navsimpson

Hi, There is an option to also search for additional info/cover art when you get cd info. The problem, however, is that it works sporadically. Sometimes it works well and sometimes not at all - when it doesn't, there isn't even an error message. I find that whatever way Sonicstage gets cover art info isn't particularly effective - WMP 11 seems far superior in this (and every other) regard. -Nav

Nope - way too slow on the draw (or off the draw, I forget how that saying goes exactly) and what few pre-orders there were in Canada disappeared quickly. As much as I enjoy gaming, I'm just not one of those people who can stand in line for hours for something that's ostensibly for entertainment value. Can't justify a PS3 right now, but if I can get my hands on a Wii, I think I'd pony up the dough, just for an xmas treat for myself. Trouble is, I'm not really into Zelda and I don't see any launch titles I like. In fact, the thing I'm most excited about is downloading Street Fighter II and Gunstar Heroes... Am I nuts?

Yeah, I think the use of ATRAC3 is a bit of a drawback. I read somewhere it was done to maintain compatibility with older MD devices, which seems ludicrous in my opinion, especially in North America. If they started selling music in ATRAC3plus 192kbs, Sony could legitimately claim that they sell the best-sounding digital music available - well, not counting eMusic I suppose, since they use LAME VBR. It seems almost certain that Connect will soon be accessible from a PS3, so why not jump to using a better-sounding, more efficient format? And, as I've said a few times before here, use that bloody classical/jazz catalogue to start selling music in 352kbs or lossless - I know it's a 'stereotype', but chances are higher that classical/jazz listeners will have a fat connection to the 'net anyway or, if they don't, that they could afford it. Since I want to use the service just to grab some music that isn't super important to me, the LP2 thing is prob okay.

Ya know, I'm not one for internet-speak exaggerations, but... OMG that is, like, the awesomest thing EVER! Seriously, I've been waiting for this forever. I actually use eMusic, but I would love to pick up some extra, 'more mainstream' music. Up until this point, the only service I could use was Napster combined with FairUse4WM, but Connect's selection seems better. This is great. I'm pretty sure that this is being driven by PS3/PSP strategies, but I also don't care, as long as it's here. Now if they can just dump that legacy ATRAC3 support and move on to ATRAC3plus (or, hell, ATRAC4 while we're at it), we'll be all set... SWEET! -Nav P.S. Sorry for the rambling tone, it's Friday, I'm tired... EDIT: Nuts. I noticed that the store will have 500,000 songs, far short of the 2 million available in the US. Oh well, it's still a start though. Yay.

The Connect USA store says that it officially supports IE7, but also that there may be a few glitches with the store itself. There was no mention of it affecting your own library or transfers though. -Nav

Whoops! I was talking about Ridge Racer 2, not Tomb Raider - dunno how I got the two quotes mixed up. Sorry! -Nav

Really? Was I the only one who hated this demo? -Nav

I'm not sure if is the right solution, but do you have the latest firmware for your PSP (now 2.82)? I believe that only newer firmware supports larger, newer Duo cards. -Nav

That may have been the most poetic thing about a Sony device I've ever read: Something, being the small place, Irregularity don't you think? The impression which remains Cannot wipe. Seriously though, anyone who actually reads Japanese know if the original had anything interesting to say? -Nav

It's Toshiba who make the Zune, though it's been rumoured that Microsoft is doing this to get something out the door and will being their own manufacturing process for the 2nd gen Zune.

No luck dude - there is no way to get tracks onto your player w/out Sonicstage and tracks have to be in Sonicstage's library before it can do anything with them. -Nav

I find CNET reviews to be quite good - they're even quite fair to Sony DAPs - so I thought I'd post this for those who might be interested. CNET Review - MDR-EX90LP

If you've tried using Sonicstage and it tells you it won't allow you to transfer back - then, unfortunately, you might be SOL dude. Unless Sonicstage recognises the player as 'belonging' to that computer, it will refuse transferring back to My Library.

Sony themselves have suggested they are working on a new hd-based player that also does video. They say Jan '07, but take that with a grain of salt - Sony often 'releases' products a couple of months before they're available. -Nav

Whoops! Sorry about that! And great job! -Nav

Am I the only one who, returning to their youth, is listening to 10,000 Days by Tool? Man, it's great to listen to some smart metal again... -Nav

I'm pretty excited about the PS3, more for its extra-gaming functions than anything else. But right now, the $800 CDN (I'd want the premium) for the system plus a game plus tax is just impossible to justify. I literally could buy a car that would last me a year for that much money. I, like many others, agree that while technically speaking the PS3 is 'good value for money' - i.e. $659 for a blu-ray player and a cell processor and media centre-ish thing is 'reasonable' - it's just way out of most people's budgets. I don't mean this in the sense that a lot of ~20-34 yr olds couldn't scrape the money together, but that they simply couldn't justify it given the other choices on the market, the uncertainty of blu-ray and that the 360 will probably perform those extra-gaming functions just as well. -Nav

What others have said, but also: - New Software, built from the ground up. All the different functions of the player - music, video, photos etc - should be handled by one stable piece of software. It should also be the same software you use for a PSP. No hack jobs, minimum bugginess, efficiency and easy enough for my 68 year old father to figure out - seriously, how hard can it be for a multi-billion dollar company to do this? - Support for podcasts in the software - why should I be left out b/c I have a Sony device? - second the idea of a fast XMB interface, though I think Chris (I think that's Ishiyoshi's name) already suggested this might happen - lossless support - ability to transfer tracks to/from PS3 - wi-fi, and not a la Zune, but a port of the PSPs ability to browse the 'net, download and connect to other users - let me decide how my battery life does or doesn't get destroyed. - still have tactile buttons, rather than everything on screen, so basic functions - forward, back, shuffle, can be pressed w/out having to take the device out of one's pocket, bag etc. Sounds like enough! -Nav

Slower?! Awwww, nuts! The general lack of efficiency is perhaps my biggest complaint about SS - I have a four year old pc and it chugs along at a snail's pace and takes up what little precious RAM I have. Oh well - now I'll have to try and resist upgrading I mean, how can you not when someone's giving you something 'new' for 'free'

Whoops! Good call dude - the document was from 2002/3, which means the 'x' probably just stood for '3plus', as in ATRAC3plus. I wasn't aware that a form of ATRAC was used for SDDS - that's pretty interesting. Since it seems that Sony isn't giving up on ATRAC at all - its inclusion in the PS3 pretty much guarantees it will be around for a while - I wonder if they'll update it, a la LAME or WMA. To my ears, ATRAC's sound quality at everything except the highest setting (352kbs, high) doesn't sound as good as LAME - so why doesn't Sony work harder to improve something they invented years ago? -Nav

Thanks for the detailed report spex I noticed that Sony now uses ATRAC 132kbs as their measure for battery life - given that they used to use 48kbs as their standard while they continue to claim 50hrs, doesn't this represent quite a significant jump in battery longevity? This dynamic normalizer sounds really useful too. I like to use AVLS to protect my hearing, but I have a number of tracks that are just too quiet for the subway or bus w/out turning AVLS off. This would totally solve that. Sony, with people actually starting to say good things about the PS3, you might be on a roll. Now bring on the video walkman! -Nav

While trolling through the internets, I came across an oddly named document called the "ATRAC Family Payload Draft". I didn't really get much of it - it was far too technical and Sony specific - but there is a mention of a format called ATRAC-X that, among other things, seems to be multi-channel (there is mention of centre-channel, surrounds etc) and has a file format of atx, rather than omg/a or aa3. Can anyone shed any light on this? Is this PS3 related or something else? -Nav

I've never heard of one. I think your best best would be to wait until the ATRAC SDK is released and hope that someone starts writing software with it. In the meantime, you're prob. stuck w/ Sonicstage. -Nav

Just in case any Sony folks read this forum, I shall also add: Selling some of Columbia's catalogue of jazz/classical in lossless or 352kbs would be a brilliant way to get those finnicky audiophiles using Connect where they would only eschew iTunes. First, of coursre, you might want to consider bringing the bloody thing to Canada!

The Wikipedia Entry on Sonicstage claims the following: "SonicStage 3.4 includes an option to de-DRM your whole library (obviously the larger your library is, the longer this will take) allowing as many copies of files as you like, on as many players as you want, on as many PCs as you want. You can even share non-DRM files with friends or colleagues." I thought I was pretty familiar with Sonicstage, but I've never seen this and, to be honest, am a little skeptical. This morning I tried to throw some .oma files from my dap onto another computer and got the usual 'these files were created on another computer' message. Anyone know anything about this?