maggior

What I do is rip CDs to wave file using EAC into separate directories. Be sure to include the track number as the first 2 characters of the track name. You can use whatever ripping program you like - as long as it creates WAV files, not mp3. When you have completed ripping all of the CDs you want, open up Sonic Stage. Then, drag each directory into SS from Windows Explorer. Each drag/drop operation you do will translate to another album. If you set SS up to show albums in imported order, you will see the albums up top as they are created. You need to do the drag/dropping one at a time because each drag/drop will create an album with no name. If you do a bunch of them, you will lose track of which is which. After you have imported an album, right click on it and click properties. From there, you can title the album, set the genre, artist, etc. What you specify here will be applied to all tracks that make up the album. After you have done this for all of your albums, switch your view to show all tracks (as opposed to albums). At the bottom of the list, you will see the wave files you have imported. Select all of them and right click. You will see a option to convert format. Choose this and pick whichever bit rate you want. Be sure that the box about protection is unchecked - you don't want to add DRM to your files. After this is done, switch back to album view. Select all of the albums that you created and delete them (trust me on this...:-). When you delete them, be sure that the "delete music files" box is NOT checked. Once this is complete, go back to Windows Explorer and find the ATRAC files you created in the conversion in the directory that you have configured SS to put the "optimized files". The files in this directory will have an omg extension. Select all of the files that you converted and drag them into SS. The purpose of deleting the albums in SS and reimporting the omg files is to easily remove the reference to the wave files from the SS database. The alternative is to click on the properties of each track and remove the reference to the wave file. This is a long and painful process. You will see your albums created again. Double check each album to ensure the track ordering is correct. For some reason, this gets jumbled occasionally. At this point, you can delete the WAV files you created when you ripped the CDs. This sounds complicated, but it's easy once you get the hang of it. The hard part was figuring this procedure out! I've been using this method for months now and it has served me well. I posted this procedure in the minidisc forum and people have had good luck with it. (It was in that discussion thread that somebody made the suggestion about removing the albums and importing the OMG files back.) What I like about it is it allows you to encode in a batch mode rather than rip, encode, rip, encode, etc. Plus you can deal with files you obtain through another means than ripping a CD (e.g. FLAC files from bit torrent, an FTP site, etc.). I hope this helps. Send any questions you might have my way and I will try to answer them. Cheers! Rich BTW, even though I am ripping outside of SS, I still get gapless playback on my ATRAC files.

Does anybody know how to play a single album only on the HD-3? According to the instructions, this should work if I set the play mode to "unit", set the mode to "album" and select the album from there. When I do this, the player still continues on to the next alum. My E507 will play an album at a time, which is nice. It's a great feature for listening to music when going to sleep. With my HD3 full of music encoded at 105kbs, I could sleep for a week straight and wake up with the player still playing (assuming it was plugged into the wall :-). Any tips on using this feature are appreciated. Thanks! Rich

This is the thread that led me to believe that Sony's ATRAC flash devices didn't support gapless playback: http://www.atraclife.com/forums/index.php?...=644&hl=gapless The comments at the end of the thread make it pretty clear that it was believed that gapless playback was not supported. I just wanted to let folks know that this isn't true, at least for the 500 series players. And from the comments in this thread, it would seem even the older ones do gapless too. BTW, I rip my discs using EAC to wave and drag the files into SS. No problems with gaps. Exact Audio Copy is accepted as the defacto tool for ripping CDs. Anybody that uses EAC shouldn't be afraid to use it in conjunction with SS. It works for me with all of my ATRAC devices. Cheers! Rich

So today I broke down and bought a flash player to coplement my HiMD and HD based ATRAC players. I wanted something I could use to work out, do yardwork, etc. without worrying too much about knocking it around. I read in another thread in this forum that the flash based players didn't support gapless playback. This was dissapointing, but since the flash player is complementary to my other players, it didn't bother me much. So, when I loaded up Abbey Road by The Beatles on my new purchase, wasn't I pleasantly surprised to hear gapless transitions between the tracks that make up the medly on what was originally Side 2. According to the player, it is running version 1.00 of the firmware (though according to the serial number, it should be a more current version). I purchased this player in the US (Best Buy), am using SS version 3.4, and use ATRAC3 encoding at 105 kbps. Has anybody else noticed that this player does indeed support gapless playback? This player kicks some serious ass. I'm quite happy with it and I highly recommend it! Now I can bring my ATRAC encoded music with me to work out and stuff without worrying about damaging my pride-and-joy NW-HD3. Rich

With my RH910 (HiMD), I was able to upload music to it from multiple computers with no trouble. I just tried this with my new NW-HD3 and it wouldn't work. It gave me an error indicating that a different rev of Sonic Stage was used to upload the existing music. Which was true - the PC I mainly use I had upgraded to SS3.4, but my other PC was still running 3.3. Even after upgrading the second PC to 3.4, I still encounter the problem. Should this work? What might I be doing wrong? Thanks! Rich

Ufortunately, there is no easy way. I do this regularly, along with APE and SHN files. What I do is batch convert them using dbPowerAmp to wav. If the files are named as the track name, then the track info is brought over. What isn't brought over is the album, artist, and genre info. Once you've imported the album (you must do them one at a time), right click on it and click properties. Here, you can set the album title, artist, genre, etc. When you click OK, the info is applied to all of the tracks in the album. I wish there was an easier way. But this way ins't too awful once you get used to it. And gaps aren't introduced this way. And what would the point be of using ATRAC if you are introducing gaps!?!? On the rare occasion that I import an mp3 file, I'm shocked about how all of the info is filled in automatically. That would be nice with FLAC as well. I think the only solution would be if Sony updated SonicStage to allow import of FLAC directly. Somehow, I don't think that feature will be coming any time soon. Rich

I just purchased one of these myself from EBay. I lost patience for Sony to release a new HD based DAP here in the US. When the A3000 was dropped from SonyStyle Canada, I lost hope. I got a red one that is a Sony refurb. I am just now finished loading it up about 3/4 full. I messed about with it before - it rocks!!! If the seller told me it was new, I would have believed him. It doesn't have a single scratch on it and included all accessories. So, in addition to my 2 MD players, I now have a 3rd ATRAC DAP to add to my list :-). What impresses me is how solid this unit feels. As on any Sony unit I've used, the buttons are solid feeling and provide good feedback when pressed. Plus, the unit is metal! The rounded edges feel good in your hand. The rectangle orientation will take a little getting used to, but that's not a big deal to me. The navigation is straight forward and relatively no frills. Just what I was looking for. And the gapless playback of ATRAC that I've learned to love!! The LCD panel is pretty high resolution for what it is and provides the essential info, along with a backlight. Good enough for me - a color screen may be nice, but this does the job. I don't need to view pix or videos on my music player!! I highly recommend this unit. It sounds as good as my RH910 HiMD player, but is smaller and has a more solid feel to it. And it holds just a bit more music ;-). I normally don't go for refurbished units, but I'm impressed with this one. I'll be burning it through the battery over the next couple of days to make sure it is OK. So far so good :-). Cheers! Rich

So, I lost my patience and found a nice factory refurbished red NW-HD3 on Ebay. You guys all seem to love it and it will more than fit my needs, so I went for it. Hopefully I'll have it in a week. It comes with a 90 day warranty from Sony, so if there are any problems, off it will go back to them. I wonder how much DAP business Sony is losing in the US since it has no hard disc based units for sale here... So, in a week I'll be adding another ATRAC device to my device list Cheers! Rich

I've been itching for the A3000 to show up here in the US. It disappearing from the Canadian market doesn't bode too well for it showing up here. Whether they finally release the A3000 in the US or another model, I don't care - just release something here! Or let us know that you won't so I can just buy something off EBay. I'm building up a nicely sized music library in SS that I'm currently listening to using my MZ-RH910. The 910 is a great unit, but I can only carry around 1GB per disc. How can Sony go this long with no HDD based DAP for the US market!!! I'm hoping the fact that they released an update to the Connect player means we may see something announced soon. Rich