Media Go
 | |
| Developer(s) | Sony Creative Software |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 2.8 (Build 303) |
| Operating system |
Windows XP SP3 (32-bit only) Windows Vista Windows 7 Windows 8 |
| Size | 100 MB |
| Available in | English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Italian, Korean, Chinese, Dutch, Portuguese, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Danish, and Russian |
| Type | Media player, photo management, podcast and PlayStation Store manager |
| License | Proprietary software, freeware |
| Website |
mediago |
Developed by Sony Network Entertainment, Media Go is a free multimedia management application that runs on Microsoft Windows. Media Go manages content on Sony family products including Sony Mobile phones, the PlayStation Portable, Walkman, and Sony Tablet. Similar to iTunes, Media Go can organize, play, and transfer a wide variety of content including videos, photos, music, and podcasts. Media Go also has a storefront that allows users to purchase movies and TV shows, PSP games, and PSP Comics. Media Go is a replacement for the Sony Creative Software "Media Manager" applications, used by the PlayStation Portable, Sony Ericsson and Walkman products in the past.
Features
Media Go has many features that can be used to manage and synchronise content. Advanced functionality allows music to be tagged with SensMe metadata, and support for track ratings and purchases that can be made from the PlayStation Store, Sony Ericsson's PlayNow Arena or select partner stores (such as BigPond Music, for Telstra customers). Where applicable, Media Go will also automatically download and/or convert certain content (e.g. a podcast) into a suitable format. Media Go can also purchase, backup, and restore PlayStation Portable (PSP) games and other content, including digital comics; the ability to shop for and purchase PSP content from the PlayStation Store without a PSP connected to the host computer is now supported in current versions of Media Go. As of 2014, the PlayStation Store is no longer available from Media Go.
Like most similar products, Media Go is also able to "rip" music from a CD and automatically download missing metadata (album artwork in particular) via Gracenote. As of 2011, Media Go cannot "rip" video from a commercial DVD or BD. Media Go also provides "drag from" behaviour: most multimedia files that are displayed can be dragged from the Media Go application to a Windows Explorer folder, an e-mail message or browser drop target. Like most competing programs though, one of Media Go's primary functions is as a computer multimedia organizer and player/jukebox, with a choice of large or compact/mini interface modes; Media Go also acts as a fully functional picture manager, similar to Microsoft's Windows Media Player.
While not supported officially, Media Go can also be used to manage media on many third-party devices including most cellular (mobile) telephones and USB-based multimedia playback devices - as third-party devices are not supported officially however, some content (such as videos) may not convert to a suitable format.
This software can 'watch' selected folders on a computer that a user selects, such as an iTunes folder and any changes in the designated folder will be matched in Media Go. The program also allows the user to manage imported content, so any changes made by the user (such as a change of a track name after using Gracenote) will then be saved so Media Go can properly find the newly edited file.
Version 2.2 introduced a new audio editing tool, which gives the user the ability to trim and join an audio file if desired.
One of Media Go's main advantages over competing media players is the ability to "Rip" into FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) meaning users can keep a copy of their CD on their computer with no quality loss.
Version history
Version 1.0, released in Spring, 2009, supported many popular Sony Ericsson cellular (mobile) telephone models of the time.
Version 1.1, released on June 2, 2009, added support for, and worked with all PlayStation Portable (PSP) models. New to Media Go was also the ability to integrate with Sony Computer Entertainment's PlayStation Store, Sony Ericsson's PlayNow Arena and in some cases, third-party stores (such as BigPond Music, for Telstra customers); the content and any supported third-party stores varies from country-to-country, however.
Version 1.1a, released on July 29, 2009, included several bug and stability fixes.
Version 1.2, released on October 1, 2009, added support for the PSP Go and additional Sony Ericsson cellular (mobile) telephone models, along with performance, metadata and stability enhancements.
Version 1.3, released on November 18, 2009, added support for several new Sony Ericsson cellular (mobile) telephones and Microsoft's then-new Windows 7 operating system; download enhancements, advanced encoding options and a new photo reel view. Additionally, Media Go added support for digital comics and media playlists, also allowing PlayStation Portable system software updates/upgrades, digital copies of (unprotected) DVDs or BDs to be transferred from Media Go to a PSP
Version 1.4, released on April 22, 2010, included several new enhancements such as adding support for new Sony Ericsson cellular (mobile) telephones (specifically, the Vivaz Pro/Kanna ("U8i"), Vivaz/Kurara ("U5i"), Elm/Elm Greenheart ("J10"), Hazel/Hazel Greenheart ("J20i") and Xperia X10 ("Xperia SO-01B")), the ability to download game extras and themes. Other changes included new icons and categories, enabling users to organise their library better. One of the biggest new features in the 1.4 release however, was the ability to purchase and download content from the PlayStation Store without a PSP connected to the host computer, queued downloads and the ability to play back standard definition video purchased from the PlayStation Store on the computer.
Version 1.5, released on June 28, 2010, added support for a few new devices from Sony Ericsson: the Xperia X10 mini ("E10i"), Xperia X10 mini Pro ("U20i") and Zylo. It also added the ability to play back videos purchased from the PlayStation Store as they download, and the ability to queue multiple items for download including PSP updates/upgrades, podcasts and other media purchased from the PlayStation Store; playlists already on the PSP can now be transferred to Media Go too.[1]
Version 1.5a, released on August 25, 2010, was a maintenance release with two areas of focus: improved support for the transfer of playlists containing Unicode (UTF-8) characters to Android-based Sony Ericsson cellular (mobile) telephones, and installer improvements for both Media Go and its companion components (including the PlayStation Network Downloader).
Version 1.6, released November 23, 2010, added support for creating customized user-media searches, which can be saved as library views. New photo features include crop, color adjust, red-eye fix, and export for easy sharing via e-mail or the Web. It also automatically retrieves album, artist, and artwork information from the Gracenote MusicID online service.
Version 1.7, released April 12, 2011, added support for Sony Ericsson Xperia arc, Xperia Play and Xperia neo devices. Improved device support for devices that play only audio. General improvements for better performance and faster response.[2]
Version 1.8, released August 2, 2011, added Qriocity Video support for Sony Ericsson Xperia phones, and general-purpose support for Walkman A860, S760, and E460 series devices.
Version 2.0, released October 11, 2011, includes a revamped the user interface, support for Sony Tablet, and an automated media backup/synchronization system. Additionally, general device support for the following family of Sony Ericsson handsets include: Xperia active, Live with Walkman, Xperia Play, Mix Walkman, Xperia ray.
Version 2.1, released April 3, 2012, Includes support to share photos and home videos to Facebook and YouTube. And subscribe to Podcasts using the redesigned Podcast directory.
Version 2.2, released 1 August 2012 includes the following main updates; appearance and operation enhancements, ability to sort audio files under new sorting details and a new audio editing feature. New devices are supported: Sony Xperia™ smartphones including tipo, tipo dual, miro, neo L, advance, go, GX, and SX and WALKMAN S series and E series models.
Version 2.3 added support for Windows 8 and the devices Xperia™ Acro S, AX, GX, J, SL, SX, T, TL, TX, V, and VL; F and S series Walkmans; and the Xperia™ tablet S.
Version 2.4, added support for video captions in the US and a further series of devices, which are the Xperia™ E, E dual, Z, VC and ZL; further W series Walkman phones; and the Xperia™ tablet Z.[3]
Version 2.5 added support for adding and displaying lyrics for music, edit home videos, high-resolution audio, format and bit rate conversions for audio and video content, new Xperia™ smartphones (Xperia™ C, Xperia™ M, Xperia™ Z Ultra, and Xperia™ feat. HATSUNE MIKU), and new WALKMAN E series models.
Version 2.6 added support for hi-resolution audio playback (uncompressed FLAC and DSD 5.6 MHz), improved closed-captioning, and support for new Sony Mobile devices.
References
- ↑ "Media Go version 1.4". TheSixthAxis.
- ↑ "Media Go version 1.7". Media Go.
- ↑ http://mediago.sony.com/enu/features