b.e.wilson

I'm sure most of you got this email today: -------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Future of CONNECT Music Service To Our Valued Sony CONNECT Music Customers: Today Sony announced its intent to move to a Windows Media Technology platform for Walkman® products in the United States, Canada and Europe. We strongly believe that the decision to embrace a more open platform for these devices will enable us to provide you with a better overall experience. As a result of this change, we will be phasing out the CONNECT™ Music Service based on Sony's ATRAC audio format in North America and Europe. Specific timing will vary by region depending on market demand, but will not be before March 2008. We are fully committed to helping you through this important transition away from the CONNECT Music Service and providing you with the best possible guidance on how to successfully transfer your music library to an MP3 or Windows Media-compatible format, should you wish to do so. We recommend that you use any outstanding promotional codes, account credits or gift certificates available in your music account prior to March 2008, but even after the store closes you will continue to be able to play, manage, and transfer the music in your SonicStage library and on your existing ATRAC devices. If you obtain a new device, all of Sony’s new Walkman music and video players will support MP3 or Windows Media Audio format. In the coming months we will keep you informed of the status of the CONNECT Music Service phase out in your region. Periodic updates will be posted on the CONNECT music store and on the Sony Electronics customer service site, http://esupport.sony.com/EN/news/article215. Please note that the CONNECT e-book service for the Reader in the U.S. will not be affected. Thank you for your business and for your continued support as we work to complete this transition with as little disruption to you as possible. Sincerely, Sony CONNECT Music Team ------------------------------------------------------------- From the link it appears that the Soundstage software will be downloadable until March 2008, but no promises after that.

1. Recording. 2. Removable and durable media. I lost about 30 GB of recordings from my Marantz 670 once when a hard drive failed before I did the big backup. With removable (and fairly cheap media) I can keep the original around just in case.

I googled up a link at Sony that says ATRAC3+ uses block sizes twice what ATRAC3 uses, but I'm still looking for variable block size info. Here's the link: http://www.sony.net/Products/ATRAC3/tech/atrac3plus/

To what paper do you refer? According to the FAQ on this site (http://www.minidisc.org/mdlpfaq.html#_q61) ATRAC3+ uses a block size four times longer than ATRAC3.

"Udderly strangle"? I'm having a bit of a time picturing that. Not that I disagree with the sentiment, mind you, I'm just trying to figure the relationship of the neck with the udder.

I tried the Mora link. The installer failed to update my english installation of v2.2 with an error: "??????Windows?????????????".

It does. Only with Hi-MD you can spend 1.5 hours to move a whole GByte to the disc. We really do need the mp3 support.

Ah, another ironic use of the work "open" to make us think it's available to everyone. Like Open Music Gate (OMG), Sony's DRM continues to be the most closed and restrictive DRM method released in a consumer product.

If you've already got Windows XP Service Pack 2 installed on your computer, you don't need this hotfix.

I must confess I also am loking about for a better option. The Rio Carbon looks attractive....

Okay, I've been doing research all morning. It seems that OpenMG (Open Magic Gate), is the most closed and restrictive of all the popular DRM systems (Fairplay [Apple], Helix [Real], and Windows Media [Microsoft] included).

I did find this essay just now: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/cmusings/2004/03/18

It occured to me today in the shower (where I do all of my best thinking; too bad I spend only a couple minutes a day in there) that OpenMG has the name presumably because it's open source. But at www.openmg.com I can only download a gnu-licenced mp3 id3 tag-editing .dll code. There is no hint there nor information about OpenMG itself. The website declares it's being rebuilt. My question is, has anyone got the OpenMG source code? Was it once available and currently it's not due to website reconstruction, or is OpenMG a marketing term used because it sounds better than ProprietaryMG? http://openmginfo.com/ offers only a fluffy overview of OpenMG, no technical information whatever.

Now that I've tested it, it's useless. Does exactly what it would do if you added the files in SonicStage. Useful, I suppose, if you wanted to convert files while doing something else in SonicStage.

I presume it's the method Sony will employ to retain DRM when mp3's are supported in the future.