Updated firmware but SS still converts mp3s to atrac

[ross1012]

I've updated the firmware on my player and both the sonicstage and music transfer software to allow mp3s to be transferred to my player without being converted to atrac. However, when i transfer songs i check my players hdd through explorer and the songs are in .oma format. Why is this? Surely they should be .mp3? Thanks in advance for any help!

[Snakedragon]

as far as i have guessed, the VP is built to search files with certain names (I.e: wierd numbers followed by .oma)
When you transfer your MP3's, the file name only changes, not the format. thats why it is much faster to transfer the MP3's after the updated firmware.
I guess that sony originally didnt intend to put MP3's on the VP, so the file names had to be canged to oms files

[AgentSmith]

Don't worry, all tracks are changed to .oma extentions. For some reason Sony decided to lock any tracks transfered to the Vaio to .oma.

You can tell if sonic stage is converting tracks before transfer as it will show a percentage next to the track name on the transfer side". Track that are being converted to ATRAC take a long time as opposed to transfering .mp3 without the conversion

Example: My collection of about 5,000 tracks takes 10 hours to convert to ATRAC and transfer to the VAIO. Without any converting it takes around 3 hours.

[RomBiS]

well theres one question...
how did u manage to make the updated firmware work with the SS ?
which SS do u use?
have u had to initialize the VP before it worked ?

thanks!