chriswyatt

I think I read somewhere that it is difficult for Sony to reskin Sonicstage without breaking the code.

By the way, you can go ahead and download the firmware from Sony Japan, I don't think the firmware is regional. When you upgrade the firmware the language will remain English but you might have to reconfigure your sound settings (I did for some reason). If you don't use the Connect download service you could probably go ahead and download the US version.

I found a download link ... http://support.sony-europe.com/DNA/SSCP/sscp_dl.asp?l=en ... but alas, no download yet.

When you hard format a drive doesn't that check for bad sectors and lock them? I remember chkdsk used to dump the crap from bad sectors into .CHK files so you couldn't use them again. Or I think that was what it was doing anyway

Thanks too, I forgot you could do that, I can do it on my minidisc player as well.

Apparently, with the way that Connect was programmed it wouldn't have been too difficult to port it to Linux, but seeing as Connect Player has been dropped it probably doesn't matter anyway.

In the next firmware I'd like to see improved performance, and the ability to rate tracks as you browse through your tracklistings, currently you can only do it at the Now Playing screen. Also, a playlist would be cool so you can select the next track you want to hear whilst you still listen to the current one, perhaps one of the Bookmark lists could be changed to a playlist. It could be wiped off when you switch off the player.

Or if you can find a computer you can charge via the USB cable

I am using the latest Connect software and an NWA-3000. When I connect my NWA3000, Connect Player is doing its usual crap, updating the artist link and updating the track information on my NWA3000. For some reason it seems to take a break from doing these things and does something else instead: Do Not Disconnect is displayed for ages on Connect Player and on the screen of my NWA3000, the screen also flashes on and off. It does this for absolutely ages but doesn't appear to be doing much. Anyone know what it's doing and how I could fix it?

Yep, I've had the misfortune of talking to Sony UK in the past. I was stupid enough to buy a Sony XDR-S1 and had a couple of problems with it: Stuttering and drop-outs on lower bitrate stations (I say lower because all stations on DAB have a low bitrate) and text being chopped off on the radio text (I have excellent reception btw). The guy on the phone didn't believe me and just said that there was nothing about it on their internal forums, so I was obviously wrong . Not to mention the time it took to actually get hold of them. His excuse was that 'it only displays what the broadcasters transmit, so apparently it's not their problem). Best customer support I've had was with Nintendo UK, I got an answer almost straight away when I phoned them, the guy on the phone asked me to wait and I only had to wait about 20 seconds , and he was very helpful as well, unlike Sony UK.

What annoys me about Sonicstage is just the speed, it seems to be quite inefficient. I hoped that Connect would have a better base to build on, but it seems that Connect was even less responsive than Sonicstage. I'm a bit annoyed that Sony didn't offer an easy solution for importing files across from Connect to Sonicstage. When I imported everything over, all my compilation CDs were split up into loads of seperate albums of the same artist .

Yeah that sounds like a good idea, you could always use bookmarks to cue up tracks but thats probably too much hassle. It would be cool to have a Now Playing playlist that you can add to. I'd like to see an option to turn off the screensaver and just have track information, perhaps the screen could revert to a lower brightness setting after a set time to save power.

Reassigning the drive letter sounds like a good idea. You could always try removing some other USB devices from your computer as well, I find that certain devices don't always get along with my A3000, but I think that's just my PC.

I made a clean album with loads of cleaned up versions of tracks so that I can play them on this community radio station in my town, but Connect basically got rid of my clean album and put all the tracks in random, completely seperate albums . I think I prefer naming the tracks myself because the CDDB databases is so chock full of mistakes, I've tried correcting them a few times and uploading them back to CDDB but they never update it with my versions.

Well, I lost my EX71s because I left the back-pocket of my school bag open . Now I have to put up with the rubbish old stock phones that came with my A3000 (Still in the packet!) and they don't even fit in my ears, pop out instantly . Not as bad as the strange shaped Fontopias I once bought which were very uncomfortable and painful. Anyway, I'm looking into getting Panasonic's RP-HJE50s as soon as possible, apparently they're quite good, and slightly cheaper than the EX71s .

Where do you find update.exe, I've looked in Program Files and Documents and Settings and can't see it anywhere. I've also got version 1.0.02.11170 and the update entry in the help menu doesn't seem to do anything.

When my Connect Player froze on the splash screen it was because of a corrupt database. You may as well stick with Sonicstage because Connect isn't much better, I was pretty happy with the latest release of Sonicstage .

Of course, the size of the download depends on what version you're updating from, if you get my jist. From my experiences I expect it would be around 30 megs-worth.

News of Sony's unstable Connect software was mentioned on Radio 1's Newsbeat this morning. They said to revert to an older version of the software, which is incorrect information really. Perhaps they'll do a more detailed news story on Sony in the 15 min slot this lunchtime / evening. Me, I have no sympathy for Sony. The software is worse than any beta software I've ever got my hands on and it was a full public release so it was bound to have some effect on Sony's dwindling reputation.

Well, I'll wait till the next to release, if it's still unbearable then I'll switch. I found the root of the problem, my external hard drive wasn't switched on. I thought I would do something good for the environment so I decided to switch my PC off from the mains, that is why.

Help, Connect is being a pain in the ass as per usual. When I try to rip CDs, the button changes to a cancel button, the artist and album information dissapears and nothing happens. Also, the cancel button doesn't work. At first I suspected this was the work of copyright protection but it seems to be doing the same for all my CDs (well, the two I have tried so far!).

Personally, I wouldn't recommend WMA. To my ears, the distortion is terrible at lower bitrates, also it uses more processing power than MP3 and gobbles up battery power. Personally, I think ATRAC3plus is a darn good balance between battery life and sound quality, but for future compatability, I'd go with MP3 (variable bitrate, go for quality over quantity).

I have a silicon case, two niggles I can pick with it though: 1. Doesn't protect screen 2. Hole isn't big enough to plug in USB cable, have to take off silicon case which is very inconvenient. I've cut a bigger hole in the bottom of mine with scissors and now I'm reasonably happy, though not impressed. 3. Also, dust and dirt sticks to the silicon quite easily, I had it lying on my carpet (BIG MISTAKE).

Sorry, my stupidity. It was set to convert all files to ATRAC3. (Where's an embarassed emoticon when you need one)

ABC - When Smokey Sings is may favourite song. Apparently.