Who uses the Sony Reader for mp3's?

[safin]

Actually light instrumental is pretty good. Depends on the book though

[Frejus]

Is there a way to load and later play mp3 files in sequencial order
ie: 1-2-3-4-etc with the Sony 505 reader?

[NewbieNancy]

Frejus, I was wondering that myself. I want to use the mp3 function to block out ambient noise while reading. I can't seem to order the play sequence, so I've now unloaded 'singing' type music which really distracts me when I'm reading, and kept to classical. I managed to sync my 505 last night with Windows media player, then moved the music to a SD card (just dragged from the library) - it took hours to get the music to the 505 - finiky software didn't recognize the files. Does anyone know if you can create music files or sequence the order of the music?

[dhbailey]

Originally Posted by NewbieNancy

[snip]Does anyone know if you can create music files or sequence the order of the music?

What do you mean by "if you can create music files?" Of course you can, you can rip your CDs to mp3 files by many different means, many of which are free.

MP3 files have ID tags built into them which have song title, artist and album information in them. If you rip them yourself from your own CDs you can choose to leave those tags empty. Then the Reader should simply play them in sequence, so you can name the files with a numerical prefix, something like:
001 Layla.mp3

But if there is an IDtag with the song title in it, even if the file is labeled as above, if the IDtag says "Layla" it will be played near the start of the L song files, not as the first song.

You can get an MP3 tag editor and change the song titles in the tags to have a numerical prefix and get them to play in that sequence because that's how the Reader will list them.

[TMFWTX]

I don't anticipate ever playing an MP3 on my Reader. First, I have no MP3 music to play: I have everything in WMA, which is not supported on the Reader. Second, it just isn't my custom to listen and read at the same time, and if I really wanted to I've got a perfectly serviceable, tiny sandisk player to do it from. Third, to me it seems to defeat the nifty battery-saving features of the e-ink display. To me the inclusion of MP3 capability on the Reader is neither a positive nor a negative attribute. Now, I do think having photo capability is kind of dumb. Why would you want to browse through a collection of grayscale photos? But, then, I never have really seen the need to carry tons of photos around on every mobile device.

[ndskyz]

Originally Posted by Laurens

Even a high-quality MP3 (320kbps) exhibits this background hiss. It does depend on the type of music and volume level, though. My iPod doesn't have this problem with the same pair of (high-quality) Sennheiser in-ear plugs. But then again, that's a dedicated MP3 player, so it's not really a fair comparison.

Really? Music is a huge part of my life, and I typically will listen to music (classical or jazz) when reading. Habit I picked up from many nights on board Naval Vessels. I've found the 505 to be a decent MP3 player. On par to my MP3's players (too many to list) aside from not having Eq or Bass management, the MP3 functionality, of the 505 is very good in my book (no pun ). Just for reference I typically listen with my Sennheiser HD 280-pros (decent headphones) without an amp. But If Im really feeling like listening to some tunes. I'll break out my Ibasso P2 (www.ibasso.com) and my AKG K701's. This combo typically will reveal any shortcomings in any MP3 player, and while not CD/SACD/DVD-A quailty the MP3 player on the 505 is very good. IMO.

[rhadin]

I tried it yesterday. I converted a classical CD to MP3 first using Microsoft's Windows Media Player. Converting the 1 CD created massive files that when put on my Reader nearly used up all the available space (over 100 MB). I then tried converting using Nero. This time, when I used Nero's MP3Pro, the mp3 files came out to be half the size of the Media Player conversions.

The files played flawless and beautifully -- and this morning I removed them from my Sony. Bottom line was that they take up too much room on the Reader and the best I can expect is to convert 1.5 classical music CDs, which isn't enough variety for me to warrant taking up space on my Reader.

[FixB]

rhadin, maybe you'll want to use a sd card or a memory sitck to store your music ?

[ndskyz]

Originally Posted by FixB

rhadin, maybe you'll want to use a sd card or a memory sitck to store your music ?

+1 The only way to go. MP3's ripped at bit rate of 320, get pretty big real quick. I took my 512mb SD card out of my Zodiac (about 35 songs) popped it into the 505, and it found all the music (and pics ) on the card.

As for transferring music from the PC. The easiest way I've found to do it is, NEVER use MFG's software. If at all possible use a Multi Media card reader and explorer to drag and drop. Some times you might have to create a folder called "music" but with the MM card reader, Windoze sees it as a removable hard drive. Much easier than fighting with Sony's transfer/sync software.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by FixB

rhadin, maybe you'll want to use a sd card or a memory sitck to store your music ?

That's a good idea and one that passed me by in my old age