bug80

Hello ak_47, it sounds like a problem I had. Have you read this topic?

I think for new, rechargable batteries this is no exception. Just fully empty/recharge the battery a couple of times and the time will get longer (I think you need to do this 3-4 times).

I've heard that the idea of compressing signals using quantization in the frequency domain is more than 100 years old (could be wrong, but I thought early 20th century). However, back than it took a hall full of people and about one day to calculate a single FFT So the idea is old, but they didn't have the computerpower we have now. * EDIT * This statement doesn't mean I am over 100 years old, mind you!

They've used the best of the best encoders with the most optimal settings to encode their AAC, MP3, Vorbis, etc. files, while in the case of ATRAC, they only got one choice: Sonicstage (without optimalization settings). That explains a lot, yes.

That's great! I won't bother programming it myself, then. What surprises me though, is that according to this test, ATRAC3 doesn't perform very well compared to other codecs * EDIT * at a bitrate of 132 kbs, that is

Because perception is all what matters, I'm currently working on programming a blind test, in which the subject hears pairs of signals (each encoded with either MP3, ATRAC(+), AAC or OGG at different bitrates). After listening to one pair, the listener can point out which of the two he/she thinks sounds best. Combining all results should lead to a "ranking".

Good story. To be honest, I really never thought of ATRAC being gapless (but in the end it all perfectly makes sense).Your proposed method of making MP3 players gapless is a good idea, however you will run into problems. As far as I know, all D/A converters depend on a fixed bufferlength in the timedomain. But, as soon as zeros are removed from the end from the current stream and the beginning of the next one, the length of the decoded data which is sent to the audiobuffer doesn't have this fixed length anymore, and guess what you get: a gap

Yes that would be great. I guess ATRAC 192 kbs will sound like MP3 256 kbs, or at least close to that.

And he's probably right too.

You pretty much summed it all up, I think. For me the greatest pro is the soundquality. ATRAC 132 kbs is definitely more pleasant to listen to than MP3 128 kbs (and 160 kbs, with most audio). Second comes the battery life. I think it's great my MD player continues playing for about 16 hours in LP2 mode (48 hours using a dry battery), while iPod owners have to recharge their unit every 7-8 hours Something you didn't mention is, that ATRAC is exclusive to Sony has a great advantage. Because MP3 is an algorithm used by lots of software engineers, a lot of bad encoders exist on the market. For example encoders which don't use appropiate pre-processing before the actual encoding. This way, you never know if your downloaded mp3 (legal download, off course ) with a bitrate of 192 kbs sounds good, or sounds like crap.

I agree with all of your points but 9. I consider it a myth, actually. In fact, today's pop- and rockmusic has a much broader spectrum than classical music. On the other hand, classical music generally has more dynamics than popmusic. I think this story comes from the fact, that classical music lovers are on average more critical listeners than their popmusic counterparts. I'm a critical pop- and rockmusic lover, and I can't listen to 128 kbs mp3's either. The final quality of a mp3 file has much to do with the "shape" of the signals in an audio file. The more steep they are, the harder it is for mp3 to reconstruct it completely. Popmusic contains a lot of "steep" signals, because it is mostly percussive (think drums, acoustic guitar). That's why the typical artifacts of mp3 are heard best when listening to acoustic music, with lots of gaps and acoustic (percussive) instruments.

O please Sony, this is not a decent error message. It is typical for the way Sony software is put together. Lazy programming, that's what it is!

Couldn't agree more. I bought my unit in the first place for exchanging recordings between the studio and my PC at home (which, well, aaargghh, don't have to explain any further I think..), second as a player for on the road. In the beginning I complimented Sony for their marketing strategy, when they won the battle with Philips' DCC format. My memory says the audioquality DCC was even better than Minidisc in those days (no compression, 20 bit audio). But right now, the competition is indeed in a very different league. For about the price of a hi-MD player with 4 discs, you can buy an iPod mini with a 4 GB HDD. 1) An iPod is cool, 2) You can use iTunes for transfering tracks. They really should not aim at general musiclovers, but to musicians, journalists and the like. Which means they have to change their policy on digital uploading to a PC too! * EDIT * I've just read the artical. It's just so strange, Sony officials now say, what MD users already have said for years. Maybe they should establish a closer relationship to their customers

This is in fact a well-known trick. Anyway, have you read this topic? It may explain why SonicStage fails on your PC.

This is maybe a strange question, but I'd like to open my remote control. I don't know the exact name & type, but it came with my N510 (one without LCD). For some reason, I only get sound on one channel when I use the remote. Probably a wire came loose inside, or anything. The problem is, I can't open it I removed the little screw on the back. After that I can take two pieces apart a little, but it won't open entirely. Maybe I have to use extra force, but I don't want to ruin it, off course So, anyone here who has done this before and knows how to this in a safe way?

Are you permanently connected to the internet? If not, maybe that's the reason why nothing happens when you click Register. Sonicstage needs to connect to the CDDB for that. If you are connected, than that cannot explain your issue. However I strongly recommend that you install a firewall in that case!

Sometimes SS can't connect to the CDDB database, because of the build-in Windows XP firewall. Try the following: 1) Turn off the Windows firewall using "Control Panel" > "Security center" > "Windows firewall". 2) Restart Sonicstage and register again to the CDDB. After that it will probably work again. Don't forget to restart the Windows firewall!

I've been fairly deep into audio programming lately, but I quite frankly don't know a thing about codecs. The only thing I know is, that programming audio in Windows can be a very frustrating job. Maybe SS adresses the codecs in a wrong way. Another option is, that SS doesn't use an external codec, but just the algorithm of Fraunhofer (and that they haven't done that correctly). If I remember it correctly, that is the way Fraunhofer works. Programmers buy a license to implement the algorithm into their software. Anyway, it's a fact that SS is less reliable and user-friendly than other, similar software like iTunes.

For me, it was sufficient to just disable the MP3 filter in ffdshow as I explained above. I'm still able to run ffdshow without that option (which, in my opinion, is useless anyway). I agree with you that SonicStage doesn't deserve an award for good programming, but in this case it isn't really Sony's fault. The programmers of SonicStage choose to use the Fraunhofer algorithm, which is a good thing. In this case it's really ffdshow's fault. I really don't understand why all the audio is intercepted by ffdshow and run through their own filters. I don't get why users get a benefit from that, it only slows things down. Yes, that sucks big time. The reason I bought my unit was, that from that point I was able to transfer demo recordings from my band to my PC, do some processing, and burn them to CD for my band collegues. At least that's what I thought. It turns out I have to do everything via the line out, which is very time consuming (and the result is kind of the same, isn't it SONY guys?). I really don't get this choice of Sony to do things this way. MD has a very strong fanbase, mainly consisting of musicians and journalists. And guess what they want: transfer their own audio between their MD unit and their PC! If Sony wants to continue selling MD stuff while the iPod is gaining succes at a high rate, they really should change this! Another thing I don't understand is, that on the one hand Sony tries to sell MD units, and on the other hand their record company sell CD's with a copy protection. I now have a lot of Sony CD's that I can't transfer to MD for use on the road. Kind of strange!! Luckely, the most recent Sony CD's have a copy protection that is overruled by SimpleBurner

Good idea, but please don't forget us old-fashioned NetMD losers!

Do you by any chance have the "ffdshow" codecs installed on your PC? I had the same problems as you and it turned out that ffdshow was the cause of all trouble. See this topic. And this is my solution: Good luck!

I SOLVED THE PROBLEM!!! Here's what I did. Because I thought it had something to do with codecs, I removed everything that looked like AVI, XviD, DivX, etc using Add/Remove Programs from the Control Panel. Then I rebooted and started SS and guess what: it worked! It converted my files! However, I like movies, so I wanted my codecs back. Therefore I installed ffdshow, which has everything in it. However, when I started SS again, it didn't work anymore. So probably ffdshow caused the problem. After some quick research, it turns out that the MP3 filter of ffdshow interferes with SonicStage. So all you have to do is go to your Start Menu --> Programs --> ffdshow --> Audio filter configuration. There, change "mp3lib" behind MP3 to "disabled". That's all! After that, SS converted my MP3 files without problems. And I'm still able to watch movies! I am currently not able to do some more tests, like: Do more movies work and: Can I now record a CD using SS?. The latter isn't much of a problem, we still have SimpleBurner after all! kappa22, I hope your problem (and solution) is the same as mine! As you see, the solution is simple, but effective. P.S. Maybe this should be in the FAQ somewhere?

Too bad Anyway, thanks for your help. Maybe there's a user hanging around who had the same problem and solved it? kappa22 said in his opening post that he solved it in the past, so there's still hope. Until then, I'll try the Nero --> Simpleburner 1 trick. Maybe that works. Altough I have to find Simpleburner 1 somewhere.

No. It's an AMD Thunderbird 800 MHz - 384 MB RAM, by the way. Everything went fine under Windows '98 (and SS 1.5), the problem came up as soon as I switched over to Windows XP SP2. Oh and Simpleburner 2 works without problems, that might be usefull information.

Yes I did. I also tried the Sony MP3 Converter Tool, but it freezes on the same MP3 files. I tried to record a CD and that went wrong too, but in a different kind of way. The first 2-3 songs are recorded without problems. After that, the PC stops reading from the CD and my harddrive starts working like there's no tomorrow. Recording goes on, but at a very slow rate (1% per minute or so). That goes on for a couple of minutes, then SS gives an error that there's an "Error while reading from the CD". * edit * I've experimented with several cd's, all giving the same error. Because I think the problem might be codec related, I've taken a look at my codec list via Control Panel > Sounds, Speech and Audio Devices > Hardware > Audio Codecs (why is this under hardware anyway?). There was a "Sony ATRAC3 codec" which I've deleted, just to try if it makes a differences. It does not SS still freezes.