fugusushi

thanks for the feedback… i've got everything in wav and having worked out how to get wma320 that's what i'm going for… wma appears to be 'better' than mp3 - or at least according to the Wiki. entry info... i haven't tested mp3 against wma - i'm getting kinda bored with the hassle or trying to get this all sorted - but when i tested the wma320 against the same track on atrac352 on my 818, it was quite noticeably cleaner (same settings on each player)... i can't speak to videos, but playlists have proved pretty painless (aside from having to re-set them up). which music player are you using? i got excited when i just read a review on these guys: http://www.musicgiants.com/ they offer WMA Lossless downloads 'as standard' - cheaper than iTunes too - but, their site crashed my browser twice (when i had tracks in my cart!) plus music selection is not so great - but if they get it together, they'll be a v.good resource... still, it might work for some folks…

thanks for the feedback guys - i'll have to test out what you've both commented on... yeah, i've put everything across right now in mp3 320 - although i've got a ways to go - 4 playlists out of about 10 - i have to put in track details/cover art on the rest... i've not started using it yet - still using my 818 - which is no real hardship... BTW, you guys might be interested in this - if you haven't already seen it: http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/01/video-h...with-bluetooth/ here's the g-sat dongle mentioned - i haven't decided if i'm gonna get one yet - seems like a good way to stroll off and leave your Walkman behind...! http://www.easydevices.co.uk/pp/Bluetooth_...O_FOR_IPOD.html here's a review: http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/globalsat-bth820.php

i've got some super-fi 5s, but i found them a little troublesome - i kept needing to readjust them to keep them in my ears... i picked up some shure se 530’s and they're incredibly comfortable to wear... the triple-fi's are the metallic blue ones, no? how are they? have you looked at the pro 11's - 4 speakers!! i don't use the equalizer or VPT, but i do have DSEE, Clear Stereo and Dyn. Norm. 'on' --- from what you've said maybe i need to check playback without them too - hadn’t occurred to me to try... have you put 'everything' across in WAV?

barney - juli would you mind me asking what vaious sound settings you've got your 829's on?

OK, so for one reason or another i've been reading up a fair bit recently about codecs. It seems there are pluses and minuses to each of them and as such individuals will have their own preferences for one reason or another... the question/s is this; since many of these codecs are open source and free to use, why hasn't Sony (and indeed other makers) offered more options on it's players? and why don't the various music players out there include more of these encoding options?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gapless this maybe useful...?

that's a neat idea - using iTunes like that... someone on here recommended MediaMonkey and after also checking out Winamp, I went with MM, taking my WAV and putting them accross in MP3 320 - although my preference was for WMA, i couldn't get it to work at 320... don't much bother with vids on these things...

if possible, it's worth spending the time to re-rip the CD's via SS. Bring them in as WAV (as I do) if you've got the space - or ATRAC lossless if not. then via SS you can transfer them to the player as ATRAC/lossless with the desired bit rate (up to 352)... frankly, believe it or not, i'm missing SS right now (hardly believe i'm saying that myself!) since the newer players don't support ATRAC... and yes, SS seems to always put some kind of compression on the files - the 'exception' is using the ATRAC lossless... although re-coding from mp3 to ATRAC doesn't necessarily mean compression - someone else might correct me...

yeah, 'silicon', that's the word...nice case (Sony) but sure, no real protection... but i just ordered a plastic one - thanks for the tip...

you can certainly take WMA past 192. Plus there are variants to WMA too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Media_Audio

when you say 'you got it' you mean it's arrived - or you've bought it? in other words, this seller is OK? (seems so from the ratings) - i don't like shopping on ebay - avoid it as much as possible - but i might have to go for one of these.... (right now i've got a 'rubber' cover - it's not bad - but these plastic ones are good) thanks

yeah, i'm kinda puzzled... WMA it seems is quite a broad ranging potentially high quality encoder - and yet M$ have not included these options within their media player and i'm not aware of any plugins - at least i checked and couldn't find any... i means, would it really be a big deal for M$ to have given a broader range of transfer options? At least to include their own proprietary encoder! ceres ''You only have to deactivate automatic re-encoding for your Walkman device. (hidden somewhere in the clunky menus).'' dude, if you can point me towards this, that would be great! but i've searched my menus and there ain't such an option. Right now this 829 - or at least Sony's set up of it - is proving a real pain in my ***! So, whilst i know the player can handle at least 320kbps on ACC - 'cause i've transferred tracks at that rate already - if i set transfer to WMA (accepted by the player) @ 320 Constant - it won't accept it. If I choose 320 Variable, wait for it... I get 4689kbps (according to > 'Detailed Information' for each track)! WTF is going on here!!??

Hey! where'd you get your case! I got one of those clear cases for my 818 and it was/is great. I wanted to get one when i got my 829 and AdvancedMP3/Sony/Amazon didn't have 'em - i 'assumed' it was 'cause it was such a new player --- but... let me know your resource! (thanks)

hmm, i didn't know that! so how did SonicStage, iTunes etc. manage to add cover art? I mean i don't care if the 'tag' 'holds' the cover art, or what ever, just so long as it gets on to my player... Winamp has some unfathomable way of treating cover art, MediaMonkey seems to do it the same as SS, but the transfer options are poor... i asked this in another thread too, but how come the Japanese versions of these models are still supporting ATRAC - in fact more options under ATRAC - ? and why would it have been such a big deal for Sony to offer that option to EU too?!

yes, that's true, once it's done, it's done and that's why i'm persisting... but, i tried a couple of tag editors that did support WAV and when i ameneded them they were no longer readable by WMP or Winamp! - WMP said someth. about not accepting compressed tag info - or someth. anyway, it's kinda shyed me away from the whole retagging idea. i'm still mulling over what else to do...! ''damn you Sony! damn you all to hell!'' did anyone come up with a reasonable explanation as to how come the Japanese versions of these models still support ATRAC??