Sony Phasing out Connect Music Service and ATRAC Codec
Posted by bobby2ne on 30 August 2007 - 13:38 · 23 comments & 7249 views
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(2 replies)
#1 Posted by +mad_onion on 30 Aug 2007 - 13:51
one less codec and poorly writtne piece of software to worry about. its good to know that in future i will be able to buy a sony mp3 player and connect it to wmp, so much easier.-
#1.1 Posted by pjak on 30 Aug 2007 - 15:51
- Although I welcome this news, I actually quite like SonicStage (especially when comparing it to rival software, WMP, iTunes, Napster, MediaSource, etc.) for easy management of music to CDR, PSP, NW-MS9 and MZ-N1. I like two features in particluar ripping Audio CDs without DRM to ATRAC (which provides quickest transfer to Sony devices and great audio quality) and burning/reading CDRs with CD-Text. Also the software worked great in XP and Vista (both 32-bit and 64-bit). Only downside I can think of right now is that there is still NO 64-bit driver for NetMD.
I hope Sony still continues to support ATRAC conversion or have a good workaround (example, firmware updates) for older devices. I have no intention of upgrading/replacing my music devices.
Last edited by pjak on 31 Aug 2007 - 00:50 -
#1.2 Posted by kaiwai on 30 Aug 2007 - 16:25
- Quote - (pjak said @ #1.1)Although I welcome this news, I actually quite like SonicStage (especially when comparing it to rival software, WMP, iTunes, Napster, etc.) for easy management of music to CDR, PSP, NW-MS9 and MZ-N1. I like two features in particluar ripping Audio CDs without DRM to ATRAC and burning/reading CDRs with CD-Text. Also the software worked great in XP and Vista (both 32-bit and 64-bit). Only downside I can think of right now is that there is still NO 64-bit driver for NetMD.
I hope Sony still continue to support ATRAC conversion or have a good workaround (example, firmware updates) for older devices. I have no intention of upgrading/replacing my music devices.
Agreed. For me, I won't upgrade my device until I see a flash device that is fast and reliable. So far the hard disk ones are fragile and unreliable, flash based ones are slow and buggy (from my experience with Sansa). Oh well, maybe a in a few years things will improve.
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#2 Posted by pupdawg on 30 Aug 2007 - 14:19
- Hope they plan to issue updates to all the NW-A800 series I'd love to delete sonic stage...
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(3 replies)
#3 Posted by +Octol on 30 Aug 2007 - 14:27
- Quote -Sony have released official news...
Sony has released official news...
Sony is a company. One. Singular. Takes the singular verb: has.
And there you have it, folks! Your Grammar Nazi comment of the day!
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#3.1 Posted by kaiwai on 30 Aug 2007 - 16:11
- Quote - (Octol said @ #3)Quote -Sony have released official news...
Sony has released official news...
Sony is a company. One. Singular. Takes the singular verb: has.
And there you have it, folks! Your Grammar Nazi comment of the day!
Actually in UK English it is acceptable to refer to a company using the terms are/have which are normally reserved for 'more than one'. -
#3.2 Posted by bobby2ne on 30 Aug 2007 - 16:22
- Quote - (kaiwai said @ #3.1)Quote - (Octol said @ #3)Quote -Sony have released official news...
Sony has released official news...
Sony is a company. One. Singular. Takes the singular verb: has.
And there you have it, folks! Your Grammar Nazi comment of the day!
Actually in UK English it is acceptable to refer to a company using the terms are/have which are normally reserved for 'more than one'.
Yay! Someone thinks I was right all along! woot!
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(1 reply)
#4 Posted by ahhell on 30 Aug 2007 - 14:34
- Sony adopting someone else's standard????? Hell has frozen over!!!
We're all doomed!! -
#4.1 Posted by chilliadus on 31 Aug 2007 - 04:15
- Quote - (ahhell said @ #4)Sony adopting someone else's standard????? Hell has frozen over!!!
We're all doomed!!
They did this before in their VCR. Though not official, they abandoned miniDisc as well.
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#5 Posted by Spielo on 30 Aug 2007 - 14:40
- This is a very wise move on Sony's part, because SonicStage is a horirble piece of software that has prevented many, many sales of their MP3 players. Hopefully new firmware will be released for their old players to support Windows Media Player.
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#6 Posted by bobby2ne on 30 Aug 2007 - 14:42
- I stand corrected about my grammar! And yes, I REALLY Hope they issue updates to the NW-A800 series as I've owned one for around only two months! And I've only just (last week) bought my partner one! So they will be going back if no update is available!
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#7 Posted by KaiSerSoze on 30 Aug 2007 - 14:43
- Bought a NW-A806 a couple of days ago and returned it immediately because of sonicstage. It was the most horrible piece of software I have ever seen... somehow it converts music to an unreadable format that only player can handle. Music managment was terrible. Lasted 3 hours in my hands and returned it.
Player seemed very cool and functional... nevertheless, its useless with sonicstage.
BTW - got a Zen V plus instead and im glad i did it!
Last edited by KaiSerSoze on 30 Aug 2007 - 14:58
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#8 Posted by Ollie64 on 30 Aug 2007 - 15:14
- I have an NW-A3000 and I would love a firmware update to allow it to be linked to WMP rather than Cronic-Stage.
They really should look after the existing Sony NW-A install base if they want us to buy stuff from whatever replaces Sony Connect.
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#9 Posted by gunnerhkjp on 30 Aug 2007 - 15:41
- Anything to get rid of the damn sonicstage.
Crappy software was really killing an awesome piece of hardware.
Battery life and sound quality is unbelievable.
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(1 reply)
#10 Posted by Elite_graphix on 30 Aug 2007 - 16:04
- announcing tomorow by Sony:
ATRAC II
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#11 Posted by
cashman on 30 Aug 2007 - 16:47
- Oh damn, I bought my A800 just a few weeks back, I hope they release a firmware update for the A800 (400, 200) sometime soon, I'd love not to use Sonic Stage. My main love would be to use Napster 2Go.
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(1 reply)
#12 Posted by kitchenutensils on 30 Aug 2007 - 18:27
- this is all well and good, but will they allow for AAC playback (and h.264/263 / mpeg) for ipod converters? if they do then I can see sony finally pulling out something that can compete with ipod
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#12.1 Posted by Galley on 31 Aug 2007 - 04:17
- Quote - (kitchenutensils said @ #12)this is all well and good, but will they allow for AAC playback (and h.264/263 / mpeg) for ipod converters? if they do then I can see sony finally pulling out something that can compete with ipod
I believe all Sony Walkmen support .m4a AAC. Both the PS3 and PSP do.
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(1 reply)
#13 Posted by madkingsoup on 31 Aug 2007 - 08:04
- Bugger - I just sold my Sony 20Gb HDD Walkman entirely due to the fact that SonicStage ****ed me off so much with it's horrible clunky interface and lack of useability. Users have only been telling Sony how crap it is for, ooh, 18 months or so. Mind you, I wouldn't put it past them to conveniently not update the old devices to work with PlaysForSure to encourage people to buy new ones.
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#13.1 Posted by Ollie64 on 31 Aug 2007 - 08:29
- Quote - (madkingsoup said @ #13)I wouldn't put it past them to conveniently not update the old devices to work with PlaysForSure to encourage people to buy new ones.
People won't buy new a new Sony device, they'd buy an iPod (or similar). So it would be in Sony's interest to update their install base or lose it.
The move has been rumoured in the past week with details of a new Walkman; the NWZ-A810 series (very close to the European NW-A800 series) detailed on the US Sony Style website. This new Walkman comes bundled with a copy of Windows Media Player 11 to place music on the device and fully supports Microsoft's PlaysForSure DRM scheme (complete with subcription services (Napster etc)).