Ok, I took on board all the good reports on the Sony from this site, especially with regard to battery life/sound quality, I bought one this morning. Lovely in silver, looks very nice. I've installed the software (SonicStage 2.3) and I'm charging the player up for the first time as I write this. (Gotta say the charger connection is a bit dodgy, the light seems to go on and off depending on how far the plug is pushed in to the adaptor.....anyway that's another matter, unless anyone has similar experience).

My point is this, while checking out the software I notice that in the 'set transfer mode' section it talks about files which cannot be transferred in their original format 'such as an MP3 or WAV file'.

So can any one tell me what the deal is here please? Will it transfer to and play MP3's on the player or not? Are there certain MP3's which won't work?

Thanks in advance for any help

[mcfarfs]

It should be fine. As long as you gave the settings set to "standard transfer mode", it will transfer all mp3s and atrac3/atrac3plus files without conversions. Other files, such as wma (non-protected) and wav will be transferred to atrac3/atrac3plus at your desired bit rate.

hi,
can i use i-tunes aswell as sonic stage for my mp3's for hd3 as someone told me you cannot do this,
is it safe(worth it) to download from i-tunes,
as sonic stage does not offer the same tunes,
cheers,
stuart

[mcfarfs]

I don't know for sure, i have a feeling downloads from iTunes are in AAC format, which Sony does not support. It is worth a try, just download a single before you download a whole album! You can't use iTunes to transfer to the player though.

Originally Posted by beatstreetz

hi,
can i use i-tunes aswell as sonic stage for my mp3's for hd3 as someone told me you cannot do this,
is it safe(worth it) to download from i-tunes,
as sonic stage does not offer the same tunes,
cheers,
stuart

As far as I know you cannot, you may have to just convert your itunes in another program to mp3 then import them into SS.

can the hd3 play mp3s

short answer yes with an if

long answer no with a but.

Originally Posted by beatstreetz

hi,
can i use i-tunes aswell as sonic stage for my mp3's for hd3 as someone told me you cannot do this,
is it safe(worth it) to download from i-tunes,
as sonic stage does not offer the same tunes,
cheers,
stuart

Tracks you import from the iTunes Music Store will be in AAC format. However, you can convert them to MP3 after downloading - just set the iTunes' Importing Preference to MP3 Encoder, select the tracks you want to convert in the Library, then choose Convert Selection to MP3 from the Advanced menu. You'll end up with both the AAC and MP3 tracks in the Library, but you can delete the AAC ones if you want.

[mcfarfs]

there you go! (im just doing this to see if my profile pic is displayed)

Which it isnt...oh well!

Originally Posted by watchinthewheel

can the hd3 play mp3s

short answer yes with an if

long answer no with a but.

Huh? why is the long answer no?

[mcfarfs]

He's being poetic

Originally Posted by watchinthewheel

can the hd3 play mp3s

short answer yes with an if

long answer no with a but.

Yep, I got it figured now, it will transfer mp3's and plays them OK - BUT the EQ settings and sound altering features only work with atrac. I transferred some mp3's to it, converting them to 48kbps atrac and they sounded excellent. Looking forward now to ripping some cd's straight to atrac on the 256k setting..........should sound even better.

[mcfarfs]

Originally Posted by toratosaru

Yep, I got it figured now, it will transfer mp3's and plays them OK - BUT the EQ settings and sound altering features only work with atrac. I transferred some mp3's to it, converting them to 48kbps atrac and they sounded excellent. Looking forward now to ripping some cd's straight to atrac on the 256k setting..........should sound even better.

The EQ settings etc work for both mp3s and atrac3s with me...I think, anyway!

Nop, the EQ Setting don't work on MP3 files.

[mcfarfs]

Originally Posted by twcheang

Nop, the EQ Setting don't work on MP3 files.

What exactly is the EQ setting? I have a feeling im being very stupid.......

the eq settings dont but the other settings do, like the bass and treble settings.

Originally Posted by toratosaru

My point is this, while checking out the software I notice that in the 'set transfer mode' section it talks about files which cannot be transferred in their original format 'such as an MP3 or WAV file'.

So can any one tell me what the deal is here please? Will it transfer to and play MP3's on the player or not? Are there certain MP3's which won't work?

Yes certain MP3 won't work. If the rate is too low or if they are encoded in Variable Bit Rate. You can change both with e.g. Nero.