Sony, you must use Windows Media Player or minidisc will die

[Guest Anonymous]

Open letter to the Sony MD team,

I'm new to the minidisc. I bought one mainly because it is a great portable RECORDER for a musician. I'm glad I didn't buy it as a PLAYER, because using NetMD and the software that comes with it (or realplayer for that matter) is a convoluted, confused, confounding mess. Minidisc is doomed as a player unless Sony does something very fast to solve this.

The average human will not, cannot use the system in its current state. I have been a gadget freak for 40 of my 53 years, and if NetMD frustrates me, then Sony has a big problem. For example, the marketing stuff says NetMD is compatible with Microsoft wma files. I have hundreds of them on my compurter off of CD's that I paid for. When I imported them into SonicStage I was feeling really good. Now all I have to do is transfer them to my MZ-N10. But the software won't let me do it. After digging through pages and searches I finally discover that the only wmas that I can "check out" are ones that I have downloaded from a music service on the Internet. In other words the music that I legitimately own can't be transfered from my computer in wma format. So Sony is asking me to buy music I already own or sit for hours and transfer all my CDs again into SonicStage or the extremely annoying RealOne player, which constantly pesters me with junk advertising.

With Windows Media Player, I simply import my CDs into the program, put my pocketPC into the cradle and transfer them with absolutely no hassle and without the check-in, check-out fiasco of NetMD. Sony, please call Microsoft now and cut a deal and do it the way Microsoft does it. All your competitors are there in the Media Player device list and they are going to run your minidisc business into the ground with their PocketPC and compact flash based mobile devices. That would be too bad because the sound quality of the minidisc is really great and I like Sony products.

Advocate

[AJUK]

No WMP is a pile of shit, good day to you!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mod Note] This is not an appropriate use of the "reply" feature.

Cursing inanely and short replies aren't appreciated.[/mod note]

[stownsley]

Yes .....

Microsoft is trying to convert the world to WMA and it's digital formats in preparation for DRM (Digital Right Management). If you think checking out is bad wait for MS to get it's formats ready.

DRM will mean that all your WMAs will come with digital certifcates that will say how many times you can transfer files and de-activate them automatically. It could mean that you had to "rent" a wma for so many days use. The horrors MS has got in store are much worse than OpenMG currently provides because Sony and MS are paranoia about piracy. They dont trust their customers. They think that by making it really diffciult for their legitimate cutomers to copy their personal files from MD to CD or IPOD that somehow this will stop piracy. Personally I think it will annoy legitimate users.

No to Windows Media Player and it's attempt to control us!

[Shorty]

stownsley's right. Microsoft's attempts to control your use of music through DRM are even more authoritarian than Sony's.

WMP may seem easier to use, but MS is unlikely to allow Sony to use its format (the ATRAC3 codec is the audio codec of the RealOne player) on its software, where it can compete with WMA.

Also, as has been stated before, WMP is bloated, intrusive, extremely difficult to remove and does absolutely nothing that isn't done better by any of the other media players on the market.

Sony's OpenMG Jukebox/SonicStage software may be second-rate at best, but it's better than the alternative (WMP).

[AJUK]

How about Sony YOu must use Winamp or MD will die

[PaulBennett]

Q & A

A Why not convert wma to mp3 with available software like dbAmp?

Q I have a R900 and am about to buy a new MD, are you saying I cannot use SonicS to transfer my existing CD's and mp3 without getting a licence?

Incidently, I will not have MusicMatch, Quicktime, or RealAudio on my computer because they want to take over. I'm quite happy with MS MediaP and use it to loac my R900. Only need to load song text.

[tmeg]

You could try to burn the music from WMP with the Nero Plugin for WMP to a image file and load it with Nero Imagedrive, then you use SimpleBurner to transfer the music. This way you also do not have track protection and everything should run fine. Of course it is much more hastle to do this than one might expect and so you are right that Sony makes something wrong.

Another possibility for CDs you buy is to listen to it one time and in the mean time record it directly to the MD with optical cable. I like to do that, too, because it gives best quality and I think its quite OK to listen to the music I buy at least one time :wink: so its no time or speed problem to do this.

MD was developed without Computer in mind and the current NetMD just needs to be improved. Or I need a faster computer, perhaps the experience is then much better. I do not know...

[Guest Anonymous]

have you tried using real player 10. its much improved from real one 2, no more nag ware!!!

seriously, files on my comp. mp3, blah blah, and have only used sonic stage once, and found out its sucks, but you can use real player to transfer those wma files i believe.

but sony does still need to fix le evil software that is sonicstage.

p.s. WMP IS SPYWARE, not a player as many have been mislead to belive, use realplayer (granted realplayer is only recient not complete spyware, but still much less so than WMP).

http://www.spywareinfo.com/newsletter/arch...rch-2003/10.php

hope this helps

[Guest NRen2k5]

Advocate: You're none too bright to be using WMA in the first place.

Paul: in terms of quality, WMA is bad enough.

WMA->ATRAC3 would be absolutely lousy.

WMA->MP3->ATRAC3 would be a train wreck.

Bad idea.

My suggestion for processing WMA files is simple enough - DELETE THEM.

[alieninhead]

I don't like WMP because it's clunky and huge. I use Music Match, which I have used a lot of my digital music life, and since it's the only mainstream ripper that uses MP3 natively, I champion it. No matter how many people complain the MP3 encoder used sucks.

WMA is just another confusing thing to lock people into, and other people out of. If Sony wants to make MD awesome, why not simply give MD drivers, file system info, and what not and make the discs mountable under any file browser.

If it used FAT (which I understand it can't, because it uses ATRAC..etc) for example I could drag and drop the directories or songs I wanted into a window and Sony software in the background could process the command to encode into whatever quality ATRAC level I wanted.

Oh, and yes, QT, MusicMatch, RealPlayer, etc, may all "try to take over windows" but they only do what you tell them to--watch out how you install programs and visit the Ad/Remove programs menu to set default program usage. Remember, Windows Media Player took over Windows around 1995....

~a.i.h.

[[StrangeByte]]

stownsley's right. Microsoft's attempts to control your use of music through DRM are even more authoritarian than Sony's.

I wouldn't say this... sony drm offers the same possibilities as windows media. furthermore, sony has a music label...

micro$oft will do everything for money. Just that m$'s drm isn't as "obvious" as sony's. at least today.

WMA is just another confusing thing to lock people into, and other people out of. If Sony wants to make MD awesome, why not simply give MD drivers, file system info, and what not and make the discs mountable under any file browser.

HiMD-Units are mounted as "mass storage devices" under windows. You can drag and drop data. But not music.

If it used FAT (which I understand it can't, because it uses ATRAC..etc)

....

HiMD uses FAT. Even for the music (encoded as atrac). You can't compare atrac and fat, because atrac (in case of HiMD) is one "level" higher. ATRAC "sits" on FAT.

...

for example I could drag and drop the directories or songs I wanted into a window and Sony software in the background could process the command to encode into whatever quality ATRAC level I wanted.

would be nice that way... possibility exists. But i think sony just doesn't want to make it easy to use mp3 in conjunction with md :whatever: [this is a personal believe]

How about Sony YOu must use Winamp or MD will die

:grin: :grin: :grin:

Yeah, would be nice. BUT: How about Sony you must use an open plug-in system for any app or md will die? :cool: