dskywalker

Well I've been using a program called "convertz" . It does batch conversions of mp3 tags from simplified chinese to traditional chinese and vice versa (remember to use unicode). This method works for both vaio and hd5. However, some characters (very few) still don't show up right and it still annoys the hell out of me. I'm a perfectionist as my friend calls me (high maintenance). ipod supports all chinese characters, and it also sorts song titles accordingly to pinyin. In this aspect, it's superior than the hd5 that i own. *ignore this msg if you can only read english and dont give a jack about chinese*

I had both and I decided to keep hd5 for its smaller form factor and longer battery life. One thing that made me really disappointed about vaio pocket is that its battery gets drained even when left unused (like the ipod). Otherwise, both players are quite solid.

I'm in no way a sony fanboy. But for some reason I've always ended up using sony stuff. My first cd-player, my vaio notebook, vaio pocket, and now the hd5. I love my hd5 by the way. To me, sony mp3 player is always somewhat technically advance, but never really appeal (or well-known) to general public. For example, atrac. It's been proven to be much better than mp3 at the same bit rate. But most average consumers wont appreciate the format and feel frustrated that they have to convert their mp3 collections into something else. Not many realizes that the 20G sony player could actually be a 30G-40G player! Another example, the concept of "unit" on hd5. I think it's a wonderful feature that's not in iPod. But I hardly hear ppl talk about it. About the line-out sound quality, I think vaio pocket and hd5 are on par with the iPod. I've tested all the units with my HD-600 and supermacro v3 headamp. Not much difference there. Honestly, I don't like the looks of the new sony network walkmans much. But maybe, sony will surpise me with some "hidden" advance technologies and features that not many will know about. And that's the reason why I may still "stick" with sony.

I've used my HD5 for about 2 weeks. The battery lasts for about a week, with about 1-2 hours listening per day. My volume is at about 60%, I changes track very frequently, and I have backlight on (not all the time, but only when im touching the buttons of couse). Songs are mostly mp3s (lame extreme encoded), with a few atrac albums. I also uses line out quite a bit. I used to own a 40G iPod (4th gen), with the same style of usage, I usually charge my iPod every 2 days.