Sony MEX-1HD HELP PLEASE

[Unnamed_warrior]

Hi ya

I was wondering if anyone out there has bought one of these head units.

As you may know these units come with a 10GIG HD which you can rip your CD's onto...

Well thats great but 97% of the time the labels for the CD's won't transfer over so then you have to spend ages entering the labels back in...

I also have a Sony MP3 player and I use a peice of software called a SonicStage provided by Sony. This allows you to be able to rip your CD's onto your PC and it even can connect to the web to download all the CD track names and TAG ID using Sony's "Gracenotes" CDDB.. but when it converts the CD's they are recorded into Sony's format *.OMG and have some form of copy protection added to them. But by using the White Sony Memory sticks I can copy tracks onto it and play them in the car or on my MP3 player.. ok fine but the sticks are only 128MB max, so that means it will take days (probably) to get all my tracks (with labels) onto my MEX-1HD.. not to mention the fact that I will still need to make my Playlists again and album names etc.

So basically if you have the tracks in MP3 format on your pc and then copy them on to a CD.. yes the MEX-1HD will let you play them via its CD player, but it WILL NOT let you rip them to it HD...

And if you try to copy the OMG (Sony's converted format) from the pc onto a CD and then put that into the MEX-1HD CD Player, it doesnt understand the format :confused:

What I want to know does anyone have any idea how I can get all my tracks from my PC to the Sony Head unit and keep all the labels. Oh and yes the Unit comes with a USB port which I thought I could connect my PC directly to it and then transfer my files accross :mad: WRONG ... this is only for Sony's NETPLAYERS...

so apart from either....

Ripping my orginal CD's again into the Head unit and then spend hrs (days) adding in all the titles and names etc

or

Transfering from my pc onto a 128Meg memory stick (which will keep the labels) the tracks and then going to the head unit and copy the songs accross and keep repeating this unit 5 gigs worth of songs are copied over is finished... :nono:

Someone out there must know a way around this... otherwise this was a very very bad purchase and an expensive one... :thumbsdow

Thanks for your help

UW

[Mahtey]

Hey,

If I were you I'd have a rethink - Sony's car audio probucts aren't that great to be honnest.

If you must have a MP3 HD Head Unit I think the Pioneer 900HDD would be a better bet.

However for that money you could buy a much better HU - the upcoming Nakamichi CD500 (£600) will be an awesome unit - MPS compatible but no HD.

Cheers,

Matthew

[Unnamed_warrior]

Thanks for the reply and advice Matthew.

[hornydragon]

You say the usb is for net player only does that include the net MD portables, if so why not get the Sony PC interface and make the HU think it is talking to a net MD, no idea if this will work though

[Unnamed_warrior]

Because you can only CHECK OUT via the usb port... meaning that you cannot upload any thing to the HD..

I have had to import all my CD's again to the HEX 1HD and I have bought a CDRW and made a MP3 Audio cd ..copied the tracks to the HD .. then Deleted the tracks off the CDRW and then put the next tracks on ... pain in the Ar$e but once its done in the future it will be easier to put new tracks on to the HD as the main bulk will be done....

I have bought a 13.8v - 5A transformer and set the Headunit up in my house, so during the next couple of days I am copying all my tracks to the MEX 1HD... I have done about 26 albums today already, so another couple of evenings and its all done...

Its a great head unit (once the tracks are on it) but a pain in the rear to get your tracks on ..if you have loads of CD's and MP3's

Mark

[gavinski101]

Hello,

Please could anyone tell me if i brought the sony mex-1hd in car cd player from the USA, would if work in a car (e.g. vauxhall, ford e.t.c) in the UK?
Regards
Gavin

[jambotoo]

Hi I'm new.

Is it possible to remove the hard drive from the head unit?

If so, you'd probably be able to hook it up with a pc and copy songs converted with sonicstage.

Also, I think a gracenote update cd is available from sony -- free of charge.

[Controversy]

Hi. Anyone know where to get the CDDB update CD from?? Sony UK says that it isn't available in the UK. And Sony US will not ship to outside the US and I want to add my CDs to my MEX-1HD.

HELP!!

[jtf]

to all the people who was looking at getting this unit don't. you should research all the different possibilitys. i personally would get an ipod this would give you at least double the capacity over the sony then all you need to do is buy a head unit that you can fit an aux input into, nearly all h/u with a cd changer port have aux leads available for them. then buy a dension ice link which is a docking station for your car. a few of my friends have this sort of setup and and it is alot better than the sony. including the ipod with a decent h/u you would be looking at around £600

[Controversy]

Thanks jtf. I agree with you. HOwever I have this stereo already (came with a second hand car I got). However has not got the CDDB database installed.

Anyone able to help?? Sony UK can't!!!!!

[jtf]

leave it with me i will look into it for you as i work in car audio

[jtf]

tried all day. nobody knows nything about this disc for the uk

[carbon6]

Hello, I have the MEX-1HD and use a program called burrrn www.burrrn.net (http://www.burrn.net)

Clever bit of software that writes the text to the cd that you enter, or is already attached to the mp3 etc. The sony head unit sees the text and stores it when the cd is transfered.

its free to... i think :thumbsup:

didnt think you could transfer mp3s data cd's to the internal HDD??

data is stored as atrac internally i think, maybe if you write atrac cd's it will transfer...

has anyone had any problems with their head mex-1hd

[peat]

tried all day. nobody knows nything about this disc for the uk

Have a look here: http://www.gracenote.com/partners/car/partner.html/comp=sony

If you currently own an MEX-1HD that does not have the Gracenote CDDB® installed, please call 800-222-SONY (800-222-7669) for a software upgrade.

[smartfarm]

please do let me know if you get the update CD as i also need it.

[JFishburn]

Is there anyone that has this cd and would be willing to email it to me? I just called sony and they say the cd is backordered. Will this restore my hd to new? I ask this because I deleted all songs and folders on my hdd and now my mex 1hd is useless. I have spent 5+ HOURS on the phone with sony trying to solve this simple problem but there is no way to create a folder if there are no folders on the hd. Sony has told me i will have to pay $150 to have the unit serviced to fix the problem. HELP!
thanks,
John

[JFishburn]

anyone?

[spamberler]

If all folders have been deleted you need to access the HDD though the R Hand stick as opposed to the Source. you can create a folder from there. I bought my MEX-1HD from the US Works fine!! Loads of US tracks left on the HDD though!

[murph7355]

I bought one of these a couple of years ago (Dec 2002), before owning an iPod. To be honest, I wish I hadn't bothered.

Couldn't believe how Sony crippled the unit and would never, ever buy another Sony music product again (fortunately I got this at a very knock down price).

I keep looking round to see if anyone's managed to hack the thing, but no joy. I now often use it to play my iPod through!

To cap it all, the fascia is now dying. No doubt this won't be cheap from Sony, at which point I'll probably switch back to the old head unit and use my iPod permanently.

I think Sony have discontinued this now. Just wish I'd have waited 8mths or so when I finally bought a proper hard disk player.

Should the fascia prove ultra-expensive, I'll have a go at taking it to bits to see what can be done with it.

[danielcolchado]

Hi, I got the same problem, the hard disk stops working and the unit turns off few second after i turn ON. I replace the HDD with other (same model/brand) but it doesn't work, Sony Peru says me that they never commercialize (buyed) this unit here, and they can't support it... Sony USA (on line support) says me "YOU NEED TO SEND THE UNIT TO USA"... I only want to know "WICH KIND OF PARTITION USE THE MEX 1HD, SO I CAN FIX MY UNIT"

Is there anyone that has this cd and would be willing to email it to me? I just called sony and they say the cd is backordered. Will this restore my hd to new? I ask this because I deleted all songs and folders on my hdd and now my mex 1hd is useless. I have spent 5+ HOURS on the phone with sony trying to solve this simple problem but there is no way to create a folder if there are no folders on the hd. Sony has told me i will have to pay $150 to have the unit serviced to fix the problem. HELP!
thanks,
John

[Sid3ways]

I know this thread is old but I'm looking for a broken or non-working MEX-1HD player. If someone has given up on their player and wants to sell it for cheap I'm looking to get one to try something with it. Thanks a bunch guys :)