Terence Kelly

I believe that the files will import with the album and title information intact..at least they have the few times that I have tried it. Since about SS 3.1 there is an option to rip without copy protection. Early versions of SS added the copy protection automatically so you could still be out of luck. For the future, make sure your friend turns off copy protection when ripping his music. You should be able to get the latest version of SS (4.3 for English speakers) here at Atrac Life. --Terry

Well, there are a couple of possibilities. If your friend has a Connect account (the music service is closed but account management is still available, he should reinstall SonicStage on the laptop and register the laptop with his account. Connect will consider it to be a different computer. He will then be able to use his HD1 as before provided it too was also registered. If he never registered the HD1 then he will have to erase all the music on it before he can reconnect it to SS. You can still rescue the files on the HD1 if they were ripped without copy protection. If they were not copy protected you can copy the various folders to the laptop using Windows explorer and then import the files into SS using the import folder option in SS. If the files were copy protected you cannot save them except by making an analog copy in real time. In the future, he should use the Connect account and use the SS backup tool before wiping the system. Sony really went out of their way to copy protect their first HD player. I still think it's the best sounding music player I've ever used, but the copy protection scheme is a PIA. --Terry

This is a stock reply to any question about SS and Connect. I am now on my third exchange with support. The second reply from Sony seemed to be surprised that losing the servers would affect us seriously. Whoever is answering doesn't appear to have ever used an Atrac device. I suggested they try hooking up an unregistered HD5 to more than one computer to see what happens. I also suggested three options: maintaining the servers, updating Sonicstage to always authenticate a device or database, replace all active atrac devices with new walkmen that don't require authentication. My wife says that I received a call from Sony yesterday. I'll post what they say if I manage to Connect. (bad pun intended) --Terry

I made a complaint to Sony, who wrote back and said I would still be able to use my Walkmen. I then pointed out all the things that you won't be able to do without authentication and they have not responded. If I continue to hear nothing I will start making complaints to Better Business Bureau and other consumer sites about Sony's shabby behaviour. I would encourage everyone to complain loudly directly to Sony. They set up this system. They need to honor it. --Terry

I just happened to check in at this forum and was alarmed when I saw the post about the authentication servers being dropped. I understand if Sony needs to lose Connect, but the authentication servers are necessary for the proper use of an Atrac walkman. Sony designed the devices to be crippled without authentication. Without them, you cannot use your walkman with more than one computer, you cannot restore your library without completely erasing your walkman, you will not be able to use any music with copy protection, etc etc. Sony sold those devices under certain terms. Removal of the authentication servers will negate those terms and I believe it is grounds for a class action suit. A major company like Sony should be told in no uncertain terms that it cannot walk out on its agreement with its customers without serious penalty. I have seven working Atrac devices in my family. I want them all replaced at Sony's expense. --Terence Kelly

I should add that unless you had a connect account, the HD5 will only play files from one computer. To play files from your Vista computer you have to reinitialize the HD5 in SonicStage (which reerases all files on the HD5) so that it becomes mated (for life) to that computer. Go ahead and get a Connect account so that you can avoid this problem again. Terry

The early Sony Hard Disk players were heavily into copy protection. Chances are that the files on your HD5 were put on with copy protection that was designed to keep you from moving the files to another computer and using them from there. To use multiple computers with the same device you needed to register with the Sony Connect service. You could then register up to 5 computers that you could freely move your songs to and from with the same device. If your original XP computer was registered, you should register the new computer to your account, if not I don't think there is an easy solution. The latest version of Sonic stage allows you to eliminate copy protections from songs as you take them from CD. You should make sure you select that option for the future. In the short run, if you weren't registerecd with Connect you would have to reimport the files from CD. Wish I had a better option for you. --Terry Kelly

Well I would have hoped that reset would at least give you normal access to the menu. Then you could reformat the unit. Barring that, the only thing I could think of would be to leave it on until the battery dies -- May be that will reset it? --Terry

By locked, do you mean you cannot play them in Sonicstage or that you simply cannot transfer them anymore. Did you have a Connect account? --Terry

You mentioned you see a data access indicator. Does the walkman show up as a drive in Windows? TK

Without access to the original laptop you might be out of luck. If you registered the original laptop and your HD with Connect they you could register the new computer to the same Connect account. Then you should be able to move your songs from your HD to the new computer even if they have copy protection. --Terry

I don't think you can just set up folders anyway you want, and I don't think SS or Sony players support nested folders. However you can name the albums anyway you like and move songs to those albums. Or the 706 supports intelligent playlists, i.e if you create a playislt with songs from various albums that are already on the 706 SS will not place the songs on there twice. On the 706, those essentially become folders with anything you want in them. I think that's the closest you can come to organizing in folders. T. Kelly

If your files were not copy protected you should be able to import them into Sonicstage by treating your player as a hard drive in Windows and importing a folder. If they were copy protected and you had registered the device to a Connect Account, you should be able to register the new computer to your Connect account and transfer the files via SonicStage. If they were copy protected and you never had a Connect account you may be out of luck. TK

Are you using SonicStage? You should be able to import oma files without copy protection into SonicStage. If you had copy protection then you must be on the same machine to put the files back into SS. If you have a different machine and your original was registed to Connect, you can get the new one to import if you register it as well. TK

That's curious. I don't see that feature listed on the 005 nor do I remember seeing it in 005's menu. (My daughter has one.) The normalizer doesn't cause any distortion on the 705, but I am listening to classical Atrac files. There might be a difference between how it handles Atrac and mp3. TK

That would work well if I had an Ipod. As is, I had to buy the same track twice. Not a plus in my opinion. I've never experienced a problem with my Connect tracks unless there was a flaw in the SS installation on an upgrade. If you have to erase SS completely from your system, Connect thinks it's a different computer. That definitely messes with your authorization on Connect files. TK

Well, I recently had to use Itunes to search for an old recording that I couldn't find on CONNECT. I didn't find it any more intuitive to use than SonicStage. The layout was cluttered between the music store and the library, making it harder to see what to do at a given moment. I found the track I was looking for and downloaded it to a laptop at work. Itunes balked at writing it to a CDRW. I had to reerase the RW in Windows. SS will do that for you. When a colleague took the laptop on a trip before I had made the CD I had to repurchase the track even though I registered another computer to my Itunes account. Connect allows you to redownload any music you have purchased to any computer on your account. I don't know what other advantages Itunes has, but based on my recent experience it's not some fabulous program leagues beyound SS. SS is clearly superiour in certain areas. SS's big problem seems to be it's random instablility on certain computers that Sony had never been able to solve. Once you have a stable installation, it works fine. TK

I would follow the advice to get the latest version of SonicStage and to make sure you rip your CD's without copy protection. The lower bitrates of Atrac3plus are superior to comparable MP3 files and without the firmware upgrade you will have to use Atrac anyway. You might try moving just a few albums at a time initially. A number of people have reported problems moving large amounts of music at one time. Be aware that the HD1 can only be used with one computer unless you establish a CONNECT account and register your HD1 and computers. I believe Apple does the same thing with the IPOD. The HD1 is an excellent unit. Once you have a stable installation of SS it will serve you well. TK

I have a relatively new NW S705 that I got from ebay after the Woot.com blowout pricing. I fiddled with many of the options and did not find that they had much impact, but the dynamic normalizer does. I listen mostly to classical music and Sony's 5 mw output is often a little low for music with a wide dynamic range unless the headphones are really efficient. I had a pair of headphones that I used and liked a lot with my Sharp 722 minidisc, but most of my Sony units have to be close to or at max volume to drive them. So I have used them sparingly with my Sony HD5. The S705 was a little louder that the HD5 but still getting near the max with those phones until I chose the dynamic normalizer. Now I can use my less efficient, but nice sounding headphones with the S705 at medium volume levels. The sound is excellent. Does anyone know exactly what the normalizer does? I'm guessing the volume of the digital signal is being altered before the D/A conversion. Without the normalizer on, the volume is nowhere near as loud even at max volume. The music still seems to have a normal dynamic range. Is this something like scale factor edit on the old minidisc decks only in real time? TK

Well, I just tried Torpedo's suggestion and it does eliminate the omgbox error. Thanks! Unfortunately it also eliminated the rights information to my music from the Connect service and made Connect think I have a different computer. I still had room to register my "new" old computer with Connect though and can redownload my music to obtain the rights. I'll have to e-mail Connect to get them to remove my "old" computer from my account, since there is now no way to do that. Sony really needs to fix this kind of silliness. Does anyone have any idea why the Omg Limited Patch creates this problem on some computers? TK

I just tried transferring again. Same behavior. SS bombs after transfer and if restarted bombs as soon as I try and read the directory on the device (an HD5). I keep sending the error report to Microsoft. The error states: The instruction at "0x7c168f1d" referenced memory at "0x0000001c". The memory could not be "read". TK

Sorry to hear that the registry thing didn't fix this. I'm wondering if it's worse the hassle for me to try it. When I went to install 4.3 I too encountered the hangups you experienced. I tried installing 4.1 from a CD -- it installed with no errors but bombs in exactly the same way. Sony gave me a very generic reply about removing conflicting software when I e-mailed the problem to them. Safe mode doesn't solve the problem however, so it's hard to know what the conflicting software might be. SS bombs whether I'm running anything else or not. Anyone else have any brilliant ideas? 4.3 runs fine on my work laptop but I need it to work on my main home machine. TK

I have this exact same problem since updating to SonicStage 4.3 from 3.4. Sonicstage runs and will move songs to my device, but bombs at the end of the transfer. I have uninstalled and reinstalled, tried running in safemode, installing in safe mode, but I haven't had time to try editing the registry yet as suggested in the FAQ on Sonicstage. Never had any trouble with SS until now. It's odd that Sony hasn't been able to make it less error prone by now. TK

Actually you don't. You just need to register both players with your Connect account. I have purchased tracks on residing on several different Walkmen. TK

I don't know if your problem is specific to SonicStage 4.3. My experience with Atrac devices is that they will only work with one computer at a time unless you authorize your computers and devices through your Connect account. Once you do that you should be able to download and move music between the two computers using registered Atrac devices. Once you have things properly registered you should not need to initialize your A3000 to connect it to your new computer. If the music files on the A3000 do not have copy protection, the .oma files can be imported into SS on your new computer by using the A3000 as a portable hard drive and simple locating the .oma files on it using the import folder function in SS, but I don't think you can transfer anything to the A3000 without registering both it and the new computer (unless you initialise it -- i.e. erase everything on it) TK