can a sony jukebox talk to a mac?

January 18, 2006 11:18 AM

Trying to use a Sony NW-HD3S with a G3 Mac. IS there any software or workaround to allow communication/ basic functionality -similar to what XNJB manages for Creative mp3 players- on a mac?

My friend just got gifted a G3 Mac. He has a Sony Atrac based jukebox 20gb and all mp3s need to be converted into atrac before they will play on the sony device. He is just competent with computers and Im not much better so any solution would need to be reasonably straightforward.

Any ideas or solutions would be welcome. Thanks

posted by ClanvidHorse to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

I don't think it can be done. As you said, Sony won't play any MP3's that aren't wrapped in their custom Atrac format, and the only way to do that is to use Sony's custom SonicStage software, which they only make available for Windows.

He'd have better luck selling his NW-HD3S and getting an MP3 player from anyone but Sony. An iPod would be the easiest to use with the Mac (but the latest models don't support Firewire, so you'd either want to get a used iPod or install a USB 2.0 card in your computer).
posted by designbot at 12:16 PM on January 18, 2006

Yeah, Sony's players take your source digital file and convert it into a destination file that works inside the DAP. They won't work with Macs.

There are a couple of alternative programs for this process, but AFAIK they're all windows apps.
posted by selfnoise at 12:39 PM on January 18, 2006