dutchtrance

it seems that there is no solution for a unified mp4 format that sony and others will understand/ why will sony not just adopt the universal (though not official) format for mp4 tagging, i.e. apples tagging? at the moment i have to maintain 3 librarysof tunes: one for sonicstage, one for the phone, and then one for use with all the other software in the world. WHY sony WHY? its the usual, give with one hand then take with the other

I think you misunderstand my problem. I am trying to redo my cds, which i had in atrac format, into AAC format. i am ripping into AAC format within sonicstage 3.4 the problem is that the tags on the aac (in 3gp container) files that sonicstage rips from the cds cannot be read in other programs. the sound plays fine but there are no tags, making them useless for my phone and other software. on the otherhand, AAC files i rip in m4a format in other programs have the tags readable in all other software programs, but sonic stage ignores the tags and wants me to retag them. the other bad part is that sonicstage then`formats` the tags soon as i move the files or re install windows.

Hi guys, thought i would pick your colective brains again! im a little confused and annoyed about sonic stage and how it handles tags. now i know the problem lies with the mpeg group for not defining a tag format for mp4, but i thought sony would have worked around this by now. im trying to adopt aac instead of a mp3/atrac mix as this is what is supported by my phone and other software. heres the lowdown of what i understand. sonic stage works via id3v2 tags. it organises via these tags it finds in files. when it imports, from CD, AAC files it uses some kind of `sony only tagging` system and stoes the files as 3gp. the 3gp files`s tags cannot be read in other software, such as media player, or indeed a sony w880i phone (it reads it as unknown artist and displays the filenames only). When it imports, from a m4a file, itt ignores the tags stored in the m4a file that all other programs can read. When you edit these tags in sonicstage, it inly stores them on the DB and does not write the changes back to the file its elf. moving the file and removing it from sonicstage, then reimporting the file causes sonicstage to `forget` all the tags, meaning they have to be renamed. inother words, i must chose between having tags compatable with sonicstage or otherrpograms/phone, but cannot have both with out having to re tag my entire libray each time. also, sonicstage does not store wether the track is part of a compilation and the album artist for each file, regardles of wether it is an atrac/mp3 file. ami correct in these assumptions/findings? am i missing something? is there a tag editor that will allow me to tag in both sonicstage/phone compatable tags?

well unless the forth coming anouncement is huge, im keeping my 706 for that reason alone! recording is essential for my dj sets!

thanks for the reply! i dont use the noise cancelling as i use eytemonics i6 headphones anyway, and i dont use the radio. just one thought, does the 80x series record, like the s706? i have the recording cabke, but does it work the same on the 80x series?

im interested in a new 80X series walkman, but i cannot have the walkman AND my S706, it would be a waste. so the questions is: is it worth selling my 706 and getting a 80x series? how much do the 706 go for? has any one sold one on ebay? is there a market? if the answer is no to any of the above, then i am happy to keep the 706 for now.

thanks for the info, but i was more after different types of headphones that sony offer? is it just the ones that come with the unit or are there any other models?

hi! i recently lost some of the rubber seals on the headphones that got bundled with the 706 :i`ve been using some spare ones for now and i noticed the sound to be different to the ones bundled, but ive lost the noise cancelling feature do sony supply a range of headphones for the unit or is it just the ones that come bundled?

i recently re installed windows and had to go through the STUPID setting up of sonic stage again ( reminding sonic stage for each and every one of my 6,000+ tracks that they are compilation albums, not individual tracks and adding individual album art to each ) but found that my live set mp3`s will no longer transfere over to the player. these are 200+ meg files of radio shows and dance events that transfered fine before. sonic stage won`t even conver them to atrac, but it will play them via the program fine. any ideas?

i can really recomend the clear case. got mine from www.advancedmp3players.co.uk for a few quid with the speaker set. see my other post for a review of the clear case. it`s a good clip!

Well I got my 2 items, the clip for the 700 series and the speaker set with cradle. I thought I'd post some thoughts on my new items as when I was trying to find out about them, I found nothing. Firstly the clip, its made of a transparent hard plastic, with a clip at the back, but theres a few features that make this clip stand out. Firstly, the clip is metal, this is excellent as I have broke loads of the flimsy plastic clips on previous sony remotes! Secondly, the inside back of the clip has a strip of silicon on it to hold the unit in place, which it really does! In fact it may do it to well as separating the unit from the clip can be difficult. Finally, in case your still worried about the unit dropping out of its holder, sony have seen fit to include a smaller metal `tie`. It goes though the units lan yard eye and the other end clips to the clip's top. A thoughtful inclusion! The unit allows access to the wm port if using the usb one, you have to take the unit out the clip to use any f the cradles. All the buttons still work with the exception of the hold switch at the back. The second item I bought was the cradle and speaker set. This item brought many surprises! Firstly I was expecting a cradle with tini sound from the speaker. What I got was a large sexy control center, excellent speakers ( for the price ) and a great remote! So lets start from the top with the cradle. The cradle is a lot larger than it looks in pictures, and to plug the 700 series in flush you will need the circular `holder` provided with the player ( theres no replacement with the cradle ). The cradle its self has a circular row of buttons around the wm port for basic controls of volume and power. It has a line in on the back of the unit which you CANNOT use to record from, you will need to use the recording cable for this, though the recording cable can plug into the cradle instead of the usb cable. Finally there is a multi pin PS2 style port where the speaker plug in. There is only one cable which goes to one of the speakers, with the other speaker connecting to the `main` speaker. Oddly, the power input also goes to the speaker, which though not a problem in my setup, I know it can be for others. With the system setup its time to try it out and you'll get a surprise from the sound produced. Any one used to tinny, flat, horrid cheap multimedia speakers will be bowled over by the sound here! I was actually checking if there was a sub secretly connected some where as the bass from the small speakers is surprising. Its equivalent to the bass produced from a 200 pounds sub woofer ( as I have one on my main setup ); its not just a rumble you get from cheap subs but a punchy kick bass. If I was nit picking I would say the cross over needs to be a little higher as the speakers seem to lack a little lower mid punch. But over all the sound is phenomenal for an item of this price. Its eminently a listanable sound ( unlike cheap speakers you can get with ipod accessories from dixons ) and will easily fill a small room with good sound if spec'd far enough apart. Finally comes the remote, which is a simple flat remote with the usual folder skip, track skip, play stop, fwd, rev and volume controls. The cradle charges the unit too! In summary the speaker and cradle set is well worth the money, surprising me with its full, punchy sound. The system is not without its faults, power going to the speakers and not the cradle, the speaker's feet being perminantly angled at about 10degrees and the cables being really thick and chunky. I was disappointed that the unit would not record with out the recording cable, but I was so happy with the sound and other features, I did not mind. An excellent buy for an excellent player.

so the cradle that comes with the speaker system has a direct line in recording function from say vinyl, it has usb transfer to allow me to hook it upto the computer to trandfer songs? it charges too? AND it has ace sound from the speakers AND a remote?? looks like my decision is made!

any on any confimration of this? no one seems to know and sony centre staff refuse to open a box to advise me.

can any one tell me if the cradle that is incluuded with the NWZ10 ( the cradle and 2 *seperate* speaker system, not the one where the speakers are attatched ) is the same cradle as BCRNWU3? the BCRNWU3 says it charges the player, allows usb transferes AND offers line in recording. is the cradle used in the speaker package the same? does it allow charging, usb connection, line in recording as well?

it`s not happened since so i seem to be ok. hope it doe snot happen again

i`ve just got my 706 and took it out today to see some mates. as i normally do i played some tunes on the way down while i walked. on the way back i tried to play some tunes and it would not. i could skip tracks fine, i could see the album art. but press play and the device just stayed at 00:00 on the display despite the player saying it was playing. the noise cancelling kicked in but no sound came out. i tried everything and only a options->advanced options->initialisation has made it work again. has any one else had this or was this just a one off glitch? i need to be able to reply on my mp3 player to play correctly when i need it! oh yea i had to listen to rubbish local radio on it the whole way home

why does sonic stage seems to randomly not transfere album art with my track? whats the `key` to making it transfer the album art? a cetain size? i add album art some times via the mp3 tag and some times via right click album -> properties ->add album art in sonic stage

i totally agree. i love the new players and the features it has. the line in recording is great for those of us with vinyls ( like my self ) and the new hifi systems look great. the only problem is the pricing. play.com have the 2 gig model listed the same price as a 4 gig (double the capacity) nano, and the 4 gig model at an ASTRONOMICAL £279; more than twice the price of the 4 gig nano. that price is quite frankly stupid for ANY 4 gig player, regardless of line in. you could buy a video ipod for that and still have change.

ok a quick run down of how i work first. i have a USB drive (320 gig ) with all my music on in a mix of MP3 and Atrac. i re install windows quite regularly ( i hate a slow system ) and each time i re install sonic stage and then direct it to import the above music folder. the problem comes that each time i have to change the view to album and for each and every mixed artist album ( seeing as i love dance msuic, that`s most of the albums ) i have to go through each individual file and tick the `compilation`, then change the album artist ( as it uses that ever the last album artist was ) then the letter it is sorted by. If i do not do this all the albums are mixed up oncei switch back to artist view, which is the view i want to use. obviously this takes a lot of time! I cannot use the backup tool as my music is arranged by `album artist -> album(s)` and sonic stage backup tool just moves it to `Album` with out prefixing the folder with `album artist`. i use the trick of clicking the first track of the album, clicking the compilation tick box, then clicking next. now when you press the spacebar you automaticly tick the box and as long as you d`ont move your mouse you can just merrily click->space->click->space->click->space. question is is there an easier way than doing this for every single album? what is the album artist stored as in id tags? can i change this to make it import correctly? is the `compilation` tag a tag that can be perminatly changed? thanks in advance for the help!

it`s an obvious question but one that no one seems to be asking! why is the 608 not running version 3? is it not capable of running version 3.0 (AAC)? will we ever see it? the new flash units seem to be able to run it....

yea that works for individual tracks, but it does not work for albums. we cannot edit or change the album info, but if you drag and drop a picture to the album view it just ignores it when it updates the view ( say sellecting a diff track ) and resorts back to the connect picture. how do we assign a picture to an album?

hey guys! wondering if you can help me out with a lil project i`m doing. i`ve taken a tune i like ( public domain - Luv you more ( That mucho remix ) ) and digitally ripped it from the cd. i`ve edited the wav, but not applied any filters. i`ve then encoded it into one of the formats below. you`d know the format if you knew the extention etc, so i`ve decoded the file to wav, but the file was a little large so then losslessly encoded it to ape. i`ve made a list of what file number is what codec and uploaded the ape files for you to download. i used 192 bit rate as this usually provides a good standard between sound quality and file size. the codecs i`ve used are - CBR MP3 OGG AAC WMA Atrac3plus ( encoded via connect and decoded using hma render ) Atrac SP type R ( encoded optically using MD deck and optically recorded back to PC ) VBR WMA MP3 OGG WAV WAV so heres the plan Download either APE decompressor ( www.monkeysaudio.com/ ) and decmpress the APE file to wav or find an APE DLL for foobar/winamp etc and play the native APE file. try to make sure there are no EQ`s running or enhancement programs. Right click one of the numbered files below and download Listen to the whole sample give it a mark out of 5 ( 1 being bad artifacts 5 being perfect ) and any comments on the file. email me the results ( paulv@paulv.dj ). please do not post the results below as this may influence other people`s views of the sound quality. i`ll publish the results later so every one can see the files are about 10 megs each becouse of the wav format so might take a bit to download and listen to each one, but i`d be very happy if you could thanks a lot File1 File2 File3 File4 File5 File6 File7 File8 File9 File10

as per the topic title? how do i actually add album art? is there some thing i`m missing? a button i cannot see? when ever i click an album and click properties, nothing happens?

does this mean that it is now possible to download the connect player installer as per the instalation instructions on this FAQ?

what a horrible piece of software. tinyhttp is NOt tiny! it`s 100 mb on my computer. i`m not having that. the layout is horrible, the play and fwd buttons are tiny ( unlike `tiny`http`s mem footprint ) the fact that it does not work with my md-780 is a total disgrace. what do sony expect me to do? throw it out? i don`t think so. what happened to atrac lossless as a codec to import with? i cannot find it any where on the ripping options. horrible horrible.