Sony Walkman NW-WS413 and Rythmebox -> Playlists and songorder

Question

I'm using Rhytmebox with above Sony Device. The device is showing up under "devices" in Rhythmbox after creating a file with the name .is_audio_player.

After I have created a playlist in Rhythmbox I select the playlist, mark and copy the whole songtracks and paste them on the walkman inside Rhythmbox. It creates a directory structure as following on the device:

Bandname -> Albums -> Tracks

Unfortunately it won't play the songs in the order I used when creating the playlist.

I already tried to switch the walkman as specified in the sony manual to "playlist mode", but that mode isn't present (maybe because of the process rhythmbox saves the files on the walkman). I also tried to save the playlist.m3u file to the MUSIC-Folder of my walkman, but the mode is still not present.

I can confirm that Sony told me that the playlist must be in the format .m3u and should be placed inside the MUSIC folder of the walkman.

This is the way to create playlists out of windows with Media Go provided by Sony: https://sony-eur-eu-de-web--eur.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/136682/knowledgebase/1

Can somebody tell me if there is a solution to this?

There's a xml file info.plist in the MAC Folder of the walkman. It's contents are:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>BuildMachineOSBuild</key>
    <string>11G63</string>
    <key>CFBundleDevelopmentRegion</key>
    <string>en</string>
    <key>CFBundleExecutable</key>
    <string>Help Guide Installer</string>
    <key>CFBundleIconFile</key>
    <string>HelpGuideInstaller.icns</string>
    <key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
    <string>Sony-Corporation.Help-Guide-Installer</string>
    <key>CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion</key>
    <string>6.0</string>
    <key>CFBundleName</key>
    <string>Help Guide Installer</string>
    <key>CFBundlePackageType</key>
    <string>APPL</string>
    <key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key>
    <string>1.2.10080</string>
    <key>CFBundleSignature</key>
    <string>????</string>
    <key>CFBundleVersion</key>
    <string>1</string>
    <key>DTCompiler</key>
    <string>com.apple.compilers.llvmgcc42</string>
    <key>DTPlatformBuild</key>
    <string>4H127</string>
    <key>DTPlatformVersion</key>
    <string>GM</string>
    <key>DTSDKBuild</key>
    <string>12C37</string>
    <key>DTSDKName</key>
    <string>macosx10.8</string>
    <key>DTXcode</key>
    <string>0460</string>
    <key>DTXcodeBuild</key>
    <string>4H127</string>
    <key>LSMinimumSystemVersion</key>
    <string>10.5</string>
    <key>NSHumanReadableCopyright</key>
    <string>Copyright (C) 2012, 2013 Sony Corporation</string>
    <key>NSMainNibFile</key>
    <string>MainMenu</string>
    <key>NSPrincipalClass</key>
    <string>NSApplication</string>
</dict>
</plist>

And there is a file "default-capability.xml" in the main folder:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<devices>
  <version>3.0</version>
  <device>
    <identification>
      <class>WALKMAN/Standard/AudioOnly</class>
      <model>NW-WS410 Series</model>
      <marketingname>WALKMAN NW-WS410 Series</marketingname>
      <vendor>Sony Corporation</vendor>
      <firmwareversion>1.02</firmwareversion> 
    </identification>
    <storage>
      <type>INTERNAL</type>
      <max-full>90</max-full>
    </storage>
    <audio> 
      <format id="WAV">
        <extension>wav</extension>
      </format>
      <format id="MP3">
        <extension>mp3</extension>
      </format>
      <format id="MP4">
        <extension>mp4</extension>
      </format>
      <format id="3GPP">
        <extension>3gp</extension>
      </format>
      <format id="M4A">
        <extension>m4a</extension>
      </format>
      <format id="Windows Media">
        <extension>wma</extension>
      </format>
    </audio>
    <audio-playlist> 
      <format id="m3u8">
        <extension>m3u</extension>
      </format>
    </audio-playlist>
    <filesystem>
      <path>
        <sound>\Music\</sound>
        <soundsources/>
        <feedsound/> 
      </path>
    </filesystem>
    <drm>
    </drm>
    <SensMe available="false" />
    <Kashipita available="false" />
  </device>
</devices>

Answer 1

Based on Rhytmebox documentation there are two kind of Playlist definitions as following.

You may need to have an Static Playlist and make sure Shuffling is off on Playlist.

Static Playlists

Static Playlists are playlists containing songs manually added from the Library by the user.

Creating a New Static Playlist

1. Press CTRL+N or select Music > Playlist > New Playlist
2. Type the name for the new playlist and press Enter
3. Drag and drop songs from the Library onto the playlist's name in the left pane. You may also add songs to the playlist by selecting which songs in the Library you wish to include, then right click on the selections, select Add to Playlist, and select the playlist to add the songs to. To delete songs from a playlist, select the songs in the playlist, then right click and select delete.

Automatic Playlists

Automatic Playlists are playlists that automatically include or exclude songs from the Library based on a user-defined set of criteria.

Creating a New Automatic Playlist

1. From the Music menu, select Playlist > New Automatic Playlist
2. Enter your desired playlist criteria using the drop down menus and text boxes, then select the New button
3. Click on the newly created playlist under Playlists in the Side Pane and give the playlist a name

To edit the playlist, either:

1. Right click on the playlist name and select Edit; or
2. Select the playlist, then under the Music menu, select Playlist > Edit

Then try Changing the playback order documented on Sony HelpGuide page from default playing by Folder to your desired Playlist play instead.

Please note that unfortunately Playlist should be created by Media Go as it's titled below which is that only available for Windows and OSX. So your expected play by List order cannot be achieved by Rhythmbox Playlists. You can create a Playlist on Windows/OSX if you have or Install Windows in VMware to create your list there and send it to your Walkman device.

Press and hold the button (1) on the left (L) side of your Walkman for longer than 3 seconds repeatedly. Each time you press and hold the button (1), the playback order changes as follows and voice guidance is heard.

Folder Mode (Normal)

Plays songs in the order set in folders. Folders are groups of songs shown in Windows Explorer or the Mac Finder.

Playlist Mode

Plays songs in the order set in playlists. Playlists are lists of songs to play back in a desired order created by using software such as Media Go (supplied) or Content Transfer. If there is no playlist in the memory, you cannot select this mode.

Album Mode

Plays songs in the order set in albums. Albums are groups of songs organized based on album information.