Sony NWZ-S615 and Mac?

[appar111]

I've read that the new Sony NWZ series is recognized as a USB mass storage device, and that because of that it can be used with a Mac. It also reads AAC files.

I'm a Mac user and I'm looking for something new in the portable arena. My main problem with moving to one of the new nanos is that my laptop is 4 years old, and I'm running OSX 10.3.9, so the idea of getting a new ipod is out.

Has anyone used one of these new NWZ Sony's (specifically the NWZ-S615F that's on sale for around $90 nowadays) with a Mac?

I suppose I could just go pick one up, try it w/ my laptop, and if it doesn't work, I could return it, but thought I'd ask for a definite answer here before dropping the money on it (I hate buying, then returning stuff, 'specially if I don't have to).

 

[selfnoise]

Well, they definitely work with MSC, but unfortunately I don't own a Mac so I don't know if there are any weird issues. The one thing you will have to deal with is that the player wants album art either uploaded through WMP11 or embedded in the MP3s. So you might have to go and do that if yours aren't embedded.

I could swear I saw a user report from someone on OS X, but I can't find it now.

 

[appar111]

Quote:

Originally Posted by selfnoise /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well, they definitely work with MSC, but unfortunately I don't own a Mac so I don't know if there are any weird issues. The one thing you will have to deal with is that the player wants album art either uploaded through WMP11 or embedded in the MP3s. So you might have to go and do that if yours aren't embedded. I could swear I saw a user report from someone on OS X, but I can't find it now.

I don't really care so much about album artwork, but I know that when I upload stuff into iTunes on my Mac, accesses album artwork, so I think it might embed it into the files already. I use a mix of AAC and MP3, and ultimately, if I can load them on and search on the Sony the same way I do on my iPod Mini (by artist, by album, by song), then I'd be a happy camper.

This may be a stupid question, but when you say the Sonys definitely work with MSC- what's MSC stand for? Also what is WMP11?

 

[sno1man]

I have the sony nw816 and a macbook pro

Unfortuntately it does not work with the Mac. It does not even mount as a volume.

It does work under boot camp with XP however

 

[selfnoise]

Ech, sorry to hear that.

Weird that it would work on Windows 2000 but not OS X since they both support MSC.

MSC = Mass Storage mode, or UMS.

WMP11 = Windows Media Player 11.

This has me curious... perhaps I will try to see if I can mount it on a linux machine today.

 

[blessingx]

The question is how they make the model UMS compliant. I'd venture to guess if it doesn't mount in OS X, it's not going to in Linux either. Are there special Windows drivers required? Hmmm it's listing WMP required everywhere I look.

 

[appar111]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sno1man /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have the sony nw816 and a macbook pro Unfortuntately it does not work with the Mac. It does not even mount as a volume. It does work under boot camp with XP however

that's a shame, because I read in a CNet or similar review that it shows up on a Mac as a portable USB device (?)

 

[selfnoise]

I just tried this in Ubuntu 7.10 and it works fine in MSC/UMS. Screenshot:

You can see the attached drive on the left, and I'm transferring a video file (Musishi!).

So, yeah. I'm not sure what the issue could possibly be with OS X.

 

[appar111]

Well, I decided to pick one up at the local Wal-Mart today while I was out. I figured if it won't work with my Mac, then I could always use my wife's laptop or the work computer (both Windows machines) to upload stuff. Heck, it's only a 2GB model, so it's not like I'd be loading a ton of stuff anyway.

I got home, installed WMP11 on my wife's laptop, waited for it to restart, and thought "I'll hook it up to my Powerbook to see if I can at least charge it using the ancient USB 1.1 on the Mac", and low and behold, it showed up on the desktop! Opened the folder, selected the "music" folder, and dropped in Ozzy's "Blizzard of Oz". Bam! Easy as that-- drag n' drop, no problem! Sure it takes a little time using 1.1, but it's no different than with my 1GB shuffle.

I haven't checked the video function or album art issue, but for the money and the sound quality, it's a definite winner for me!

 

[selfnoise]

Great to hear!

 

[Pangaea]

How does it sound?

 

[nylan8301]

Quote:

Originally Posted by appar111 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well, I decided to pick one up at the local Wal-Mart today while I was out. I figured if it won't work with my Mac, then I could always use my wife's laptop or the work computer (both Windows machines) to upload stuff. Heck, it's only a 2GB model, so it's not like I'd be loading a ton of stuff anyway. I got home, installed WMP11 on my wife's laptop, waited for it to restart, and thought "I'll hook it up to my Powerbook to see if I can at least charge it using the ancient USB 1.1 on the Mac", and low and behold, it showed up on the desktop! Opened the folder, selected the "music" folder, and dropped in Ozzy's "Blizzard of Oz". Bam! Easy as that-- drag n' drop, no problem! Sure it takes a little time using 1.1, but it's no different than with my 1GB shuffle. I haven't checked the video function or album art issue, but for the money and the sound quality, it's a definite winner for me!

Welcome to the club, sir.

I love mine, as I'm sure you'll love yours in the coming weeks.

I'm glad to hear that the drag and drop works with a mac. They need to do a firmware update that allows it to read the album year with the drag and drop.

Nylan

 

[appar111]

Well, it pulls the album year info, but won't pull the album artwork, even though I have the album artwork for most of the albums when I open them in iTunes. Maybe iTunes doesn't embed the artwork info into the music files themselves?

Anyway, the bigger issue is that if I drag and drop files onto the Sony from my Mac, things go on fine ('cept the album artwork-- no biggie), but if I delete them off of the Sony using my Mac, the files are gone, but the Sony still shows the space as used. I.e. if I put 1.5 GB of music on the player, then delete it, even after deleting it shows that I only have .5 GB of space left.

What?

 

[appar111]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pangaea /img/forum/go_quote.gif How does it sound?

Music sounds much better going straight through the headphone out than it does using the line out of my iPod Mini into a Go-Vibe V5 (this is using the True Bass setting on 2 and a little treble bump on the Sony).

If I could just get this deleting/disc space use issue figgered out....

 

[sno1man]

Hmmm.

Now i'm wondering why i cant get mine to work. it would be good since I have a ton of music on my Mac Book.

Defective sony?

Apar111 did you set anything on the player to get it to work?

Also regarding the dissapearing space, I'll bet that when you delete files you also have to make sure that you empty the trash with it still connected. Otherwis i think it will put the files in a hidden folder(on the mac os) called trashes. At least that's the way it works with my windows formatted usb drive