Re: SLINK-E QUESTIONS

I do not own a Slink-e, but after entering artist and album names for the 400 discs in my CDP-M555ES changer, I really wish I had bought one. I wanted to go through manual entry once so I knew how to control everything at the changer, but I had no idea how long it was going to take. I used Vistrax (a great shareware CDDB-enabled CD database program) to organize my collection, and then entered everything into my changer using a PC keyboard. Because you have to scroll through all of the artist names to assign an artist, it takes several minutes per disk for data entry. I had 400 disks, so I spent 15-20 hours (over the course of a week) entering data.

My changer has the same programming capabilities as yours, and I believe the following is true:

> After the song information is downloaded from CDDB, exactly what info can be >uploaded to my player?

As stated by other, only the information that you can enter at the front panel.

>2. Will my player be able to store artist name, cd title, and the song names?

Yes, Yes, and No. Only earlier 200 disc changers can store track names. Track names will be available (and displayed on your remote) only if the disc is CD-TEXT formatted. Out of my 400 discs, only 2 had CD-TEXT (a Ben Folds disc and an Oasis disc). I took one of my discs without CD-TEXT and was able to burn a CD-TEXT copy that worked fine. If you're willing to re-burn your whole collection this is an option.

>3. If so, is my player being "tricked" into thinking it's cd text encoded?

No. Track names won't be available on non-CD-TEXT discs.

>4. If all of this info can be uploaded to my 400 disc unit, will the data be >viewable on my 2-way lcd remote? Hopefully track names.

As stated by others, the remote will display the data as if you had entered it at the changer. No track names.

>5. Does Sony allow enough space to with-hold all of this data in the player?

Yes, because you aren't adding anyything that can't be entered at the front panel.

>6. If the data can be uploaded to my player, will it read that the cd is an >encoded cd text disc even though it is not? Therefore showing the song names on >the player screen?

No.

>9. As a general question to everyone that has purchased the slink-e and uses >the cdj, are you happy with it? If not, what are the major flaws you have with >it?

Having gone through the setup process without a slink-e, and having downloaded and evaluated CD-J, I'm ready to buy one.