a design and implementation mess that is both a symptom and a cause of MD's problems in the US market.

I totally agree with you on that...but for different reasons.

If Sony could make it a little bit easier, it could go a long way in making MD's succeed, there stll is time!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I don't hate SS but I really don't like it!!!

1. It is soooo slow to start-up

2. It eat-up memory.

3. Even with Atrac files transfers take for ever on your intial transfer and then copies of the files are stored up on you hard drive See #2.

I use Simple Burner before I use SS but sometimes I get mp3 files and have to use SS and it sucks.

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You don't have to have it copy the files to your hard drive, this can be defeated in the options. As for the slow startup, there's alot of factors that can influence this but on most modern-age computers it will start up steadfast.

My only windows box is a 233mhz laptop running win98

I've tried installing SS3.3 but to no avail (metallic.dll?)

so I use openmg with daemon tools and an .nrg file.

Aggrivating, but it works.

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Leaf, at that point it be worth it to dual-boot XP on a better machine (from the way you worded your post, it sounded like you have better machines running something other than linux).

Hey, I liked your old hippo avatar, but switching to birdman is even better :)

yes, I could dual boot, but no XP, only 2kpro.

Is XP absolutely required? maybe that's why I couldnt get it to intstall on 98

By the way kurisu, using open MG to burn to MD takes about 30 minutes for an album (that is already mounted on the drive) making open MG both read the disc AND convert to atrac and burn to MD... christ I let it go overnight.

I dont like doing that though, it makes my 510 spin for almost an hour. (for the record, I've done that once. Never again)

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should work on '98

• Microsoft® Windows® 98 SE, ME, 2000 or XP

• Minimum of 500 Mhz processor

• Minimum of 400 MB available hard disk space

• Minimum of 128 MB RAM

• Internet Explorer 5.5 or later

• CD-ROM drive

(for installation and import or playback from CD)

• Supported CD-Recordable drive (for CD burning purposes)

• Internet Connection (broadband suggested)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Have had an old MZR501 for ages, and recently got the MZN-H600 basically to make transferring CDs easier by using the USB.

Well, the player is awesome, I love the extra compression and everything to do with Hi-MD...but the software is dreadful.

Why are there 2 programs (SonicStage and Simple Burner)? If just one of these programs was done properly, there'd be no need for two.

Simple Burner:

-Much better to use than SS, but very limited functions

- Why the hell doesn't pressing tab switch the cursor between ALBUM and ARTIST. One of the MOST COMMON operations for copying to MD!!!

Sonic Stage:

-I don't want to store 12 copies of my music on the computer, I just wanna trasnfer it to the MD. Not only is simply transerring music a two stage step (and you can't even check the track names on one CD while you're transferring another), but deleting files from your PC brings up the dialog box which won't damn well remember your preferences.

-When importing mp3s SS puts each import into seperate UNTITLED playlists. A real pain in the arse when you're putting in files from different directories

-In fact the whole program, while at least having more functions, makes the simple operations much more difficult than they need to be.

Sony Customer Support:

For some reason, my MD shipped with SS 2.0. After experiencing problems (simple burner crashing, SS not transferring MD->PC), Sony suggested I download 3.3. Went to do this, but the internet connection isn't on the PC I will use for MDs. Told them this, and they said the only option was to BUY(!!!!) SonicStage 3.3 from Sony Spares (since they don't have a non-internet install version) to fix the bug in the software they supplied. After multiple calls, and even more telephone hold music, I stumbled on MDCF. If it wasn't for your standalone download, I'd be screwed.

I was using the MD player yesterday and marvelling at how well everything works with the device, it is everything I could hope for. However Sony's software and customer support are pitiful and really let it down.

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So far, every review I've read for a sony DAP (md or hdd) has said how aweful SS is, and the reviews always suffer greatly becuase of this IMHO. personally, I never thought SS sucked, I thought it rocked all the way from v 1.5!

I guess it's because ppl can't be bothered to learn how to use a new piece of software? I mean I hate iTunes because it's too easy and simplistic...i like options! :D

What useful options does SonicStage give you that iTunes doesn't?

First use? Honestly I was confused outta my mind (and still am, to a large degree).

I found it terribly non-intuitive despite reading about it for days (and using it for months) and I work with computers every day.

The library, the rights info, the rest...

I want to upload recordings simply. I want to download recordings simply. I don't want library management. I want a single settings screen that non-confoundingly tells me exactly what's gonna happen when I upload or download. I don't want rights restrictions, or to even think about them.

If people just took their time and sat down w/ SS 3.xx, I'm sure they'll be singing a different tune...

Yes, I suspect they will. It will be ATRAC-based and people will go "OMG" ;)

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