willykyu

Mgillespie, I think you misunderstood the "plus" thing. I guess I know what you mean. Atrac 3 PLUS is the name of the new bitrates created AFTER Atrac 3. Atrac 3 bitrates are 66, 105 (LP4) and 132 kbps (LP2). They were introduced with net MD, to increase the capacity of MD. Then SONY brought an evolution of the codec with Atrac 3 PLUS, and its 3 new bitrates: 48, 64 and 256 kbps. They were meant to compress more without too much decreasing the sound quality. Then you could choose to encode a CD with these 6 bitrates. Recently, ATRAC PLUS codec series has been added new bitrates: 94, 128, 160, 192 and 320. Like this SONY could have the same series of bitrates than MP3 an d WMA. People used to these bitrates (especially 128) could maybe better understand. People really wanted something between 132 and 64, like 128. Today, 132 seems obsolete, as to my ears I was surprised to feel that 128 sounded better than 132, as 94 sounded really good to me, better than 64... but could be my ears. So there is only one 128 atrac bitrate, and its ATRAC 3 PLUS by default. But where it can be a bit confusing, is that there is now with connect and Sonicstage 3.3 a new option called quick copy, and high quality copy. I think you 'd better not pay attention to the quick copy option (select CD tracks in CONNECT, right clic). I don't really know what it does. Once encoded I guess there no way to know if the track has been "quick" ripped, or "high quality" ripped. I'm not sure in either way, that there a real gain of space. Then and finally, about your MP3 files, concerting them in Atrac 3/atrac3 plus format of the same bitrate won't change its size. It will decrease its quality by encoding once again an already MP3 compressed sound file. The only way you could shrink your file is choosing a smaller bitrate like 94, or 64 kbps bitrate. But the sound will be worse, but still "listenable". The best thing is transfer directly MP3 on your device without cahnging anything. About WMA, though a new firmware for A-1000 and A-3000 is out today on the japanese sony walkman support page (vesrion 1.01), and I'm not sure it brings any new feature yet, a new update is schedule sometime this month to let the player natively read WMA. Untill then, CONNECT Player will convert your tracks with the bitrate you choosed in the options.

Absolutely Pooh! I agree with you about SONY, wich I like very much, but they screwed it up with CONNECT Player. I was thinking yesterday, if Sir Howard Stinger had an A series in his pocket to listen to his favourite tunes, or maybe does he have an Ipod instead. I couldn't beleive one second that SONY's head, who I think is a more than normal conumer, cannot get pissed off 3 sec later after using C.P. ! He's not the "technical"kind of guy as I read somewhere, and if I were him, I 'd fired right away the guys who made this! so the only thing I have in mind is, Stinger has no walkman, don't use them at all, or has an Ipod,...or something else than a sony one! OR, his secretary puts music into his devices for him (poor girl! -or man!)!!!!! I ripped some jap cds yesterday through Sonicstage 3.3 (it had been a long time I didn't use it) and I thought it was really nice to use! of course, the unicode issue is the BIG problem, but, this appart, it's kind of cool. What I do is, I ripp cd's with SS, take the cd infos through Vaio Zone / Do Vaio (unicode) to code in real japanese, then change my personalised infos again with SS, and THEN import the folder in CONNECT.... well, do you think it's normal to do that? I don't!!!!!!! (I don't use applocale anymore, it creates some incompatibility within the atrac file, and everything goes wrong afterwards.. the tracks can't be read without applocale and so on and so forth...).

I live in Japan, and I use a French Vaio. I bought an A-608, and everything works perfectly fine! they are building exactly the same devices for every country. More, the Connect installation CD is immediately in your language, and you can choose the language and the country service to install... The only thing I don't know yet is if the radio works outside of Japan. But I think the answer is yes. I will try in a week in France. But even so, I can't tell you if the French radio is the same frequences as US...

Atrac lossless is not supported by A series (as it is written somewhere in the Connect player manual...), but trying to do so just sends the attached bitrate created when ripping the CD (256, etc.). Well, nothing's impossible, and one can hope a new firmware update can allow the players to directly play atrac lossless. But for the moment, even CONNECT Player isn't capable to rip a CD in ATRAC lossless... These updates stories start to make me really nervous; while everybody's happily bying Ipods, and enjoy life with their almost problems free and full of options Itunes...

Limitation: when you insert a CD previuosly entered, CONNECT has to search again the infos through CDDB. With Sonicstage, the program remebered the infos brought with CDDB, and even your changes when you inserted again the same CD. it is useful when you want to rip a cd again with a different bitrate. It could also be cool that the program remembers the CD cover...

I confirm a bug: it's not only jap, but any small tiny little "foreign" caracter in a track info within a whole album, and you can be SURE the track goes to "Unknown" genre, with no album title, no artist, and sees its name transform to xx(number of track)-title, and of course no more cd cover!!!!! then it's a real "PLEASURE" to re enter the whole list of info in the track properties, with copy-paste, or you own good memory... be careful to be really PRECISE entering the infos.... siiiigh.... Hey SONY, don't forget to give us tag options a la Itunes/sonicstage, with scrolling menus of previousl entered infooooos and full UNICODE suppoooooort! are you listeniiiiiing? (echoe echoe...)

Hey, I think we forgot this one, and a pretty one!! Limitation: You can delete tracks and albums from your library, but the "real" tracks gently stay on the hard drive. There should be a check box, like in SS or Itunes, to delete the tracks on the Hard drive! especially if you want to rip again a CD with a different bitrate for example! and not to forget to leave 30 gigs of Atrac or MP3 unsued conuming space ! checking folder by folder to delete unused tracks can be time conuming!

I guess updates are released at the same time, as on SONY japan walkman download/support page, the updates are displayed the same day (or the day after) Europe. And the updates numbers are the same. About the scrolling, I think the roblem is...all the time! but I'll check it again. I don't use CONNECT Player too much. I'm scared to loose all my library again. I just use it to sync my player, so the infos are the same in CONNECT and my walkman, and of course to transfer the latest added tracks. Strict minimum untill a true edition of this soft comes out.

Your version is the same as the one released a week ago. About the scroll problem, I still have it, even with 1.0.02.11170. I realised that Connect player auto update can indeed download the last version of the player...but takes its time: several hours to several days (weeks?). It's still awfully slow (even on my Vaio A series!!) whereas sonicstage is pretty fast. Can't wait for this so called "V.3" or else...

I'm French, I live in Japan. Well, I really feel like I DON'T WANT TO GO "HOME"!!!! It's not voted yet though...

Connect player is the worst application ever used, lack of option, slow to death, bugs a go go, you can(t even use it as your default player, IMPOSSIBLE, it freezes for minutes before controlling anything. And of course no compatibility with "older" devices (PSP included..) Sonicstage has improved pretty well, it's fast, easy to use, easy to play (CD covers, really cool), easy to transfer. It's big lacks are: no unicode (which is sooooo important), no sync, no smooth transitions. If only Sony took Sonicstage, put all the connect player features, and add these important options (unicode first), and rename it Connect player if they wanted, I think it would be cool. Of course, if SONY created a really cool store as Itunes music stores, with sveral bitrate contents, large collection of music, without country limitation, video contents for your psp (films, tv series, short, clips etc. with original version and subtitles oprions), and of course podcasts and video casts... well we'll be close to perfection... Looooooooooooooong way to go, but is it SO difficult to do??? Apple does it some way!

I guess some problems like this will be fixed with the new firmware update... by the way, any news about this update? it should be available this month right? wit WMA support... guess it'll be at the same time than CP v3... speculations speculations...

I bought it, it's gorgeous, the sound is excellent, and it's quite easy to use. I love it. There is absolutely no problem in using Sonicstage instaed of Connect player. But I had problems when once my tacks transfered with SS, you can't use Connect player. You have to reinitialize the player. But it's not a problem I guess. It's a copy/delete/replace device. Perfect for sports for example. I think it's still better to have 6xx instaed of 4xx and 5xx, as it can read more codecs (new atrac bitrates), you can upgarde it soon to even have WMA, and well, you still have these new shuffle options, taht will certainly work someday (when they will give us a TRUE Connect player, and not a bad joke). Anyway, better have the last of the series, right?

Still, you still can't import japanese cd correctly! I tried several times with deifferent cds, and if the tracks or album title are in japanese (they're correctly dipslayed in cd infos), then all the infos dispear once in library: no album title, no genre (becomes unknown), etc. Very annoying and frustrating. Then there is no way to tag your tracks, etc etc. and change inofs fro several tracks at the same time, or directly an album properties... still a LOOOOOOOONG way to go.

Now it makes sense why there was a box to check in previous connect pleyer version: a "authorize/initialize/recognise" whatever option with U.S only written next to it. It seems it disapeared in the latest version. I guess it is automatic in SS. US market must be quite different from Euro and Jap one.

Same for me. The "check for updates" function doesn't make any signs of life. As Connect player doesn't clearly tell what it's doing... No remaining time for transfer, no clear progress bar or pop up window, nothing clear! we use this program as blind people... The auto update downloaded once an update for me, but it was after this installation of the last version, automatically downloaded when installing with the provided cd. It looks like they have not implement anything but the minimum to run the program so far... and plenty of functions are written, but not available.. or they're running, but we don't know it!

This last one is new! the last version of CONNECT delets the library if corrupted, not the previous ones. If you unistalled and installed again, the library remained the same... to delete the entire library, gotta go to documents and settings/allusers/applicationdata/sonycorporation/connectplayer/library; and erase what's inside, It's no good if you spent hours to rate your tracks...

Everything you sumed up happens to me too. If you don't mind, I will use your model and complete what I found too (same version): BUG: Importing with drag and drop several folders with atrac files results as half empty albums. The import takes some of the files, but not all. (ex: 6 tracks instaed of 20). BUG: star display don't work properly. You set a rating, and you can't see it. Or it doesn't stick to the rating you gave, and disapear later. BUG: One of the worst one: impossible to import -for example- a japanese CD with japanese infos. The cddb infos are well displayed, but then once imported, the genre, the album title etc. disapear. The tracks are named with their track number. And more, it happens that the tracks can't be read or transfer afterwards. (I guess it's the same with Chinese or else). BUG: If you scan with the "analyse" function the same folders you drag and droped, to add some files connect forgot to import, Connect will import a second time the tracks. Then, in your library, you'll have twice the same title as it was new. Limitation: once you lost your library after it has been re-initialized, the ratings still in your device can't be imported again if you import your tracks again. waste of time. BUG: it happened that when importing an album from CONNECT STore, one track lost its entire infos, and is placed as Uknown genre etc. Limitation: once you plug an A3000/1000 to the euro connect player, you loose the Kana (japanese caracter) search fonction. It's really too bad, as it was an excellent way to find japanese artists and songs. There should be boxes to check in CONNECT player to activate or disactivate this function. BUG: importing tracks must not take a long time, otherwise, the virtual memory goes full, and CONNECT player violently shuts down. This is one reason the library can be corrupted, then re-initialized, then lost. Limitation: impossible to play gapless even with atrac files through CONNECT Player. Am I wrong? miss: No cross fade play (I mean smooth transitions). Sony should add this to CONNECT player AND the A player itself! We could even choose what albums play smooth transitions (Chek boxes, with cotumizable time 0sec to 12, like in Itune or Winamp). But for this, albums should be costumizable first (like in sonistage, which tags very good-cd cover, titles years, etc. you can even search again once imported the cddb infos!)... Limitation: CONNECT player organises itslef the folders from a ropped cd. We could have a choice not to let it do this! (like Itune option). More to come!

Because, it would be worse that people could freely see with their own eyes how a catastrophy is CONNECT Player! at least, only A series owners can enjoy the wonders of Bug-nect player. I sent several mails to CONNECT Store help, and SONY assistance, and they answered that what they call "C2 client" which is Connect player, is full of bugs, has less functions than Sonicstage. But they told me that SONY hopes to replace SS by this one in the future. Then they said they'd send me the last Connect player version on a cd (though I don't really need it...). As it has been discussed in this forum, I guess they are just waiting it to be ready, fonctionnal and bug free before replacing SS from CONNECT store.

Exactly the truth! CONNECT Player works this way on my comp too. There's another bunch of other anoyances and bugs I will list when I have time this week... but it's possible a new soft version's out before. (I hope so...)

Well, no changes at all... axceprt new translations (for English text not translated yet in the program), seems to "cure" corrupted library (due to some jap titled atrac...) by DELETING it (nice, bye bye my ratings !!!!! aaargh), but no improment...I don't even feel it works faster. Tinyhttp still takes at least 100MB of resources, and best of all, japanese cd ripping is useless: No album title or genre, no tracks numbers, and of course, as it's still impossible to rename an album, or change artists/album properties for several albums (like in SS), I don't even bother... "Major update" will be for another day (year?). I'm so MAD!

As they were talking about the US site, and did not mentioned about new features, I guessed there was nothing to see with what I found. The link I give in my post is a link for Euro Sony Digital link, and not US site at all. Anyway... It seemed that Kurisu message was right. Now, let's see if it is a "major" change.

By the way, I've just checked Sony Digital link, and I was very surprised: New update for connect player: called: 1.0.02.11170 this time! why am I so surprised: the auto update has not told me yet it was available! SUPER AUTO UPDATE, right? Installing and see what changes. As they say: * CD Extra and WMA are supported * Improved Audio CD Ripping * Improved New Playlist creation * Improved Track Transfer / Editing and Sorting * Improved Gracenote CDDB registration * "Tinyhttp.exe" error while formatting A-series WALKMAN in CONNECT Player has been solved We'll seeeeeeee! hee hee hee!!! Update: Woops! hum, how to say this: I found the page of the update through Google. And it seems it cannot be accessed by Sony Digital Link page. Moreover, no link to download the update, huhuhu... I guess, the update is almost ready. Here is the page of this 1.0.02.11170 update!

MY GOOOOD! IT WORKED ! THANX SOOOO MUCH! I was looking for this "library" folder for days! even SONY couldn't tell me!!! deleting it and CONNECT Player opens again! great! The only thing is, if there's this bug everytime we import music and organize and rate tracks, deleting this makes us lose everything every time! time to fix bugs SONY!

Bravo Kurisu, your text is ecxellent. Here the commercial situation here in Japan: SONY puts a lot of ads on tv, and it's immpossible to pass trhough the A series. Every big electronic stores has a very good presentation of the series. It seems to be very different in Europe as you say. But, in Japan too, there's the horrible CONNECT player without any difference with the euro one. My situation now is, I installed CP with the "issues solved" update, it crashed when importing ATRAC!! and then it's frozen to CONNECT Player boot title, and never opens... of course Tinyhttp, is still running and using 300MB of resources, OF COURSE! haha So indeed, they screwed it up! The fact that they don't even talk about it in official usa sony sites is MORE than strange. How could that be???with Stinger at SONY's head? absolutely odd. What scares me more is, are they preparing NEW walkmen, and don't even sell the A series to US before they're ready???? as Japan has alwayd been a test market, and Europe some kind of "whatever" market, I 'm feeling bad... The complains are only on COnnect, since I can say that the players are gorgeous, and wonderfull to use! The "major" update you're tlaking about HAS to be as good as Itune, must have the latest features of Sonicstage, and must handle perfectly foreign laguages and "backward" compatibility (is playstation series an expetion at SONY or what??haha)!!! Or just make the program work smoothly... it would be cool. Well, bravo again Kurisu, everything you said makes perfect sense and is true. Hope they read that.