Sony NW Winamp plugin

[nickzeff]

If you've been following the progress of GYM like I have, you may be interested in the following thread over on the Winamp forums.

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=231785

Cheers

N

[xispe]

Great! someone is actually using GYM code, and following my work! Good news!

[nickzeff]

Xispe - I can't seem to find that thread you started showing details of how the device ENCODES mp3s.

I remember some user contacted you - he had cracked the algorithm used.

Where did that go? Can you republish the information here?

[Auke]

First release is out:

Info:

Ok here is a release...

I did not find the time to solve the last problem (number of frame)

So this version can :

grab files from the device, (key wizard necessary)

Play files from the device (atrac pluggin needed)

remove files from the device,

Sending files is NOT ready yet so if you try you will get a not playable track on your device. Still the naming and album list/track list should be correct.

Installation :

Copy the file in the your winamp plugin directory.

If you have a protected device (not a NAW1000 player) you will need to use GYM's key wizard and copy the decodeTable.dat at the root of your device. Also you will need the ATRAC plugin for winamp to play files directly from the player.

If you have the NAW1000 (maybe the 3000 also work?) you don't need any key generator and you don't need the ATRAC plugin!

Warning:

If you press the Apply button the database on your device will be overwritten!

Edit : I am having problem commiting the source code on source forge, my password gets rejected I don't know why.

I will post the source ASAP.

[Guest Stuge]

Brilliant work!!

[MDX-400]

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=231785

This isn't particularly related to this plugin itself but it's always interesting seeing the ignorance of some people... Just looking at that thread above, look a few responses down and you see this:

Due to the nature of Sony products, formats and protections involved you are limited to using the Sonic Stage software that comes with the program. ATRAC3 is a really protected format by Sony. The best recommendation is to actually avoid Sony products.

Uh, right. Stay away from Sony products because they use ATRAC3 and it is a really protected format by Sony. Right, will do.

Nevermind that (if I'm not mistaken) Sony actually makes it easier to put MP3s on their devices (with MP3FM) than do many manufacturers. You aren't exactly limited to SS. Plus the majority of ppl using iPods use iTunes for example, it isn't like there isn't proprietary software for other manufacturers' players. Using ATRAC3/3plus is optional and SonicStage is not that bad either.

But it's definitely interesting to see that people don't have a clue about Sony DAPs but talk about them and tell people to avoid them anyway!

Well that's OT anyway...

Getting back on topic, I'm not really a WinAmp fan myself, but I was just wondering if this allows you to play ATRAC3/3plus files and see the tags as well (Artist/Track Name/etc.)? Or does it just play ATRAC3/3plus without tagging info (as you can do with WMP)?

[Ascariss]

Good news and bad news. Good news is, some tracks can be downloaded no problem, and hte program has yet to crash on me. But some tracks it says can't be downloaded for some odd reason. not sure why.

almost like it is random which can be grabbed and which can't be grabbed.

I can play any file off the device in winamp no problems.

[otiasj]

But it's definitely interesting to see that people don't have a clue about Sony DAPs but talk about them and tell people to avoid them anyway!

The fact is right now only sony's player are not supported on winamp...

Plugins for ipod, iriver, creative and all 'sure play' device are available.

Another fact is that connect player is really bad. Sony actually advices customers not to use connect player but to use sonicstage instead until it is fixed. (that was almost 4 months ago)

SonicStage is good if you only want to transfer files to your device. But it is just billions of years from winamp or foobar. There is so many free plugins for winamp and foobar that you can do anything you want with them...

Last fact is : I am NOT a sony fan, but I received 2 sony players for chrismas

This is why I decided to code a plugin for winamp, to use my players without sony's software.

If I had had the choice I would not have choosen sony in the first place.

So I am definetly not advising sony's player to anyone...

I am a developper and I see how much trouble I got with those product. I just can't imagine my father with is small athlon 600 use sonic stage or connect player (can you believe that CP is slow on a p4 3.00ghz with 2g of ram?)

Getting back on topic, I'm not really a WinAmp fan myself, but I was just wondering if this allows you to play ATRAC3/3plus files and see the tags as well (Artist/Track Name/etc.)? Or does it just play ATRAC3/3plus without tagging info (as you can do with WMP)?

The plugin is to be used with network walkman compatible with mp3.

It will allow copy, play (with tags), and download mp3 files from the device.

Finally,

Thank you to everyone of you who sent "thank you" mails to me

it is very rewarding,

Let's hope we will all be able to use our players very soon

[xispe]

You have my full support otiasj.

Hope you find the information I sent you useful.

I will try your plugin now

[otiasj]

Yes very usefull, thank you

So I implemented the DvId.dat reader

So now you have 3 choices to grab your files:

1) you use MP3FM/DvId.dat

2) you use GYM/decodeKeys.dat

3) you have a NAW1000 series walkman and you don't need anything

The question now is : do all players support MP3 file manager?

if so we don't need to generate the keys anymore!

Small update on the plugin:

Yesterday I succesfully played a few tracks I transfered from winamp!

Turns out it was not the number of frame that was wrong but the encoding of the bit rate.

it worked on only my NWE505 not on the NAW1000 but I am confident it will work soon

[Ascariss]

As far as I know the new A series, at least the HDD units are not supported by mp3 file manager.

One problem I foresee is that the tracks I can't download off the A1000 might cause tracks not being imported.

[MDX-400]

As far as I know the new A series, at least the HDD units are not supported by mp3 file manager.

One problem I foresee is that the tracks I can't download off the A1000 might cause tracks not being imported.

Really? The A-series HDDs can't use MP3FM???

I never knew that. I'm guessing it is just because MP3FM hasn't been updated in a while?

[Ascariss]

I tried it a while ago and couldn't get the program to id the unit, so maybe that was for me, no hurting in trying though if someone else wants to try it.

[otiasj]

Yeah I tried MP3FM for my NAW1000 but it was not supported yet.

But since NAW1000 are not protected It's ok we don't need the DvId.dat file or the decodekey.dat

Update on the plugin :

plugin paired with NWE505 is almost useable!

I transfered 23 files of various bitrate from winamp

and I could play 17 of them from the player.

the one I could not play are probably using variable bit rate.

And I have a bug with the display of the track time.

However none worked with my NAW1000 :-( I am still missing something for this one...

New version should be available this week end

[Ascariss]

Looking forwards to it, great work,

will try this with my A3000 tomorrow.

[nickzeff]

Can't wait to see if I can get this working with my NW-HD5!

Cheers

N

[otiasj]

Hello everyone,

Update on the plugin :

Yesterday I played my first track on my NAW1000!

Apparently there is only 1 byte to set to say to the player if the data was encoded or not.

I also solved some problems about the bit rate and the encoding type on the NWE505.

So next release should be usable!

[Ascariss]

That's great new otiasj, very encouraging. Looking forward to the new release, any chance you had a look at that file i sent you, any idea why it won't download?

[f1rick]

Thanks for the hard work, this will be great! . Will you be adding support for the latest winamps portable device sync?

[otiasj]

Hello everyone!

This is official we are now on alpha!

The plugin can be used to :

transfer songs pc -> device

transfer songs device -> pc

play tracks from the device in winamp (ATRAC plugin might be needed)

multiple device can be plugged at the same time

What is not working :

- files using Variable Bit Rate (vbr)

- progress bar is bugged

- probably a lot of others things...

This is an alpha version so this will probably overwrite the content of your database and mess it up

So I advice to backup your data so that you can test without bitching

Here is what you need to do :

-plugin your device

-rename your directory "OMGAUDIO" to something else like "OMGAUDIO2"

-Create a new directory "OMGAUDIO"

-Create a file named "04CNTINF.DAT" in this directory

-If you have a NWA1000 or any player that is not protected (NWA3000? If someone could confirm this please) create a file named "nocode.txt" (still in the OMGAUDIO directory)

-If you have a protected player make sure you have one of the following :

*MP3FM correctly installed with a MP3FM/DvId.dat file

*the decodeKey.dat from the keywizard in the directory GYM

(!It makes more sense to keep it in the GYM directory so I changed it back!)

-Copy ml_sony.dll in your plugin directory

-run winamp

-Go to your music library, select what you want, right click->sendto, choose your sony device.

-go to your device you should see the files you added with a "+" in front of them.

-finally click apply, and the songs will be added to your walkman!

-by selecting a file and pressing the delete key you can remove songs from your device. (you need to apply)

see configuration for the meaning of the symbols

Enjoy!

That's great new otiasj, very encouraging. Looking forward to the new release, any chance you had a look at that file i sent you, any idea why it won't download?

I think I fixed the problem but I am not 100% sure because I had no problem downloading it...

Please try again with the new version and tell me if it works

[f1rick]

This is great! Working for me on my HD5H. Uploading and downloading :-D.

One issue was that I couldn't playback in winamp any MP3s located on the Walkman? I also see some random characters in the column that shows what has been modified when just browsing my HD5s library.

Thanks for the hard work!

Edited April 18, 2006 by f1rick

[bergmarmot]

Hi. I just installed the WinAmp plugin and it first scruwed up my artist list on my NW-HD5. So now I deleted all my songs from my Network Walkman and now I use WinAmp to copy new songs to the player. By doing this I miss two options that would be more than nice (at least one of them )

1. Available Discspace (Also if new files are planned to be transferred ( labeled with + ) So how many GB's are free after the update. This would be very helpfull if disc is almost full. Then you know how much you still can transfer or how many files you have to delete to be able to transfer the new files.

2. Progess of the to be copied file(s) % and time. Then you know if you can watch a movie meanwhile

I also want to take this opportunity to thank you for putting all your time and efforts into this fantastic tool. Sony should be deeply shamed by not offering a good peace of software themselves!!

Keep on going this fantastic work!!

[bergmarmot]

o and uh another 2 wishes .....

1 .Could you add the playlist functionality like in GYM.That would be great

2. Add "Genre" as a selection list like in iTunes and GYM. Then you easily can select all files from the same genre.

Cheers!

[bergmarmot]

me again.

WinAmp finished transferring all the files to the Network Walkman. Unfortunately this is not working fine on my device.

Problems:

- Only 2 Artists in the Artist List !!!

- All albums (Eccept 1 album) were assigned to 1 artist

- Album list is not sorted!! Random order

Conclusion: Yes it does transfer the files but the tool is not able to manage the database on the NW-HD5 properly.

-

[otiasj]

Hello,

Thanks for the support and the comments,

I added a new version last night on the source forge download section

It should fix the problems about the artist list not showing properly

Or did you already use this version? :-(

Please give it a try and tell me how it works for you,

Playlist should be easy, I will add it when I have some time

Remaining space Is high on my priority list,

(For the progress of transfert of the song I was planning on having a progress bar,

but it doesn't work for some reason so I will just add a display percentage)

Genre list in winamp is a bit more tricky and I am not sure I will work on this

because the main goal is to develope a library that will be used by the portable plugin,

Gui interactions requests should be asked to the person in charge of the portable plugin ^-^

but still, if I have some time I will add it, cause it is indeed more easy to use :-)

[otiasj]

I have created a new thread outside of GYM forum:

http://www.atraclife.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1528

please from now on, do not use this page.

[bergmarmot]

Concerning the playlist, that is great news!! As far as I rememeber I used the newest plugin. I will give it another try.

Thanks for the link and I will continue from there ....