uri75

For editing I use excellent fast and free tool called mp3directCut (http://www.mpesch3.de).

same thing I noticed with my NH700. I laso have smart charger with 4 spots (AAA, AA, C/D, 9V) which does the job well and I would recommend it if you buy extra NiMh for use with MD and not charge it inside the MD unit.

writing movie reviews and internet related articles...

I think a friend, who got me into MD, told me about MD.org back in 1997. After extensive research on the site I got my MZ-R50 and got me so excited I just had to get MDS-JE510. After that I checked it out from time to time, but never really got into forum, which came handy recently, when I got MZ-NH700 and SS problems started. :-I

Actually I've seen some similar problems (if not exact same thing) posted here already. Try the search...

...was thinking/remembering the same thing about Nike.

I have to agree here. Both suprized me in a good way. Especially Batman, because I wasn't sure what to expect and I've been disappointed before (Daredevil, Elektra, Hulk). Hulk was actually ok, not nearly as bad as other two, but still not as enjoyable as it could be. Catwoman was just dreadful. Sin City already looked very promising through trailers and then it delivered. Very unique and first true comic2film adaptation.

Holly crap, this actually works! I was a bit sceptic, but hey, Windows is a very strange beast, so I gave it go and it worked exactly as you said. I almost gave up on 3.1, so thanx a lot for this workaround/solution!

That's actually helpful to know since at this point I'm not dealing with my own recordings or any kind of transfering MD->PC. BTW, what's the timeline for SS version updates? I guess 2.0 came out about a year ago and 3.0 year after that... How fresh is 3.1 and is there any explanation why Sony drops all older versions from their site (only FAQ remains), like this would be the most stable software around and you really don't need anyting but the latest release?

Maybe try updating MDAC version through Windows Update...

Is there a batch converter to do this (mp3->ATRAC3+)?

I'm posting this here since it mostly concerns about the VBR problem in SonicStage. Let me start with a side note: At the moment I have continous problems with PC1 (after couple of reinstalls SS3.1 doesn't recognize my MZ-NH700, but it works fine as external USB drive), while everything works smoothly (albeit slowly) on PC2. Before upgrading to SS3.1 on PC2 I wanted to do some testing, which made me even more reluctant to do the upgrade. Here's my config: PC1 ==== SS3.1 (final install from full EXE from this forum - I will do fresh install from the net in the next test) PIV/2.8GHz 1GB RAM WinXP SP1 PC2 ==== SS2.0 (installed from bundled CD) PII/333 384RAM Win98SE I tested with couple of MP3s imported to SS: x1 (192kbit, 44100Hz Stereo) x2 (190kbit VBR, 44100 Stereo) x3 (320kbit, 44100 Stereo) x4 (128kbit, 44100 Joint Stereo) SS3.1 x1 - doesn't play (plays after manual conversion to 256kbps ATRAC3+) x2 - doesn't play (plays after manual conversion to 256kbps ATRAC3+) x3 - plays x4 - doesn't play (plays after manual conversion to 256kbps ATRAC3+) I haven't tried other ATRAC bitrates. BTW, one way to make it play manually converted file is to right click it and remove/delete the MP3 version from properties, since both MP3 and ATRAC are listed. Don't forget to first make a backup of the original MP3 before you remove it with SS. If you simply remove MP3 (for example with Explorer), SS will report a problem with non existing file, even though the path to the ATRAC version has not been changed. SS2.0 x1 - plays and can be transfered to MD x2 - plays and can be transfered to MD x3 - plays and can be transfered to MD x4 - plays and can be transfered to MD So my question is how come SS2.0 works without a glitch if it's so inferior to SS3.1 as stated by couple of ppl in this forum?

any news about IP2SS?

I have the same problem with podcasts not working in SS, so hopefully this will be resolved in the future with some nice and simple one step software/converter.

tnx, I'll do that. Hopefully the most pesky issues with this will be resolved in future versions of SS or some other software will come out. UPDATE: Luckily I have another rearly used PC (PII/333) with Win98 where I installed SS2.0 from bundled CD and everything works like a charm on the first try! It seems there's some WinXP issues (my main PC is Pentium IV / 2.8GHz) with SS software and MD recognition within SS. I might try updating SS2 to SS3.1 on Win98, but I'm reluctant doing that - why fix if it ain't broken. At least I solved problem with transfering music files to MD.

Hmm I was to excited to actually try using the darn thing and now it seems I passed only the initial problem of running the SS only to find out it doesn't recognize my MD. Also only a few imported MP3s play in SS. Others just load for 10sec and then stop with no error. I'll look around if somebody had similar problems...

As many of you out there, I was also loosing my mind with installation of SonicStage. I just got my MZ-NH700 with SonicStage 2.0 CD. I got in the airport shop in Rome and on the way home I spent a night at friend's house where we installed the CD on his WinXP. Everything worked fine. I come home and install it on my WinXp and while installation went smoothly each time I kept getting that error about database being corrupted. Simple Burner worked fine though. I tried everything I could find on this forum and nothing helped. My first step was installing SS2 from CD, then upgrade to SS3.1 from sony website, then running CSRepair tool, then doing that MDAC.INF repair.. still exactly the same problem each time. Then finally I decided to do it by the numbers and uninstalled everything as described on this forum (sorry I'm too anoyed right now to hunt for links) and install stand alone SS3.1 downloaded from this forum. Again no change. But then I noticed one thing in the instructions for complete removal of all the Sony stuff. I have SP1 and I should have SP2, which I'm reluctant to install for various reasons. I do some digging with no success until I decided to run CSRepair again where I noticed that there's a newer version of MDAC available at Microsoft. So I download it from the link provided in CSRepair, install it and suddenly everythin works fine. So it seems you don't really need SP2, what you *do* need is latest version of MDAC, which can be installed separately. I hope this helps to some of you! Great forum BTW. I own MZ-R50 since 1997 and NH700 is my second one and I'm really excited finally doing faster then realtime transfers from PC to MD and of course about removable storage options. The latter actually workes flawlessly from the get go. Too bad u can't use MP3s directly. SS seems to be quite a hassle! :I