Will Sony let you use two of its mp3 players?

vtah236

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Seemingly a daft question... but consider Sony's reputation for being at the extreme end of DRM opinion. Previously an mp3 virgin, I think I have worked around many of the software and firmware issues with my HD5, thanks mostly to this forum.

But I was thinking of buying one of these newfangled Sony bean things, because my wife thinks they're cute. So, the question is: will Sony let me use both on my PC?

Bearing in mind ripped CDs belong to both of us, can I simply transfer some of my existing library (built up for my HD5) in Sonicstage to a new bean? Will I have to re-rip it all? Will the bean sit useless and redundant in its box because Digital Rights Management prevent my wife and I from sharing our music?
 
It should work.

With Sony DRM it is the player which is locked to the computer, not the computer which is locked to the player.
 
Yes. I've had an MZ-RH10, NW-E507 and an NW-HD5 plugged in to one PC at once. Worked. Well, sort of. Sonicstage didn't like the library on that PC so it used to crash every once in a while when I imported new music but as far as recognising the players, no problems.
 
If you're (wisely) using SonicStage 3.2, you can now remove all that cumbersome DRM nonsense from your files (if your tracks are in ATRAC format, that is). Search this forum for a user called Ryzir, who's posted some hugely beneficial advice on how to do this. It'll take a wee while, but once done, your ATRACs are your own. However, I don't think it works with MP3s ...
 
mcfarfs said:
MP3s don't have DRM anyway.

Do they not? Even once imported into SonicStage? I thought it 'coated' them in DRM on importing? Seems I'm mistaken ...
 
It will keep them in the MP3 format on the PC, but when you transfer to your player it places a .OMA wrapper on them. So on your computer they are still .MP3 files, regardless of whether they have been imported into SS, but when transferred to the player they become the .OMA.
 
mcfarfs said:
... but when you transfer to your player it places a .OMA wrapper on them.

Knew this bit, ta. Just thought the wrapper happened a bit sooner in the process.

Thanks! :thumbsup:
 
Hmm...I thought that even if you store as MP3 on your PC ( As I do) when you convert to Atrac3+ and transfer to your player a copy of the converted file is stored with wrapper in place at \SonicStage\Optimized files?
 
uridium said:
Hmm...I thought that even if you store as MP3 on your PC ( As I do) when you convert to Atrac3+ and transfer to your player a copy of the converted file is stored with wrapper in place at \SonicStage\Optimized files?

Think you're spot on here. Any 'optimizing' SS does seems to leave a copy in the Optimized Files folder (which I moved to a more sensible place, incidentally, along with all my ATRACs - couldn't stand that deep-drill folder structure Sony set as default!).
 
uridium said:
Aye mine's renamed to \SS\Sonybollards!

I just redirect everything to My Music\ATRAC3Plus\ ... and then into album folders (deleting Optimized Files after every usage, cos I don't really need it and SS just recreates it on demand anyway).
 
Was holding off clearing my cached Atrac's down as it takes best part of a day to re-convert should I re-format the Player but have all my MP3's sitting on a slave 40Gb disk and have now only got 1Gb left.

Might be a visit to Ebuyer for some more disk soon :)
 
Getting off topic here, but I'm the other way about: got all the MP3s on an external 120GB HDD, and all 4004 (and counting) ATRACs on the main 120GB PC HDD.
 
shadowritten said:
Getting off topic here, but I'm the other way about: got all the MP3s on an external 120GB HDD, and all 4004 (and counting) ATRACs on the main 120GB PC HDD.

Good point...

vtah236 know one's sure, I'd suggest trying to borrow someone else's player and plug it in and see what happens!
 
Either way, your ATRAC and MP3 files are DRM-wrapped once they go into Sony players. You can't extract the files. But as long as you keep the originals handy it shouldn't be a major issue. That is, unless you want to load your own music from the player to a PC... which is possible with practically any other player including the iPod.
 
extremelydodgy said:
Either way, your ATRAC and MP3 files are DRM-wrapped once they go into Sony players. You can't extract the files. But as long as you keep the originals handy it shouldn't be a major issue. That is, unless you want to load your own music from the player to a PC... which is possible with practically any other player including the iPod.

I agree that the Sony DAPs' big downfall is the inability to transfer songs back to the original PC (without deleting them!). I know Ryzir says it's possible with ATRACs, but when I tried after using a Restore with SS Back-Up Tool, not only could I not transfer back, I also found that SS had literally DELETED from my HDD all those tracks I'd forgotton to include in my last full back-up! Which meant a day's re-ripping!
 
Thanks for all the advice. I did think Sony was shooting itself in the foot for a while back there.
 

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