Sony PCM M10 as portable player? - Page 9

Page 37 of the manual only references FAT16 and FAT32. 

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When was the last time you saw documentation this nice for any Head-Fi gear?

Mike

How does this SONY PCM M10 compares to the KORG MR2?

I don't know.  

The PCM-M10's capacity just jumped to 64GB!

The Sony PCM-M10's user manual says that it supports microSDHC cards up to 16GB, but people have been using 32GB microSDHC cards without difficulty.

But the 64GB microSDXC cards ("XC" not "HC") are formatted differently and thus, do not work in the Sony PCM-M10, unless you ....

... reformat them to FAT32!  

This evening, I received one of these in the mail, from Amazon:
 

I then downloaded the Windows version of a freeware FAT32 formatting utility called GuiFormat.

Here's the author's home page for this freeware.

The Amazon purchase at the link I provided above includes a USB card reader, but I didn't have to use it, because I found that my Toshiba Windows 7 laptop could read and write to the SanDisk 64GB microSDXC card with its default formatting.  

I just popped the card into the included full-size SD adapter, and then loaded it into my laptop's card reader, and having downloaded the GuiFormat.exe file, I executed it, and pointed it at the drive letter that Windows had assigned to the SDXC card, then told it to Quick Format the card (in FAT32 format).

That's it - I was then able to load up the card with nearly 64GB of WAV files (a transfer time of 1 hour, from hard drive to SD card).

WARNING:  If you use Windows Explorer to examine the SD card before formatting it, you will have to use Task Manager to kill the process for Explorer.exe, before continuing with the format.   So, it's best not to use any other application to read the SD card prior to using the GuiFormat utility.   If you do, the format utility will display an error that reads:   "Failed to open device..." But, again, the solution is to kill Explorer.exe with Task Manager, then proceed with formatting the card.

Here are some screen shots (I chose the volume label name shown, and used these settings):

The Quick Format to FAT32 takes less than 5 seconds to perform.

Windows Explorer Properties shows the empty FAT32 card, ready for use.

Having transferred files from the hard drive, it's ready for a test drive in the Sony PCM-M10.

And it works flawlessly!  

The PCM-M10 doesn't create playlists or maintain any kind of database or catalog. All it has to do is scroll through the root folder or through artist-album folders.  So, it seems the sky is the limit, as long as the card is formatted FAT32 and you don't exceed some unknown maximum number of files in any given folder.  

I'm really happy to get 64GB cards working with the Sony PCM-M10 as that cuts the card-swapping frequency in half.

Joy!   

Mike

hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah!!!

Great write up Mike, this makes the PCM-10 even more appealing when cutting down the frequency of having to switch cards (not that it's a big hassle anyways). Going to go order one of these right now!

It's pretty nice to have that much music on a single card, for sure.  Enjoy!

Mike

Hmmmm... (wonders if two of these would work in a Memory Stick adapter in the PCM-D50 for a total of 128 gigs)

Mike,

I am thrilled to have this information. I ordered my 64gb tonight and anxiousy to use it.

Thanks so much

Stan

Quote:

Originally Posted by stancourtney 

Mike,

 

I am thrilled to have this information. I ordered my 64gb tonight and anxiousy to use it.

 

Thanks so much

 

Stan

That's great Stan!  I'm glad to see it's catching on.  

As might be expected, it takes twice as long for the PCM-M10 to cold boot - the "Access" LED flickers twice as long as it does with a 32GB card, as it reads all of the files.  But once it comes up, it's business as usual.  

Mike

Nice work, thanks zilch0md!

You're welcome!  

Sooooo...

I didn't get through this whole thread but a week ago I was looking at recorders (just because sometimes I use my phone to record "ideas" with my guitar...) and while reading a review I noticed that the reviewer used this as an "MP3 player" also and of course I started wondering how it would fare... Fast forward to today and lo and behold I see a post from kskwerl in the Mad Dogs headphones thread and he is using it as a player too!

Of course I have a couple of questions! ;-)

I already had one answered on this very same page, it seems the Recorder can read 64GB microSD cards! (yay!!!!) The other ones:

1) Battery Life. I see people saying 40+ hours but is that 40 hours recording or playing music?

2) It seems the GUI is not the best for a music player of course (I don't think it could be worse than mi Hisound Studio V! LOL!) but can you shuffle THE WHOLE microSD card? Or just 1 folder at a time?

3) Is it only powered by double A batteries? Do you use rechargeable batteries and does the unit provide means to charge them?

4) Does it pair well with amps? I see kskwerl uses an Ibasso... is the line out "bright" by any chance? (I have a Leckerton UHA 6SMKII)

and... I forgot the others.... ;-)

Any help you can provide will be appreciated!

Thanks.

I don't use mine too much, but same set of AA's for like 3 months.  40 hours is a good bet, I think either way, play or record.  You can use rechargeables, it has a menu setting to adjust for them.  GUI is just a file system, kind of funky, but not horrible - way, way way better than HiSound's.  I've come to the opinion that Hisound's stuff is, well, my mom always said if you can't say something nice...  I think it will shuffle only a folder, but not sure.  You have to pull the batteries to recharge.  I gave it  a brief spin with line out to my Pico Slim - it was as good or better than my usual ipod touch 4G.

If you are curious about how good a recorder it is, head over to www.taperssection.com and check out the big PCM-M10 multi part thread, and several others over there.  LOTS of folks use them with a number of different external mics for concert taping.  I started down that road, but just don't have the time to mess with mic rigs and stuff right now.  Later...