Ryzir

There should be a button that says Device Info or something similar that will let you initialize the HDD. If there isn't I have found that you need to re-format the player on the player itself and then connect it to your computer and initialize through SS.

FYI - You can actually import WMA Lossless into SonicStage and then convert to Atrac, there is no need to convert to wav first.

That's odd. Maybe it has something to do with my HD1? In SS 3.2 I have both DRM and DRM-Less Atrac3+ @256kbps. The files with DRM were encoded with 3.1. And when I transfer the DRM files they are lightening fast. The DRM-Less take more than 4x longer, Strange.

Yeah, I'm not talking about converting but the transfer times from the pc to my HD1. I haven't noticed the converting aspect to be much different.

Anyone else notice how much slower transfering atrac files that have been encoded without DRM is? It is over 4x slower on my machine! (I am running on a P4 3.2Ghz, 2GB DDR Ram, XP Pro, SS 3.2) I sure it's because SS have to "wrap" the file in DRM before transferring but why is it sooo much slower? Or maybe Sony does it on purpose so that you will want to rip your files using the DRM. I haven't really used mp3's much but are they this much slower too? Hopefully Sony does something about this in future releases.

My computer crashed the other day from me tinkering around with it so I had to re-install my OS and SS. I decided to try and re-import all the SS files that were made with previous versions of SS (I had them on a different partition from my OS). After importing them I tried to play a file and it gave me the standard error (not authorized do you want to download the licence for this track, or something like that) and I said yes and logged into Connect. And it now lets me play and transfer all my tracks. The only thing it didn't do was re-import all the album artwork and the year released was also blank. Other than that it had all the tags arranged correctly. I guess this means that you no longer need to use the backup tool for pre SS 3.2 atrac files. I'm still going to hang onto my backup though because you never can trust Sony, they might add all the DRM back in 3.3 who knows.

If size is an issue for you you can check out the NW-HD3. They are going for under $200 on eBay and are smaller than the VP and RH10. I have owned a Rio Karma and wasn't that impressed with it. It would only sometimes be gapless and sound quality wasn't that great either even with OGG. Also it is pretty bulky and doesn't have very good battery life. I have been increasingly impressed with my HD1. When I bought it I also had Hi-Md. I ended up selling all my Hi-Md equipment because the HD1 did everything I needed and more. Plus the battery life is amazing on it. Anyway good luck with your decision. Every DAP has their own advantages, you just need to find the one that caters to your needs.

Yes you can. Sony allows you to authorize up to 5 computers at the same time. I was able to transfer files both ways on authorized devices & computers. Although it isn't really as simple as that. Example: You import a cd into SonicStage then transfer to your device (all authorized). You can then upload that cd onto another authorized computer. You can transfer to a device from the second computer but you cannnot upload that media to yet another computer. Hope that makes sense. Also I think Sony keeps changing what you can and cannot do so it might be different in 3.2 as I tried all this with 3.1.

No it doesn't. The Hd3 is a little thicker than the Hd1.

You cannot transfer songs bought at Connect with 3.2. I don't really use it but my brother just bought an hd3 and I had him install 3.2 and he had his 50 free songs and wasn't able to transfer the tracks so I tried some songs and wasn't able to either. It seems that you cannot "authorize" your device in 3.2 stopping you from being able to transfer Connect songs. Anyone else try this?