256 MagicGate + mp3 + movie = "What the..."

[dougw]

Hi guys,

After doing the system update from Sony to read my 256m Pro Mem Stick (which I was very excited about at first), I found that Audio player will only play the first second of each song and will cycle through all the songs on the stick in this manner. I also found that the movie clips that I recorded using the NX plays in this fashion too. I tried formatting on my PC as well as formatting with the NX....any ideas?

If it isn't one thing, it's another....

[addict]

With Mem Stick Pro are you required to use the Sony-provided software to "check out" your MP3?

[dougw]

I tried using "SonicStage" (Sony's music library), but it will not reconize this card if though it has "MagicGate" all over it.
I can simply MSImport to my PC and copy the *.mp3's over to my
appropriate folder (MSAUDIO), but get the same results.

[addict]

weird...any chance the MP3s are Variable Bit-Rate (VBR)? If so, they won't work on the CLIE.

[TheMooch]

I got an MSX256 the other day. I had the issue at first where my NX would not recognize it at all. I ended up having to reinstall one of the updates that came out (the one with the AC3 fixes and stuff). After that, the stick was recognized, and it plays music and movies without issue. Works like a dream!

[Mr P]

See this thread



http://www.cliesource.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9397

[NakMan]

OpenMG Jukebox and SonicStage do not yet support MS Pro.

This is in addition to the problem with the raw format not being usable by AudioPlayer and MoviePlayer.

NakMan

[berliner]

I had the same exact problem. The fix is fairly simple. You need to reformat your card using your PC via MSImport. Format to FAT filing system. My Lexar 512 MS came out of the box in FAT format but for some reason reformatting using FAT worked. The Sony MSPro sticks supposedly have RAW format and changing them to FAT bypasses the need for an updated driver from Sony.

[n2ifp]

Originally posted by berliner
I had the same exact problem. The fix is fairly simple. You need to reformat your card using your PC via MSImport. Format to FAT filing system. My Lexar 512 MS came out of the box in FAT format but for some reason reformatting using FAT worked. The Sony MSPro sticks supposedly have RAW format and changing them to FAT bypasses the need for an updated driver from Sony.

That's not quite true, some users can't even get MS Import to recognize the MS Pro at all, hence they are not able to format it. All the MS Pro's come through RAW formatted. By reformatting the stick, it now won't be as efficient in it's storage of files. You'll use up more space with small files, and have less to spare. Speed will be reduced too! There were other issues too that escape me now. Yes, you can get it operational by reformatting to FAT, but it does NOT replace the driver.

Reformatting to FAT is only a temporary work around at best :eek:!

[Puppy]

So does it work right if you install all the newest drivers, WITHOUT doing wierd formating things?

And aren't regular memory sticks formated FAT16 to begin with? Even with a 1GB MS it shouldn't be that big of a deal to use FAT 16...

[berliner]

Originally posted by n2ifp


That's not quite true, some users can't even get MS Import to recognize the MS Pro at all, hence they are not able to format it. All the MS Pro's come through RAW formatted. By reformatting the stick, it now won't be as efficient in it's storage of files. You'll use up more space with small files, and have less to spare. Speed will be reduced too! There were other issues too that escape me now. Yes, you can get it operational by reformatting to FAT, but it does NOT replace the driver.

Reformatting to FAT is only a temporary work around at best :eek:!

Yes, I agree with you. I didn't mean to say "replace the need for a driver", but as a temporary solution until drivers are released. Thanks for the correction. Not sure why some pro sticks can't be recognized by MSImport.

[Puppy]

Oh, so official drivers aren't actually out yet? Are they really coming? Sony dosen't list the NX as being Memory Stick Pro compatible. REALLY too bad the compact flash slot dosen't work out of the box. I'd use a huge one of those for media, and a Memory Stick for programs.

[aChistu]

when the drivers do come out, how od we... unformat a FAT MSPro?

[GeekGod]

Originally posted by n2ifp


That's not quite true, some users can't even get MS Import to recognize the MS Pro at all, hence they are not able to format it. All the MS Pro's come through RAW formatted. By reformatting the stick, it now won't be as efficient in it's storage of files. You'll use up more space with small files, and have less to spare. Speed will be reduced too! There were other issues too that escape me now. Yes, you can get it operational by reformatting to FAT, but it does NOT replace the driver.

Reformatting to FAT is only a temporary work around at best :eek:!

Actually, MS Pro uses 32K Clusters, while regular MS uses 16K Clusters. 32K is less efficient and wastes more space.

And there won't be any speed difference either. On hard drives smaller clusters result on more file fragmentation, so you get reduced performace becuase the HD has to seek more. But seek times are negligable on a memory device so fragmentation does not affect performance. (In fact, it's technically impossible to defragment a flash memory device, but that's another story...)

Aloha, GG

[Puppy]

Actually, I'd like to hear about fragmentation on falsh memory (or in a Palm's internal memory) :) . I've always been curious about how that works, why they suppedly don't need to be defragmented.

[GeekGod]

Flash memory devices have a limited number of reliable write cycles. So the write controllers in these devices spread the data around so that all the addresses get similar useage (all the addresses get approximatley equal # of write cycles).

So when the computer, camera, etc. tells the card to write a block of data at location-X, the controller on the card puts it in the next location in its spread, not where the computer says or thinks.

You can put a card in a reader and use Windows to "defragment" the card, but what's actually happenning is the computer is thinking it's writing a block of data to the first "sector" and the memory controller is putting the data wherever it wants, and just telling the computer it's the first sector. Then the computer takes the next block of data and wants to write it to the 2nd "sector" and the controller again sticks it wherever it wants and tells the computer it is the 2nd sector. In reality the data is still spread out all over the card, but the computer thinks it's defragmented.

You have no real control over where the data is written on these devices. But it doesn't really matter because fragmentation is only really an issue on mechanical storage devices. Seek times on memory devices are so fast that fragmentation is really not an issue.

In fact, frequently defragging a flash memory device just needlessly uses up write cycles. And since flash memory can get slower with age (heavy use), frequent defragging could ultimately have a negative impact on performace.

In reality the number of write cycles in modern flash memory is so high it is very unlikely you could wear out a Memory Stick from heavy use, even if you tried.

Aloha, GG

PS: The Clie's internal program memory is not flash memory (except for the OS Flash ROM). It is dynamic RAM and does not have the problems or limitation of flash memory. It is MUCH faster, and does not degrade significantly with age or use. Of course, it can't remember anything after a power interuption either...

[Puppy]

Thanks for the info! That's really interesting. Not to mention useful, for anyone tempted to defragment it! :)

[n2ifp]

Originally posted by GeekGod
Flash memory devices have a limited number of reliable write cycles. So the write controllers in these devices spread the data around so that all the addresses get similar useage (all the addresses get approximatley equal # of write cycles).

So when the computer, camera, etc. tells the card to write a block of data at location-X, the controller on the card puts it in the next location in its spread, not where the computer says or thinks.

You can put a card in a reader and use Windows to "defragment" the card, but what's actually happenning is the computer is thinking it's writing a block of data to the first "sector" and the memory controller is putting the data wherever it wants, and just telling the computer it's the first sector. Then the computer takes the next block of data and wants to write it to the 2nd "sector" and the controller again sticks it wherever it wants and tells the computer it is the 2nd sector. In reality the data is still spread out all over the card, but the computer thinks it's defragmented.

You have no real control over where the data is written on these devices. But it doesn't really matter because fragmentation is only really an issue on mechanical storage devices. Seek times on memory devices are so fast that fragmentation is really not an issue.

In fact, frequently defragging a flash memory device just needlessly uses up write cycles. And since flash memory can get slower with age (heavy use), frequent defragging could ultimately have a negative impact on performace.

In reality the number of write cycles in modern flash memory is so high it is very unlikely you could wear out a Memory Stick from heavy use, even if you tried.

Aloha, GG

PS: The Clie's internal program memory is not flash memory (except for the OS Flash ROM). It is dynamic RAM and does not have the problems or limitation of flash memory. It is MUCH faster, and does not degrade significantly with age or use. Of course, it can't remember anything after a power interuption either...

Ah, very good, excellent!!!

The straight scoop :)!

[n2ifp]

Originally posted by Puppy
Oh, so official drivers aren't actually out yet? Are they really coming? Sony dosen't list the NX as being Memory Stick Pro compatible. REALLY too bad the compact flash slot dosen't work out of the box. I'd use a huge one of those for media, and a Memory Stick for programs.

The NX is compatible when the driver is released. The MS Pro driver has been released on the Asian perimeter. From what I understand it's not compatible with the other Clies. More drivers will be coming, just have to wait awhile longer.