Okay got it installed. So far everything has gone pretty smoothly.
No problem with the installation.
I had to delete all my tracks on my HD1 but it appears you no longer have to authorize your device to use with connect (not 100% sure)
Transfer times are A LOT faster. When Sony made it possible to not have DRM on your atrac files they took a lot longer to transfer. Now they are as fast as the DRM'd files
That's as far as I have got. I'm going to check and see if lossless works on my HD1 next.
edit:
Okay I have encode a CD into lossless and here is what I have so far:
Encoding time takes a bit longer than FLAC.
File size is a little bigger than FLAC:
FLAC: 27.2 ATRAC: 31.7
FLAC: 81.9 ATRAC: 96.1
FLAC: 33.7 ATRAC: 39.4
FLAC: 12.1 ATRAC 14.0
FLAC: 126 ATRAC: 149
FLAC: 48.4 ATRAC: 55.7
FLAC: 64.6 ATRAC: 77.8
(All sizes in MB, FLAC is Level 8)
On transferring onto my HD1 I'm a bit confused. It transfers but on my HD1 it says it is 256. I have the transfer settings set to ask my what bitrate to choose if the file isn't supported on my HD1. It doesn't ask my what to convert it to and my optimized folder is empty. This tells me that it is probably Lossless on my HD1 but Sony has had to "trick" my HD1 into thinking it is a 256 file.
edit#2:
Okay I have forced the lossless files to convert to 256 before transferring. It is a lot quicker converting and transferring the files and the converted 256 files do appear in my optimized folder. So it does appear that the lossless works on my HD1 but just displays the bitrate wrong. The Lossless files are gapless as well. The converted and transferred 256 files also remain gapless.
edit3:
On closer look it seems the lossless files that are transferred to my Hd1 are not lossless as the files sizes are too small. They are the same as the 256 when transferred.