MP3 questions

[JRT]

So I recently upgraded to an SJ-33 primarily so I can listen to MP3's, but I know nothing about MP3's. Following advice on this forum I downloaded MusicMatch 7.5 and have successfully made MP3's from some CD's and I've copied them onto a memory stick and listened to them on my Clie, but I've got some questions.

1. I primarily will use the Clie on airplanes so optimum sound quality is not all that important given the background noise level. I've noticed that sampling at 80 kbps allows me to get roughly 4 typical CD's on one 128 mb stick rather than only 3 at 96 kbps. But MatchMaker will only sample at 22 kHz and 80 kbps which the Clie will not read. How do I sample at 80 kbps and 44 kHz, which I understand will be compatible?

2. Once I put the tracks into the MSAudio folder in the stick, and then open AudioPlayer, it rearranges the tracks for no apparent reason. I guess I'm old fashioned but I just want to listen to the tracks in the intended order from the original CD. I've tried using Mp3Mgr too, but it puts them in alphabetical order and ignors the track numbers. I can then manually rearrange them back into the intended order but it's a pain and I prefer using AudioPlayer since it has the jogwheel volume function. How do I simply get the tracks onto the stick and into AudioPlayer in the intended order? And segregated by CD title?

3. In the AudioPlayer pulldown menu Tools, there are three About options: Memory Stick, Album and Track. I understand the Memory Sick and Track option but what is the Album option? All it appears to do is give information about the music on the stick without regard to any Albums. What am I missing here?

I've been a Palm user from the very first release and this is my fourth PDA and second Sony. For my purposes the SJ-33 is ideal. I couldn't be happier.

Thanks for the help.

[bertradio]

I also recently moved from Palm to SJ33 and use the MP3 player a lot.

In answer to your questions:

1. The Clie seems to be very particular about sampling rate and other characteristics of MP3's. If Music Jukebox won't give you the rate you want, you might need to use and audio converter. There are many available on the net. I use my SJ33 on planes a lot as well. At 96 bps I get around 3 hours of music.

2. The MP3 player seems to only want to play the tracks in the order in which they are in the directory on the stick. If you use MS Export to get the MP3's to the stick, they go on in the order in which you drag them (you can drag from Explorer into MS Export). If you use drag and drop from 2 Explorer windows (the MS comes up as a removeable drive) the files don't transfer in any particular order. The only way you can arrange tracks to play is to use the MP3 album program. Once you make an album you can drag the songs to create any order you want. But then you have to play them through the album program which isn't as nice as the MP3 player.

3. I can't figure that one out either. Seems to just give you the total time of all the tracks on the stick.

After messing with the same problem you are, I decided the easiest way to get tracks in the order I want is to use MS Export and an Explorer window. I just drag the tracks from the Explorer window into MS Export in the order I want them. Not wonderful, but it works.

Bert

2.

[davisroan]

http://www.dbpoweramp.com

A very great FREE audio converter, right-click and choose your bitrate, that's all!!

[elf]

The AudioPlayer does have some short-comings and could use improvement.

AJVMP3 (http://ajvmp3.paradise.net.nz/) is an alternative MP3 player that does honour track and cueing information but is has other shortcomings. If track order is important to you, then I suggest you try it.

[Mastervtec]

The lowest bit rate the clie will play is 96kbps.

[Mastervtec]

~~Unless you use a magicgate memory stick, then you have to deal with copyright protection problems.

[[CK]]

Originally posted by bertradio
1. The Clie seems to be very particular about sampling rate and other characteristics of MP3's. If Music Jukebox won't give you the rate you want, you might need to use and audio converter.
I would strongly advise against converting MP3s to different sample rates. This is the best way to introduce artifacts into your music. There's quite a difference between not caring too much about sound quality and putting up with awful sound, which is what sample rate conversion will get you.

JRT: If music match is not doing what you want, grab the following:

EAC (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/) - Rips CDs to disk.
LAME (http://www.hot.ee/smpman/mp3/lame393.zip) - Encodes MP3s at any bitrate or sample rate you want. Also the best encoder IMO.

LAME plugs into EAC to give you single click ripping and encoding, and all the other features you get with the commercial packages, but it's all free. Can't really ask for better than that.

[[CK]]

Originally posted by Mastervtec
The lowest bit rate the clie will play is 96kbps.
Sorry, but this is completely wrong. I have 64Kbps mono MP3s playing quite happily on my clié (at 25MB per hour). I believe the lowest you can get to is 32Kbps, depending on the model of clié you have.
Originally posted by Mastervtec
~~Unless you use a magicgate memory stick, then you have to deal with copyright protection problems.
This is also incorrect. If you use MSImport, you can copy files directly to a Magic Gate stick and an ordinary purple MS without any copy protection issues whatsoever.

[Mastervtec]

Originally posted by [CK]

Sorry, but this is completely wrong. I have 64Kbps mono MP3s playing quite happily on my clié (at 25MB per hour). I believe the lowest you can get to is 32Kbps, depending on the model of clié you have.
Quoting from the clie add-on application guide:
"Audio Player Ver. 2.2 supports MP3 files that meet the following specifications.
-Format: MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3)
-Sampling Frequency: 44.1 kHz
-Bit Rate: 32-256 kbps
-File Extension: .mp3 or .rmp
NOTE
Depending on the audio file you may not be able to play some files even if they meet all the above specifications."

SO, you're files are special, and you are the first one I have heard of sampling at 64kbps on a purple memory stick!!


Originally posted by [CK]

This is also incorrect. If you use MSImport, you can copy files directly to a Magic Gate stick and an ordinary purple MS without any copy protection issues whatsoever.

Hello, that is the difference with MagicGate, (again, quoting directly from the clie add-on application guide):

"There are two types of Memory Stick media:

-MagicGate Memory Stick media (hereinafter referred to as MG Memory Stick)(color:white) that IS equipped with "MagicGate" copyright protection technology.

-Memory Stick media (color: purple) that IS NOT equipped with "MagicGate" copyright protection technology."


Before you post such a blunt dumbA$$ remark, read the Application Guide!!

[[CK]]

Originally posted by Mastervtec

Quoting from the clie add-on application guide:
-Bit Rate: 32-256 kbps
What does that say? Here let me blow it up for you in case you missed that small type while you were busy jumping down my throat:

-Bit Rate: 32-256 kbps

Now, I don't know about you, but last time I checked, 64 was a number between 32 and 256.

Bzzzt. You lose round one. Let's move on for the booby prize:
Originally posted by Mastervtec
-MagicGate Memory Stick media (hereinafter referred to as MG Memory Stick)(color:white) that IS equipped with "MagicGate" copyright protection technology.

-Memory Stick media (color: purple) that IS NOT equipped with "MagicGate" copyright protection technology."
Uhhh... where does it say you can't copy files straight to a Magic Gate stick?

Here's a hint: --> It doesn't!

Magic Gate sticks are exactly the same as purple memory sticks, except they have additional hardware encryption circutry, which is only utilized when you want to read or write encrypted files.

MS Import is quite capable of copying MP3 files to a Magic Gate stick, and any MP3 player is quite capable of playing them.

The only thing you need Magic Gate sticks for is if you choose to use Sony's stupid encrypted music format.

Awwww... looks like you miss out on the booby prize as well, Mastervtec. Now who's the dumbass?

[Mastervtec]

96 kbps IS THE LOWEST RATE FOR A PURPLE MEMORY STICK, AS FAR AS SJ33 AND T665 ARE CONCERNED..SO, TO HELL WITH YOU ON THAT ONE!!

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by [DUMBASS CK]

Magic Gate sticks are exactly the same as purple memory sticks, except they have additional hardware encryption circutry, which is only utilized when you want to read or write encrypted files. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOT ENCRYPTED FILE HARDWARE!! COPYRIGHT PROTECTION
AGAIN, READ THE APPLICATION GUIDE, YOU DON'T DECIDE WHEN THE COPYRIGHT PROTECTION IS USED!!!

LOOKS LIKE THE DUMBASS LOOSES AGAIN!!

[[CK]]

Dude.....


You obviously have issues dealing with the truth. You even proved my point in your own post yet you can't even see that.


Feel free to rant by yourself. I'm not coming back to read any more of your shit.

[Mastervtec]

Originally posted by [DUMBASS CK]
Uhhh... where does it say you can't copy files straight to a Magic Gate stick?

UHHHH.......that is not what is being discussed here~~ Lemme get you up to speed: Here we are discussing how the "MagicGate" memory sticks have a copyright protection built in, NOT whether files can copied straight to the MagicGate" memory stick, of course they can!!


Originally posted by [DUMBASS CK]

[b]MS Import is quite capable of copying MP3 files to a Magic Gate stick, and any MP3 player is quite capable of playing them.

Once again dear invalid, this is not what is being discussed.

Originally posted by [DUMBASS CK]

The only thing you need Magic Gate sticks for is if you choose to use Sony's stupid encrypted music format.

Not only for sony's atrac3 format, but for the copyright protection also.
Originally posted by [DUMBASS CK]

Awwww... looks like you miss out on the booby prize as well, Mastervtec. Now who's the dumbass?

Actually, I won, no battle.

[Pimp-X]

[CK] 1, Mastervtec 0.

Come on man, what CK is saying is right on the money, and you're doing your best to sidestep every bit of truth, instead resorting to slagging him off. Get a grip.

[Mastervtec]

You are SO smart

[JRT]

Thanks for all the suggestions and sideshow entertainment. Isn't freedom of speech just wonderful.

I have tried using MSImport and an explorer window to copy the MP3 files onto the MS and most of the time it preserves the order but not always. Ocassionally, even though the tracks look properly ordered in the PC window and on the MS, AudioPlayer takes a few of the transfered tracks and moves them into the middle of the track numbers which fouls up the order.

I downloaded dbpoweramp, EAC and LAME. EAC will not rip at anything less than 96 kbps using LAME - at least I couldn't figure out how. Dbpoweramp would convert my existing MP3's (using LAME from what I can tell) to 80 kpbs and 44 kHz. But when I copy them onto my purple MS the Clie says they are 128 kpbs Mono files and refuses to open them. So, I'm back to where I started.

Any futher ideas out there?

[[CK]]

What do you get with this (http://ck.paradise.net.nz/clie/441-32.mp3) file?

[Gnosh]

I have no clue about the sampling but you are way off on the purple vs white memory stick issue MasterVTEC.

Might want to look it up a bit more.

Basically...a white memory stick can do everything a purple one can and more. The only thing a white memory stick can't do is play music that is coded with the SDMI copy-protection that is illegally copied. A purple memory stick can't play any SDMI files at all. If you are creating your MP3s or downloading from websources that aren't using SDMI then you will never realize the difference. At the lowest lvl the the whole SDMI thing is an encryption scheme with a watermark - right now players aren't restricted to SDMI only content.


More Info:
http://www.sdmi.org/FAQ.htm
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-230756.html


From Sony:
Purple Memory Stick is Sony's original Memory Stick. You can access, record and share any form of personal digital data with this Stick, using any Memory Stick compatible product (except MS Walkman). This includes movies, still shots, voice files and e-mails.

New white MagicGate Memory Stick complies with the international Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI).

MagicGate Memory Stick can handle both your copyright- protected and non-protected content. This means you can use it in any MS compatible product for text, music, PC data, MPEG movies, voice and photos, and you must use MagicGate to download copyright-protected music from the internet.

[mbotke]

I'm ripping my CD's using MP3 workshop at 44 some odd
kHz and 64kbs - regular MS (purple) and Pro works fine. Before
the first patch I about threw this thing out the window though.
I'm using my CF driver to get the $!%^@%^^ files to my MS
though because I'm running NT...love the CF driver