Shinji Ikeda

So we have concluded that the sound is not coming out of the Audio Out jack on the BCR-NWU3. Is sound coming out of the mini-port on the NW-S706F, using the AC adapter setup?

So as it is charging when you press play nothing comes out of your speakers, even though the icon has change to a triangle from a square. Have you tried a spare set of headphone in the audio out jack, to see that the problem is not the speakers?

Welcome to ATRACLife. SonicStage can be quite picky on how the setting of various files. Please check these on the Kaiser Chiefs Album tracks in SonicStage. That Each track has been named exactly the same in relations to Artist and Album. That is that they have no extra spaces. That the cases of the Artist and the Album are identical . Check to see if each track has Album Art associated (I do not think this is required, but a good check). As suggested by tonyjaa you could just embed the Album Art directly into each track. However, I recommend using 300x300 or larger. Smaller images may seem to be blurry when viewed on the NW-A800 series player.

So it is correct to assume that you are using the NW-S706F as your ATRAC device with the BCR-NWU3. First ensure that they NW-S706F is turned off. Connect the DC cable into the port labeled DC IN 5V this is the smaller port, which is located to the far right of the BCR-NWU3. Connect the DC cable to the AC power adaptor. Ensure the the NW-S706F is secured in the BCR-NWU3. Now turn on the NW-S706F and let me know if the audio out is working. Please note; when the WM-PORT cable is connected to the BCR-NWU3 the audio out will not work.

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There was a second part to my response. Try to transfere a track to the player. Then try to reset your player.

If two ships pass each other in the night. How close must be to each other to notice each other? There was no point to my comment on Apple, other than some news is spread by word of mouth. For sites devoted to telling news about Sony products and ATRAC technology this is important news. I always viewed ATRACLife as a community that share information about Sony products and ATRAC technology. However, ATRACLife has always reported news not rumour. I would agree that it is curious as to why this is not covered by ATRACLife on the front-page. Thanks to you we are now covering this story. So what is your solution?

Unfortunately, this device has features that are not available outside of Japan. There are key technologies that are only available in certain regions. One-Seg, which is the key feature of this new player, is not available outside of Japan. Additionally, this play still supports SonicStage and ATRAC. Remember, there were those that stated that ATRAC was dead. A world-wide press release is not needed. One-Seg has been available in Japan for several years, and I suspect that it is the first time that many have heard of the technology. Apple's news is spread is spread by hype from Apple fan-boys tell how innovative the product. That is the meaning of my comment about Apple. Not that they do it better than others.

If Use Intelligent Features has been selected in SonicStage. All you need to do is transfer a track to your media device and everything should be okay.

Adding WIFI would be a great feature to change one-seg for outside of Japan. It is possible for Sony to make a model that supports Location Free, but I suspect that it will be available in Japan first. One-seg is very popular in Japan and this feature is included with many cell phones. Sony has already released a portable One-Seg player in Japan. It still has not become a big news item outside of Japan. If this was by Apple it would be huge news.

Unlike the NW-A800/NWZ-A810 series this new NW-A910 series looks bulky and not as sexy. I was hoping from them to add a 16GB model to the NW-A800/NWZ-A810 series. I will wait until I have one in hand before I make my final assessment.

I will have to take a closer look. This player supports one-seg television, which is only used in Japan. Apple has a lock on overpricing their products then drop it significantly two months later. I am unsure about the current range of iPod, but they only displayed 320x240. I doubt this has changed. So supporting 640x480 means that it needs to be scaled down. So either the video needs to be scaled down on the media player, or on a computer. The former will effect battery life of the media player.

Nav, Thanks for the notice about the positive review. I used to be a big fan of CNET when it was not mainstream. The core readership of CNET are tech-savvy. The rest believe that they are. Yes, I would agree that a mainstream technology site giving a positive review for something that is not an iPod/iPhone is a good thing. However, I have seen the quality of reporting of many mainstream technology media drop from when they became more popular. General, I do not consider myself to be tech-savvy, but I am not a sheep either. I have read reviews on different technology site, and too many are opinionated. There is absolutely nothing wrong with someone giving their opinion, but I dislike reading that in reviews. Each manufacturer makes considerations on what to include and exclude when designing a product. A good reviewer should be able to determine what these are. Additionally, they should be able to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this. The "proprietary dock connection" is a design issue. Advantage of a standard USB connection is that if you lose it you can find it easy. However, this restricts the design of the device. With proprietary connection the manufacturer can make accessories for this device. Unfortunately, the readership generally do not care.

When I was referring to a clean installation I meant for you do was more dramatic. You may have to a clean installation of your computer. This means reinstalling most of you software, including your operation system. However, you should do some first. You would need to run an anti-virus software and spyware scanner first on your computer. Please ensure that both software is updated, and that when running the software that you are not connected to the internet.

My question is why do you need a play list that is 1000 tracks. I understand your frustration. The NW-A3000 does not support this feature. In the manual for the NW-A3000(GB) on page 81 in the Trouble Shooting section, this issue is addressed. Under Audio Data cannot be transferred to the player from your computer, it states that ...are trying to transfer a playlist that contains over 999 tracks. The problem is a limitation on the number of audio files that can be transfered to the player. SonicStage however does allow playlists to contain 8192 tracks. The solution is to reduce the size of the playlist so that they are less than 100 tracks. A technical note on 8192, I understand why SonicStage uses this limit.

I thought the tech-savvy market did their own research. 8/10. I will give CNET credit for making a well balance review. CNET has a significant pull on a larger market.

Is this a joke. Why do you need playlists so large?

There have been tips only. There have been no offical announcements. With tips it is difficult to confirm or deny the rumour. I am one of those that will take a wait and see approach. The confusion seems to have risen from reported conflicting reports from Sony. The latest report states that no new firmware is coming. Only Sony knows the definite answer.

juli has made a good suggestion. I would try it. The only suggest is to make a clean installation of SonicStage.

If the model is NWZ then it does not support ATRAC. If the model is NW then it supports ATRAC. It is that simple. Sony will continue to support ATRAC is Japan and maybe some other regions. It is more of the media and blogs that stipulated that SonicStage was dead and not Sony. Only in those regions that Sony announced that drog-and-drop will replace SonicStage will ATRAC was no long be supported. ATRAC need SonicStage and is still used with audio equipment that uses MiniDisc techology. The model being discussed is the NW-S710 series and the NWZ-S710 series has not been announced. The NW-S710 and NW-S610 will be released only in Japan. I am unaware of other regions. Regions getting the new NWZ Network Walkman Zero series also include Australia.

Yes, the BCR-NWU3 will work in Australia. Strange as it may seem you may require to purchase an adapter/converter to allow it to work in your country. This is only needed it you plan on using the AC adapter.

Yes it is possible to use the NW-S706F as an external storage, but only the NWZ-S710 series work with Windows Media Player. Actually, only the NWZ Network Walkman series work with drag-and-drop. The NW Network Walkman series require SonicStage to transfer audio tracks to the player. The NW-S706F does not sync with WMP.

As stated by Juli, the headphone include with the NWZ-A810 series are noise isolation headphone. If you are concerned about blocking out sound in a noisy environment you will need to get noise cancellation headphone. Noise isolation headphones do not work in noisy environment. The design of the headphone used with the correct size silicon earbud, can work well in reducing external noise. However, if your major concern is to reduce noise then you are better with getting a player with built-in noise cancellation or dedicated noise cancellation headphone. My advice is to go to your local Electronics store and try some noise cancellation headphones. Noise cancellation headphones start around $49.00 US.

I am unaware of other solutions than SonicStage, but others will add their comments. I would suggest to change the settings in SonicStage so that your MP3 are not transcoded to ATRAC. SonicStage only keeps a reference to the MP3s on your computer in the SonicStage library.

I had the same experience with the MDR-EX71 when I first purchased it. What was the most noticeable is that it reduces sound leakage. With the Noise cancellation technology surround sounds are sampled and canceled. The technology is not perfect, since it required to sample external sounds then created an inverse wave. In simple terms the technology can only cancel simple sounds that are repeatative. However, the technology works quite well. The sound should be different between noise cancellation headphone and other headphone. Artifacts will be added, and under extreme circumstances the noise will be amplified (this only is encountered in very windy environments). The real difference is that DAP with built-in Noise Cancellation eliminates the need to worry if the noise cancellation head phone are full charged. It should be noted that several manufacturers make noise cancellation headphones, which include Sony, Targus and Boise.