Sometimes I really hate Sony...

Okay, so I have a PSP. And I use it to listen to music on, especially at night when I go to bed. Well, I had all kinds of music on my computer at one time from where I used to use iTunes (I had an iPod nano for like a week). So, when I got the PSP, I decided to put all those files onto my PSP. But at the time (this was like a year ago), the PSP did not support AAC (that being which most of my files were in a la iTunes). So instead I converted them to mp3's using iTunes, and then proceeded to use Sonic Stage to convert them to ATRAC3plus to transfer over to my PSP. Sure, I could have just done mp3, but ATRAC3plus offers MUCH better sound quality at low bit rates IMO, and I only have a 512MB MS Duo.

Now, fast forward about a year or so, and I find myself screwed by Sony. See, after having transferred all these files onto my PSP, I ended up reformatting my computer to Windows XP (previously Win2k) because of a virus. I figured that since all my music was on the PSP, I would be okay if I just reformatted without backing up almost a half gig of music. In iTunes, you would just re-sync your iPod and all would be okay. But to my dismay, Sonic Stage is not so nice. Instead, due to the encryption of ATRAC3plus, the files will not play on ANY computer besides the originating one. This does not exist for me anymore since the reformat. Now, I have all this music on my PSP that I can't get on my computer anymore. This is very annoying. Many of the CDs that these songs originated from are either gone now or are too scratched to play, thus being why I liked having the files on my hard disk. But now, I am forced to never be able to listen to any of these songs (songs that I own) ever again except on my PSP. I have been trying off an on for the past 6-8 months to try and find something that would allow me to play these files... but alas, I have come up with nothing. Not even SonicStage will allow me to play them. Frankly, I am furious with Sony over this. What really sucks is that ATRAC3 has very good quality IMHO, but I refuse to use the format ever again if I am forced to do this.

So basically, I was wondering if anyone knew of anything that could help me. Software, codecs... solutions... anything. I just wanna be able to get these songs back on my computer and listen to them again on something else besides my PSP.

 

That really sucks, just redownload all the music, half a gig is nothing.

 

Sony is a company that is unfortunately directionless and is slowly eating itself alive.

Anway back to topic. I would have strongly recommend that you stop converting your music library again as each conversion will result in a loss of audio quality. You really should re-rip your collection everytime you want to change formats.

 

Or, rip your collection once to a lossless format for archival purposes and transcode from that to whatever format you like.

 

Well, now I rip all my music to WMA in WMP. I can now play these back on any computer and on any PSP, so there will be no reason for me to go through this again.

 

As far as the security issue...

I too, own a PSP. My problem was the opposite of yours. I had iTunes music aswell and I wanted to load it onto my PSP. However, iTunes security prevented me from converting the music. So here is how I resolved this issue:

1) I burned the songs I wanted onto a CD.
2) I ripped the CD using Windows Media Player. (However, when I did this, I change a setting in WMP so that it converted it to WMA while it ripped it.)
3) The songs were now in WMA so the security was gone. So I then simply copied them onto my PSP.

How can this help you? Well, you can access the songs but not play them, right? Well if so, then burn them onto a rewritable CD (to save money) and then do what I did. Repeat this for countless times until you're done.

I have no idea if this will work, or if this is even what you were asking. I'm just giving it a shot, I hope you do too.

Matt

 

That is hardly Sony's fault, I am sorry but even with an Ipod and Itunes the same thing would happen if you didn't back up your music somewhere else. It is possible but it is a whole process.

You can hardly blame Sony for something when you took the time to convert it to a Sony specific format, then not backup and reformat.

it sucks but it isn't Sony's fault necessarily, if it was 20GB's i would have more pitty for you, but 500mb, come on.

 

Err? Ipod doesn't prevent you from playing your music on other computers.

And yes, I think you can blame Sony's ongoing crusade against consumer rights. If anything can be restricted, Sony will do it. If a standard exists, Sony will go against it with a proprietary and more restrictive format.

Just never ever use Sony's proprietary formats for anything. Betamax, UMD, ATRAC3, you name it. And yes, Blu-ray too, if you ask me.

 

Everybody has their own proprietary format so I don't blame them for that. Betamax in its day was a much better video format than VHS but they lost that war

Just to clarify unlike Apple, Sony owns an entire catalog of movies and music. The problem is that you have two competing interests that clash with each other where the media people do not want to encourage piracy and affect their bottom line and the hardware people who want to provide devices with features that is competitive and properly suited for today's digital consumer. These two sides cannot come to agreement and thus Sony lacks complete direction on this and has become very bogged down in its own internal wars.

Just this week I chose to spend $500 more on a HTIB rather than buy Sony. The reason was that it could not play all of the DVD formats I wanted and it frustrated me one time too many. I am happy to report that was money well spent.

 

Not everyone use their proprietary formats to shut out the customer and preventing free choice. (Apple does the same, however. I'm not too fond of Itunes either, but they don't have the same history of failed formats behind them as Sony does)

 

Personally, I do not like iTunes/iPod all that well either. But at least they do not prevent you from restoring the music files on your iPod to a new computer or a new version of iTunes. I know this personally. My friend ended up having a major problem with his computer and had to reformat, but as soon as he synced his iPod again everything was okay.

The thing is, even if I had backed up my music onto a CD or a spare partition, I would still be having the same problem. Sony restricts the encryption of the files to one computer... and that's it. That's just dumb.

 

Now days I'd rather not buy anything from Sony or Apple, as they both suck in my book. If you want to download music then use allofmp3.com. If you want to have a great(yes it is great) handheld system then get a NDS. Sony has good ideas, but they always destroy their products by trying to make them so 'antipiracy'. They'd make more money if they would lax thier business structure(In terms of piracy) and just make a product so it would work.

 

The one button mouse?
Lisa?
the Next?
iPod Shuffle?
No Apple Failures????

 

you have a problem, but mine was worse.
My psp was "bricked" which means only the light works....
thats not to fun

 

LOL, my bro did that too. Looks like you should have went with the NDS with the M3 and passcard 3, Can't brick it with that combo. That just comes back around to Sony making it so hard to mod their stuff, they have it so if you mod it then you can't use UMD's.

 

that was $200 down the drain, i had the ill emulators on that, and swf games and the whole thing, but then i took my battery out at the wrong time and by by psp

 

Ouch, Yeah Sony just has to big of a problem with piracy, they should just realize that if some one is going to do it then they will.. you can NOT stop them. Might as well put less effort into trying to stop them and just make your system better for everyone, in the end it would boost sales and in business thats a good thing. If you still want a good handheld I highly advise the NDS, its $300 total with a NDS lite(2 year warrenty from BustBuy) M3 lite, Passcard 3, and a 1 gig Micro SD card. All you need for your Handheld needs.

 

I'm heading out today to get an external hard drive. One of those smaller ones that don't need electricity. It's bad enough losing your contacts! Half a gig must of hurt.