MP3's become "corrupt files" when scanned too fast

[MegaManFan]

Has anybody else had this problem? This is about the third time this has happened to me now. The first I was listening to a podcast and I figured it was just a fluke, but this time I had accidentally dropped the controller next to my leg and when I sat up to grab it it jammed in a bunch of different buttons, presumably on the top and the sticks, and it started skipping through the file and then stopped. When I tried to reopen it under my music folder it said "this file is corrupted" so I had to delete it and now I'm re-downloading it. It's a minor annoyance but still I wonder how stable the memory is and whether I wouldn't lose downloaded games or saves over time.

[moycon]

Maybe you can only keep mp3s on the the drive for a set amount of time before they are unusable?

 

I dunno, I have no clue but figured I'd toss it out there.

[MegaManFan]

I've heard all sorts of whacky theories - unusable files, copy protection, anti-commercial skipping, but no actual explanations from anybody in charge at Sony or anywhere else. None of these theories make sense given I can listen to these MP3's on other digital products with none of the file corruption issues - iPod, pocket PC, PSP, hell even my Sony Vaio laptop that I bought just this year. Since two out of these four things are Sony products and don't corrupt MP3's, why does a PS3?

 

I will note that it only seems to affect MP3's longer than a half hour, just from a random sample of intentionally trying to corrupt them by fast-forwarding through them.

[jbanes]

I've heard all sorts of whacky theories - unusable files, copy protection, anti-commercial skipping, but no actual explanations from anybody in charge at Sony or anywhere else. None of these theories make sense given I can listen to these MP3's on other digital products with none of the file corruption issues - iPod, pocket PC, PSP, hell even my Sony Vaio laptop that I bought just this year. Since two out of these four things are Sony products and don't corrupt MP3's, why does a PS3?

(Pulls out excuse sheet)

 

*flip* *flip* *flip* *flip*

 

(Ah hah! A good challenge!)

 

"Ah, yes. Well, there's been some solar activity this morning, it always disrupts electronics..." I say, sweet as a sugar pie.

 

"Huh? But it was working for my friends?!"

 

"Yes, that's entirely possible, solar activity is very unpredictable in it's effects. Why last week, we had some files just dissappear from a guys account while he was working on it!"

 

"Really?"

 

"Straight Up! Hey, do you want me to check your account?"

 

"Yes please, I've got some important stuff in there!"

 

"Ok, what's your username..."

 

He tells me. Honestly, it's like shooting a fish in a barrel. Twice. With an Elephant Gun. At point blank range. In the head.

 

(Do I really need to tell you the clicky clicky bit?.. I think not)

 

"How many files are in your account?" I ask

 

"Um, well there should be about 20 in my thesis writeup, 10 or so with the data for it, and another 20 or so in a book that I'm writing"

 

"Hmmm. Well, I think we caught it just in time. You've still got 2 files left... .cshrc and .login"

 

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaggggggggghhhh!"

 

He sobs into the receiver a bit - it really turns my stomach.

 

"What can I do?" he sniffs

 

"Ok, do you have any of your stuff backed up on floppy?"

 

"Some, but it's weeks old!"

 

I fire up the bulk eraser.

 

"Ok" I say "How about I come out and load all that data onto your account pronto so you can get some work done?"

 

"That'd be great, but it's all at home" he wimpers. "I spose I'll just load it all in myself tonight"

 

"Sure. But remember what I said, solar flares are bad for disks and machines. Protect your disks from solar activity to prevent them losing their data"

 

"How do I do that? Wrap them in tin-foil?"

 

"NO! TIN FOIL'S THE WORST THING! YOU KNOW WHAT TIN FOIL DOES IN A MICROWAVE DON'T YOU?!"

 

"Yes.."

 

"Then don't use it. There's only one thing that protects disks from solar activity.."

 

"What's that?"

 

"MAGNETS! Wrap your disks up in a pillow case with lots of magnets - Solar Flares hate that"

 

"Wow! Thanks"

 

"No worries at all..."

[Classic Pac]

Has any one called Sony about this?

[MegaManFan]

Has any one called Sony about this?

 

I'm going to make a movie of this happening with my digital camera and if they don't respond to that when I post it in their forums I'll call somebody and sit on hold for as long as it takes - BUT the problem here is there's no way I want to have my PS3 exchanged or repaired since it works 100% perfectly in ALL aspects except for corrupting long MP3's and there are so many reports of problems out of the box I feel like it would be an unnecessary risk to give up a console I already have that can play Blu-Rays and video games and movies just fine.

[MegaManFan]

UPDATE - FWIW MP3's no longer seem to corrupt after downloading the latest revision of the firmware (1.3). I tried and tried like hell to capture it happening on film so I could post a YouTube video of it (see the PSOne emulation thread where I did record a failure to install Syphon Filter) but could not duplicate the error on any length file, short or long.