[HiWire]

As the title says, has Sony's PC software gotten any better, or is it still hella bad? Recent DRM fiascoes make me suspicious of any Sony products related to computers...

 

[D555]

I use Sonic Stage 3.2 with the Sony MZ-RH10 and and the NW-E507 -- seems to work fine and does the intended job for the intended devices.

Paul

 

[DigDub]

i used SS3.0 and found it ok for what it is supposed to do.

 

[HiWire]

Thanks for the replies. My brother's girlfriend has a Sony HD player from Japan and complained a lot about the software. She works in high tech, and made it sound like the application was hell on wheels.

 

[azncookiecutter]

Sonicstage may be bad, but by no means the worst software ever. At least it does what its intended for.

 

[dskywalker]

I heard lots of complaints about it, but I've yet to experienced any myself. Works fine so far, for simple things like organizing your music and transferring tracks to ur sony mp3 players. However, I rarely 1. rip hundreds of cds using it 2. transferer like 30Gs of music in one shot. So I'm not 100% sure.

 

[carsncars]

In all honesty (talking about 3.3), SonicStage isn't bad-- it's just not as good as it should be. It is quite stable, but still seems to be having a couple compatibility issues, and other issues with its library-- and, all in all, it's just not intuitive.

 

[D-EJ915]

A) it doesn't corrupt your hard drive(s)
B) it is stable/doesn't restart your computer
C) it does what it's intended to

doesn't seem that bad to me!

I actually think it's quite decent. I use foobar as my player, but for ripping and transferring SS3.1 works quite well.

 

[phosfiend]

sonicstage 2.x was a disaster, sharp's bastardized version of sonicstage called 'beatjam' made sonicstage 2.x look like itunes (forced me to reformat on 2 occaisions i believe). Sonicstage 3.3 however, actually works - and fairly smoothly.

 

[dura]

I agree, the 2.x was unintuitive and buggy, freezing up and behaving erratically, the 3.x is just unintuitive, but I got used to it.

 

[nickd75]

I've been using SS2.1 for about 9 months now, no real complaints. Sure, it's not the most intuitive piece of software, but you just get used to it. And when you've had to use MMJB for the ipod for 2 years (before iTunes was available for the PC), you get used to SS even more quickly.

I've heard that Connect (Sony's replacement for SS) is not great - it almost feels like a beta version, apparently. Fortunately, it sounds like new Sony players are also compatible with SS.

Nick

 

[Sparky191]

I've only used 3.2 and 3.3 with HiMD. No problesm on 3 different machines. Work/Home/Laptop. Not slickest piece of software but no real problems here. I only use it to transfer music or to rip to ATRAC. I wouldn't use it as my main player on the PC. DRM restrictions are greatly improved in 3.2/3.3

Usually the majority of complaints are about version 2x. You read of the odd person having problems with 3x over on MiniDisc.Org but not many.

Try it, its a free download http://forums.minidisc.org/downloads/files.php?cat=2

You can use a couple of other programs with Sonys HDD and Flash devices.

 

[guma]

My experience with Sonicstage was rather disapointing:
Very slow and unresponsive software, bloated UI and it somehow screwed up my windows installation (XP pro). Note that for most Sony players there are alternatives (like Sony's own mp3filemanager) so that you don't have to use Sonicstage.

 

[Bijl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sparky191 I've only used 3.2 and 3.3 with HiMD. No problesm on 3 different machines. Work/Home/Laptop. Not slickest piece of software but no real problems here. I only use it to transfer music or to rip to ATRAC. I wouldn't use it as my main player on the PC. DRM restrictions are greatly improved in 3.2/3.3 Usually the majority of complaints are about version 2x. You read of the odd person having problems with 3x over on MiniDisc.Org but not many. Try it, its a free download http://forums.minidisc.org/downloads/files.php?cat=2 You can use a couple of other programs with Sonys HDD and Flash devices.

I installed it and it won't even start up

.

 

[blessingx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by D-EJ915 A) it doesn't corrupt your hard drive(s) B) it is stable/doesn't restart your computer C) it does what it's intended to doesn't seem that bad to me!

D-EJ915, I think you need to raise your standards!

I'd nominate Microsoft Outlook as the continuing worst software ever (at least 'causing the most problems, most lost productivity, most emotional pain and sucking up the most time from IT departments and virus writers everywhere). SonicStage can't top that!