Bare with me as I'm a tech tard!

I got my brothers 6GB NW-A1000 Sony MP3 player, he needs me to put loads of music on it before he goes on a tour of Afganistan.

I can't seem to figure out how to put music on it, I have music stored in files on my computer, I have iTunes and know this won't work with it, but was wondering if sony had some form of media player, like iTunes, that would put the music on the MP3 player for you?

Help would be much appreciated as is a matter of some urgency, thanks chaps.

Seems the obvious but have you got the usb cable that come with the mp3 player.If so install that (should do it automaticly for you) then go to my computer and it should be installed on one of your drives.Then open the drive and drag the songs into the window . JOb done

If it's a Sony, you have to use sonicstage to put songs on it. Usually you get a sonicstage CD with the Walkman, but if not you can download it at http://musicstore.connect.com/custom/promos/download.html. Then just drag and drop music from iTunes (provided they're MP3s not AAC) to Sonicstage, then select transfer, choose your brother's MP3 player from the drop-down list and leave it to do its job.

Thanks for that everyone!

Just make sure you do it bob's way not cityfan's. Dragging the songs directly to the player without using SonicStage will store the songs on the player, but you wont be able to listen to them. It just works like an external hard drive if you do it that way.

I've had my 20gb NW-HD5 for years so if you need any more help just let me know.

OK heres the lowdown on the Sony Walkman Mp3 Payers.
They suck.
Usual Sony rules do not apply, too much time was spend on aesthetics and not enough on actualy use-ability.

SonicStage is one of the worst written programs ever.

Try this bad boy

http://digg.com/software/Drag_n_drop_alternative_to_Sony_s_SonicStage

Hope it works out for you John.

SonicStage beats the hell out of iTunes (assuming you use an up to date version, older versions are rubbish).

The players are actually very good too. True, SonicStage isn't a brilliant piece of software (still better than iTunes though), but once the songs are on the player they're pretty hard to beat. The sound quality is superior to iPods (especially with the new range of flash players), and they last a lot longer (I've had a NW-HD5 for over 3 years and my brother has had an older NW-HD3 for even longer, and both still work like new. I dont know of anyone who's had an iPod last that long). You can pretty much throw them at the wall and they will still work. Mine has even been dropped in the sink... no problem.

An added bonus is the Atrac3plus codec. It's superior to MP3 and AAC, which means you can use a lower bitrate to achieve the same sound quality, effectively increasing your storage capacity.

The only advantage Apple have over Sony is the 80GB and 160GB models.

Edited at 06:03 Tue 25/09/07 (BST)

What's wrong with a basic MP3 player???

Although Sony have just dropped Atrac and will be using MP3 format from next year.
"Boooo!"

Thanks for all the help people!

Shame that. I guess it just wasn't popular enough to be worthwhile keeping, or something like that.

Does make a little more sense to make players compatible with a wider range of formats than just Atrac.

Although it is funny that Apple did the same thing, albeit worse (I-tunes *spit*), but had a much better success. Funny old world.

mr_mcquiston You sound a bit old mate a basic mp3 player people have ipods phone walkmans psp's the lot.

I have an lg chocolate and that has 126MB internal memory that is the same size as a normal mp3 player so that proves a point.

get into the new age man.

512MB Mp3 player, enough for me.

And... oh yes, i do happen it have a phone with 512MB memory stick, quadband blah blah blah...

Welcome to the new age stealth.

Edited at 16:11 Mon 15/10/07 (BST)

The new age seems to cost a lot... if he has something that does what he wants then what is the reasoning behind splashing cash?

Great point!

Blu-ray as well...more expensive but does the same thing as a DVD...oh wait...picture quality...um, wow?