Shinji Ikeda

My suggestion is to use Simplified Chinese for both your Japanese and Chinese songs. The Chinese character set is larger than the Japanese, and it is possible to substitute the Japanese Kanji for a Simplified Chinese character. The major problem will be Hiragana and Katakana, which would complicate everything. Your setup would have to be Simplified Chinese. I hope you have patience and a good Kanji dictionary (hopefully an Electronic dictionary). It seems that the best way to go is Romaji, even though I despise it.

Technically the player is not left in disarray. It is the user who is left in disarray. It however, seem that many people would love to have the feature to remove songs once a playlist is removed. From a conceptual point of view it gets quite complicated. A track can be copied to the unit as part of an album. The same track can then be added to a playlist later, before the playlist is copied to the unit. The track is not recopied to the unit when the playlist is copied. The question is when the playlist is deleted when should the track be deleted?

Great point. I think it was groups that were used on previous versions of SonicStage, If I recall. The playlists and folder/directories/groups are actually different entities(data-structures). The current implementation of playlists allow tracks to be included on multiple playlist. It could be suspected that Sony removed groups and added playlists for the additional flexibility that playlists give the user. From complains that I have heard about playlists users want more flexibility in using them to manage their music. Such as this discussion about Auto Sync Auto Delete. Sony recently released a laptop using users input. It would be great if they would ask our opinion for how to design the replacement for SonicStage.

Hello, It seems that the optimal image size from album (cover) art is about 300x300 pixels. In SonicStage lower pixel rates seem to create blurred images. Has anyone experienced this? If not what image size are you using?

Hello, I do not know if this has happened to me. I can not remember if I had a similar strange occurrence when I edited a track on the NW-A800, by changing the album. It is advised to check the suspect track in SonicStage's library to see if the album art is question is attached. It is correct to assume that the problem is one track? Or is it several tracks?

So you are in Japan then? Or, are you using an English system. I am a little confused. - The songs that are being imported into SonicStage uses the Japanese character system. - What is ????? Are they the characters that are displayed in SonicStage. Could we have more information on the type of MP3 that you are importing, the default language of your system.

I have a combination of podcasts, music, videos and pictures. One video at 102 minutes is about 685 MB, the other 3 videos are about 4 minutes in total. The music files at 96kbp are about 258 files. However, I use lower bit rates than ANGRYBADGER for my music files. The total used is about 3.5 GB but is very deceptive, since under 1.5 GB is used for music. Total 823 audio files. It all depends on what you want to use it for. However, 4-8GB seems to be the sweet spot.

Yes, the problems you are having are bizarre. Some of the problems that you mentioned I have encounters. MP3 playlists can not be imported into SonicStage. Make sure that the files are MP3 audio files, and not playlists. However, you seem to not be doing this. SonicStage can be temperamental at times. - Download the MP3 to your harddrive (you have already done this) - Drag and drop the files into SonicStage (ensure that it is an MP3) "files cannot be found" - It is important that files are not moved, rename, or deleted without using SonicStage after being imported. Did you do this? - check that the track properties for the correct directory path, for the files that give you this error. - If the files are missing in the directory that SonicStage believe that they are in. Delete the tracks and reimport them. - There is another method, but it is more difficult to operate

The preference would be towards the NW-A800 series, but the Clix2 has a nice crisp interface. The screen size of Clix2 is about the same as the NW-A800 series. The strong support for Sony SQ over other players, but with some iRivers a close second. The Clix2 design is cleaner than the NW-A800 series, and I would say is sexier than the latter model. I am surprised that the Clix2 is not considered to be the best overall product, even better than that product I refuse to mention. However the Clix2 seems to be designed to be used with two hands. I do not own the Clix2, but I did consider it as my next purchase. I was turned off it by the battery life, and that it seemed to require two hands to operate.

Zizone has put up a good explanation about how playlist lists work. The good thing about playlist is that you can transfer the playlist, and SonicStage will only transfer songs in the playlist that are not on the NW-A800/S700/S600 series Network Walkmans. Deleting songs in SonicStage does not effect the Network Walkman. SonicStage has a setting that will delete tracks from your computer and SonicStage after it has been transferred. A more intelligent software to manage Network Walkmans would be good. Modifying the playlist view on the Network Walkman, so that the user can delete tracks if they want would be good. Of course having an additional prompt would be required. Deleting tracks via the trash bin, may not be very feasible for your uses. Let us know more about your experiences.

I am glad to hear that you were able to find your case. The NW-A800 has been out for a short time, and has not gotten traction yet. Thus, accessories are limited (outside of Sony's home market). It seems that it will be a successful product, but I suspect that it will not be number one. Sony is very capable of making after market products for their media players, and does not need to change manufacturers a 10% premium just to make their products work with Walkmans. It will take time for aftermarket accessories to be available for the NW-A800 series.

In the past Sony Canada has release less models and lower capacity in Canada. Sony USA phased out products quicker than it was possible to adapt. The NW-A600 series came out in the USA after the NW-E400/E500 series, and the NW-E400/E500 was promptly dropped. It seems Canada has become the beautiful step-sister, although American media industry is blaming Canada to be a copyright infringement haven. Sad as it may sound Canada is the second largest country in the world, but has a population at a tenth of America and a quarter of Japan. The market size for the country size does not exist. The strong Canadian dollar seems to have helped improve the situation. But, this is all speculation on my behalf as to why Canada has NW-A800 and US does not. I phone? Who do you call .

The NW-S706 is unique in that manner. It does not display enough pertinent information for the user. The NW-S700/S600 series has two modes, Group and Track. The group can be album or playlist. To change between group you need to pull the dial-job all the way out and turn it. This will take you to the previous group, next group, or the beginning of the current group. Pushing in the dial jog will display track. Pulling out the dial jog will display group (album or playlist). If you see a folder icon you are in group mode, which will only play songs in the group. Pressing the small button at the back of the unit will cycle through; group, repeat, group repeat, 1 repeat, repeat shuffle, repeat group shuffle, then normal. Make sure that the unit is in normal play back mode. If you have more question please ask.

I have been quite content with the EX71 until I got the NW-S706 with the NC022 headphones. I have used the EX71 once and will never use them again. The MDR-EX85 are about the same as the NC022, but without the Noise Cancellation design. Lulu thanks for the pictures and review.

The best suggestion is to get Noise Cancellation headphones. I really do not have problems with my headphones when doing my daily activities, when a passing train does destroy my enjoyment. I usually keep the volume at 12 to 16, since I find in peaceful places that the volume is perfect. However, I am using the MDR-EX85L model headphones. For jogging, I would agree with navsimpson, make sure that the Dynamic Normaliser is off.

There are advantages to using ATRAC over MP3 and visa versa. With the lower bit rate you can get more songs on the NW-A806, however at the higher bit rate you would get better sound quality. For music I suggest to use advance lossless over 128kbs. It would take up more space but the sound quality would be better. I would agree with dita on this issue.

I just noticed that v3.50 was available today. Funny thing I was looking for the new firmware just earlier this week.

That means that the videos are not H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Main Profile, but H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Baseline Profile. Interesting change from Sony, and of course welcomed. However, Image converter, as stated, can be used as an RSS reader.

Videos can not be downloaded using SonicStage. You can use Image Convert 3 which has a RSS reader to assist in downloading videos.

I am having a hard time figuring this one out. Sony has traditionally given, until the release of the NW-S700/S600 series, US priority over Canada when it comes to Walkman brand. That is by supplying US with a larger selection, through more colours and models. It could be because Walkmans have been doing poorly in US for various reason. US was Sony largest market outside of Japan. This may have changed.

You can find free video's on psp.connect.com found at the link below. http://psp.connect.com/ The video's range from trailers to web comic books. As the link suggests, these videos are designed for the PSP. Thus, they may have to be converted if your device does not support H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Main Profile. SonicStage is not required.

Let me apologize. The information that was posted was for those who would want more information about SonicStage 4.3 that I felt was lacking on other sites. Additional, this was designed to assist people in understanding how to manage their audio files. SonicStage uses tags instead of folders to orginize audio files. This is information that is required to get a clear understand of the application. Leaving this information would be unfair to those who found SonicStage include when they purchased their Network Walkman. Another people may also find this information useful. This is why I spent time testing and research how SonicStage works.

Hello dutchtrance, I am sorry to hear about the problems that you are having. Are you using the lastest version SonicStage 4.2/4.3. Unless ATRAC files are the only format that will be used you should be importing CD audio tracks as MP3 or AAC. You need to change your setting. TOOLS --> OPTIONS... --> CD drive setting +/- then CD importing. Select Select Format and change the format according to your preference. SonicStage is a great tool for updating Tags, but I have not found a way of exporting tags information. Once your MP3 files have been updated, you can drag-and-drop them into you compatible device.

The site that you found the firmware upgrade is Sony's Support site. This firmware upgrade was released on Friday May 25th. It address some issues that NW-A800 series owner have been complaining about. I have not had any problems though. With the 5-way button, the centre button five-directional has a multiple functions. It as a start and pause button. After about 60 seconds the NW-A806 turns off. The unit can be forced off using OPTION/PWR OFF, but holding the button for about 4-5 seconds. The delete audio files is added to tag files for deletion, then allowing SonicStage to automatically delete these. There seems to be more features missing from video play back other that being able to delete the files. Video files can be manually deleted without causing problems, however this is not the case with audio files. I am not aware of MP3 files, but with ATRAC files more than just the audio file is copied. Also, there are files that need updating. Only one or two files need to be removed for video files. Image Converter is not required to copy files to the NW-A800, but is the best for copying RSS video feeds. The difference between FULL and AUTO is in how the video is displayed. With FULL the video takes up the complete screen. This may result in black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. However, AUTO is not. I suspect with AUTO the video size on the screen is dependent on the video resolution.

It seems that Sony's headphone are more designed for using them with audio devices that are hanging around your neck. I would prefer if Sony's still made similar models of headphone that do not require the extension cord. The headphone sometimes feel unbalance at the point where the extension cord and headphones meet. This would be my only complaint.