SilverBlade Posted February 1, 2006 Report Share Posted February 1, 2006 unfortunatly, this will only excite current users of minidisc/Hi-MD. I doubt this will bring more customers onto the MD scene. An example of "Too little too late" from Sony comes to mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozpeter Posted February 1, 2006 Report Share Posted February 1, 2006 All good news... I guess you can't upload with write protected disks, though? I'll download the new version shortly and then I suppose I can answer my own question.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Top Cat Posted February 1, 2006 Report Share Posted February 1, 2006 So in theory can we share OMA files??? Doesn't make much sense considering the size but might be worth checking out.This would really be a great feature for those making lots of recordings in Hi-SP.The archival process would get largerly streamlined whereas with OMA restrictions the material needs to be recomressed to some lossless or to hi-bitrate lossy format. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A440 Posted February 1, 2006 Report Share Posted February 1, 2006 I want to ask this question directly. Does this version save those poor folks who made copies of all their .oma files in the belief that they had a backup, only to find that a formatted hard drive or system restore or whatever had made SonicStage refuse to recognize the files. Can they now import those archives and play them again? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDfreak Posted February 1, 2006 Report Share Posted February 1, 2006 I want to ask this question directly. Does this version save those poor folks who made copies of all their .oma files in the belief that they had a backup, only to find that a formatted hard drive or system restore or whatever had made SonicStage refuse to recognize the files. Can they now import those archives and play them again?If they ripped their music without DRM: yes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauljones52 Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 Has anyone noticed any improvements on the quality of ripped tracks in this latest version? In particular the low bitrates (64, 48) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.Linc Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 Now if Sony would include normalization in the next SonicStage (it's not in 3.4, is it?), I'd be a happy guy. I'd probably even break down and buy a Hi-MD unit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mercury_in_flames Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 Looks like you cant transfer atrac 320 to the nw-hd5 after all. , and then it transfers the track at 132 kb atrac, oh and for some reason, when i convert a wav file the highest in converts to is 256 kb atrac, not the 352 i selected. meh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Eddie Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 (edited) One (good) step, in right direction Sony.If you want a fresh start I think you still can save your selves, get read of all restrictions, even for 1st gen. HiMDd users (mp3) Offer your clients joy, not problems.Sonicstage is still a bit of a nightmare, it scares the shit out of me when it "offers" it self to remove files from my computer. It simply does not show respect for your files. If I ever want to delete anything, i go to the folder and delete it.Give us a driver that makes upload/dl computer to disc without Sonicstage.You HAVE to make things easy to use, its not an option to have complicated processes like you intended from the beginning.And don’t discharge your first generation HiMd users or regular MD users, its them that keep the good-will/bad-will alive you know.Take care of your customers, its a basic rule in business.“Customer is always right”, remember?unfortunatly, this will only excite current users of minidisc/Hi-MD. I doubt this will bring more customers onto the MD scene. An example of "Too little too late" from Sony comes to mind.I think your wrong, Sony can turn this around but its going to take a revolutionary and fast reaction, its the only way to again be pioneers.People listen very much to serious and straight recommendations, and mine have NEVER been easy with Sony HiMD.I want to be able to say, buy it! Its simply the best. As easy as with an Mp3player. Memory/disc, data in and data out. Is it so damn difficult to understand?Good luck! Edited February 2, 2006 by El Eddie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrazyIvan Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 innovate and change, and do it quickly or die.I posted this over at the T board but has anyone bothered reading the EULA?Specifically this:COPY PROTECTIONYou agree to comply with all applicable copyright protection laws in connection with your use of the SONY SOFTWARE. In addition to the terms provided in this EULA, SONY may take appropriate measures to protect copyright of the contents played back by SONY SOFTWARE. Such measure includes, but are not limited to, counting the frequency of your backup and restoration through the Backup-Tool function in the SONY SOFTWARE, refusal to accept your request to enable restoration of the data through the Backup-Tool function and termination of this EULA in case of your illegitimate use of the SONY SOFTWARE.AUTOMATIC UPDATE FEATURE>From time to time, SONY may automatically update or otherwise modify the SONY SOFTWARE, for example for purposes of enhancement of security functions, error correction and improvement of updating functions at such time as you interact with SONY's or SONY's designee's server(s). Any such updates/modifications shall be deemed SONY SOFTWARE for purposes of this EULA. You by acceptance of this EULA consent to such update/modification.So I just agreed that they can limit the amount of times that I backup my library. I agree that they can deny my restoration privilages.I opened a back door for Sony to come in whenever they please.Was this in previous versions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljadkins Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 I have and older netmd device (MZ-N505) I may have to get one of the new HIMD decks.Way to go sony.If your mini disks had worked like this from the start there wouldn't be any other mp3/ipods out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StarknigHT Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 OH MY GOSH!!!! FINALLY SONY DOES SOMETHING RIGHT!!!too bad my 600D is currently in repairs right now >_> i hope it comes out okay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljadkins Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 I'll vote for that if I could use normalization befor I upload to player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doclloyd Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 Nice upgrade so far. Does fell a little quicker than the previous releaseWhat do people think the additional music stores/modules will be for? Will an equivalent be made available here in the States? Seeing Yahoo Music inside SS (even if just for Japan) is an interesting move to me... we shall see what it brings us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guyj1 Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 Amazing! This is what I've been waiting for. Now all I need is support for SP uploading.Not quite, we still cannot upload our old Net MD live recordings.First thing that I did after upgrading to 3.4 was to try and import a recent .M3U playlist and SS3.4 responded by promptly crashing. So far I am less than impressed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekdroid Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 (edited) I think that "content distributors" would be more accurate than creators.Exactly. Distributors is the right word. What you said was spot-on, IMO.SonicStage 3.4One thing I noticed:Import track from CD (it's in your library now). Transfer to MD. Try to transfer back to your library (again, as a duplicate).What happens?If the track you are trying to transfer is already in your library, it deletes the track on the disc (without warning). Not sure if this has been around for ages or not (all I do is save mic recordings to wav most of the time), but just thought I'd mention it.Also, messages like the following should probably be killed now, to avoid mass confusion (since the limitation no longer applies if you delete files from your library)Edit: Also, right-click and go Properties on a MIC recording and you will get the proper rights info (ie. unlimited). But right-click and get Properties on a digital recording transferred from CD to MD and you still get:Little things like this make SonicStage a pain and just add to the confusion since they no longer apply in this release (you can upload to a different computer / OS install). Maybe we'll see these things changed in SonicStage 3.5? Edited February 2, 2006 by tekdroid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaskier Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 (edited) Hello, I installed the new version yesterday. Cant't figure out how to use the "lyrics" tool though. Any ideas? What do you think about the new 192KB bitrate? I recorded 3 cd's using the better coding quality option and it sounds nice. But my headphones are not very good so I'm waiting for some other opinions in this matter.And yes, I do hope they will include some sort of normalization tool in the next version of SS.Thanks! Edited February 2, 2006 by jaskier Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 Hello, I installed the new version yesterday. Cant't figure out how to use the "lyrics" tool though. Any ideas? What do you think about the new 192KB bitrate? I recorded 3 cd's using the better coding quality option and it sounds nice. But my headphones are not very good so I'm waiting for some other opinions in this matter.And yes, I do hope they will include some sort of normalization tool in the next version of SS.Thanks! The lyrics are I think only visible when playing back a track in SS. You can add the lyrics to the track in the Track Properties then when it is playing back, if you click on the book icon on the top right of the playback panel underneath the play mode selector (which is gray and by default says "Normal").Normalization at the moment is only an option when creating audio cds out of SS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MZ-1 Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 So, with SS 3.4 what's the complete list of rates we can import and transfer directly to Hi-MD?48,64,132,192,256....?Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taper420 Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 I saw it asked before but I dont think it was answered...if a live recording was already uploaded with a previous version of sonicstage...specifically 3.2 which began allowing mulitple uploads..are these disc still locked to that installation on that computer or can they now be uploaded unlimited to any computer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FezzFest Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 So, with SS 3.4 what's the complete list of rates we can import and transfer directly to Hi-MD?48,64,132,192,256....?Paul48,64,132,192,256,352,PCM (and mp3 for 2nd generation) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverBlade Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 in the 2nd gen Hi-MD units, is the mp3 playback limited? I've been reading on minidisc threads about the mp3 playback is not that great. Is that true? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alrose312 Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 Does this now allow us to convert a song that we downloaded from CONECT into a WAV file? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 Does this now allow us to convert a song that we downloaded from CONECT into a WAV file? To quote the SS3.4 online helpTracks purchased and downloaded from a music service site via the Internet cannot be saved in WAV format. So no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raintheory Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 (edited) Just thought I'd mention that I am testing some features at the moment:I transferred a CD to HiMD via Simpleburner in PCM format, which I am now transferring to a different computer via SonicStage 3.4I also did this on my RH10 with a couple mp3 files that also transferred to the other computer (directly as mp3) without a hitch.I used MarC's HiMD renderer to convert the PCM/OMA tracks to WAV and it worked fine...EDIT: Just checked and SonicStage itself will convert OpenMG(PCM) files (e.g. from SimpleBurner) to WAV by itself. I initially thought this wouldn't be supported. Edited February 2, 2006 by raintheory Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjacobs Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 SS 3.4 is definitely an improvement. Too bad they don't simply make all bitrates of all supported formats available as the default. For instance, I am an Old Time Radio (OTR) fan. OTR is low-fidelity, at best. The OTR files are .mp3 format, usually at 24 or 32 kbs, with an occassional 48 or 64 kbs file. From a sound quality viewpoint, there is no point in converting them to ATRAC at a higher bitrate, as the quality won't improve, and the file-size will increase significantly (a 24 kbs .mp3 file will double in size when converted to 48 kbs ATRAC 3+). I simply can't understand why Sony bothers to restrict bitrates the way they do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDGB2 Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 Does this version allow CD-MD transfer on the fly like simple burner?I'm probably the only person in the world that thinks having your hard drive clogged up with music you already have on a 'hard copy' (CD) is a pain in the @$$... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 Does this version allow CD-MD transfer on the fly like simple burner?I'm probably the only person in the world that thinks having your hard drive clogged up with music you already have on a 'hard copy' (CD) is a pain in the @$$... No it doesn't, but if that bothers you can't you just delete the album out of your library as soon as you have finished transferring? I think SS is a lot more flexible in terms of ripping and so the small extra step of manually deleting the album afterwards is a trade-off I'm happy to live with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asia Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 Does this version allow CD-MD transfer on the fly like simple burner?I'm probably the only person in the world that thinks having your hard drive clogged up with music you already have on a 'hard copy' (CD) is a pain in the @$$... Same here!!!!!!! =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yakkosmurf Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 Does this version allow CD-MD transfer on the fly like simple burner?I'm probably the only person in the world that thinks having your hard drive clogged up with music you already have on a 'hard copy' (CD) is a pain in the @$$... I agree with you. It's a pain in the ass. That's why I almost always use simple burner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
streaml1ne Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Directshow filter support and APE tag support are about the only things keeping this version of SS from being perfect. I'd like to not have to transcode flac and ape files to get them on my player(s). Other than that this is a pretty slick release. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guyj1 Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 SS 3.4 is definitely an improvement. Too bad they don't simply make all bitrates of all supported formats available as the default. For instance, I am an Old Time Radio (OTR) fan. OTR is low-fidelity, at best. The OTR files are .mp3 format, usually at 24 or 32 kbs, with an occassional 48 or 64 kbs file. From a sound quality viewpoint, there is no point in converting them to ATRAC at a higher bitrate, as the quality won't improve, and the file-size will increase significantly (a 24 kbs .mp3 file will double in size when converted to 48 kbs ATRAC 3+). I simply can't understand why Sony bothers to restrict bitrates the way they do.Most digital broadcast (dare I say podcasts) downloads are 22 khz or 32 khz files. As popular as these have become I expect Sony will have to make these supported in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Ellard Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Directshow filter support and APE tag support are about the only things keeping this version of SS from being perfect.Pardon me if I have misunderstood. But I opened an ATRAC file in Media Player Classic and it played the whole thing (no time limit). That is on a machine that has SS installed... I guess you mean an ATRAC player on any machine.It always seems so strange that you can drag and drop your MP3's and AAC files to a PlayStation Portable. But you can't drag and drop to a minidisc. I tried dragging an ATRAC file to a PSP and it didn't like it. You have to use Sonic Stage. SONY are so weird Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sinus Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Great things for future SSs would be (for me) ...- real SP mode uploading (as mentioned)- Atrac3plus VBR!- download from Std.-MD to computer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edelbright Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Hellofollowing question.Is it possible to export for example one mp3-radio track that last an hour to my hi-md and edit it?I have several tracks that last an hour an i would like to divide those tracks on my hi-md in order to export the seperated tracks back to my or someones elses computer again.In the past it wasnt possible to edit hi-md tracks which were trasfered by sonic stage.Cäsar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raintheory Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Hellofollowing question.Is it possible to export for example one mp3-radio track that last an hour to my hi-md and edit it?I have several tracks that last an hour an i would like to divide those tracks on my hi-md in order to export the seperated tracks back to my or someones elses computer again.In the past it wasnt possible to edit hi-md tracks which were trasfered by sonic stage.CäsarNope, unfortunately you still cannot edit tracks from PC... I for one would like to see that feature added at some point as well, there have been numerous times when that would have been extremely helpful for projets I was working on.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edelbright Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Nope, unfortunately you still cannot edit tracks from PC... I for one would like to see that feature added at some point as well, there have been numerous times when that would have been extremely helpful for projets I was working on.. Have you checked this out with a hi-md, that consisted only tracks which were exported with the new SoS 3.4 Software?Thanks in advance for the answer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Have you checked this out with a hi-md, that consisted only tracks which were exported with the new SoS 3.4 Software?Thanks in advance for the answer Actually it looks like you can edit the titles on the unit, just tried it for some 352 Atrac3+ tracks transferred with SS3.4, not the usual "Cannot Edit" message. Ironically you've always been able to do it for tracks transferred with Simple Burner.Haven't tried for MP3's or for adding trackmarks to USB transferred tracks though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edelbright Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Haven't tried for MP3's or for adding trackmarks to USB transferred tracks though.Please try to ad trackmarks to usb transferred tracks. But export those tracks with Sos 3.4 before because it wont work with tracks which were transferred with an older version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raintheory Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 (edited) Have you checked this out with a hi-md, that consisted only tracks which were exported with the new SoS 3.4 Software?Thanks in advance for the answerYes I tried this one again just now using an mp3 transferred to my RH10, as well as the same mp3 converted to 192kbps Atrac3+.When attempting to place a track mark in the track the mp3 stated "Cannot Edit", while the Atrac3+ track stated "Trk from PC no edit".You can however edit the titles of the tracks... But cannot split the tracks.EDIT: These were both transferred just now by SS3.4 Edited February 3, 2006 by raintheory Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts