While initially pleased with my new Sony Walkman player, I quickly became puzzled and frustrated by the fact that it seemed impossible to add my own videos to the damn thing. Hours of web searching didn’t really help. Sony, in a rather fiendish move, provided no video conversion tools (or help) on the Walkman’s CD or their site, while promising an upcoming “deluxe” version of their Walkman Media Manager software supporting video transfer for 13 bucks. This is something that should have been included with the player for free. Other sites provide tutorials on converting video using Nero 8 – a program that retails for nearly $100. Fortunately, after much trial and error, I figured out what I was doing wrong.
I learned that installing Windows Media Player 11 from the included CD was essential. While I was able to access the player before installing it, support was kind of spotty. For example, I was unable to view how much space was left on the Walkman. And whenever I tried to place an mp4 file into the Video folder, I was prevented from doing so by an error message telling me that the file wasn’t supported. Once I installed Media Player 11, my Walkman became fully accessible, as if I’d just installed the device drivers. This got rid of the pesky error messages, thus freeing me to actually put files into the Video folder.
I could now add video files at will, but the Walkman is notoriously particular about what types of files it will actually play. As stated in the manual, it only supports the MP4 “memory stick” format, with the file extensions .mp4 and .m4v. Two video codecs are supported: H.264/AVC (with maximum bit rate of 768 k/sec), and MPEG-4 (with maximum bit rate of 2,500 k/sec). The maximum frame rate is 30 fps, the maximum resolution is 320×240, and the maximum supported file size is 2 Gigabytes.
There are a variety of conversion tools out there that will allow you to convert any type of video file to mp4 format, and allow you to tweak the aforementioned values. A plethora of options – some of them shareware and freeware – can be uncovered by doing a web search for “mp4 converter.” I have provided a link to a simple, free program that I had some success with under the “Resources” heading of this essay. I happened to already have a copy of Arc Soft Media Converter on my computer, and that worked flawlessly. These programs are all fairly straightforward. Creating workable files is a matter of tinkering with the options so that you end up with an .mp4 file with one of the two previously mentioned codecs, with a resolution of 320×240, and a frame rate of 30 fps. Once this is done and you have Media Player 11 installed, you can simply copy and paste the file into your Walkman’s Video folder, and it will show up on your Walkman with the rest of your videos. If the file won’t play, or looks grainy or distorted, experiment with different bit rates and parameters.
If you really want to be classy, you can even make thumbnails for the videos by creating a 160×120 .jpg file, and giving it the same name as the corresponding video, then dropping it in the Video folder. I hope this helps anyone having the same trouble I had. Happy listening – and viewing!
