Sonicstage 2.3 And Unsupported Mp3´s

[thomasraden]

Have anybody had this problem before?

Some MP3 files when transferred to my MZ-NH700 plays totally

silent on the MD player. When converting these MP3 files to WAV

and then transfer them to the MD they do play OK.

It's a very annoying problem though.

The problematic MP3 files are WAV files coded with Audiograbber

and the freeware LAME encoder 1.32 engine 3.96.

Bitrate of the problematic MP3 files are 224 and 256 kBit, but I

can not find anything else that differs them from files that convert

to ATRAC with sound successfully playable on the MD.

I tried reinstalling a fresh copy of windows XP with servicepack 2.

On top of this I tried different versions of Sonicstage from 2.2 and

2.3 with no better results.

These versions seem to be the core in the system I have now:

OpenMG secure 4.0.05.10290

Sonicstage 2.3.00.11020

Can anybody help out?

[zerodB]

Yep, I reckon I can help.

Ok. to convert MP3s in SonicStage you need to have Windows Media Player 6.4 or later on your machine.

SonicStage can handle CBR MP3 files with bit-rates from 32 to 320kbps. Unless you're using VBR, it's probably not the bitrate that's causing the problem.

Also, only files at 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz, or 48 kHz sampling frequencies can be supported.

Any of the above could be the problem. Also you don't have any FDDSHOW codec packs installed on your system? They tend to conflict with SS.

Finally, are the ATRAC3 files playable in SonicStage? Can you play both the orignal MP3 and converted ATRAC3 file back in SS?

Let us know how you go.

[thomasraden]

Yep, I reckon I can help.

Ok. to convert MP3s in SonicStage you need to have Windows Media Player 6.4 or later on your machine.

SonicStage can handle CBR MP3 files with bit-rates from 32 to 320kbps. Unless you're using VBR, it's probably not the bitrate that's causing the problem.

Also, only files at 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz, or 48 kHz sampling frequencies can be supported.

Any of the above could be the problem. Also you don't have any FDDSHOW codec packs installed on your system? They tend to conflict with SS.

Finally, are the ATRAC3 files playable in SonicStage? Can you play both the orignal MP3 and converted ATRAC3 file back in SS?

Let us know how you go.

←

My MP3 files are CBR files with 44 kHz and mostly 224kbps or 256kbps.

I dont have any FDDSHOW codec in the system.

Media Player 9 is in my XP SP2 system, other than that, its newly installed

with nothing else as a test.

When importing the MP3 files in SonicStage, the files on the left hand side

in the menu can be played with sound, I guess those are the imported ones.

The files on the right hand side in the menu, those downloaded to the MD

are silent when played. I have not tried to upload them back to SonicStage

and played them there though.

A sample of one of the mp3 files that always ends up silent on my MD can

be downloaded from here:

http://web.telia.com/~u10900089/ftp/coltrane.mp3

[zerodB]

Ok. I want to know whether the ATRAC3 files are playable on your PC.

You see, when you import your MP3 files into SonicStage, and then transfer the music to your MD, SonicStage creates a copy of the .MP3 file in .OMA (OpenMG Audio) Format on your hard disk, since the MD can playback MP3s natively. So you end up with two files instead of one.

When you right click a file in SS, and hit properties, you should be able to see a list of all the files (MP3, OMA) associated with a track. If you click play in SonicStage, it will usualy play the MP3 file associated with that track, but in actual fact, it's the OpenMG data which is sent to your unit.

If you get rid of the original MP3 from the SonicStage database (go to the file proprties), you'll end up with just one file, the OpenMG one. I want to know whether the OpenMG file plays back properly, so we can determine which link in the chain isn't functioning.

But since you'll end up with two copies of your music collection anyway (OpenMG and MP3), why not just convert the files to WAV, and then import into SonicStage?

Another great trick is to burn the files (MP3s) to a "virtual CD" (.iso or Nero Image), and then mount that cd (through Nero Image Mount, or Daemon Tools) and then you can either i) rip music into SonicStage or ii) transfer music using Sony MD Simpleburner.The Simpleburner method, might, in the long run, be a better option for you, since you're dealing with MP3s to begin with anyway. In my experience, SonicStage is only really useful, when you rip all your music in Sony's proprietry format (OpenMG).

Anyway, let's see what happens...