peterjf

No, still no luck. I have tried re-installing my Windows Security, re-installing SonicStage and have made specific Windows Firewall exceptions for SonicStage. My Internet connection is as it should be (hence my being able to post here) and still I get the error message. What version do you use? Searching Minidisc for SonicStage gives versions 3.4 and 4.0. Thanks!

Thanks for your reply. I have certainly got the option of re-importing the ATRAC files as a last resort, but I was hoping to avoid having to do this as the library is about 95% compilations and I really do not want to have to go through 12,000 tracks one at a time to re-tick the 'compilation' box for every one. Good to know the server is still active - perhaps it is my internet connection. Thanks again!

Evening all, During many years of trouble with SonicStage, the one program in the suite that has always worked well and with no issues is the Backup tool. Until tonight that is... After a system crash last night, I had to perform a Windows System restore. As a precaution, I tried to restore my meticulously backed-up SonicStage library tonight. However, I cannot get the necessary online authentication of the database that enables the restore to take place. All I get is an error message: "Failed to restore the rights information. (Code: %x)" And before anyone asks, there is no copy protection on any of my files. My PC is running Windows XP with SonicStage version 4.2. Now I know that Sony have stopped supporting SonicStage anywhere outside Japan. However, since they pulled the plug on SonicStage, I have managed to use the restore tool successfully. Has anyone else had this issue? Is it just a case of the authentication server being down or have Sony got rid of it completely? (I would be surprised if that were the case, given that they still support the software in Japan.) Thanks in advance.

The first question that comes to mind is: What version of Windows are you using? If you are using XP, it may be worth trying to install an earlier version of SonicStage (version 4.0 is available as a full download from this site, version 4.2 may also be available elsewhere). Otherwise it may well be an issue with your PC - SS does seem to be very fussy about the PC it is on.

I agree with both replies - the only way to transfer the music is to use the SS backup tool. Don't even think about copying the music files across any other way, otherwise you will have to re-import each album individually (and this can be a real pain if you have any compilation albums). I have used the backup tool successfully on a number of occasions with a library of about 20,000 tracks. It is user-friendly and I have never known anyone report trouble using it. The only glitch is that you need to authenticate the database online when restoring, and the server at the other end can be slow.

True enough that all HD machines are slower than flash memory ones. However, I have always found the A3000 takes twice as long to start up as my HD1 and HD5. It also takes the A3000 longer to respond to any button presses than the other two machines. It has also been slower since I started using SS version 4.2 than when I used version 3.4, so I can only presume that this version produces a differently structured database on the A3000. On the other hand, I have had none of the file corruption issues on the machine that I used to have when I used version 3.4, so the extra slowness is not all bad.

After re-initialising the player and re-connecting it to SonicStage, you should get a pop-up window to the effect that SonicStage is checking the tracks that have been deleted from the player. (At least - you do with SS version 4.2 - earlier versions may just do this check without telling you what is going on. By the way, which version of SS do you use?) As I remember from the last time I did this, the process is quite resource-hungry, takes a few hours (as I have a large number of tracks in my library) and has to be carried out three or four times as SS seems to be unable to do the whole lot in one go. The first run of this takes a lot longer than the rest - it gets quicker each time. After this is done, all music can be re-transferred. It sounds as though this may be the problem you have had - from time to time, the database within the player does get corrupted (especially if you are often putting music on and taking music off the player). I have this problem every few months with my HD1 and HD5. Although annoying and time-consuming, I can usually get the players back up and running properly in a day or two. (Incidentally, I have had my HD1 since it first came out - which I think is about 3 years ago now. Hardware-wise, it still performs as well as it did on day one - even the battery is still in tip-top condition.) Try this (leaving the player connected to the PC overnight if necessary) - there is no point in spending your hard-earned on a new player if you do not need to. Good luck!

The trouble is that there have been rumours on here for many months now (from people who claim to be in the know) that Sony are producing something revolutionary. Nothing has ever emerged to give any credibility to these rumours. For a long time, I was prepared to give Sony the benefit of the doubt. After all, following the disappointment of the A1000/1200/3000 series and the troubles with Connect, Sony would obviously want to make sure that they get the next product right. However, with nothing but flash players coming out and with no definite news for many many months, even I am getting sceptical. Having said that, I hope that something with a high capacity is on its way as I have had enough of having to carry two players round with me. That may well soon be three as both my HD5H and A3000 are nearly full...

The backlight is a major drain on the battery. I also think that extra power is used decoding any format other than ATRAC (but I do not know this for sure). The other thing that runs the battery down quickly is repeatedly switching between tracks, as the player needs to access the disk more than it would otherwise do. If the player is just left to play tracks in its predetermined order (ie playing one album, then another and so on instead of repeatedly jumping about), the player caches 25 minutes of music at a time and therefore minimises the amount the disk is accessed. All this shortens the battery life. One final word is that I have had my HD5 since it was first released, which is nearly two years ago. Despite fairly heavy use most days, I still get about its stated 35 hours between charges.

I haven't done this myself, but others on here have said that if you connect your existing drive to your new PC, you can import your existing files to SonicStage, as long as there is no copy-protection on the files. (If any of your tracks are copy-protected, they will probably still import, but will then be unplayable and will not transfer to your player - in which case, the only option is to re-rip the original CDs.) The music on your player should not be affected as you can use the device with more than one PC. My SonicStage library is on a slave disk which I transferred to my new PC recently. However, I put the music into SonicStage by restoring a SS backup I had previously made. Only one word of caution - if you put SS4.2 (or possibly 4.3) onto the new PC, and the music on your device was put on by an earlier version, I would not connect the device to the PC until the entire music library is ready to transfer, otherwise the track listings on the device get scrambled. The only way round this is to re-initialise the player and re-transfer the music. Good luck!

Navsimpson - you are quite right in that all versions of SonicStage CP (ie 4.0 and later) do feature full support for the NW-A series of players. Savage Hamster - If you have a player with music transferred by any version of SonicStage before (I think) version 4.2, the database on the player does get messed up when you connect to a PC with SS 4.2 installed. While this does not mean that the music becomes unplayable, it certainly does mess up the listings on the player screen. This is because the later versions of SS structure the database in a different way on the player (and if my A3000 is anything to go by, it now takes a fraction of the time to create its database after disconnecting from my PC). The only way round this is to re-initialise the player and re-transfer your music.

I have had the same trouble with SS3.4. I could not find any way round the problem without re-initialising my HD5. However, you may want to do a complete clean uninstall of your current version of SS (there are complete instructions for this somewhere on this site) and either reinstall the same version or upgrade to the latest version (currently 4.2) before you initialise and re-transfer your music. I had the same trouble and had to do two or three re-initialisations before I decided to bite the bullet and do a re-install. If you do this, however, you do need to make sure you use the SS backup tool to make a backup of your library before you start. Sorry I cannot be any more help, but (touch wood and tempt fate), I have not had any trouble since I did this re-install (I am now using SS4.2). I suspect that there was a gremlin somewhere in the SS registry settings that was corrupting the HD5 database. Good luck if you decide to do this.

As long as you transfer the music from the laptop to the new PC using the SonicStage backup tool, you should not have any trouble. The backup tool is easy enough to use - just make sure you have an external HDD to make the transfer and you will need an Internet connection to restore the music to the new PC. Good luck!

Thanks!

I am thinking of buying one of these players (I am sure you all wanted to know that...) What I would like to know is this: When you get to the end of an album, does this player continue with the next album (like the NW-HD1/HD5/A308 etc) or does it stop playing (like the A3000)? Thanks in advance.