Can someone please explain to me why I all get with Dana’s new and tres cool NetMD recorder is crap software with a Flash 5 frontend? This POS called SonicStage is supposed to allow the user to easily transfer music (MP3, CD, WAV, WMA) to a NetMD player. That’s the point: it’s supposed to do that. What you get is a different story. A cluttered interface, a gross insult to usability and an overall disappointing piece of software. I expected quality stuff from Sony; not just in the hardware, but in the software department as well.
(Don’t get me wrong, I just love the hardware.)
To my surprise I found a much more convenient and thought-thru solution in the free RealOne player. The player itself is quite okay, not perfect, admitted, also there’s quite a bunch of fluff noone really needs, but hey - it’s free. I had to install a plugin for Sony music devices support, and that was it. You mark a couple of songs, click “copy to Sony”, and they’ll show up in the NetMD pane, where I can easily copy them to the minidisc device using the USB cable. Good stuff.
And the RealOne also runs quite flawlessly and speedy on Dana’s PII 450, whereas the SonicStage flash app is a real bitch on that machine.
I’d never thought I’d ever say that, but: Real Networks 1, Sony 0.
