Memory Sticks

[LockeEVP]

Can I still play MP3's on a normal purple mem stick? What's the difference between the normal kind and magic gate?

[nandaiyo]

Yup, you can use the normal purple ones with no problems. Just make sure your mp3s aren't VBR-encoded, and are at recommend settings of:

128kb/s
44.100Khz

here's a helpful quote I found online about the Magic Gate? sticks:

"What's the difference between a regular purple Memory Stick and the white MagicGate Memory Stick? The Magic Gate sticks are designed to do all the stuff a regular Memory Stick does, and in addition it supports ATRAC3 audio format and has strong copy protection. What does this mean to you? Unless you're one of the few folks using the ATRAC3 format (used by minidisc players), then stick to the standard purple sticks. They're much cheaper, easier to find and won't cause you any hardship when it comes to MP3's and copy protection."

[imadrin]

i have had trouble with the purple memory sticks... copyright issues. there's a way to solve it but i'm too lazy and i have about 8 mp3s i'd actually want to listen to. just note that some people have had problems.

[n2ifp]

What problems??? Never had a problem! Magic Gate is more expensive and is only required for Sony's proprietry ATRAC3 music format. You can use MP3's or run apps on either stick. Additionally 96.0kbps sounds fine to my ears and it takes up less space.

When recording MP3's, disable protection in the recording app.

Use 96.0kbps or higher

44.1 KHz sampling frequnecy

No VBR

No MP3-Pro

Again, been using MP3's for several years with no problem! Most problems users have, have been user generated.