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General discussion

Alternative Software for Sony HD5

Jul 26, 2005 6:47AM PDT

A user named kmw posted a link at the Winamp.com forum to some software Sony made but no one has ever heard of. He hadn't tested it though and it seemed as if everyone was afraid to try it, so here's my info.

It works pretty well, in a simplistic way, but it's completely devoid of any features, sorting ability, user-friendliness, or tag editing capability. You can't even see the tracks that are there, all you see is albums. The software is completely harmless though, it doesn't make any changes to your HD5 besides copying a few files to it.

Long as you make sure your files are tagged right before doing any transfers, this seems like a good alternative for the time being. Here's the link to the complete information again for anyone who who wants to try it:

http://www.syndetics.net/sony-hacks/sonicstage.html

Here's a link directly to the software download:

http://www.sonydigital-link.com/Sha...MP3FMv2_ENG.exe

The software is called MP3 File Manager. It's made by Sony for some of their other players, but works with the HD5 as well, and it is not advertised in the US at all. If you haven't already installed the HD5's driver, the original link will get you that, or you can use the driver included on the software CD.

Download the file (second link, and depending on your browser you may need to right-click and choose to save the target file). Connect your HD5 first, then run the file. After the local install is done (very little is actually installed locally), the software will launch and search for your HD5. It will then copy the program files to the HD5. The whole process takes about a minute to complete. For those of you worried that you'll seriously mess up your device by using this "unauthorized" software (the warnings on the page in the first link are rather scary), trust me, you won't (but if you do, it's not my fault). The software is so small and does practically nothing, it doesn't make any changes to your HD5, it just transfers files.

When it's done, check out your HD5 in Windows Explorer (or My Computer). There's another root folder there now called "MP3FM" (MP3 File Manager). Go in there and you'll find the executable, "MP3FileManager.exe". Run this file from right there, from any computer (I think), and a window will be displayed where you can drag-and-drop music to your heart's content, quickly, easily, and (so far) stabley.

Again though, make sure your files are properly tagged. There's no graphical tree structure here, so your HD5 will read the file tags when you disconnect and organize accordingly. You'll need to wait until you can check with your HD5 or with SonicStage before you can see if everything has gotten organized correctly.

Discussion is locked

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Arrgghh!!!
Aug 21, 2005 5:05PM PDT

Bought a nice shiney new Hd5 about 3 weeks ago, already uploaded around 1000 songs to it then DELETED them from my pcs hd obviously 'cos they were taking up alot of space, anyway I never took the time to organize and name them properly so they are all scattered around in tons of nameless folders etc. Now it won't let me transfer them back to my pc at all to sort them out.. Anyone know of anyway to do this?

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Two points.
Aug 21, 2005 5:19PM PDT

1. With most mp3-players you can simply use Explorer to copy the files back (and forward). They get a Windows XP drive letter if they are plugged in. But I can't tell you if it's possible with yours.
2. If you lose your mp3-player or it gets defective (both are very real dangers) you will lose all your music. It ALWAYS makes sense to keep things you don't want to lose in more than 1 place. That's called BACKUP. If you buy a DVD-burner, you can store up to 1500 mp3's on one DVD, and find a nice safe place for it, just in case something happens. Same, of course, goes for your pictures and documents, if the hard disk crashes or a virus decides to wipe all.

Hope this helps.


Kees

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Uh huh
Aug 21, 2005 9:15PM PDT

Yeah I know all of that, thanks though.. The problem is when I do that the files have been converted to Openmg and I can't find a way to convert them back, plus they have lost all id tags..

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Convert them back by using your backup.
Aug 21, 2005 10:10PM PDT

Copy them back from your backup system.

No backup system? This may be your free lesson about it.

Bob

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Erm
Aug 21, 2005 11:22PM PDT

Which backup system would that be then? ;P

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It's a lesson then?
Aug 21, 2005 11:35PM PDT

You may be learning the backup lesson the hard way. (loss)

What's your new plan? For me I just re-rip the content off my Audio CDs.

Bob

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Boo.
Aug 21, 2005 11:59PM PDT

Well it looks like that's what i'll have to do, i'll lose alot of songs but lesson learned Happy

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SonicStage Alternative - Dead Right
Dec 28, 2005 11:47PM PST

This actually works! I tried using sonicstage only to find it registered multiple artists/albums if the capitalisation of the ID3 tags were inconsistent or if the name of an artist or album had trailing blanks. I decided to tidy the ID3 tags on my PC an re transfer all my mp3 files. (Bad decision) To do this I initialised the HD5 disk to remove all the data as sonicstage doesn't overwrite tracks which are already present. I then tried to retransfer the mp3s but sonicstage hung when it got to 99% complete. After messing about for a few days I found MP3FM.exe at http://koekje.cjb.net/temp/nw-hd5/. Its simple and it works. All functions on the HD5 worked as before when the files were transfered with sonicstage. What a relief!

Note: You can't copy the mp3 back to your PC but you do have control of what is being transferred.