Ascariss

Tell them to return your product to you, since it is yours. Then I guess take it to the place where you bought and ask for an exchange, and if they ask send it to service, say you have already and they couldn't fix it.

Hold can be actually engaged when the player is off, how come it was turned on when you got your player? ie out of the box? both my A1000 and A300 had theirs turned on. Once you are done listening to your songs, pause the song or if the player is stopped, press the hold button for a few seconds, hold will turn on and then let the player turn off. the hold will remain on, to unhold it, press play, and it will show you, hold is on, then press and hold the hold key to remove the hold function. hmm, perhaps you have repeat turned on so that is why the playlist just starts again?

I believe the is the stand alone installer for sonictstage 3.3 he is referring to: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=13149 Once you download it, all you do is install it. You will be able to add and remove songs with the program just like Connect Player.

Unless you have a router, but that can't be it since I have one and never got that problem. In the preferences, there is an option on how it connects to the server, via proxy or directly, choose the direct option, perhaps that will fix your problem.

Note, you can't just copy and paste the songs via windows explorer, they will not play then. Once you move them over to the player using CP or SS, a layer of copyright protection is wrapped around the file s you can't go share all over the place. I wouldn't recommend using the player as a mass storage device for your mp3s, if the HD crashes and all your songs are lost, no way to get them back. Always keep a backup of your mp3s on your pc or a cd/dvd. The oma files is the layer of copyright protection, the files are still mp3 format though.

You can't sync with WMP10, so there really is no point in me getting it. You can only use the Connect Player to sync with the device. As far as i know there never was supposed to be any syncing with WMP10, only Connect player. WMP10 would only be good for ripping your cds into wma format nothing more.

You can't transfer from the player to the PC, as far as I know becayse of DRM. I didn't transfer back the songs, and upgraded the firmware, all my songs still played fine and there was no playback problems. Don't you have the songs you transferred to the device still on your pc?

No, my WMP can only rip to 192 at CBR, I am too lazy to upgrade to WMP 10. But if VBR works at 352 I am sure CBR will as well. Not sure on the sound, I still prefer mp3, don't use atrac.

Haahaha Dinko good one. Perhaps also on the fly playlists would be nice as well, but we can all dream.... When I go to track/song information it states that it is a WMA file, with the whatever bitrate with VBR and 192 displayed using CBR.

I've had no issues with my sony products per se, but I am not a fan of their customer service in canada as well, so I gave up trying to talk to them, I realized this forum and minidisc.org is a much better place for help. But yes normal servicing is a nightmare I hear, depending on the product as well. You should keep contacting sony to get your player back or tell them to send you a new one or replacement, aka the new A series.

Well somehow I am not surprised, but everything has gone accordingly to plan. Firmware update to 2.01, then ripped 2 cds, one at 192 CBR WMA as stated above and the other using the highest VBR, 240-355. So far so good. listening to the 2 albums right now, listening to a song at 343VBR WMA now. So we can safely say, WMA works. Now if only Sony added Atrac lossless and wma lossless.

This is wierd, I am on a somewhat old PC now, running XP sp2, 5120 ram, 256 video card, which won't really do me much here except when playing games lol. And a 600mhz Intel 3 lol. So I am most likely on the crappiest of the crappy and yet somehow CP works fine for me, no major issues, except a few which are mostly due to the slow PC, but other than that, no major problems so far. The faster PC in the house has only usb 1.1 I think, although I never checked, and the older one has a 2.0 USB card stuck in it, so that is the reason I am on the crappier PC. Puzzling indeed. Although I am planning eventually on switching to a faster PC, but not yet sadly.

Ripping 2 cds now as write this, one in CBR 192, the other in VBR 220-350 or whatever the highest one WMP8 will do. then I will try to import them into CP and transfer them over, hopefully they will not covert to atrac in the process.

Ok, downloaded the update for the A3000, followed the instructions, unplugged the device, then let it update, took roughly 40 seconds if not less. Then the unit restarted, and I checked and it says that the version is 2.01, so that is good news. As well all my songs are playing. Interesting, is it me or does the player start up quicker?

No, when a song is playing and I press the artist link, the buttons do not change to orange. when I press it a second time, it will change to orange.

Ok but eventually after pressing the artistlink, the buttons will turn orange? If not perhaps it is a firmware problem or a problem with your player (not likely since it worked normally on 1.00 before) Once my A3000 finishes charging I will isntall the firmware and test artist link.

No, only time elapsed for now sadly, play time remaining I guess can be kind of guessed from the bar that is above the time, albiet not very accurate. Small pointer, I learned this the hard way, before doing any transfers or imports into CP, recheck all your ID tags for your mp3s, and change and add as many fields as possible. This will help you in the long run since when importing things will look more organized and less all over the place. Also if you want, this was described by a member on the board, open CP, turn on the 2 options that link the program to the next in the options panel, internet. Turn on artist link background and the other one. Leave CP open all night, the program will try to update some, if not all the id tags with gracenote. Then the artist link should function more often. The think with CP is that it has artist, and album artist, meaning, if the artist is different but the album artist are the same they will be grouped in the same folder in CP when the albums are the same as well. I've had a lot of doubles in CP because of a different album artist.

I doubt the firmware will delete the songs on the player, since you have to do that yourself via the initalization option. If you didn't need WMA support, which I don't even think CP supports, there is no need to install the new firmware. Reverting firmware doesn't fix things usually. I would suggest reinstalling 2.01 and then hooking up the player to the PC and opening CP and letting it gather info off the PC for the songs stored on the device. Razorback, when you press the artist link, does teh artist link screen turn on? If so then the link is working, if no screen turns on then there is something a miss with the firmware there, since otherwise this wouldn't be happening.

Hmm look for a file on the cd called msi installer language pack or something of that nature, that determines the language, click that and choose english. It is one option other than reinstall.

I don't think you can, if you didn't need WMA support, then there was no point in you updating the unit, but if you plan on using WMA files, then you need the update.

The buttons should turn orange when you first press it, not sure why it is doing it for you. Unless the 2.01 update did something to the artist link function, but it isn't mentioned anywhere that it does it.

other than WMA support, no other changes to the units? Seeing as I don't need WMA support, I think I'll skip this one.

(click for larger view) (click for larger view) Available from sony next febuary, the hard plastic conver protects the p;ayer from scratches, but still allows for charging, artist link and all the others controls. price is 2800 Yen for the A1000, and 3000 Yen for the A3000. Original page: http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20051226/sony.htm

48kbps. mp3 128 is 20 something.

Glad to hear your prolem is solved.