Exclusive ATRACLife 'Connect Player' Screenshots

[Christopher]

The new Walkmans are live in the UK!

UPDATE: Users have found a way to install Connect Player manually through official Sony resources. It's an ugly procedure, but does work. No official installer has been released..yet.

Time for a flood of screenshots (click on them to make them larger). More is to come this week, including user manuals for the new Walkmans.

Various Library and Playlist 'shots:

Preferences:

Rolloff_calculator.zip

Obligatory drag n' drop 'shot:

Some thoughts: Connect Player and Sonicstage will not run at the same time. Connect Player's ATRAC files easily import into Sonicstage as well, but we're not so sure about that statement, vice-versa. We also have recieved troubling news that no device (even the NW-HD1/2/3/5, PSP, etc) except the new Walkmans will be compatible with Connect Player -- even in the latest builds of Connect they are not. Sony is apparently trying to start with a completely clean slate, so to speak.

A user by the name of SimonGrafftey has posted his thoughts on Connect Player within the forums, and we feel the words are appropriate (we can't assume that all software experiences will be the same for a new user, however):

Read more of Simon's review, here.

I purchased an NW A3000 on Friday, from a UK Sony Centre, who are the first to have the units available in the UK. The unit came with Connect Player 1.0, which I regret to say after a weekend of perseverance is extremely disappointing. Put simply, I can’t get it to work.

I have 4200 Atrac files in my SonicStage database, which Connect Player offers no easier means to import other than File/Directory import. There does not seem to be any way to import playlists from SonicStage. I made several attempts to import the files all of which were ultimately unsuccessful. The software offers the iTunes style option of manual or sync connection to your device (i.e. the NW A3000) but I found that after transferring 200 or so tracks the process would hang indefinitely. The only way to stop it was to detach the NW A3000, which resulted both in the database on the NW A3000 being corrupted and Connect Player not opening when I tried to reuse the software. The only way to get the program open again was to delete the library folder in the All Users\Application Data\Sony Corporation\Connect Player path, which meant that there were now no tracks imported. Lastly I tried to import the tracks and manually transfer them to the NW A3000, but although Connect Player seemed to import the tracks ok (it takes about 4 hours to do 4200 tracks, far longer than in SonicStage) after closing Connect Player, it took 5 minutes to open again and then froze completely. I simply could’t open it without scrubbing the library again.

It seems to me that Sony have rushed this software out – I can’t believe my problems are due computer compatibility as I am using a month old Vaio. There are some potentially good features in Connect Player – drag and drop, the sync function and a folder watch function, which I presume allows automatic updates of any new tracks added by another program such as SonicStage. But there are major drawbacks, not least that it doesn’t work, but also there is no back up tool, so if your database was damaged or your computer blew up, you would be stuck – I don’t think simply backing up and restoring the oma file folders would work with a new install on another machine. The only way to back up would be to use SonicStage back up tool, but then all tracks would have to be imported/ripped with SonicStage and then either the folder watch function used or the files be imported into Connect Player, which seems crazy.

Luckily the NW A3000 does connect to SonicStage, so I can at least use the machine. (It is important to initialise the NW A3000 before using SonicStage to transfer files, otherwise the folder structure created by Connect Player stays on the hard disk which seems to confuse the NW A3000 and slow down the menus). The intelligent playlists and Artist link won’t work, but for me personally these seem like over-engineering anyway.

I cannot understand why Sony has tried to re-invent the wheel with Connect Player. I know there are valid criticisms of SonicStage, but it has been developed over 5 years and SonicStage 3.3 seems pretty good to me – it’s fast and reasonably easy to use and is backwardly compatible with all NW devices. Surely it would have been easier to redevelop SonicStage for the NW A series, rather than starting all over again. It feels like Sony have gone backwards, to the early days of OpenMG, which used to crash and freeze all the time.

[Guest Stuge]

New connect player looks great in these screen shots but some people have already facing difficulty in using it as stated above . So i think we should stick to sonic stage ver .3.3 for altleast 4-5 months before a upgrade comes.

Edited November 7, 2005 by Stuge

[willykyu]

Well, it's nice though... But, well, where are the.....OPTIOOOONS???!!!

I mean, smooth transitions, etc etc. every little otions you find on Itune and never implemeted in Sonicstage!!! and if somebody can tell if the program is at last unicode...don't hesitate! HAHAH

Ah by the way, how Connect store is integrated this time? same way as SS? or different, as an Itune like? thanx

Edited November 7, 2005 by willykyu

[indeego]

The GUI looks nice and clean, but I am suprised to hear that Connect remembers openMG Jukebox in terms of stability - iIrc, also SonicStage had some problems with vaios (with non-DRMed .oma-files) - hopefully Connect will run better on average systems.

Sony is apparently trying to start with a completely clean slate, so to speak.

Whereas they should better avoid the impression of incompatibility (once again and again ..)

Imagine a special version of iTMS for every single I-Pod of the family..

[Pooh]

Could you tell us something about the player itself - sound quality, etc. etc.? Thanks.

[Ascariss]

Is the UK version on the net somewhere, or not yet available for download?

[Christopher]

Nope, it's not available yet, but it should be soon.

[Dinko]

Soooo.... they took the clunkiness of the older SonicStages, changed the layout to look like iTunes, and released it as Connect, correct?

Edited November 7, 2005 by Dinko

[gr00vy0ne]

It's sort of disheartening to hear this. I guess we'll see once more people get there hands on it. Sony does have to understand that the Connect player has to be absolutely rock solid and easy to use. It's more important than the slick hardware they're trying to release and has to be the focus.

Sony software is much like Microsoft's....version 1 is always very forgettable. I think about M-Crew 1.0, OpenMG JukeBox 1.0, and SonicStage 1.0 and remember the frustration.

Sony seems to be enamoured with creating custom interfaces which is much more difficult to program. I don't see why they don't use standard Windows APIs and OS conventions. Something straightforward like the MP3FileManager should have been the base for this new software.

Sony would also be smart to add API/plug-in support and allow their devices to work with Windows Media Player or some other popular media player. Of course, that would take away their exclusivity which would be very un-Sony-like.

[EZero]

Well then, I guess I'm looking elsewhere for an mp3 player. Really thought Sony would have gotten it's act together by now, but I guess not.

[Sp1n]

yup i`m dissapointed too, it looks like sony doesnt want to make future for it`s players...which is sad...i dont think sony will have much sales with this unit after same old reviews with: Sonicstage/Connect this and that...

yup, guess ill be waiting for 16gb flash players to come out.

[pata2001]

Looks neat, reminds me of MacOS X and iTunes.

So the new players will use a different files structure than current players, which explains the incompatibility with older hardware. But why? Not only has Sony alienated consumers thanks to DRM and restrictions, now they alienated current Sony supporters (us) by making our current hardware incompatible with the new software. And how about AtracCD?

Seems that sony just cannot focus anymore. Now the products are more scattered than before, especially with this software compatibility issue.

Oh, BTW, is the new connect software unicode? Or are we still going to be forced to do registry edits and using applocale just to enable Kanji?

[willykyu]

Right! the big question is "is it unicode at last". But after thinkig of it, I realized it was cool, BUT, if connect player doesn't recognize any of the previous devices (psp included, which is absolutely impossible to understand!), what's the point? well, it's still a relief to have a unicode program where you can burn you 70% japanese CD collection, without screwing with your computer, but if you can't even transfer it to your sony devices except A series, I don't see the point.

Still, these updates might be surprising. I just can't imagine SONY not providing an update with full devices compatibility, etc.etc.

Well, if they don't, maybe it will be time to send tones of mails to sony... I heard they were more responsive these days (though I haven't seen any change).

[doclloyd]

I think a lot of things are still speculation that some are defining to be truth. We've only heard one report from one user... I'd like to wait and get more feedback as the software is more readily available and more reviews come online before we declare Connect Player a failure or success. But that's just my take. I like to have as much info as possible before making any judgments.

[Christopher]

ANY FURTHER DISCUSSION REVOLVING AROUND INSTALLING CONNECT MANUALLY MUST GO HERE:

http://www.atraclife.com/index.php?showtopic=416

[EZero]

Well, kurisu, are you going to comment on Connect Player?

[Dinko]

Installed it. After rebooting the PC, CONNECT works fine.

So far, It's much, much faster than SonicStage.

I like that square up on top-left where the possible music sources are listed (including recognition of both a CDRW drive and a DVD-RW drive).

Scanning for audio media is much less memory-devouring than SonicStage.

It appears that CD burning is now limited to CD-Audio.

I find Ripping a CD is much faster than iTunes or Windows Media Player used to take.

I like the way you can customize the information that is displayed (date imported, codec, artist, etc... many more options than Sonic Stage or WMP). Or at least the way it's supposed to work in theory.

I had no trouble playing WMA, mp3 or SonicStage (OMA) files.

But...

As with iTunes, F2 key is disabled (can't rename tracks on screen, must go through Track properties and use pop up cards for track details). That's the one thing that really frustrated me with iTunes, and I don't like seeing it on Connect.

SonicStage had a big button to hit when you wanted to transfer tracks. All the round little buttons on top of CONNECT need some getting used to.

Ripping is available in various ATRAC3 and ATRAC3plus, PCM and mp3 flavours. WMA is not available (yet?).

CONNECT looks like a much faster, more memory efficient player than SonicStage.

Now if they would only enable that F2 key...

[willykyu]

I'm not so happy...

I'm testing this program for more than an hour. I have to say that SONY went backwards. I guess this type of savage instalation from the update might alter our judgment from a true normal installation, as the full installation may be different in terms of bugs, though I don't believe it too much.

Well, I "scaned" the sonic stage folders, containing all my Atrac files. It was long, painful. You don't have any idea of the progress, that's a shame, for it slows down the connect player while scanning. Then, once done, I was pleased to see my japanese titles are displayed correctly (I use Vaiozone to name files in japanese, as it is unicode). Then, I tried to import a jap cd. Connect player looks like a very basic product, next to it, SS looks like the king of programs. So I imported it, and then, impossible to hear a sound of the imported files. the SS imported files play fine! that's strange. And the CD cover doesn't appear either.

The infos before importing don't have a scroll menu, with previous entries-stupid! you have to type again the genre, if it doesn't match to the ones of your library.

Well, I'm kind of horrified of this application. Managment looks complicated. It looks cheap also. It looks like Open MG jukebox somehow in terms of quality.

There is no cool option, and the fact it is automatized is not always convenient. It seems that Connect player does what it wants. Why not manual control choice?

For example, this auto watch folder could be cool, but it imported twice a cd I ripped from this very same application. (???!!!).

I don't know if it was the same for you, but it's impossible to use "properties" on an album. And when you enter these "properties" setting, you've got to type everything. No scroll menu to pick a previously entered info (like SS). How do we change the "genre" if it is wrong or personalized? I didnot figure out...

Well, this is scary for what's coming next. So far with this version, my thoughts are: worse than SS in a lot of ways, far far behind Itune, slow, clunky... the only thing I love is the jap caracters display. BUT the player doesn't play the tracks once imported. What's the point??? I'm soooo disapointed. Worse than I thought really. I'm waiting for a real instalation file. But the features won't change before a true next update (coming sooner than I think... as everybody's going to complain...).

Instead of copying itune looks, I'd prefer they copy its basic fonctions. And it's not so pretty at the end... Connect store looks integrated like an internet site, like in SS, not like Itune (fast, easy etc.). Oddly, the connect sore is the american one on this update.

Wait and see for the next evolution... 'till then I pray sony for an update for Sonicstage, to make it unicode once for all.

[Castar]

Faster than SS?! That is the exact oposite from what I get...

Also, when you say that you transfer tracks you mean at a A1000/A3000 device, right?

[Christopher]

Well, kurisu, are you going to comment on Connect Player?

←

I'll comment when I can get a stable installer that actually works.

[Dinko]

Also, when you say that you transfer tracks you mean at a A1000/A3000 device, right?

No, sorry about the possible confusion. I meant "transfer" as a general term for moving tracks from one location to another.

In SonicStage you get a very standardized transfer screen, right?. Whether from CD to library, or from library to portable device, it's basically the same orange/red arrow that you hit to rip tracks to your library or transfer to a portable device.

In CONNECT, ripping a CD to the library is done from one of those round buttons on top, then burning tracks to a CD is in a different part of the screen with different round buttons. You can either drag and drop or use the "+ ADD" button to add tracks to the "burn CD" part of the screen.

As for speed... I was wondering: when you say you find it slower than SonicStage, were you trying to work with the CONNECT player while it was importing your library tracks? I found CONNECT to be pretty slow on its other functions while it is scanning the PC hard drives for cues. On the other hand, I found I found it to be significantly faster than SonicStage when CONNECT was not importing tracks from the rest of the PC. Menus popped up faster. It organized the files faster when you moved from, say "ALL TRACKS" to "ALBUM" view for example.

When I'm importing files it's pretty slow, but otherwise, I find it faster.

If I remember correctly though, Sonic Stage wouldn't let you do anything else while it was importing tracks.

[simon.giesen]

Hi guys!

I am really very disappointed. I had a first look at the Connect Player and you can just DEL from your harddisk! Well, Sonic Stage isn't that bad, right?! So as I own the HD5 Network Walkman I will keep Sonic Stage AND my walkman as long as Sony is ABLE to release a product that CAN compete with Apple's iTunes and the iPod.

Well, I am a big big Sony fan and I will never change to a different company BUT SONY WHY DO YOU HURT AND BOTHER YOUR FANS SOOO MUCH???

I WOULD upgrade IF:

a) Sony would release a >20GB player

better and slimmer design (no easter-egg-design)

c) A WORKING connect player software WHICH CAN IMPORT MY THOUSANDS OF SONIC STAGE FILES IN NO TIME

SO IS SONIC STAGE AND CONNECT PLAYER FOREVER "SEPERATE" PRODUCTS?

I AM NOT GOING TO BETA-TEST YOUR SOFTWARE, SONY!!!

[dutchtrance]

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.

[sdfzz_]

Just installed connect player...it seems faster than sonic stage, although i didn;t try any cd-ripping or transfering any musics.

Disappointing point is that I tried connect player w/ psp and my e403, but they didn;t work w/ connect player..

And tell u the truth, I did like sonic stage pretty much and i hate new connect player design...

But it seems to me that new player is lighter and faster.

I'm using korean window xp, and I can play songs like : 舞-HiME 運命の系統樹 or 月蝕グラソギニョル(월식 그랑기뇰) w/out any change.

Should we send request to SONY for backward compability?

[slow_sux]

I've got the exact same problem as the guy who reviewed it, it freezes whenever i try to use any of its functions.

is sonicstage compatible with the nw-a1000?

[Guest Stuge]

is sonicstage compatible with the nw-a1000?

Yes.U can use sonic stage with Nw-A1000 but with some features disabled

[Machine]

I am thinking of getting the NW-A3000.

With the new connect software... CAN YOU CHANGE THE COLOUR????

I dont like purple!!!!!

[Guest Stuge]

I am thinking of getting the NW-A3000.

With the new connect software... CAN YOU CHANGE THE COLOUR????

I dont like purple!!!!!

←

what colour ur taking about .if it is cover colour then no not at alll.U can go for the silver one.But A1000 has lot of colour to choose from

[Machine]

what colour ur taking about .if it is cover colour then no not at alll.U can go for the silver one.But A1000 has lot of colour to choose from

←

No... i meant the Connect software. If you look at all the screenshots, the colour is purple. i was wondering if you can change the software colour.?

Also which A3000 colour is better... Silver or Black?

[Guest Stuge]

No... i meant the Connect software. If you look at all the screenshots, the colour is purple. i was wondering if you can change the software colour.?

I don`t think so.I tried to change but with no success.

Also which A3000 colour is better... Silver or Black?

Basically colour which is looking black is not the black one it is the "Purple " one but since u don`t like the purple colour then u should go for the silver one.Basically OELD screen is more bright in Purple one.

[Ascariss]

No... i meant the Connect software. If you look at all the screenshots, the colour is purple. i was wondering if you can change the software colour.?

Also which A3000 colour is better... Silver or Black?

←

Well personally seeing both the purple and silver in person, the silver wins hands down. Although the purple has a nice look to it as well, the silver looks much better.

If you can check them out at a store, you will get a much better feel for their size and looks.

Stuge, there are 2 models, the silver and black, the black one actually is black and has a different appearance from the silver version which is more chrome.

all models have a nice reflective look to them and nothing on the market that comes closes to it. The pink and greenish blue one are ok, but more directed at people younger than me I guess, 12-16yr olds.

So to answer your question Machine, I'd go with the silver, the black one might show too many scratches or even fingerprints (even though while testing the A1000 out, fingerprints were not as bad as I thought they would be). Don't guy by press pics from thet net, they never tell the real story, the silver one in real life looks a lot darker than it really is.

it is more like this:

Edited November 21, 2005 by Ascariss

[Guest Stuge]

Thanks Ascariss For clearing my confusion..

[kamil]

I just bought the A1000, mostly for its 6band EQ, long battery life, and sleek looks (and the fact thats its not an iPod).

Im on a mac so i have to run virtual PC in order to use Connect software, but when I installed it, it wont run at all. I tried installing it on win XP Pro and Win2k, no success on either. What happeneed was the software autoupdate would run in the background, id execute the software but it would tell me its already running (it obviously isnt). A few moments later the Connect banner would popup and nothing happens. I'm returning the A1000 seeing how its completely useless to me now. (unfortunately).

I have two questions:

1. Does the Connect software recognize Track Numbers? Almost every album i own on my comp it is a DJ mix, live, and split. If I were to import songs selecting 15 of 15 from an album, all properly tagged ID3 tags (1 of 15, then 2 of 15, and so on) would the Connect player recognize this and put them in order?

2. Does sonic stage 3.3 organize tracks based on ID3 tags? I tried once a while back but it wouldnt work (ss 3.2).

Thanks!

Edited November 22, 2005 by kamil

[mercury_in_flames]

dude u actually bothered, even after s.s didnt work on virtual pc? just get a shyte windows comp and be done with it. Ive got a pentium 3, 256 ram, comp and it may be slower than my P4 2.8ghz, 512 ram, but it beats not having my hd5 at all.

[atrain]

1. Does the Connect software recognize Track Numbers? Almost every album i own on my comp it is a DJ mix, live, and split. If I were to import songs selecting 15 of 15 from an album, all properly tagged ID3 tags (1 of 15, then 2 of 15, and so on) would the Connect player recognize this and put them in order?

2. Does sonic stage 3.3 organize tracks based on ID3 tags? I tried once a while back but it wouldnt work (ss 3.2).

Thanks!

←

kamil, haven't seen you in a while. did you end up buying a pc laptop? sonicstage will work better for you for now with the a1000, at least until the bugs with connect are sorted out.

SS3.3 will import on id3 tags & always gets the order right.

[Guest Stuge]

Does the Connect software recognize Track Numbers?

Yes ,connect software recognize track numbers.

If all the songs r from the same album(eg they all should have album "The Ricky)

then it will put the songs in the same order

2. Does sonic stage 3.3 organize tracks based on ID3 tags?

Yes.......

But as ur tryng to use connect software on airtual pc then i think it will not

work .Use a proper Windows xp then it will work

Edited November 23, 2005 by Stuge

[kamil]

kamil, haven't seen you in a while. did you end up buying a pc laptop? sonicstage will work better for you for now with the a1000, at least until the bugs with connect are sorted out.

SS3.3 will import on id3 tags & always gets the order right.

←

Hey man, yah its been a while....but you prolly know why

Anyway, i never got a pc laptop, im a student and cant afford TOO many things all at once, i know i dont NEED the sony mp3 player, but it is a good investment for me since i *DO* listen to music almost 100% of the time that im awake. But apple is releasing intel based macs next year, and might be having intel powerbooks on sale as early as january, *IF* that happens, i might sell my dual G4 and get that, partition the hard drive in two and install OS X along with Windows on it and have best of both worlds.

Thanks for the answer though, also, reading page 83 of the online manual, shows that the battery *IS* removable:

With this being said, i will return the mp3 player for now, and buy it later when i get a good working copy of windows not running from my G4 mac. Im very excited

[Ascariss]

Kamil the battery is like on the MZ-N10 recorder and player, so removeable yes, easy well depends, removing the battery from the MZ-N10 ain't easy lol.

Just checked out your site, nice photos. love the 10 subway shots. btw what music do you listen to since it does mention you are a DJ in your profile. Nice avatar too. lol

and btw witam cie to Atraclife forums, the best source for your atrac needs.

Edited November 23, 2005 by Ascariss

[Guest Stuge]

kamil,Removing battery from A1000/3000 or NW-HD3 OR 1 series is not

that easy as ur thinking.But when u need ur battery to be replaced at

that time(I think it required to remove a battery after one & half or

2years if u use ur player normally) there will be no warrenty & there is chance

that while replacing ur battery u might damage ur walkman& repair will cost huge money

........

Edited November 23, 2005 by Stuge