minidisc3

Hello Musicboxer, I don't have the MDX-C800REC, but maybe the following websites can help you further. Connects2 has all kinds of aux connectors for Sony caraudio and Walkman. www.connects2.com www.connects2.co.uk I hope this helps... Marco

Don't worry, uploads are possible with your digital realtime CD recordings for an unlimited number of times. The only upload restriction the RH1 has is that it won't upload NetMD recordings created with Sonicstage, but that doesn't seem to be your case. Marco...

This info goes for the RH1: There are no restrictions at all for uploading your SP (ATRAC1) recordings to a PC. Even prerecorded discs can be uploaded and they always came with SCMS protection. I have uploaded all of my old SP discs without any problem. You can set Sonicstage to convert to ATRAC3plus or PCM during transfer. I used PCM for the uploads, hoping to avoid another conversion step. The only hassle after the upload is converting to wav, conversion to MP3 and MP3 tagging. Marco

Bob is right. The RH1 will upload all types of recordings to PC, except NetMD tracks. Even pre-recorded discs and (non Sonicstage) MDLP tracks can be uploaded. Marco

And I was there from the beginning. Still proud... still here...

Thanks Rich-san, I guess the wait continues... Let's hope for another batch of Hi-MD gear. Marco...

Do any of the Onkyo decks or even bookshelf systems support MP3 playback from Hi-MD? I mean MP3s transferred with Sonicstage to 2nd or 3rd generation Hi-MD portables. Thanks! Marco

* Downloading/Transcoding/Encoding: Allow SP downloads in full quality. The recorders all have a wonderful SP encoder. Download in PCM; have the recorder encode that PCM signal in SP, not the PC! * Editing: The tag editor is neat, but not perfect. Allow to select titles from different CD titles found on Gracenote until the full tracklist is titled. Now I can only select titles from 1 CD found on Gracenote. * Editing: Allow alphabetic sorting of the group list on all ATRAC devices (by title/artist etc.). Marco

A 1 gig disc? This is a NetMD device, isn't it? NetMD doesn't take 1 gig discs... Sorry, bad reading here. Is see you bought the 910 in the end... Have fun with it!

I never actually burnt an ATRAC CD so I don't know if the files appear as *.OMA or *.OMG files on the CD. If they do, you can copy them onto the harddrive and convert them to wav files using Marc's HiMD Renderer. You'll find information about this program here: Marc's HiMD Renderer Marco

The Netherlands has it's own Connect music store. I succeeded in getting the Dutch connect in SS 3.0 by tweaking the registry. Everywhere I found www.connect.com, I removed the complete link and changed it to www.connect-europe.com. Haven't tried if downloading from connect in Holland actually works with SS 3.0. be careful with the registry! Marco

How about importing your MP3's in SonicStage; (multi)select them in 'My Library', right-click and 'Convert format'?

It won't work, I've tried with my (1999 model) Sony NW-MS7 memory stick walkman. That's why I still have good hope one day it will work with my NW-HD1 HDD walkman, because transfer worked. And Hi-MD? Just try...

Well at least the transfer was allowed by the software. It worked on my HD1 but not on my NW-MS7! I guess the foldernames should be different with our players to get them MP3's to play.

Yes you need to run it from the device, that's correct.

Hello Tsangc, I managed to install the MP3 File Manager on my NW-HD1. It even transfered MP3's fine. On the HD1 they are encrypted *.DAT files, however still MP3 because there's no sign of any conversion! Transfer is fast! Unfortunately I was not able to play the files, because they don't show up in the playlist. It might work on your flash Network Walkman. Here's how I did it: 1. Double click the Chinese installer you've downloaded. Leave it open once started and leave it alone for now. 2. In Windows Explorer create a folder called 'Esys' in the root directory of your walkman. 3. Search your C: drive for a file called MP3FileManager.exe or Copytool.exe. 4. Goto the folder on the C: drive where the file is located. 5. Copy the complete content in this folder to the 'Esys' folder on your walkman. It will fail to work if the folder name is different from 'Esys'. Now you can close the installer. 6. Double click the MP3FileManager.exe in the 'Esys' folder on you Walkman. Close the help window that pops up on top of the MP3 File Manager. 7. Drag and drop MP3 files onto the MP3 File Manager. 8. Try to play them on your walkman. 9. Share your findings with us, please! If you download the NW-S23 documentation you can see the English screens of the MP3 file manager. Download it here: http://www.docs.sony.com/release/NWS23.pdf The manual says you can download an English version from http://www.sony.com/walkmansupport , but I couldn't find it. Marco

A quote from the article: Who knows this will be some kind of application that directly converts MP3 into ATRAC3(+), be it without the use of SonicStage. We know Sony plays around with words often. I Guess even the NW-S23 only 'supports' MP3, but does still not actually play them.

Sony confirms MP3 implementation in it's digital devices: http://news.com.com/Sony+retuning+to+pick+...476.html?tag=nl

In this Polish article I can't find anything about enabling direct MP3 support on Sony music devices. It only says Sonicstage 2.0 will play MP3 without having to convert to ATRAC first. Am I missing something, or are you reading something you WANT to read?

Hi Marc, I've tried several other wav writers and they work. Unfortunately they came with either some Cyberlink or Pinnacle software package. Wouldn't it be possible to include the sonywavwriter in your himdrenderer and register it even if Sonicstage 2.2 is installed? Hey, if they removed the filter because of your himdrenderer program, it means Sony is very carefully checking what is going on in this forum. Marco

This is so right and ATRAC3plus 256 is really good. I haven't had a walkman that sounded so good as my new Sony for a long time. The battery life is just outstanding! Come on guys, is this about music or about who beats who in transfer times? Once the music is on the disc or memory of the walkman, does it really matter what the codec is? MP3 or ATRAC3plus? As long as the sound is just perfect and the battery lasts long. Hi-MD or Sony HDD walkman has both! Do you really think Sony will allow you to share music just like that using Sony branded equipment? Even when they play native MP3, I guess they won't allow you to. Just have a look at for instance the Philips HDD MP3 players; you still need dedicated software to transfer MP3 onto those and you won't be able to transfer it back into any PC. I've read the manual...

Congratulations! Great work! it might be a simple program, but believe me this guy spent a lot of time figuring this out. Has anyone tried with a track bought from Sony Connect? I can't do it, Connect is still not available here.

There is one hughe advantage in ripping to MP3 before converting to ATRAC3(plus). You can normalize the MP3's to have higher volume output on your Network Walkman. Mainly older CD's result in MP3's with low volume.

I should be (re)ripping all of my CD's straight to ATRAC3plus 256 with SonicStage, that gives the best results. However, I have my whole collection already in MP3 format, worth about 25 GB. They're all in 192kb/s stereo. I can still remember how much time that took... So instead, I decided to import the MP3's and convert them into Atrac3+ 256. Atrac3+ 256 is that good, it preserves the full quality of the MP3's. After transferring them I delete the *.oma files from the PC with Windows Explorer. In this way the SS library will stay intact. I'm so happy Sony took the chance to add this new codec with the introduction of Hi-MD (and the NW-HD1) of course. I hope they will also offer ATRAC3+ 256 downloads from Connect when it becomes available in my country, but I doubt it... Aeriyn, you said you're ripping your CD's to 320 kb/s MP3 and convert them into ATRAC3+ 256. It's only my humble theory, but I think you'd better rip them to max. 256 kb/s MP3. I guess ATRAC3+ and MP3 work quite similar. When converting from 320 kb/s MP3 to 256 ATRAC3+ a lot of information needs to be thrown away, because of the lower bit rate of ATRAC3+ 256. This will not be the (so much) case when converting MP3 bitrates lower than 256 kb/s to ATRAC3+ 256. Just do a quick test, I believe with 224 kb/s MP3's you'll hear no difference to the CD original. There should be no need to use 320 kb/s. It's more important you don't use the joint-stereo feature, just use the stereo setting (especially at high MP3 bitrates!).

I've done some listening test on my NW-HD1. The sound test below might be interesting to Hi-MD users as well. I've tested ATRAC3plus 256 and ATRAC3 132 with the track Patience from George Michael's latest album Patience. This is a piano song with vocals. Piano music is very dynamic and the vocals are very pronounced and in the foreground. 'S' sounds in the vocals are somewhat overly pronounced on the original CD. I used the original CD as a source and I used a 192 kb/s stereo encoded MP3 (Lame) as a source. All results below are compared to the original CD track. I listened with good quality headphones. Results: 192 kb/s stereo encoded MP3 => ATRAC3plus 256: Very crisp and full sound. Clear and very nice treble. Piano and voice lost some ground bass. Not as airy and 'open' sounding as the original, but still okay in this respect. Very attacking analytical sound. I liked it very much. 192 kb/s stereo encoded MP3 => ATRAC3 132: Blurred sound and distorted treble, especially with the 'S' sounds in vocals. Loss in dynamics. The music looses its bite and is not as attacking as the CD original. Flat and not airy sounding. Somewhat sparkling background hissing. To me it sounds annoying. I found the same results when using this method with my MZ-N1. CD => ATRAC3plus 256 (direct rip): Very crisp and full sound. Clear and very nice treble. Ground bass and fullness of the original remains. Airy and 'open' sound; you can actually imagin yourself being in the same room as piano and singer! Very precise reproduction, I like it very much and I'm happy Hi-SP lives up to my expectations (until now). Very hard to tell the difference with the CD original! CD => ATRAC3 132 (direct rip): Now this was a real surprise! This sounds much better than the MP3 converted to ATRAC3 132. 'S' sounds in vocals are less pronounced but still overly pronounced. Treble was less blurred and more precise. Still loss of dynamics. Again it sounded a bit flat and not airy. Overall conclusion: I never really liked the Longplay mode of NetMD (ATRAC3 132) and this test only confirmed my earlier verdict on ATRAC3 132. The direct CD rip to ATRAC3 132 can be acceptable, that possibly depends on the type of music you're listening to. Dynamical music gives this codec a very hard time! This codec really tries to fool you at 132 kb/s, making you think everything is alright, but at the same time making you feel uncomfortable (is this what psychoaccoustics do to you?). I guess it will do when listening at a lower volume or in a noisy environment. It's clear that when using ATRAC3 132 the source has to be a CD. The MP3 to ATRAC3 132 conversion makes listening almost unbearable. ATRAC3 132 artifacts seem to be far more annoying than MP3 192 kb/s artifacts. ATRAC3plus 256 is a superb codec! Ripping CD's to ATRAC3plus 256 absolutely gives the best results. Until now, I could not distinguish any difference to the CD original here. ATRAC3plus 256 is definitely better than MP3 192 kb/s, it revealed all shortcomings of the MP3 sound. Maybe now you understand why I didn't even bother testing the lower ATRAC3(plus) bitrates yet. I still might. If I do, I'll share my findings with you. I don't even think it would be fair to negatively judge the lower bitrates, eventhough Sony claims 64 kb/s produces CD quality sound. If the low bitrates are not satisfying to you, just move up to a higher bitrate. As far as the highest possible bitrates are concerned, they should live up to the price of 400 Euros for the HD1. This product is marketed as a high-end device and luckily it can produce brilliant sound depending on the choices YOU make. I guess I'll have to re-rip my favourite CD's to ATRAC3plus 256... Marco