Sony ATRAC NW-HD1 Problem

Hello,

I've a problem. A friend brought his Sony NW-HD1 to me today with laptop to help him put some new music onto the portable device, he needed the help as it turned out as the SonicStage software that Sony uses is truly horrible.

So here's the problem; he wiped his PC recently and so went the Sonic Stage from it, and you have to use SonicStage because its the ATRAC format that we're dealing with here. But the NW-HD1 will only work with the version of SonicStage that he was last using, pre-reinstalling XP, which is somewhere Ver 2.0 and Ver 3.3. Solution one (not the best though)

• Does anyone know where I can download previous specific versions of SonicStage?

Solution two:

• Does anyone know how I could take the raw data off the portable audio player and convert it back to normal files and songs.

At the moment its in the kind of encrypted format that I can't figure out which song is which, much in the same way that audio files look like on an iPod.

So there's the problem! If you need more details to help me figure out a solution please post 'em up and I'll do my best to answer. Hopefully we can do something for the guy, I feel for him as the device cost a fortune initially and is a lovely piece of hardware, but the software is like a noose!

Many thanks,
72oo

 

thier software was one of the reasons why i avoided sony music products in the first place....

i always had problems when i owned their minidisc players as well as an eclipse head unit in my car where i had to get a special memory stick reader just to put atrac music on memory sticks (with magic gate) so the deck would play it.

i dunno specifically about the problem u'r having, but my advise would be to tell your friend to return the sony and buy something non-sony.

 

I've got a NW-HD3 and atrac3/atrac3plus does sound better than .mp3 IMO. Anyways I don't think its possible to convert the files back to .mp3 but I did hear about a program a while ago that could but it would destroy the file name and tags. I'll dig around for it if you need it. Oh and what version of Sonic Stage/CP do you need? I've still got ver. 2.3 on the original CD.

 

Thanks for the replies, apparently I'm rightly f'd - not to put too fine a point on it. What I've heard just recently when you install the SonicStage program it creates a unique encryption key that will only work for that OS and program and that unique key has to be the one that works with audio device. So if you ever re-install you're f'd because Sony would like you to wipe the audio device and move all the songs back onto it. Of course re-installing also wipes all your files and now my friend would have to go look for CD's scattered all over the place since Christmas '04 - what a load of BULLSH^TE!!! Agrh.

72oo

 

Ya you have to use SonicStage you back up all your songs on a external storage device/hdd if you want to transfer to a new computer. =/ So if you have like 20GB of music...

 

If anyone else is looking for a solution to this try here.