maxthrusters

Hi there, welcome to the wonderful world of SonicStage! Uninstall the file converter software that you were trying out, it is meant for people who have versions 2.1 to 3.0 (or 2.9 if there was such a thing) of SonicStage. The current version of SonicStage (3.3) has the file-conversion capabilities built right in: select your view to be All Tracks and then right click on what you want to convert. Or select a bunch. Have fun!

I recently got an A608, and have tried my best to enjoy it with the Connect Player. Too bad it doesn't work well even with a clean fresh install and fully patched for my needs. Since I am used to SonicStage, and version 3.3 of that program has finally worked out the most annoying problems from the days of "check-in, check-out" madness I think I will be using that instead of Connect. Here's a list of things I do not like about the Connect Player, in no real order of importance: Too slow to start up. Too many processes are run by it when NOT in use, never mind the additional ones that start when we actually use the program. Very slow to import music. The program will use up all system memory, then stop and hang if you import a large directory or let it scan drives (I have over 10,000 songs). When this happens exiting program seems to corrupt database. "tinyhttp.exe" is the process that will eat all memory (and yes I am patched to 1170 or whatever). Importing one sub directory at a time is really boring...and once I did that up to about 2500 songs the player would hang anyway. Album art is sometimes ignored and therefore not displayed. Album and or song details are sometimes changed, both in Connect and my player itself (abbreviated or renamed artist names, for example). ArtistLink doesn't appear to actually DO anything for me, other than make the software take a lot longer to import or export. Songs it matches on player don't seem related to me. Maybe this is because it needs access to the Connect Store to get data? There is no Connect Store access from Canada! "Additional information" fields on song properties are all blank. It seems that the software is designed for users to put ALL their music on the players. Either the user picks what songs get transferred, or "sync all". No dynamic playlists? I actually picked the A608 to have something small to listen to random songs from my collection. The good news is that SonicStage 3.3 works great with my player. The only new feature that doesn't seem to work is Intelligent Shuffle. A work-around is to install Connect Player, and not import anything. Transfer your songs with SonicStage, then close that and start Connect. Hook up player and let Connect load the player's contents. Once it is done you can disconnect player and all of Intelligent Shuffle features seem to work EXCEPT Time Machine Shuffle. Anyway I wont be using Connect till I hear of some major improvements

"...as well as corporate centers for standards, intellectual property, licensing and business development." Keep the entertainment unit lawyers out of the software design process would be my advice to Sony. Previous products have been botched due (in my opinion) to lawyer interference. MiniDisc, Memory Stick Pro, and Clié. I'm so tired of seeing statements like "Does not support MagicGate" on products marked "MagicGate"...of Net MD not supporting SP (stereo) or uploads...granted it's gotten better over the years but then it shouldn't have been like this in the first place. Anyway it's all been said before so I will shut up now.

Alright, repair complete. That was scary! I used an eyeglass repair screwdriver to get the tiny screws off under the USB cover. Once I had the clear outer cover removed it was a simple task to wipe away the liquid from the inner silver cover and the inside of the already removed clear outer cover. Discovery: the two buttons on the unit don't appear to be attached to anything, the clear outer cover design is what holds them in place. Unless they are supposed to be glued and I had one that wasn't? It flew across the room, I had lots of fun trying to find it. Once everything was cleaned up I replaced the clear outer cover and screwed the player back together. The silver button that had come off seems quite secure, as before. Advice to all: don't fall asleep and drool on your new walkman lol

The FM frequency range is North American on my player: 87.5 to 108 Mhz. I wonder why they don't just make them all world-band. Shocking development!!! I fell asleep listening to tunes, and to my horror on waking up there was liquid under the screen! I think I drooled on it....I am about to fix it by removing the tiny screws to remove the cover

The Sony players are great, but the software has always been lacking. They finally got SonicStage working reasonably well, and then decided to launch the Connect Player... Perhaps you would find using SonicStage 3.3 a suitable interim way to enjoy your new player until Sony gets Connect working better. That's what I am doing with my A608.

I bought myself an A608 today! I got it at the Sony Store, in silver. It was $249.99CAD plus tax, however I had a Pulse coupon for $15CAD off. This new player is to replace my MS-70D. The salesman said "Oh, don't install the software on the CD in the box...use SonicStage instead" LOL! Really classy packaging: purple carton containing a solid gift-type box in black. Nice change from the cheap looking blister packs on other Sony "Mp3" players these past few years. After charging with USB cable (about 2 hours for full charge) I set up the date and time formats the way I like, did a preset scan for my local FM radio stations (87.5Mhz to 108Mhz on Canadian model), turned off 'beep', and turned on AVLS. SonicStage 3.3 recognized the player as an "ATRAC Audio Device", meaning that auto sync works for this player. A first for me, as I haven't previously owned any other players that supported this feature. There were two sample songs already on the player at ATRAC3plus 256, a nice touch. I set up a dynamic playlist for transfer, 1.9GB of tracks with transfer count of zero. I selected "as is" so no converting: my music collection is quite large, consisting of ATRAC3plus 256, ATRAC3 132, MP3 192 CBR, and MP3 320 VBR. After this was done (not sure how long it took, I went and watched some TV) there were 331 songs on the player. Not bad at all! In fact, too good as I doubt I would want to listen to all that in one session. Time to re-rip some CDs in a higher bitrate! It was then time to listen to music, so I tossed the included headphones right back into the box. They are those "hard" in-the-ear type which I personally find most uncomfortable. I'm using a pair of Sony MDR-NX1 headphones, which have a leather neckstrap and silicone buds just like the MDR-EX71 model. My music sounded great, better than on my MS-70D. Most likely from no transcoding. No hisses or whatnot that others have reported. Some friends came over then and were all "oohing" and "ahhing" over the player. It does look great in silver, like jewelery almost. They use SanDisk players, and seemed boggled that I would want a player that can't have MP3 files just dragged and dropped onto it from any computer. So am I actually lol! I now decided to flirt with danger and install the Connect Player. As I said before, the sales guy at the Sony Store advised to "just use SonicStage". Once again Sony has made a super player yet crippled it with really bad software! It's a resource hog, and loads quite a few mysterious processes (I counted five or so). After updating to the most current version I decided to import my music, so I started that and went to bed. A few hours later I woke up and came to see if it was complete....and Connect had sucked up so much memory that Windows had put up a warning about low memory lol. I stopped the import and closed Connect, and rebooted. Nothing had been imported into Connect after all those hours I was asleep! Perhaps too many music files cause this (I have over 10,000), so I will try to add some folders individually next time. To deal with the extra processes Connect starts I decided to disable auto-update and all Internet functions including Intelligent ArtistLink. An ominous warning message appeared, saying I won't be able to use the Connect Store. This was funny as being Canadian I can't use it anyway (not to mention I'd never buy DRMed low bit music). Perhaps after a few patches Connect will be more usable. I think this terrible software is why none of the new players are available in the USA yet. People would install it, have problems, and just return the player in frustration. Perhaps Sony thinks Canadian, Japanese, and European folks are more tolerant and forgiving of their software than Joe USA would be. Included accessories: yet another USB cable (I've got so many of these now lol), a flimsy plastic clip that I won't be using, velvety pouch, the Connect Player CD (with Acrobat version of manual), Quickstart guide, and the previously-mentioned painful headphones. Pro: Looks great, sounds great, plays MP3 with no need for file conversion, works with SonicStage 3.3 just great, USB 2.1, great capacity, very portable size, no moving parts (like all flash players). Con: Connect Player software seems like poor beta software, Clip and Headphones seem poor quality, must use Connect Player or SonicStage to transfer music.

Yesterday I got an early Christmas present: a Sony MZ-DH10P from Minidisc Canada! I'm quite happy with it so far. I already have a MZ-NH1 for recording with microphones, so a player-only downloader was most welcome. A great deal of my music collection is in MP3 format (allofmp3.com yay) so not having to convert to ATRAC3plus is a HUGE timesaver. The DH10P I got was the USA version, not Australian. Made in Malaysia, if anyone was wondering. My NH1 was made in Japan.

According to their FAQ they do ship outside the USA

The last CDs I got were from Amazon.com and are classical music of the medieval era (von Bingen, Alfonso X, Machaut, etc). Since the era of DRMed CDs and RIAA lawsuits began I stopped buying popular music CDs. In the last 6 months I've spent about 350$ at allofmp3.com instead.

Music on my NH1 sounds better than on my PSP or any other music toy I have. Mind you, I encode music on my PSP at ATRAC3plus 96kbbs so I don't expect it to sound like 256kbbs

I recently bought a Sharp SD-SG11 shelf stereo on eBay for $79! Plays CD, MD-MDLP, and has a tuner. Hooked it up to some old 1980 Bose floor speakers, sounds great.

You can order them from a Sony Store as far as I know

When I'm away from home and need to free up space on a memory stick or memory stick duo for my PSP or camera etc I use my Sony Memory Card Reader for Hi-MD (MCMD-R1). Works great

I really have been enjoying my PSP! I now have a few games: Lumines, Wipeout Pure, Tony Hawk's Underground 2, and Infected. I've been using the following software to get audio and video onto it: SonicStage 3.3, PSP Media Manager 1.0, DVD Decrypter, AutoGK, and PSP Video9, and Image Converter 2 Plus. I bought a Logitech case, and I use various headphones with it (hate the stock ones).

I like it, and use it. My only gripes are that it doesn't support the XviD codec (so my converted DVDs don't show up) or ATRAC3/ATRAC3plus. Hopefully there will be upgrades to this software.

Units: Portable MZ-NH1, Deck MDS-JE480, Mics ECM-MS907, ECM-719, about twenty Hi-MDs, and about fifty 80min MDs. Daily Use: Listening to HI-MD at home with headphones, or line out to portable speakers Recording Uses: Internet radio, CD compilations, live recording, making SP and LP2 recordings for my deck Alternatives: NW-MS70D flash/memory stick duo player for exercising/noisy places, Clié PEG-UX50 for MP3 (ATRAC3 was never made compatible with Memory Stick Pro...shame), D-CJ01 CD/MP3 Discman, for listening in bedroom or computer room, PSP, and a fancy Sony home theatre setup in living room Requests: 1) Hi-MD DECKS please. Portables are fun toys but my living room needs a deck. Why in the world do Canadian SonyStores no longer sell any MD decks, yet still carry obsolete cassette tape decks 2) Get rid of all DRM, including SCMI. Sony already makes tape-to-tape and CD-to-CD decks: what is the big deal? If people want to be pirates they will no matter what, DRM just annoys customers. 3) Make ALL memory sticks formats compatible with Sonicstage/ATRAC3/ATRAC3plus/MP3 (My Clié is an amazing toy but swapping out sticks for music just won't do, same for my MS70D. Why must both be limited to 128mb sticks??) 4) Add a Hi-MD drive to all VAIO computers, but let it also play/record music 5) ADVERTISE (print/televison/billboards) MD/HiMD. In a world dominated by iPod you can't expect new products to sell on their own. 6) Train your North American SonyStore employees about MD/HiMD/ATRAC/Sonicstage. Some of them are clueless, at least where I live 7) Most important: Don't give up on MD/HiMD recorders!

I only have one game so far, Lumines. My PSP is new, got it only yesterday!

Shirley: My MS-70D does NOT play back Memory Stick Pro Duo 1GB, so don't spend money on one to try. It would seem that the 128MB ones are the best we can use. SonicStage 3.2 WILL transfer (and at all of the new bitrates too), but once on there the MS-70D indicates it has an invalid memory stick inserted. I would think this means that if Sony did put out a firmware upgrade it could work, but I don't expect that will happen given our lovely titanium players are from 2003 and therefore "old" heh

I already use MP3 for my Clié UX50 (supports Memory Stick Pro up to 2GB) so not being able to transfer ATRAC3 isn't a huge issue. You are right that my PDA does not support ATRAC3plus, but then I never expected that much of an improvement from a SonicStage upgrade. What I had hoped for from the new SS version was the ability to transfer ATRAC3 (LP2) to Memory Stick Pro (1GB). Prior to SS 3.2 this was only possible with MagicGate Memory Sticks with a capacity up to 128mb, and that seems to be unchanged. I don't like swapping sticks so I just put MP3 files onto my 1GB stick with windows explorer. SonicStage does not even recognize the 1GB stick as usable media. Maybe Sony would consider enabling ATRAC3 to all varieties of Memory Stick someday. Since we can rip CDs and convert music files to .oma with no DRM now it would follow that non-DRM music should be transferable to non-DRM sticks. I'm not holding my breath since such a change would mostly be of benefit to users of older Sony toys.

I'll never again pay for DRMed lossy/compressed music of any format. Here in Canada there is no Sony Connect service. Apart from certain Russian services the only online music stores we have (AFAIK) are Puretracks.com and i-Tunes, and both use DRM .wma or .aac so that is out. If I can't find the CD I want I'll pay for MP3 versions at 192kbs from Allofmp3.com, if they have it. Note that while it is legal for them to sell in Russia, and legal for me to download in Canada, it might not be for persons from other countries. I wasn't even going to mention the name of AllofMP3.com but then I saw Kurisu already did lol.

Hi, and thanks! Unfortunately I have only one computer and SonicStage...and no one I know uses SonicStage. Everyone around here seems to be an I-POD fan heh. I'm using DRM-less ATRAC3/ATRAC3plus now because awhile back I had to format my system drive and of course that meant the .oma files were encrypted to my old installation of Windows. Now that SS3.2 allows for non-DRM CD rips and file conversions I might trust it enough to rip any new CDs I might get.

Hello, my first post! Using SonicStage 3.2 I was able to import MP3 files at 192kbs, convert to the new 128kbs ATRAC3plus format (with no DRM), and transfer to my Sony NW-MS70D flash player. The songs play and sound great in headphones and from personal speakers, much better than ATRAC3plus 64kbs. On another note, I was sad to see that SonicStage 3.2 still does not transfer ATRAC3 to Memory Stick Pro, for use in Clié PDA. I guess the upgrade only applies to Memory Stick Duo Pro, or was just for PSP and not Clié. Given that Sony stopped making Clié I suppose this is not much of a surprise.