First Report on Use with the CX220

Here are some observations from using the slink-e V2 with a Sony CX-220:

1. The player is sometimes idenitified as unknown type 6B, at other times it is idenitifed as a CX240. I would think the internal electronics are similar if not exactly the same. I am using the short mono cable that came with the kit so it is interesting that the results vary. Haven't looked at the trace on this yet.

2. Control functions I have tested appear to work except pause and stop have about a 5% failure rate. In all observed case the trace shows the command was sent but not acknowledged. Starting from pause never fails. Appears collsions with the time marks from the player are sometimes not detected or that there is a timing window where the player will not recognize a command after sending a message. This leaves the CDJ and slink-e in inconsistant states where CDJ think the player is stopped or paused when actually it is still running. Since the player seems to send a response message to most commands one way to fix this is to look for commands to be acknowledged by the player within a specified time. I realize there may be some difficulties such as adding a timeout function and the fact that there could be multiple responses to a command depending on the player current state. Commands could be added to the Slink-e itself to make it act as a timer for the PC program.

3. When deleting the first item in a play list the next one is sometimes delete. (I've seen this reported before.)

4. Since this program is not intented as a music collection management database a function to export the CD library some form that could be imported by other programs would be very much appreciated. Either the old cdplayer.ini or preferably the Win98 deluxe player although I haven't looked at its format. This way you won't be asked (as often) to add all the various reports people want. Importing would also be nice since it now often necessary to edit titles, etc in two places.

Anyway, I having a great time with it. It makes setting up a play list for recording to MD much easier. Sony's MD recorders have a sync record mode that automatically pauses during silence so the time required to find the next track is not an issue.

Enjoy your vacation.