Windows Media Player 10 & Syncing Songs

[VanHlebar]

Has anyone gotten WMP10 to move songs over to their ppc to listen to? I have protected media that I have not yet converted to MP3. I know I could do that, but I really thouht that I should be able to just sync songs from WMP10 on my laptop to my ppc that also has WMP10.

I have tried three ways:
1. On my Dell X50v connected via AS.
2. On my Samsung i730 connected via AS.
3. Putting my SD card into my card reader on my laptop.

#3 actually got me to be able to setup the sync process in WMP10, but it always ran into an unidentified error. :(

No wonder so many people complain about digital music. I really didn't have time tonight to convert these to mp3s but that is what I may have to do tomorrow to get it to work.

-Eric

[Sven Johannsen]

Yes I have gotton it to work. Protected MP3s (Napster) Dell X50v and onto a CF card in the X50 via AS. It must be done via AS, you can't do it via a card reader. The destination device must be DRM capable and a card reader isn't.

What format are your files in now? WMP10 on the PPC still only plays wmas and mp3s. I do not believe that that it will convert another file format with protection, though it will certainly convert unprotected files.

Forgive me, but how do you convert a DRM'd file to MP3. I would think the rights management would prevent that. (unless you write to audio CD and rip to MP3, in which case they are no longer protected files)

[ADBrown]

Ahh, the bullsh-t fest that is DRM. It makes me so glad that I never touch the stuff.

[VanHlebar]

Yes I have gotton it to work. Protected MP3s (Napster) Dell X50v and onto a CF card in the X50 via AS. It must be done via AS, you can't do it via a card reader. The destination device must be DRM capable and a card reader isn't.

What format are your files in now? WMP10 on the PPC still only plays wmas and mp3s. I do not believe that that it will convert another file format with protection, though it will certainly convert unprotected files.

These are WMAs that have been purchased either from MusicMatch.com or MSN Music. I have tried it with both my X50v and my i730 connected to the computer via AS both with a cradle and with Blue Tooth and I can not get it to work.

Forgive me, but how do you convert a DRM'd file to MP3. I would think the rights management would prevent that. (unless you write to audio CD and rip to MP3, in which case they are no longer protected files)

Yes, what I meant was that I usually create an audio CD first then I rip it back to my laptop in an mp3 format. This way I don't have to deal with this stuff, but last night I didn't want to do that. Looks like I am going to have to do this today.

Thanks,
-Eric

[Sven Johannsen]

These are WMAs that have been purchased either from MusicMatch.com or MSN Music. I have tried it with both my X50v and my i730 connected to the computer via AS both with a cradle and with Blue Tooth and I can not get it to work.

That should certainly work. At least with the cradle. I don't recall trying BT, but I know WiFi does not work. Even with AS connected, MP10 doesn't see the PPC.

I also found I couldn't make it work if the PPC wasn't partnered, i.e. a guest connection wouldn't work.

[snoop244]

Syncing DRM-protected music to my Axim x50v WMP10 seemed to work ok. The axim was on WM2003SE. Now my Audiovox 6700 only syncs half the songs (Napster to Go) that worked fine on the axim - and they pop and skip when played back.

Here is my setup:
-syncing from WMP10 on PC (Napster will not recognize PPC in their native app)
-AS4.1 is installed (not sure if it gets involved in syncing from WMP10)
-syncing to Audiovox/UTStarcom 6700 w. WM5, WMP10, 1Gig SanDisk Mini-SD

Anyone else having this problem? If WM5 and DRMed WMAs aren't working well together, then Microsoft has screwed up bigtime. This Napster To Go could be great, but its just about to push me back to Limewire.

S.

[packets]

Has anyone resolved this issue? I am having a problem sync my WM5...WMP10 with MSN Music to play songs on my SD card on a HP hx2795...

[snoop244]

Has anyone resolved this issue? I am having a problem sync my WM5...WMP10 with MSN Music to play songs on my SD card on a HP hx2795...

Incredibly, it seems, no. Either only a few of us are having this problem, or only a few of us actually pay for these "to go" type services to get our music. This is going to drive people back to P2P music in a hurry.

I did find a way to get the Napster app to recognize my device, finally. I think what I did was have WMP 10 running on the device when I started the Napster client. It recognized it as a valid Napster To Go client. I was about 80% on my syncing after that. Still not acceptable and it doesn't help you with MSN.

What is working best for me now is actually syncing through ActiveSync itself. You may have tried this already. Instead of actually using the Sync function in WMP 10 on the pc, I simply set up ActiveSync 4.1 to sync my media. Before this can work, you need to set up a playlist(s) and, in the properties, set it to automatically sync to your device. I don't have my ActiveSync pc accessible right now, but I think that is the gist of how it works. As long as Media syncing is enabled in your ActiveSync, it should give you better results. I have no clue why this works better for me, since it probably uses all the same components under the hood, but it does. I still get a bit of skipping and popping - but fewer "unable to sync" errors. Good luck.

S.

[Janak Parekh]

Incredibly, it seems, no. Either only a few of us are having this problem, or only a few of us actually pay for these "to go" type services to get our music. This is going to drive people back to P2P music in a hurry.
Not just you. ;) I'm having problems too on WM5 with Rhapsody-to-Go. I'm working on a frontpage article on the subject, and why I was ready to either tear my hair out or chuck the device out the window. I've gotten it to (mostly) work, but it's not easy, yet. The basic trick is to only sync up to about 15-25 tracks during any given ActiveSync session to get reliable results. 8O I'll try and get the article up next week.

From what I hear, this is an issue with DRM media only. Non-DRM media appears to be reliable. I'm trying to get an answer from MS, but this is a difficult time of year to get any such thing done.

What is working best for me now is actually syncing through ActiveSync itself. You may have tried this already. Instead of actually using the Sync function in WMP 10 on the pc, I simply set up ActiveSync 4.1 to sync my media.
Actually, if you keep on poking around, all that "Media Sync" checkbox does is to tell AS to fire up WMP10 and sync the content. If you don't have WMP10 set up for syncing the Media Sync does squat. I still get the same number of errors this way. Of course, YMMV because we're using different To-Go services.

--janak

[snoop244]

Not suprisingly, I guess, Vista + WMP11 resolves this. Finally, flawless synching of DRM music to my WM5 device. It no longer stops at the 15th song with license errors.

It's kind of stupid we have to wait for Vista for this to work. I'm using the latest build and I can only hope that the final build doesn't "break" this.

S.

[Janak Parekh]

Not suprisingly, I guess, Vista + WMP11 resolves this. Finally, flawless synching of DRM music to my WM5 device. It no longer stops at the 15th song with license errors.
8O That's nuts. :|

Thanks for the input. I'll ask my sources and see if I can get more data on this issue. I'm not sure I'll get a good answer, but if I do I'll report back.

--janak