zerodB

That's correct. I tried it out ages ago, but couldn't for the life of me see the point of it.

Cool, thanks for the advice aeriyn. I guess the E3cs might just have to wait until money isn't an issue anymore

Great idea kurisu! Little ideas like this can make a world of difference. Keep the improvements flowing!

According to Sony, ATRAC3+ is merley an extension of the ATRAC3 format. Therefore ATRAC3 is like a subset of ATRAC3+, and should be viewed that way as such. SonicStage gives you the option to use both ATRAC3 and ATRAC3+ bitrates when copying music to your device when in "hi-md" mode.

I believe the Download button is used to integrate with MD Simpleburner 2.0. When the download button on your unit is pressed, MD Simpleburner (if running in your system tray) will proceed to rip the audio of the current CD in your cd-rom drive to MD. Someone please confirm?

I actually really don't mind the look of the default one. Why not stick with that, and just fix up the MDCF logo?

I kept on having the same problem for ages. The only way I seemed to get around it was to completley delete the cached downloads from my C:\Documents and Settings\ - user name- \Local Settings\Temp\SSWebUpg Folder, delete all the references to SonicStage and Sony from my systems registry and try the download from scratch. I managed to sucessfully get my copy from connect.com (US Version). Once downloaded, I played around with the *.ini files in the install folder to remove the connect service.

So I've been looking around latley, thinking vaguely about grabbing a new pair of earphones. Sure the short-cord EX51s that came bundled with my E620 are ok, but they have little to say when it comes to clarity and their bloated sound can sometimes be a bit unlistenable for certain kinds of music in quiet environments. Naturally, I've been looking around on the web at the Shures (E2Cs) and the Etys (ER6) etc. But it appears though, that none of these higher-end phones are really designed to be used in conjunction with a remote - they all have rather long cords. So what earphones and headphones are friendly with remotes? And to those who do use these sort of phones with their MD gear, do you still uses these with the remote? If so, what do you to combat the long cords dangling everywhere?

The probable reason both formats sound the same to you is the fact that you're converting MP3 to ATRAC3. Because MP3 is compressed, the sound quality of MP3 is substantially diminished when compared to the original CD. Converting MP3 to ATRAC (also compressed) will reduce the sound quality EVEN FURTHER! So, to get the most out of your MD, why not just rip straight from the original cd to ATRAC? Even if you do decide to use 48kbps in the end, it's still a lot better to go from CD -> ATRAC than it is to go from CD -> MP3 -> ATRAC.

- If you are using a NetMD (ie your N710) you cannot playback the contents of your MD through your computer's sound card. The only sound will come out of the headphone jack of the MD unit itself. - If you use Hi-MD, the sound from the disc is transfered through the USB cable and played through your PC's sound card when it's hooked up. The playback of both types of unit can be controlled in the transfer screen of SonicStage.

The beauty of MD - it's cheap re-recordable small removable media. So even someone with a play-back only unit can benifit, since discs can be easily sent in the mail.

Interesting. Needless to say, the key to defeating EMI copy protection is your PC Drive. I chuck a CD into my stock CD reader in my laptop, and it will only recognise the DATA section of the disc, with it's own player playing the trashy 56kps WMA files. If I chuck the same disc in my external Lite-ON burner, it recognises both DATA and AUDIO components, somehow getting past the encrypted TOC.

It's odd. SonicStage seems to run fine on some computers. It works well on mine. On the occasions when it did run into trouble after some re-installs and updates, I just did a complete uninstall, deleted the SonicStage keys in my registry and re-installed as per the stickied instructions in this forum. But why, time after time again do we hear users with continued problems? Is it something with the software itself? Or is the OpenMG subsystem? Hmmm.....

The answer to your question is: NO. THERE IS NO DRIVER TO SYNC WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER WITH YOUR MD! Absolutley none at all. And besides, MDs don't play MP3 files, they play their own format called ATRAC. NetMDs are not MP3 Players, they never have been and never will be. All NetMDs are just fancy audio cassete players with PC connectivity. While it is possible to convert MP3 to ATRAC, this is not recommended as it will incur a substatial loss of quality in the resulting sound. AFAIK, there is also no way to get MDs to "Sync". You transfer the music to the device. When you no longer need that music, you delete the track, and send another track.

The DRM limitations mean: - If you rip a CD into ATRAC3 (OpenMG) files using SonicStage, you can only listen to or transfer the files from the computer they were ripped with. - The same for MP3: If you convert an MP3 file to ATRAC3 or OpenMG using SonicStage, you can only listen or transfer that ATRAC3 (openMG) file on the computer where the original MP3 was converted. Your MP3 file will be unaffected. - AFAIK, You can upload any recordings that you made in real time (ie with a MIC, etc.) from your unit to any PC. - Once uploaded, you can use MarCs renderer or Sony's conversion tool to convert the uploaded OpenMG file to a WAV. If you use Sony's tool, you can only convert tracks that were recording using an ANALOG input.

I usually just clip the stick remote to my shirt (if I'm wearing a proper button-up one) or to my jacket (sometimes with the cord through a button hole!). If i'm wearing a dress jacket it's usually the shirt, but sometimes the inside pocket works well. The only problem are T-shirts - they have no obvious place to clip. A backpack strap never works for me cos the remote just falls off... At least the 33EL has a detachable clip so the remote can be orientated in the correct direction, even if this does make the controls somewhat weird.

Yikes! You don't have the orginal music on uncompressed audio CD by any chance. Going from MP3 to LP2 = Best to avoid transcoding if it all possible.

Versions 2.x of SonicStage can do this. I'm not sure if the one bundled with the Hi-MD units can, but certainly version 2.3 and the other versions that have been available on connect.com and connect-euro.com allow burning of .OMA files to CD. As far as other methods go, you do have the "Simpleburner-Nero" trick. EG. There's a guy on the T-Board who stores all his music in FLAC (Free Lossles Audio Codec). When he want's his music on his MD, he uses Nero, with a FLAC plugin [from NeroPlugins.cd-rw.org] and burns a "image file" (.NRG) of the CD, and "mounts" it to a "virtual drive". SimpleBurner can recognise this drive and transfer the info to the MD. Of course it's a backhand approach, but it's an option available to you. You're not limited to FLAC files of course (you can use any Nero supports ie OGG, AAC, MP3), and you don't have to use NERO, their is other software that can do this too. Bear in mind, that if you use a LOSSY codec, you will incur further losses through transcoding to ATRAC but it's a viable, if somewhat messy method to get music onto your MD. Some things you might want to google are: - Nero Fast-Burning Plugin for Windows Media Player (useful for burning virtual Images if you don't have Nero) - Daemon Tools (used for mounting various CD-Image file formats) Also don't forget you also have Marcs Renderer at your disposal for turning .OMA files into WAVs. In my experience it is possible to get Windows Media Player to play .OMAs but you'll end up with a warning dialog, plus it can't play gapless like SonicStage can. If you don't intend on using you're computer as a Music Library then SonicStage is fine for the purposes of transfer and listening on your computer. I agree fully, that it still has a long way to go to become as friendly as iTunes. Even Windows Media Player is easie to use

Off-topic: Is it from Hitch-hikers, dex?

True - it's quick to start producing decent sounds and playing pieces, but as with any instrument, real mastery takes years of dedicated work. Despite having a diploma in performance on clarinet, striving to produce a full, round, and centred tone is still an ongoing thing for me. As for the microphone placements, is a "Decca Tree" a useful arrangement for recording solo acoustic classical instruments. Correct me if i'm wrong, but wouldn't this method best exploit the acoustics of whatever room you're using?

Love it, it seems a lot faster than before. So much so, that I can actually join up (and post without having to wait all day for pages to load)!!! Great look too.

Occupation perhaps??? I know "student" doesn't exactly sound cool in mine, but I always make something up like "student & general all-round nice guy".

I sincerly hope you guys aren't talking about me! Well, in any case, I just decided I'd sign up here for good. Long time voyeur, first time poster! It's nice to see some familiar T-boarders here as well! And I love what you've done with the forums, moltar, I mean, kurisu, chris or whatever your name is - that's what has enticed me to sign up! Before MDCF was just way too slow for me and my poor dialup internet connection. But now I think this forum rocks, and maybe, just maybe I might get used to an MD forum that isn't an ugly shade of yellow. HI EVERYONE!