riddle me this; when is 8GBs not 8GBs?

[fugusushi]

i picked up an 808 8GB last week - i was using an A1000 6GB.

with all my playlists on the A1000, i had 1.1GBs of free space remaining. But, when i tried to transfer exactly the same playlists on to the 808 with 8GBs, i ran out of space with 3 playlists to go!!

can anyone explain what's going on here?

Also, when i realised the situation, i deleted a large playlist from the player (from within SS when the player was connected) and whilst the playlist appeared deleted, and is not visibly available on the player anymore, the deletion did not in fact free up any space - it's as if it's still there!

any feedback on these two issues would be much appreciated...

BTW, apart from these issues, plus EXTREMELY slow transfer speeds, the 808 is by far the best player in terms of playback quality - crystal clear! - that's i've personally come across...

Edited August 18, 2007 by fugusushi

[juli_]

Also, when i realised the situation, i deleted a large playlist from the player (from within SS when the player was connected) and whilst the playlist appeared deleted, and is not visibly available on the player anymore, the deletion did not in fact free up any space - it's as if it's still there!

I think the 808 has an actual 7.5GB usable capacity. When you deleted the playlist, the music files weren't deleted - only the 'virtual' playlist. Other people have mentioned the same thing, but when you make a playlist, it's doesn't duplicate the files, it simply creates a list. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but the reason no space is freed up when deleting the playlist, is because no space was taken in the first place? Try making a large playlist and note the capacity remaining on the player - then transfer the playlist to the player, and you will see no extra space has been taken.

[fugusushi]

juli - in the end i had about 120meg left and did add a little something to that and saw the available go down - but i'll try adding a large playlist and see if it'll take it though...

yes, i noticed the 7.5 'usable cap.' - the 1200 showed '5.5' - but you get my point, either way if i start with 6 and have 1 left, if i start with 8 i should have 3 left

thanks for the feedback...

[juli_]

yes, i noticed the 7.5 'usable cap.' - the 1200 showed '5.5' - but you get my point, either way if i start with 6 and have 1 left, if i start with 8 i should have 3 left

Yes, I see what you're getting at. OK, so here's my next suggestion - gurus, where are you?? So all you did was transfer everything from the A1200 back to SS and then on to the 808? Nothing extra got transferred from the existing library? If not, a gremlin must has stolen your space, it makes no mathematical sense at all.

[pata2001]

*Edit

Wrong answer for not reading the question.

[chitownlost]

Question? Are your files encoded to AAL plus a lossy bit rate. And is Sonicstage set to transfer as-is. The the answer would be that on the A808 Atraclossless are being transfer and on the A1000 lossy are being transfered. Just a thought as to why the A1000 would hold the playlist files and the A800 would run out of capacity transfering the same number of files.

[fugusushi]

i import everything as WAV files and transfer 'as is'. Transfer setting were not changed between units.

[navsimpson]

Then maybe the 808 transfers WAV's as AAL files rather than ATRAC3plus? That would explain the space discrepancy at least.

-Nav

[fugusushi]

Then maybe the 808 transfers WAV's as AAL files rather than ATRAC3plus? That would explain the space discrepancy at least.

-Nav

i don't follow you - i thought WAV files were the largest files given they are uncompressed. So if SS is starting with uncompressed files - larger than any others - even if it does convert them to someth. else to put on to the 808 - can this really account for over 3GBs of extra space??!! in fact you're suggesting that SS makes the files considerably bigger to transfer them...

[pata2001]

LOL I sound like a dork for not reading.

As far as I know, the both the A1000 and A808 don't support WAV, so when you transfer the WAV files, I presume Sonicstage is compressing them to Atrac. Check the file format in the player to see what bitrate they are.

[fugusushi]

As far as I know, the both the A1000 and A808 don't support WAV, so when you transfer the WAV files, I presume Sonicstage is compressing them to Atrac. Check the file format in the player to see what bitrate they are.

Interesting - you're spot on! Both players say tracks are ATRAC 352kbps'secured'.

This throws up further questions, but sticking with the one at hand, I still don't see why, if both players are in fact converting WAV files to ATRAC at the same bit rate, why the A1000 takes around 5GBs to store all my music, and the A808 doesn't have enought space with 8GBs?!

[chitownlost]

I'm not sure that the A1000 support Atraclossless but the A808 does so if this is true then the A1000 is transfering and converting to lossy and the A808 is transfer the loss less file which would account for the size difference and I'm assuming that both players are reporting the same conversion rate. First, when transfering files is Sonicstage converting the files first and the transfering, If not the an previous converted file is being transfered. Quick check in sonicstage select the option to not delete optimized files. Import a file to one of the players. Find where sonicstage maintians optimized files (most likely under Document/Settings -> All Users -> Sonicstage -> Packages -> Optimized. Not to file size, now in Sonicstage select the option to delete optimized files this will remove this file so that when it is transfered again a new optimized file will be created. Not transfer the same file to the other player and check the optimized directory again. Are the files the same size? If not one file is being converted to AAL and the other to lossy.