mp3 players from Japan to England

beneficii · Post by **beneficii** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 3:50 am

Hi, I'm wondering about running an MP3 player (Sony) bought in Japan on an English version of Windows. The people at the place where it was being sold told me that it would be fine on a Japanese version of Windows, but that it is Japanese-only, implying that it wouldn't work on an English version of Windows. This device runs on USB and is charged by the USB port and my thinking is that since it connects to USB there shouldn't be a hardware issue with this, but perhaps there is something in the English version of Windows that prevents it from working? Perhaps one of y'all might know something about this? Thanks. ^-^

Post by **tepples** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 4:43 am

beneficii wrote:I'm wondering about running an MP3 player (Sony) bought in Japan on an English version of Windows. The people at the place where it was being sold told me that it would be fine on a Japanese version of Windows, but that it is Japanese-only, implying that it wouldn't work on an English version of Windows.

Knowing Sony, and how it applies region coding to all its movies, even those that have completed their worldwide theatrical run, there is probably code like this in the software's installer:

Code: Select all

if windows.language == en-US:
    errorMessage("Wrong region.");
    cancelInstallation();

This device runs on USB and is charged by the USB port and my thinking is that since it connects to USB there shouldn't be a hardware issue with this

Most MP3 players are "mass storage class" devices that appear as a hard drive to the PC and can play all .mp3 files in all folders on the player. The iPod is not, needing music files to be listed additionally in a second file, and it's possible that this is the same way.