NW-S706FP + UNICODE

[sylikc]

Hi all, I've read quite a few threads here about problems with UNICODE either on the NW-S70x series players or with SonicStage and stuff, and I just wanted to share my experiences. I've seen several threads talk about using the China or JP version to get unicode working, but it seems like I didn't have to.

As drmoze pointed out in another thread. Buy.com is selling the NW-S706FP at $95 in the US.

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=...&adid=17662

I've been waiting to get this player for awhile, was even willing to pay the extra cost of getting someone from Canada to ship me the 4GB version, so when I saw it at $95.... even in pink, it's a steal!!!

Anyway, as expected it is the UK version with UK warranty and stuff. Funny that I can't find the NW-S706FP sold on SonyStyle UK anymore. Well I went ahead and downloaded SonicStage CP 4.3 . I mean, the gripes about having to use another music manager doesn't bother me as much, since that's all I'm going to be using SonicStage for is loading music, not organizing my collection. (Come to think of it, I still have to figure out an organization strategy )

So, UK site to download latest version: http://www.sonydigital-link.com/DNA/WM/NWF...F&m=NW-S70X

Download the Installer, let it do it's magic, reboot.

• SonicStage CP does not support Unicode filenames. If you try to import music with Unicode filenames, you'll get a bunch of errors.
• NW-S706F supports UNICODE on-player. If your MP3s have Unicode in the ID3v2 tags, they will display on the player. I've tested this with both Chinese Traditional and Japanese. I don't see any blocks at all. All the ASCII characters used I can see too. I'm not adventurous enough to try control characters
• Come to mention it, MP3-VBR is displayed if you have VBR MP3s, I've tested that too

So, the UK version with full support on player. Btw, in SonicStage you won't see any useful information since it doesn't support UNICODE. But it seems to pass the tags straight thru to the player. I'm not sure if this will be true with all NW-S70x's but the Buy.com one I bought with version 1.00 [shown in information] works.

Anyway, I can post pictures later if anyone wants, but just FYI. (If this happened to be duplicate info, thanks for reading thru my blabber ) Before buying this player, I was almost sure the player didn't support any UNICODE display. I must say I'm pleasantly surprised.

/sylikc

[pata2001]

Most current Sony players can display kanji just fine. Even my old E99 can display kanji and Korean just fine. The problem has always been Sonicstage.

[Zizone_]

Hardware can support most languages, it is the software which is a problem. If you use Connect Player, which seems to be unicode, then you will have no problem in displaying, e.g., Kanji. But then the CP is pretty buggy.

[metal]

CP supports unicode but I think it only works with A3000, A1000 & A608 series (maybe A1200 as well).

Edited July 15, 2007 by metal

[Shinji Ikeda]

It seems that Sony branded Network Walkmans and MiniDisc Walkmans do support some form of Unicode. What is known for sure is that using Apploc it is possible to title in Chinese, Korean and Japanese with SonicStage. I am unaware if other languages are supports, but it can be suspected that it is possible since Apploc provides the support for Unicode.

Unicode is not universally accepted as some may believe. The support of Unicode is sporadic in Japan for various reasons. Unicode is also criticized for failing to allow for older and alternate forms of Kanji, this complicates the processing of ancient Japanese and uncommon Japanese names. For the average user Unicode is good enough. Some of the problem related to supporting multiple languages exist with other systems, however clever developers have designed work arounds.

For complete support of a language the computer needs to be configured to in target language. The reason for this is that file structure naming convention is different between languages. On a Japanese Windows directory structures uses the yen symbol, while English versions of Windows uses slash. In other words, to get correct support for Japanese the computer needs to be a full version of Japanese Windows. The user does not lose the full support of English, since Romaji is part of the Japanese character set.

The character order in Japanese and English are different. Thus, even if SonicStage had full Unicode support, functionality will still be restricted. Most English users will notice that all non-English tracks will occur after the last English track. Additionally, these tracks are not in correct order. This problem persists when transferring track to the ATRAC Audio. On the Japanese version of SonicStage tracks are order in the correct Kana order and it uses Haragana to index the tracks. Additonally, full support of Japanese on the ATRAC Audio device exist. Finally, the support of Non-English languages on Sony devices are more comprehensive that others media device, including the most popular one.

The Japaneses character of island しま　"島" and　"嶋" are supported by Unicode. However there are 7 Kanjis, all correct and technically identical, which seem to be missing.

The issue is more complex that the support of Unicode in SonicStage. The problem relates to how to provide correct multi-lingual support, among some other issues.