IS IT WORTH UPDATING VAIO SOFTWARE?

[mackiecross]

HI,

Once again sony have issues regarding their software which effects the user friendliness of the vaio pocket.

I have the 40Gb model, with about 5-6Gb taken up with music files, on the atrac format.

I now see there is a software upgrade which allows the vaio to play mp3's (no need for atrac conversion, which is slow and time consuming).

* Has anybody done this?

* Is it worth doing?

* Does it effect the quality as differnt mp3's come in various khz (some of my copies go from 44k to 192k) when comparing with the converted atrac?

* Will the software upgrade wipe the memory of the player?

I also read something on these forums regarding the software not supporting files of music in the EU region??? and that the software is more applicable to the US market.

So.........

Any feedback will appreciated.

A confused vaio pocket player owner in the UK

[DiabloVaio]

If you have all your music in MP3, or you like to be able to transfer MP3 files directly to your VP, Or you like to have a bit more stable VP OS and some improvements, upgrade your firmware.
Converting MP3 files to ATRAC format (any) doesn't improve the quality! Nothing can higher the quality of the source! But the advantage of ATRAC format is the smaller size ,comparing the same file with the same Bitrate.
If you like to upgrade, you have to kiss your already existing music and files on your VP goodbye, you have to initialize it.
Current SS 3.0 available version is not compatible with CONNECT MUSIC STORE of UK or Euorope, and you won't be able to buy music from it, so if you love CONNET MUSIC STORE, don't upgrade to 3.0.
That's all! If you still have questions, don't hesitate to asking them here!

[MadarbWoT]

diablovaio,do you mean that with ss3 you can INDEED transfer mp3s directly?
or are they turned into oma files again?
that was sony's promise with 2.3 but as you already know no mp3s could be transfered as mp3 files,all of them turned to oma

[DiabloVaio]

No, it won't be saved on the device as MP3, like you said. But the point is you don't need to convert them to ATRAC format, which is time consuming!

[@4967457401015621]

i think people may be talking at cross-purposes... it sounds like mackiecross is referring to the firmware update, i applied this before trying to add any music to my VP so i can't remember if you lose the music, though i'm fairly sure you don't. it sounds like madarbwot and diablovaio are talking about the sonic stage update to v3, where you do lose your music, but this update isn't necessary to play mp3s (ss only needs to be updated to v2.3)
hope that helps rather than confuses...

[MadarbWoT]

diablovaio,when a file is .oma,that is atrac...so sstage does convert them on the transfer!thats what me and some friends all using sony software came up with after some discussions...

bentate,your comment is helpful but mackiecross mentions the us and eu versions which apply to sstage.still it could be referred to firmware update as you said.

[@4967457401015621]

yeah, i seem to remember a few people donwloaded the wrong updates for ss after the firmware was released (ss needs to be updated to v2.3 to work with the new firmware bviously) so that may be where the eu/us bit came in.
as for mp3s, i think what happens is that sonic stage or music transfer add a 'key' to the mp3 when you transfer it, so the compression methods etc. are still mp3, not atrac, but the mp3 cannot be played with standard mp3 software. i've tried renaming an mp3 to oma and transferring that, and it doens't work, similarly transferring an oma and changing the ending to mp3 won't work either. this means that whilst the mp3 isn't being converted to atrac, it is still being converted. this makes sense with how my pc behaves, as it takes a long time in comparison to my ipod to transfer each mp3 (i could fill my ipod in half an hour, it's much longer with the vp, i.e. 4 or 5 hours) despite running on ports with similar specs (yes, it is a usb2 port). just from another post i read it got me thinking, i may write an email to transfer as their desciption has been very misleading.

[MadarbWoT]

yes that is probably the case...but the fact that the files are oma got me thinking that it is converted in an atrac or similar form.
still dont know,probably only sony programmers do.

something needs to be done though as this is no mp3 transfer as sony promised when publishing the firmware update and all.