Tetsugaku-San

Reckon I'd loose a significant amount of cash on the deal though

pretty sure they sell em here: http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/cat/Sony-Ericsson.htm certain one or other of the phone spares places does cos the rubber is the same as the ones on the W800 'phones

Now many of you may have seen me praising then moaning about this player, I just wondored if the people who are having no problems are using low bit rates and the people with problems are using high bit rates. All of my MP3's ripped from CD are ripped at 320Kbps, so the majority of the tunes on the player. I ask this because I noticed if you pause a track and then go use the menu, you normally don't have any speed issues, buttons selectively stopping working. I would transcode all of my MP3s at transfer to the device, into ATRAC but Connect doesn't seem to want me to do that without upgrading to a Cray or something similar. . . .

If you'd read any of my previous comments and my frankly glowing initial review of the NW-A3000 then you'd know I don't want an iSheep. I bought Sony specifically because I'd always had Sony in the past and I knew that the sound quality on this machine would be fantastic. However, to quote Mr Jobs, I want something 'That just works', like the iSheep does, not this heap of crap that frankly doesn't. I was on the train this morning and the back button stopped working, completely, I managed to get the currently playing song to pause, and the back button started working again. The other day I fell asleep on the train with the player playing and when I woke up at my station the entire machine was locked up except thevollume control, bizarre, Connect takes 5 minutes or more to load even on a Athlon 64 with 1.5Gb RAM, Making a paylist in Connect with a decent number of tracks (200 odd) takes literally about 45 minues. I'm not moaning, I want to get to the bottom of it and have a player that 'just works' not something I have to visit a support forum, or download new firmware, of feck about with settings to use. It should JUST WORK. If I could sell it and buy a Creative ( I had one for the previous 3 years, worked like a dream, dropped it onto concrete over 20 times and it never bust) I would, but sadly they won't take it back . . .

Well it's tough choice! It's either this or a nice acoustic Guitar for my borthday this Feb so I need to make the right choice. I'm really not that keen on video playback - can't see the point when I have a big telly a home, I just want some sweet games to play and maybe to surf the web from bed. The only good games I can see are GTA, Wipeout, Lumines and Twisted Metal, and I reckon Twisted metal is scaping the barrel a little bit. Where are the sweet strategy games like advance wars? Cool managemnent things like Harvest moon? I don't want a DS they just look bloody silly, but I don't want to waste £300 on a PSP and a few games. Bah I can never make a decision :'(

you might get 1 and 2 but the others are just pissing in the wind. I'd settle for some firmware that didn't suck meself an Connect to load in less than 10 minutes!

I take it you mean the player itself and not Connect/sonicstage? My 3000 keeps locking up, slowing down, only responding to vollume change, randomly stopping as well Fact is - these players are shit and there are a LOT of bugs in both the firmware and the transfer software . . . .

if it wasn't for the fact that it's only the long cord (that goes round my neck) that goes rotten, I'd agree, but that's the only bit that is ever effected. I had a pair of other sony's that went round the back a few years back that came with my MZR900 (I think) they just went stiff on the bits that contacted my skin. odd.

Hmm well 4 pairs and a refund isn't bad I suppose, Ihave two pairs so I might just buy some off Amazon and cycle them back and forth!

Just cam across these whilst looking on Amazon for a pair of canal 'phones that won't fall apart like the Sonys do - seem to have good reviews and they are only £20 which is £5 less than MDR-EX71SB http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B...9829047-1668745 Any views?

I think the cord problem is intermittant because a) it only effects the model with s after it and b ) it only effects people with acidic swet (I do, I can't even wear a watch )

This is the main rewason I buy them, if Sony stopped I'd have to look elsewhere! I'm always taking the buggers out when I'm out and about so I need to be able to hang them round my neck. What annoys me is seeing people with the long bit in front rather than behind their heads - dullards.

So I had a bit of a moan to Sony, this is what they said: Now they can't tell me that a) they didn't change the cord type, and noone else has moaned about this. Good to know they want to help though I'm taking my latest pair back to Argos where I got em 6 weeks ago, I bought an extended guarentee for a fiver!!

I just don't understand why anyone would buy UMD movies, surely you could just buy the DVD, for the same price, and rip it to Mem Stick!! Maybe this is a better question to ask, what's the PSP killer app?

What a steaming pile of wank!! There's no bloody difference between a vanilla user installed XP or a factory one other than the vanilla version has none of the crap on it that Dell (for example) likes to include. GRRRRRRRRRRR I HATE CONNECT.

Cheers guys, Well I do travel for 5 hours a day so something to watch could be good, I'm just not sure if the initial investment of £300 is worth it just yet. I have seen some good games, Liberty City, Lumines, Wipeout and Twisted Metal bu my problem was once I'm through those - where do I go? Is there a huge pile of good games just waiting for a release window? Another plus I suppose is that on my floor alone at work we have about ten so no shortage of MP gaming

Ooooo I never replied to the controvercial topic I sterted - sorry Anyway - no I haven't taken it back - mainly because althought legally I think I could still, the ding on the bottom of the player will make them argue about te return in the shop. Instead I'm just gonna have to write to Sony to moan - and hope they release some patches. Did anyone get around to sending the list of problems with connect/nwa3000 to Sony? Maybe if we all sent it they would listen . . .

I had my finger hovering over 'confirm order' with a PSP giga pack and 3 games at Gameplay the other day and them thought 'I haven't really looked at the other games' - there doesn't seem to be too many so is the PSP really worth the £300 I'll have to shell out for it and some games? Real user opinions please

Thx for more replies guys - *if* I could get Connect working properly I wouldn't be so worried about it and I could probably cope with the players idiosyncrocies but I can't see any way of getting it faster, I mean I'm running on a brand new Athlon 64 3200 with the newest core, 1 Gb fast ram, a new fast mobo and everything so it should certainly be enough to use Connect properly. As for the unresponsive buttons, no it's not the HD clicking, this is what eventually happened to my Creative, and you could feel it happening. Also the accelerometer in the player should stop that happening. The unresponsive buttons, I would think, is far more likely to be piss poor firmware. I *really* want the Sony, and I'm incredibly pissed off with how bad this thing is once you've been using it for a month and the initial wow factor has worn off. I mean don't get me wrong, it looks fantastic and it sounds better than fantastic but if you can't get music on, and then can't manage the music on the player, how useless is it?

After using this thing for one month to the day I really really can't stand it any longer. When I look back on it my 3 year old Creative 20Gb was much better. I know, I know, I gave it a glowing review at first but that was only after using it for two days and when I thought Connect would be patched to usable status. I hate to say it but I'm going to try to get Sony to take it back and, shock horror, buy an iSheep 30Gb instead. Here's my problems with the player/software. Player locks up ocasionally for no good reason. Coming home on the train last night I listened to Kid A by Radiohead, fell asleep before it finished and when I got off the train and tried to start it up again all of the buttons where unresponsive. Bizarely vollume still worked and after pressing buttons randomly for ten minutes it finally half started up again. This is not the first time it has happened. The player interface is shit, example: viewing a playlist you can only see track titles, and there is no way of viewing the detail of the track without playing it - rather than pressing option and choosing something logical like 'details' You can't make playlists on the fly. Last transferred option, really handy I though, especially as it remembers the last 3 transfers - however - when you view the last transfers it only shows album names - not artist then album as you would expect if it followed the style of the main library. I can't see the screen in the sun, especially not if I have my sunglasses on (It's been v sunny for December in England!) Connect takes ATLEAST 5 minutes, normally 10 to even start. I don't have a slow PC by any means. When connect does launch even making a playlist is laborious because the software is so slow, I have to sit with task manager on one screen and when it jumps to 100% CPU use I have to leave it for a few minutes until it chills out, I have turned the artist data background service thing off. Transferring, or even selecting tracks for transfer takes *ages* and *ages*. I DON'T want an iPod, I know the sound quality is inferior, but if thats the ONLY advantage of the Sony, well sod em. I love Sony gear and I want a Sony walkman, just looks like today is not that day.

Very true - I have dropped it once already :-x the day I got it!! To be honest I will probably drop it a lot more - my last creative mp3 player lasted atleast 15 drops onto concrete from a metre up and worked fine all the way to the end of it's life. Ah well it's the music that counts in the end not the player, glad it still works though:)

So I did some 'field testing' yesterday on the way home after a crap day, and dropped my player whilst trying to hit the back button with my thumb one handed, dropped the player on it's face and it slid along the pavement slabs a few feet. :'( Good news is it still works, more good news, these things are bloody hard to scratch and it came off with only a couple of light marks and one larger ding on a corner I was upset at first then realised the thing was always going to get damaged in the end as I don't have a case for it, and I'll use it till it disintegrates anyway

I have indeed got it working, to a degree, really I just get what sc_bond mentioned - it's either a bit crap, or I'm not doing it right!

Yay for the 3000 The difference is because 1.5 * 1.5 = 2.25 square inches where as 2 * 2 = 4 square inches (that being the difference between the displays) I just listened to Ultraviolence on the way home on my NW-A3000, in the torrential rain, I am soaked, yet pumped (DL the Ultraviolence trackhere if you want it (192kbps MP3s I think they are, official website link) )

Badly shilded 'phones can pick up static. Just for the record my NW-A3000 has no static at all using the MDR-EX71 'phones.