Announcement

**drewbar** · 24 November 2005, 04:09

Due to the nature of Sony products, formats and protections involved you are limited to using the Sonic Stage software that comes with the program. ATRAC3 is a really protected format by Sony. The best recommendation is to actually avoid Sony products. And do you really want to support a company that installs root kits on people's computers?

**sc_bond** · 24 November 2005, 15:58

ooo yes cos root kits turn me on! lol! but really, it's sony connect not sonic stage, i need to know how to code a device support like gUSB and how to make it rename the files appropriately, it doesn't necessarily need to be converted to atrac3 as the new walkman supports mp3 and wma. anyone that significantly helps goes into the credits!

**otiasj** · 26 December 2005, 10:27

Yeah well are you sure this support mp3,
I have Nw A1000 and I can't get it to just send mp3, it always get reencoded to omg format.
My guess is that sony is just applying a conversion from mp3 to atrac3 and claim that it's support mp3.
I would be happy to help, I have worked on the wombat share pluggin library, but I am not sure this is feasible

**sc_bond** · 26 December 2005, 20:09

To use MP3 files on your new walkman go on Connect player and plug in the device and then on the device's options select to use MP3 files instead of OMA. This can also be done in SonicStage.

**otiasj** · 27 December 2005, 00:54

I am sorry but I cannot find this option, could you be a little more specific please?
Thank you very much for your help.
In the transfer option I only have "atrac audio device"
(I am using sonicstage as connect player is not useable)

How do you tell that it's really using mp3 instead of atrac?
I suppose you go to explorer and browse your device and get .mp3 files? I only get .oma files

Thanks again for your help

If as you told It's only a matter of renaming then doing a pluggin should be fairly simple

See ya

**onestar** · 27 December 2005, 02:20

Originally posted by otiasj
I am sorry but I cannot find this option, could you be a little more specific please?

I don't think this is an option for Sonicstage, but it's been awhile since I've used it.

I used to have a Minidisc player, and you had to convert media files to their proprietary format through Sonicstage. However, the sound quality wasn't that good (basically, you're compressing an already compressed file), and it just didn't sound that good (with the exception being classical music, for some interesting reason that I never understood.)

I'd still be using it if there was a plug-in for Winamp, so I'll be watching this with some interest...

**sc_bond** · 27 December 2005, 10:03

When you plug in your device it should appear in the device list in SonicStage. Then do the following: Tools>Options>Transfer and then select the ATRCA Audio Device and press "Transfer Settings...". A box titled "Transfer Mode Settings" should appear and you can selet to transfer in the original file format, including WMA with the new firmware update.

To see which file types you already have on your device select it on the device listy and check the formats. An easy way to do this is to add Format as a column. To do that see View. You can also do this for your library window, just see View and select the different columns.

You should also be able to tell what format you are transferring. If a track takes a long time to transfer or if you already transferred and it took a very long time then your files are converting. During a transfer you can see whether it is converting or just transferring in the satus bar.

For Connect player, plug in your device and select it from the list, right-click and then select options and carry on from there to change transfer modes.

**sc_bond** · 27 December 2005, 10:08

By the way, if you go to explorer and check the format you will still get .oma files with code names in code named folders, this happens so that the player can read the files and also ofcourse to stop piracy. This is the very thing I was thinking of working on to create a plug-in for Winamp but since I don't have much time at all and now use SonicStage I don't think there is much point.

**otiasj** · 28 December 2005, 00:30

Yeah ok thank you for your help,
I was indeed transfering in mp3 format, but that still is taking too much time to my taste.

I mean what's the point of having to wait in front of your pc every morning to get your mp3 transfered.
Better have a 30g with all your music already on it, or have a nano or shuffle that can transfert music really fast.

I think that the fact that all the headers are reformated by sony would prevent us from coding our own pluggin.
Like I said "direct mp3" is bullshit, they are just using the mp3 compression but the headers are different. They just invented a new format that's all...
I will never buy sony walkman again, for the one I have now it probably will go on ebay tonight.

**sc_bond** · 28 December 2005, 09:28

Wait man, Nanos and iPods aren't quicker they're the same speed. What walkman is it, how much music you transferring and what bitrate is it all?

**otiasj** · 29 December 2005, 05:02

I had an ipod that got stolen,
with ml_ipod transferring my mp3 to the ipod was not taking much more time than a simple usb transfert.
now with sonicstage it takes approximately twice the time (I let him decide the type of tranfert)
with Connect Player it took me around 3hours to fill my entire 5g players nw a1000. Just to find out that you cant use the beat detection feature unless the songs were encrypted from cd or bought in ATRAC format.
yeah right, like I am going to reencode my 300 cds just for sony's walkman.

plus certain files won't be transfered :
if I specify convert to atrac it says "error tranfering files : ... no rights",

and if I let him choose between mp3 or atrac, for some file I get "could not transfer following files : " (nice cryptic message btw)
I got this type of error for a few tracks regardless of the source (meaning in the same album encoded from the same cd some tracks can not be transfered)

But you are right sonicstage is usable if you don't need much features. (It's not like you can plan to use it for anything else than transfering to device)

I wouldn't go as far as calling connect Player a "bad software" as it doesn't qualify for the term software ;-)
Anyway, better not call him at all. But I feel really bad for people who bought sony's player and don't know much about computers. They will need to go to forum and such just to learn to use sonicstage and not the given software.
for example my father as really limited knowledge about computers(email and simple browsing) I am not going to advice him to buy a sony.

**kmw** · 30 December 2005, 00:32

The encryption that sonicstage uses to put the oma wrappers on mp3s has already been cracked by xispe on the ATRACLife forums. He has written software that will decrypt tracks from the walkman and copy them back onto your computer as mp3s.

Once xispe manages to reverse the algorithm to convert mp3 to oma and put the music onto the walkman, hopefully it should be relativly simple to translate the code into a winamp plugin.

The thread is here -- http://www.atraclife.com/index.php?showtopic=369

**otiasj** · 30 December 2005, 09:13

Whoot nice!
Looking into it right know thanks for the heads up maybe I won't have to get rid of my player after all
:-)

**sc_bond** · 30 December 2005, 12:49

By the way, if you transfer a song to your walkman in ATRAC3 and it says "Cannot be transferred, no rights" it means that the song your trying to transfer is DRM protected. If the track was bought from the iTunes store you can only copy the track to an iPod.

kmw, thanks so much, the thread on ATRACLife was right under my nose the whole time. I will get in touch with the creater of that software to see what help he can provide with making a Winamp plug-in possible and hopefully it will make transfers a bit faster.

Announcement

Meda library plug-in for new sony walkman

Meda library plug-in for new sony walkman

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