Help with SonicStage and Chinese Characters

[hyolee]

Hello, I am on Windows XP Pro SP2 with the latest updates. I am running the latest version of SonicStage also. I am trying to import some songs which has chinese characters and they won't work, it won't go into my library and therefore, cannot transfer to MD player Is there a way for it to recognize chinese characters? i have eastern asian language pack installed with windows xp.

thanks.

[hyolee]

anyone?

[aeriyn]

Is it the English version of SonicStage?

If it is, I doubt it will work.

[hyolee]

ya, it's english, i got it from www.connect.com , would anyone happen to have a different version where it will work?

[hyolee]

anyone? sorry hehe i'm sorta in a hurry as i have to go on vacation tomorrow, so i wanna upload these songs sorry if i am starting to get annoying

[aeriyn]

The Japanese version of SonicStage allows the input of Kanji and Kana characters.

Why not just put them in romaji?

[hyolee]

romaji? what's that? and where can i get the japanese version of sonicstage?

[aeriyn]

romaji? what's that? and where can i get the japanese version of sonicstage?

Dunno where you can get JP SonicStage.

Romaji is Japanese/Chinese words written in Roman (english) characters.

[hyolee]

ah okay, and can you show me how to enable asian languages on the computer? i think that might be why...

[aeriyn]

ah okay, and can you show me how to enable asian languages on the computer? i think that might be why...

Actually... I don't know how to manually do it.

Windows XP did it for me automatically.

[hyolee]

oo i c.... so you can upload songs with chinese characters into sonicstage?

[fongio]

Hello, I am on Windows XP Pro SP2 with the latest updates. I am running the latest version of SonicStage also. I am trying to import some songs which has chinese characters and they won't work, it won't go into my library and therefore, cannot transfer to MD player Is there a way for it to recognize chinese characters? i have eastern asian language pack installed with windows xp.

thanks.

←

hyolee

I'm having the same problem as you with trying to get SonicStage to display chinese...

I've tried everything but still can't do it. The Gracenote returns infor in Chinese but SonicStage won't disply it.

Hope you find the answers.

Fongy

[kiryen]

Hmm... I think I'll type up the instructions for getting the JP version of SS to work on an English machine again, since I forgot some things last time I typed them up.

Before you start...

N.B. The Kanji support in SonicStage is limited to those characters which are present in Japanese, hence, not all Chinese characters will be supported. There's also a possibility that if you have song data in Chinese encoding, that they will not translate properly into SS, since it is based on Japanese encoding. There's a chance that despite following all the steps below, you still won't get your song data to display correctly. So that's that. If that doesn't faze you...

Make sure you have the following:

Working knowledge of kana/kanji/Chinese (so you know what you're doing, and how to use SS once you install it)

WinRAR (or compression software of some sort which allows you to extract setup files)

Support for Asian languages in WinXP installed (check in Control Panel>Regional Settings)

1. Download AppLocale from Microsoft and install it (link here). (And WinRAR as well if you don't have it.)

2. Download SS from mora.jp, or the link here. (this includes the mora store, but you can just ignore it)

3. Extract the contents of the SS Installer file to a folder. (Right-click the file and you should have an option which says something to the effect of "Extract to SonicStageInstaller\"

4. Change the following line in SetupSS.ini:

from - supportoslang = Japanese

to - supportoslang = English

5. Run AppLocale, choose Launch an application, browse to the folder where you extracted the SS Installer file and select SetupSS.exe.

6. Set the language of the application to Japanese (日本語).

7. Click through all of the menus and it should install correctly.

8. Run AppLocale again, and this time select Omgjbox.exe in the install folder (default: C:\Program Files\Sony\SonicStage\), this time, create a shortcut so that you don't have to fire up AppLocale everytime you want to use SS.

9. Import your files and cross your fingers, if everything works, then you'll have your Chinese/Kanji song data, if not... then you'll likely have to enter everything again using the Japanese IME (or you can try copying and pasting).

That's that. For a more verbose set of instructions, check my message history, I only have a couple, and my first post is the one you're looking for.

[vivaice]

i don't quite understand this....y doesn't it work?

first of all, i clicked on the east asian language thing under the regional settings and then i tried to install SS, but everytime it says that it cannot install becuase of my window language (right now i'm using eng WinXP pro with sp2).

Second, u said on your last post that i have to extract the ss installer with winrar, but how come when i d/l it it is alrealy in .exe file not an winrar file?

i'm i missing something or did i do something wrong?

[willykyu]

Hi Guys!

Wow, it's still a BIG problem to manage with asian caracters and sonicstage!!!

Well, I have also an annoying problem.

Thanx VERY MUCH for applocale, a wonderful little program. I'm using the 3.1 sonicstage asia pacific-version, and with applocale, every jap tracks are fully and beautifuly displayed in japanese, without changing my regional settings (I don't like changing it, as my OS is in French, Outlook Express and other programs change the lettres into Kanji... I have to reboot everytime I want use Outlook etc.)! YAHOO! Nothing crashes, Sonictstage is in English, etc. It's really cool.....BUT!!!!!

I transfered some japanese songs on my NH1. I have the RM-MC40ELK remote wich displays kana and kanji (it worked when I used the 2.3 japanese version of Sonicstage changing my regional settings), and I was VERY disappointed: no Kana, no Kanji on the remote, but strange signs and lettres!!! No question marks, but signs and letters!!

I tried to change my regional settings into Japanese to see if it worked better. It was the same. I also tried with my jap psp, and it worked just fine: kanji and kana are displayed! Why not on my NH1??? as it used to work!

COuld someone help me with this?? THANX A LOT!

(hope someday sony will understand that people listen other music than the ones of their country, and make a program wich can manage all languages!!! Vaio Zone displays Kanji without any problems. Why not Sonicstage???)

[OCedHrt]

I have played around with the Japanese 3.0 (might've been 3.1?) SS and couldn't get it to work right under English XP w/ non-unicode set to Japanese. I would still get a lot of ??? for the menu's and Japanese wasn't displayed everywhere. Some places worked, but not all.

willykyu: SS probably calls another application to handle the transfer from PC->MD. This application is probably being called with your OS locale, and not the one set by AppLoc on SS. So you're getting a unicode->shift-jis on SS's end and it is feeding into the helper app that is doing the transfer shift-jis. Windows tries to send this shift-jis to the helper app and decodes it from french->unicode (it doesn't know it's shift-jis) and passes it to the app. That's my guess

[Ishiyoshi]

Hi Guys!

Wow, it's still a BIG problem to manage with asian caracters and sonicstage!!!

Well, I have also an annoying problem.

Thanx VERY MUCH for applocale, a wonderful little program. I'm using the 3.1 sonicstage asia pacific-version, and with applocale, every jap tracks are fully and beautifuly displayed in japanese, without changing my regional settings (I don't like changing it, as my OS is in French, Outlook Express and other programs change the lettres into Kanji... I have to reboot everytime I want use Outlook etc.)! YAHOO! Nothing crashes, Sonictstage is in English, etc. It's really cool.....BUT!!!!!

I transfered some japanese songs on my NH1. I have the RM-MC40ELK remote wich displays kana and kanji (it worked when I used the 2.3 japanese version of Sonicstage changing my regional settings), and I was VERY disappointed: no Kana, no Kanji on the remote, but strange signs and lettres!!! No question marks, but signs and letters!!

I tried to change my regional settings into Japanese to see if it worked better. It was the same. I also tried with my jap psp, and it worked just fine: kanji and kana are displayed! Why not on my NH1??? as it used to work!

COuld someone help me with this?? THANX A LOT!

(hope someday sony will understand that people listen other music than the ones of their country, and make a program wich can manage all languages!!! Vaio Zone displays Kanji without any problems. Why not Sonicstage???)

←

pata2001 has provided the following registry edit for SonicStage 3.0/3.1 recently at T-Board. Follow the instruction below and run SonicStage 3.1 [Asia-Pacific version in your case] with Microsoft AppLocale.

I can confirm it will work - kanji and kana characters will show as it should.

--> Using regedit, go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sony Corporation\OpenMG\PD\{D887F25F-02A3-44D7-841F-583DD5231B5F}

--> Then locate the entry called "AreaCode" with a value of 2 for US version.

--> Change it to 40000 hexadecimal. That's the value on the Japanese install of SS.

Thanks for the effort pata2001.

[vivaice]

i don't quite understand y the japanese characters will not show up whenever i tried to transfer jp song in my my netmd? it always showed up to be in symbols. I finally got the SS 3.1 Jp installed and now none of the asian characters would show when i transferred them. I running SS with applocale already but whenever i transfer them it turns into symbols. I check and did everything that was mention in this post topic already and still it won't work.

By the way thx Ishiyoshi for posting SS 3.1JP for me

[Ishiyoshi]

i don't quite understand y the japanese characters will not show up whenever i tried to transfer jp song in my my netmd?  it always showed up to be in symbols.  I finally got the SS 3.1 Jp installed and now none of the asian characters would show when i transferred them.  I running SS with applocale already but whenever i transfer them it turns into symbols. I check and did everything that was mention in this post topic already and still it won't work. 

By the way thx Ishiyoshi for posting SS 3.1JP for me 

←

Which NetMD unit do you own and from which region did you purchase it? Remember, only units from Japan and Asia-Pacific can display Japanese/Chinese characters.

[willykyu]

THANK YOU SOOOOOOOO MUCH !!! It worked PERFECTLY! I'm amazed!

How did you figure this out!

Well, now, I'm satisfied with sonicstage: Kanji and Kana displayed on my computer AND my NH1 !!!

For the ones having the same problems here is my configuration:

French Vaio/windows XP home VGN A217S with Sonicstage 3.1 asia Pacific version installed.

Euro NH1 with the RM-MC40ELK remote (it was the one with the French pack).

Thanx SO much again!

[Ishiyoshi]

THANK YOU SOOOOOOOO MUCH !!! It worked PERFECTLY! I'm amazed!

How did you figure this out!

Well, now, I'm satisfied with sonicstage: Kanji and Kana displayed on my computer AND my NH1 !!!

For the ones having the same problems here is my configuration:

French Vaio/windows XP home VGN A217S with Sonicstage 3.1 asia Pacific version installed.

Euro NH1 with the RM-MC40ELK remote (it was the one with the French pack).

Thanx SO much again!

←

You are most welcome. A member by the name of pata2001 provided the registry info.

Happy MD!

[vivaice]

Which NetMD unit do you own and from which region did you purchase it? Remember, only units from Japan and Asia-Pacific can display Japanese/Chinese characters.

←

I own a MX-N910 with a MC35ELK remote that i bought in Japan. I was using SS 1.5 JP before and it worked fine, but i don't know what happen now, the the kanji won't show when ever i tried to transfer.

[Ishiyoshi]

I own a MZ-N910 with a MC35ELK remote that i bought in Japan.  I was using SS 1.5 JP before and it worked fine, but i don't know what happen now, the the kanji won't show when ever i tried to transfer.

←

Try and reinstall SonicStage 3.1 Japanese version in Japanese locale. In other words, run the installer file with Microsoft AppLocale in Japanese.

Since you already have a Japanese unit and software, the only reason I think you can't title in Japanese is because you installed SonicStage 3.1 JP while in English locale.

[user_redhat]

pata2001 has provided the following registry edit for SonicStage 3.0/3.1 recently at T-Board. Follow the instruction below and run SonicStage 3.1 [Asia-Pacific version in your case] with Microsoft AppLocale.

I can confirm it will work - kanji and kana characters will show as it should.

--> Using regedit, go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sony Corporation\OpenMG\PD\{D887F25F-02A3-44D7-841F-583DD5231B5F}

--> Then locate the entry called "AreaCode" with a value of 2 for US version.

--> Change it to 40000 hexadecimal. That's the value on the Japanese install of SS.

Thanks for the effort pata2001.

←

Does anyone know the hexadecimal value of this registry "AreaCode" on the Chinese install of SS?

Thank you very much!

[user_redhat]

* Edt: Double post.

[pata2001]

THANK YOU SOOOOOOOO MUCH !!! It worked PERFECTLY! I'm amazed!

How did you figure this out!

Thanx SO much again!

←

You're welcome Ebichuman...

What inspired me is when I was trying to enable Kanji display on my E99. Atrac files transferred with JP SS show kanji just fine, but files transferred with US SS do not. So, there must be something diferrent between the 2 sonicstages, and the registry hunting began. When I heard people with HiMD units and ELK remotes cannot display kanji, I thought Sony must have put a similar "region code" in windows' registry for HiMD also. And voila.

[pata2001]

Does anyone know the hexadecimal value of this registry "AreaCode" on the Chinese install of SS?

←

Well, to find that one out, you need a Chiness SS install. It should be in your SS CD included with you HiMD unit. To get it, uninstall your current SS. With SS removed, change the non-unicode program setting in windows (assuming you use XP) to Chinese. Restart windows. Put in your SS CD. When it starts, it will ask which region you will use SS. Pick Asia/Chinese/something like that. You won't be able to install SS anyway if you pick a region that doesn't match with your windows setting. SS should install regularly. I assume the menus will be in Chinese, since with the JP install, all menus is in Japanese. After all is done, fire up regedit, find the same registry keys.

[hanyanghy]

I have tried using a English version SS to transfer Chinese song with chinese word(japanese kanji), it works beautifully. this is how I did it:

firstly I have changed reg, just cleck start button on you desktop and cleck run, then type regedit and run it.

change the UTOC4 Value from 4 to 3 in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Sony Corporation\OpenMG\PD\{F7D5CB7D-61E5-4258-AD3B-726DBAB5162C}

and change the "ShowTitleHalf" value to 1 in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHIE\Software\Sony Corporation\SonicStage\PD

then you need download a software called GB2Shift-Jis for change the code of chinese word(from GB2132 code to Shift-Jis), just search on the google. only thing needed to do when you transfering your music is type the name in GB2Shift-Jis software and change the code then copy and paste in the sonicstage.

[OCedHrt]

I have tried using a English version SS to transfer Chinese song with chinese word(japanese kanji), it works beautifully. this is how I did it:

firstly I have changed reg, just cleck start button on you desktop and cleck run, then type regedit and run it.

change the UTOC4 Value from 4 to 3 in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Sony Corporation\OpenMG\PD\{F7D5CB7D-61E5-4258-AD3B-726DBAB5162C}

and change the "ShowTitleHalf" value to 1 in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHIE\Software\Sony Corporation\SonicStage\PD

then you need download a software called GB2Shift-Jis for change the code of chinese word(from GB2132 code to Shift-Jis), just search on the google. only thing needed to do when you transfering your music is type the name in GB2Shift-Jis software and change the code then copy and paste in the sonicstage.

←

That is only for Simplified to Shfit-JIS. Also that doesn't work in SS 3.x anymore. The other registry setting mentioned earlier I have confirmed to work even on Englsih SS. I swear I looked at that before when I was messing with the Jap SS. Thanks pata2001

Is the UTOC4 value still needed to get kanji to display on the unit?

Edited May 11, 2005 by OCedHrt

[Asia]

pata2001 has provided the following registry edit for SonicStage 3.0/3.1 recently at T-Board. Follow the instruction below and run SonicStage 3.1 [Asia-Pacific version in your case] with Microsoft AppLocale.

I can confirm it will work - kanji and kana characters will show as it should.

--> Using regedit, go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Sony Corporation\OpenMG\PD\{D887F25F-02A3-44D7-841F-583DD5231B5F}

--> Then locate the entry called "AreaCode" with a value of 2 for US version.

--> Change it to 40000 hexadecimal. That's the value on the Japanese install of SS.

Thanks for the effort pata2001.

←

That methods works perfectly, I managed to transfert Kanji and Kana characters that are well displayed on the remote of my NH1 BUT I notice that since that "modification" I can't edit anymore the title of any songs transfered by SimpleBurner or edit by SonicStage using the unit (well by the remote)

Edited June 19, 2005 by Asia

[Mortal_Takeda]

pata2001 has provided the following registry edit for SonicStage 3.0/3.1 recently at T-Board. Follow the instruction below and run SonicStage 3.1 [Asia-Pacific version in your case] with Microsoft AppLocale.

I can confirm it will work - kanji and kana characters will show as it should.

--> Using regedit, go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sony Corporation\OpenMG\PD\{D887F25F-02A3-44D7-841F-583DD5231B5F}

--> Then locate the entry called "AreaCode" with a value of 2 for US version.

--> Change it to 40000 hexadecimal. That's the value on the Japanese install of SS.

Thanks for the effort pata2001.

←

When I run the SonicStage 3.1 Installer with Microsoft AppLocale, I get the following error message: "Cannot install with this Windows language."

Even though I edited the AreaCode in the registery. Why isn't it working?

EDIT: I have the Dutch version of Windows XP Home

EDIT2: I can't believe how stupid I am. Of course in my case, I had to set supportoslang to Dutch (not English) in the SetupSS.ini. I'm so stupid!

[Limited328]

um...does that work with Chinese (traditional characters)??? because i want to be able to read chinese characters on my nw-ms70d mp3 player....thxthx

[Ishiyoshi]

um...does that work with Chinese (traditional characters)??? because i want to be able to read chinese characters on my nw-ms70d mp3 player....thxthx

←

Welcome to MDCF!

It depends - as long as those characters in question are supported within the range of Japanese kanji characters.

[Limited328]

ic, thx for the quick reply...appreciate it

[wiper]

Hi there, I've been looking for a way to enable SonicStage to display kanji (obviously), so this thread looked to be a godsend - unfortunately I've encountered a rather simple problem. Using regedit I've been able to locate the correct folders etc., but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be an entry named AreaCode at all - indeed, even searching through the entire registry for such an entry fails to bring up anything. I'm using the downloadable version of SonicStage 3.1 offered on this very forum [mdcf variant], as opposed to a CD installed version, and never got prompted to select a country, so I'm wondering if that's the reason why (I'm running a UK version of Windows XP). Any help/explanations for why this has happened will be greatly appreciated!

Edit: I will try one of the downloadable versions with specified regions in the meantime, so if that's the solution feel free to ignore me

Oh, and apologies for my first post being a request!

Edited June 29, 2005 by wiper

[Ishiyoshi]

Hi there, I've been looking for a way to enable SonicStage to display kanji (obviously), so this thread looked to be a godsend - unfortunately I've encountered a rather simple problem. Using regedit I've been able to locate the correct folders etc., but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be an entry named AreaCode at all - indeed, even searching through the entire registry for such an entry fails to bring up anything. I'm using the downloadable version of SonicStage 3.1 offered on this very forum [mdcf variant], as opposed to a CD installed version, and never got prompted to select a country, so I'm wondering if that's the reason why (I'm running a UK version of Windows XP). Any help/explanations for why this has happened will be greatly appreciated!

Edit: I will try one of the downloadable versions with specified regions in the meantime, so if that's the solution feel free to ignore me

Oh, and apologies for my first post being a request!

←

Welcome to MDCF!

Regardless version of SonicStage, the software will never prompt one to select a language. Go ahead and reinstall SonicStage 3.1; and report back accordingly.

[OCedHrt]

Thought I should add something after getting my NW-E507. The NW-E507 actually stores the information on the player in unicode. I have been able to successfully transfer both Chinese (not just Kanji) and Japanese title/artist information with English SonicStage running in the appropriate non-unicode mode using Apploc.

[nles]

The last time i use SS2.3 it support chinese character though. Now i'm regretting that i upgrade to SS3.1. I can't find where to download SS2.3 anymore.

I can still import those music files to my MD or Network Walkman. They showed the correct chinese character in the walkman. The problem is in sonicstage they showed ??? as artist and title and i dunno which song is the one i wanna upload "

Edited July 23, 2005 by nles

[Ishiyoshi]

The last time i use SS2.3 it support chinese character though. Now i'm regretting that i upgrade to SS3.1. I can't find where to download SS2.3 anymore.

I can still import those music files to my MD or Network Walkman. They showed the correct chinese character in the walkman. The problem is in sonicstage they showed ??? as artist and title and i dunno which song is the one i wanna upload "

←

Please note that SonicStage 3.1 supports Chinese language text only as far as its kanji library permits. Therefore, some Chinese language text will be displayed as "???."

[OCedHrt]

Isn't it the same for 2.3? Kanji works for in SS3.1 and Chinese as well if your system is configured properly. Transfering the track data to your MD would be a different problem. In that case you can only transfer Kanji. If it's the NW-E400/500 series, you can do whichever language your system is configured for. Not sure about the other Network Walkman.