Audio files cannot be transferred from one partition to another! Fundamental problem.

[wolb1]

Hi all,
it is absolutely unsatisfactory what happens when I transfer music files from one partition to another on the same computer. I have made a backup of all stuff on an external drive. Then restored all files to another external drive. Then started SS on another partition with a different Windows System as this poorly designed software is not running under Win 10 (!!!).

From that external drive, I imported some oma files into the SS on the other partition.

Now it says it cannot retrieve the licensing information.

 

Furthermore, all files had been imported from my Hi-md Walkman without any software protection or property violence!!!

IMHO, no type of software is allowed to depend in such important way on the operating system or the hardware of a computer where it is running! The well designed software has to be absolutely platform independent!!!

IMHO Sony software is lacking a system that stores all audio files in one place, maybe with password, and the user can access this from everywhere he wants. The current method of digital rights protection is absolutely crap, in my humble opinion.

[sfbp]

To be fair, Apple does (or at very least, did) approximately the same thing with iTunes.

We've been pointing out to people for a very long time that they need to run the File Conversion Tool (after uploading from MD to PC) on a regular basis to avoid this. The design of the Sonic Stage software is such that the database does not know when you manually move files around. The best workaround for moving files because a partition gets too small is to make a directory (folder) on another drive pointed to by a <JUNCTION> or symbolic link from the original site. Having said that, Sony does provide a way of moving the library, you probably didn't notice it - and it can only really be done one music file at a time (sigh).

The backup and restore do need to be run whilst connected to the internet, as the keys for the music (only really important as long as Sony was trying to run Connect Store as a competitor to iTunes) must be derived from master keys on their server. But they work.

At least VLC and ffmpeg will play most of your files - be happy about that. You can use a DLNA server to store the files and play them back by streaming where ffmpeg is on the back end and provides a stream that can be understood by all your devices.

We feel your pain!

[wolb1]

16 hours ago, sfbp said:

To be fair, Apple does (or at very least, did) approximately the same thing with iTunes.

We've been pointing out to people for a very long time that they need to run the File Conversion Tool (after uploading from MD to PC) on a regular basis to avoid this. The design of the Sonic Stage software is such that the database does not know when you manually move files around. The best workaround for moving files because a partition gets too small is to make a directory (folder) on another drive pointed to by a <JUNCTION> or symbolic link from the original site. Having said that, Sony does provide a way of moving the library, you probably didn't notice it - and it can only really be done one music file at a time (sigh).

The backup and restore do need to be run whilst connected to the internet, as the keys for the music (only really important as long as Sony was trying to run Connect Store as a competitor to iTunes) must be derived from master keys on their server. But they work.

At least VLC and ffmpeg will play most of your files - be happy about that. You can use a DLNA server to store the files and play them back by streaming where ffmpeg is on the back end and provides a stream that can be understood by all your devices.

We feel your pain!

Dear Stephen,

thank you for your kind reply.

Yes, VLC can play them. Is it possible to run conversion with that from oma to wav or mp3 for a number of files in one operation? Is there any other program that can do so? What is DLNA?

Does anybody know, what System files are checked by the OpenMG (to open the "Magic Gate"), so that I can restore these system files from my backups and simulate the original System to this stupid Sony software?

Yours sincerely,
Wolfgang

 

 

[sfbp]

Unfortunately it is more complicated than your simple picture will allow, Wolfgang. Certainly the VLC can be used to convert them all, and it is quite well suited to batch operation since it has a command line interface, which you will have to learn to use.

However, you may be happy with a DLNA server - there are many on the market, look it up in Wikipedia and get one that is supported. DLNA servers mostly use ffmpeg on the back end so your files will be playable thanks to the support in there for Atrac3 and Atrac3+ (no support for AAL, sadly).

Another possibility is M-Crew Server 2.5 from Sony, but it is very slow and clunky, to be honest. They originated the DLNA idea but never made a really fast implementation.

If you really want to get your files back, the Restore procedure should work, but note you must be online for it to work. And the Sony Server has to be online at that time. Usually it is, but if not you may have to wait a day or three until it comes back.

Sonic Stage works under W10, according to reports. You should only install the version from our site if you want to avoid problems. Even then, the 64-bit install for NetMD is not built in... but SS itself should work.

If you can reproduce (resurrect) your Windows XP system (or whatever was working before), then you can run the File Conversion Tool and be rid of the wretched encryption (I agree, they got carried away protecting things!) for ever. At that point, your files ARE copy-able.

Good luck with whatever path you decide to use. We'll be here to help

Stephen

[wolb1]

Dear Stephen,

thanks for your reply!

Under Win10 I had the following problems (that is where my trouble began):

1) The option to create a CD was totally missing.

2) After installing the new "Ultimate" SS, only runtime errors came up. It did not run at all.

So, maybe I made something wrong with my installation. The system file check, however, did not show any error, only one unimportant file was pointed out.

Wolfgang

 

[sfbp]

I am assuming you are using 64-bit Windows.

Turn off DEP.
Disable protection against unsigned drivers

Get rid of all netMD drivers following the description in the post here

 

Go through and delete ALL oem<nn>.inf files that have "Sony Net MD" in them (They are text files) from C:\Windows\inf

Reboot

Install SS Ultimate over the top (don't bother trying to uninstall anything)

[wolb1]

Dear Steve,

thanks for your help. I will check whether I downloaded the correct file.

Meanwhile Sony told me the following:

<<<<

Unfortunately SonicStage is not available anymore and therefor not being supported by us any longer. That's why it is incompatible with Windows10 and will not be updated in future. We're very sorry to disappoint you.

Please feel free to contact us, if you should need further assistance.

>>>>

So, what does this mean??? Sony software must be updated by anybody who is not member of this stupid company? If Microsoft will stop support for an old System version, there would be a successor that does replace and improve this obsolete version. What is the successor software for SonicStage?

Or the user should throw away any Sony software and also any Sony hardware too??? I am frustrated, that is very bad Corporate Identity.
 

[sfbp]

Getting mad at them won't change them... too big a target. We've done what we can, and the end result was the VLC/ffmpeg workaround (AAL doesn't play, but it was never encrypted and will work with Sonic Stage perfectly).

Whether their ATRAC-->MP3 program actually works on non-decrypted files or whether it requires them to be playable via the encryption keys that you don't have, I don't know. I would suspect the latter.

Microsoft stopped supporting software XP (which was about the same age as Sonic Stage) a couple of years ago. C'est la vie. There are 55,000+ people running the latest version of SonicStage (unless you read Japanese, and even then X-Application doesn't support MD properly - Avrin took a bunch of the X-App DLLs and packaged them into the Ultimate, meaning "last" hahah version of SS).

Sonic Stage and MD protection wasn't an issue except that they probably used the same encryption scheme for all their other products too, and also the fact that they have a significant investment in the Music Business (recordings of professionals so the rights have to be protected or they get sued by THOSE guys) and film industry means they'll never hand us the toy store. Apple didn't.