Tetsugaku-San

My ex71s failed within 2 weeks, two pairs as well - however the latest pair I bought do not seem to have the crappy coating on them, they've gone back to the old type of coating that doens't rip so maybe these will last better, my first two pairs lasted 18 and 12 months respectively, and thats at 6 hours use per day.

Not enough poll options I use Connect because I've only ever had the NW-A3000 and I'm hoping Connect will get properly patched, too many pieces of software doing the same thing leads to instabilities.

well not being able to import froma network drive would be daft - have you tried just dragging and dropping the files into the connect library window?

I recomend we use the feedback form on the Sony Website to tell them all these propbelms http://www.sony.co.uk/view/ShowArticle.act...&site=odw_en_GB If enough people piss and moan to them maybe they will get more of a hint.

My player takes my MP3 fles fine, but Sony players wrap a layer of DRM code round each file on the player itself, hence the omg extension. Just means you can't drag the files off on another pc. You can transcode all your files to ATRAC on the player if you want though (smaller files)

Wish I could disagree, sadly I can't:( I did play with the idea of taking it back, but Connect does work in the end, you just have to have way way way too much patience, my only hope is that a nice fat patch will fix it cos I *DO* love the player itself.

my artist link works (if badly) with all MP3s. Need to update some tags tho :/

mine patched and updated without me even opening Connect. Which is nice.

My apologies I didn't go into it enough. This article offers some back up http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=27018 . The thing is Sony Ericcson has onlly launched one phone branded as a walkman, the W800, which has been so popular, they have put prices up as they can't even meet demand. The K750 which was not branded as a walkman but had similar capabilities has also met with the same reaction, SE's market share grew by about 0.6% in a single quarter just due to these two phones. The launch of the W900, with far improved walkman features will undoubtably be even more of a success, QVGA (240x380) full colour screen, drag and drop, no need for connect, radio, remote control, MDR-EX71 inc. headphones, proper full walkman branding, exclusive availability on Vodafone who will push it to hell, a cheap price of about £100 on a decent contract, a large and poppular advertising campaign on the TV. The point I am trying to make is that *most* people just want a few tracks to get them to work, a few gigs is sufficent, hence the availability of the 2gb nano. The convenience of just one machine helps people make the decision. Apple have not passed the hump yet, but they will soon, the iPod will become so ubiquitous that noone will want them, and in a year where every phone is a walkman with decent capacity, noone will need them.. That's what I think anyway, Industry pundits recon the same. I mean it happened with digital cameras . . .

Oh bumsticks. I just bloody bought mine for forty quid more!! AND they have the black one in stock!!!!!

SE on the other hand sold 55 million handsets in the same period, demand for the K750 and W800 has outstripped demand and their succesors are primed to do the same. SE only has a 6.7% market share yet this is growing, fast.

None of the current players are iPod killers, they probably never will be - mainly because Sony has something else up it's sleave . . . Mobile Phones, the wlakman branded phones are doing tremendously well and are pulling the rug from under the Shuffle, and to some extent, Nano's feet. The new W900 launching in a week or so will have half a gig onboard, with a Duo slot to take an aditional 4Gb if needed. Has a radio, dedicated playback buttons, supports atrac and MP3, Drag and Drop, a excellent 2Mp camera, supports 3G video calls, full sysnc with a PC for contacts and watched folders . . . Most people (read, 'not the people on this forum') Don't want or need that much music. They listen to the player to get to work and back, that's it *Flame On!* Edit: Incedentally the W900, along with the W800 both ship with equivelents of MDR-EX71S 'phones, that alone show you how committed they are to taking over via the back way as it were. Even my Sony K750i came with a full set of proper headphones/hands free thing, not brilliant ones, but sufficent. And the K750 has a radio, drag and drop, blah blah. I even use an MP3 as my ringtone.

Lamewing this is just a matter of different mind sets in this case. I don't want an iPod for the plain and simple reason that everybody has one, as far as I'm concerned I don't want to own anything that I see other people with on a regular basis. This goes for everything I own, I even source rare Tshirts with runs of 300 or less worldwide to ensure I don't see someone else with one. Odd, but true You also mention the Nintendo Revolution, again - that's the console I'm going to be getting After seeing the videos of people suing the controller I just can't wait. I'm fed up with Microsoft and Sony's Willy Waving about their specs iSheep suck.

Just to say I just coughed up for this: http://www.empiredirect.co.uk/content/prod...SON-CKSNWA3000B the CKSNWA3000B , case for the NW-A3000, dunno if it's any good but for £5.50 I couldn't say no

pooh, honest it's not that bad, all software does have it's bugs at releae, Connect does seem to have more than it's fair share however . . . One more to add: Bug: Transcoding files just does not work. At all. Specific example, transcoding 320Kbps MP3 to 192Kbps ATRAC, Connect maxes out, sits there for a bit, then locks up completely. I suggest we send multiple copies of this to Sony (when it's complete) to see what they are going to do about them (even if a patch is coming out)

Well let's see, ( I can apreciate your point of view, honest) Everyone has an iSheep - why on earth would I want one of them? They aren't a status symbol like they used to be. Walkman is a brand as it is, and is bigger than iPod, just under used NW-A1000/3000 is out in the UK before Japan Connect does suck, but will be patched before worldwide release and does have drag and drop Sound quality on Sony gear far exceeds that of the iSheep. No one else has it this good except maybe iRiver and you can't buy them for love or money. Sony don't support Macs because macs have a 3% market share, and everyone using a mac will unsurprisingly buy an iSheep. Main reason why Sony were so far behind the game is because unlike Apple, they make content (Music and film) as well as hardware. There is well documented evidence of the internal Civil War at Sony over the hardware people (Japan) who could beat Apple senseless with the soggy ends of their ripped off arms, and the content people (US) who want the internet and file sharing not to exist. here for more: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.02/sony.html

Mine works sometimes on the 3000 but not always, I think it just depends how well tagged your files are. Remember it goes mainly on genre, and as the genre section is always stupid - rock/rockpop/poppyrock/punkrock/oldrock/eightiesrock/indierock (for example) the player can't necercerily make the connection between them.

I can only comment on the 3000 which I have (yet I'm certain the 1000 and 3000 are identicle except size). You can transfer anything to the device as a file, yet they are not accesable from the device to play as music. You can however say transfer 1000 pictures and a couple of exes to the device, take it to work, and pull them off as an external drive.When you transfer tracks to the player via Connect, they get converted and given a .oma extenstion and can't (yet) be turned back

No hiss that I can hear on any of the tracks I have used. As mentioned I am using the MDR-EX71S 'phones, but I should think most people here will be using aftermarket 'phones that are better than the mid range supplied ones. On quality in general, it is *very* good, for all sorts of music. I listened to some Ultraviolence (Techno industrial) this morning and the bass sounded clean and succinct and the trebble wasn't tinny and annoying. As a better test I also listened to 'Bullet in a Bible', the live green day album and that also sounds fantastic (Live music being a pain to listen to because of crowd noises etc. normally)

Just seems to be extra loud with both the EQ trick and the limiter turned off, no noticable distortion (again this could be me 'phones helping) Remember kids, the limiter is there for a reason, don't listen at full blast for hours at a time

The iSheep has smaller characters, that's the thing, the NW-A3000 has about 15 per line, they do scroll (see my previous posts in this thread). However you can see the Sony's characters a lot easier, just because they are bigger. I suppose it is possible that there is a mode to change the font size, no idea how if you can though

Seems to work as well Loads of other options there, be good to know what the other funky stuff is. Whay the hell do I have the urge to hack every piece of electronic stuff I own?

Nope none There again I am using good 'phones so that must help (MDR-EX71 of course . .)

Um, I don't know as I don't have any long files on there at the moment, I would say there's no reason for a limit however, if there is, it will probably be 255 characters which I think is the limit for a file name on a Windows system. Having said that, the ID tags on MP3s may follow a different rule I'm not certain. If I get a chance I'll try making up an extra long tagged MP3 and try it out. More News: I figured out how to boost the vollume if you reckon it's a bit low. All I did was set the player to use custome 1 on the EQ, and set custom1 to have all 6 bands up to +3 - as if by magic the vollume 'sounds' as if it goes from 0-35 on vollume rather than 0-30

When you have the 'now playing' screen up, the track name automatically scrolls yes, and the album etc. do not scroll UNLESS you click up/down to select an item that's too long for the screen, THEN it scrolls. To be precise To be honest the screen is very large, and each line is 15 (I think) characters long, so you generally don't even need the scroll, but it is there if required.