Aalaap

I've had an HD1 for a couple of years now. It has a few bad sectors, but it still works just fine. I wouldn't want to buy another device very similar to that again (HD3 or HD5). Just today a local newspaper offerd the 6GB A1000 for a fair Rs. 3,790 (around $93). I've always liked the way it looks, so I picked it up. I'll let you know what I think a few weeks later! - Aalaap www.aalaap.com

Check out Floola. It's like GYM+MusicMove in one app for the iPod. And it works fine on Vista - Aalaap

I did a bit of Googling and I found out that drag and drop in Vista doesn't work between an Administrator-level process and a normal-level process. Since you need to run VAIO music transfer in Administrator mode to get it working and Explorer runs as a normal process, you can't drag and drop a file from Explorer into VMT. Logically, running Explorer also as Administrator, however less secure, would work, but I tried that and it doesn't seem to make any difference at all. In all probability, this will never work. Sony isn't working on an update for VMT, and Microsoft isn't going to worry about a few old programs that don't work fine on Vista. I don't know how long I can go without using drag and drop. VMT was probably one of the only few reasons I haven't dumped my NW-HD1 for a common iPod these days. I guess you just can't fight the system. I'll have to get an iPod. - Aalaap www.aalaap.com

I've tried CHKDSK seeral times, but it just hangs the PC. But I think I'll give it one more try tonight and leave it on overnight... - Aalaap

Weeeeelllll.. i'm too lazy to go to the service center somewhere in the heart of Andheri East.. and then my cousin picked this piece up for me from UK, so I don't have all the papers. A new hdd sounds kinda nice but I dunno how much it would cost in India ... does anyone know? - Aalaap

I don't actually mind transferring the music again, but my problem is that there are certain bad sectors on the HDD and I have crudely marked them out by renaming unplayable .OM* files in the filesystem to .OM*.BAD so that that disk area isn't used again. I actually need an app like the old DOS Norton Disk Doctor that finds and MARKS bad sectors on an HDD. Know any? - Aalaap

I have a slightly different problem. I put a lot of music on my NW-HD1 and recently, my Windows crashed so I had to format and reinstall. Now when I connect the NW-HD1 to my PC, SS3.4 says it can't transfer tracks to it cuz it contains tracks from another computer. I really just want to use the VAIO transfer program cuz its so much simpler than SS, but that doesnt work either; it says "please register the device using sonicstage" or something like that. Is there any way out for me to add new music without formatting the NW-HD1 and starting afresh? - Aalaap

Hah.. nahi aisi koi baat nahi! Thanks again! - Aalaap

LOL everytime I ask a question, you come and post an answer within minutes .. I should just directly chat with you on MSN or something! Thanks .. I'm pretty satisfied with VAIO Music Transfer anyway! - Aalaap

I don't think I'll ever get used to anything other than the VAIO music transfer program, but I just wanted to try out the CONNECT player with my NW-HD1. Does anyone know if it works with that? Can anyone tell me where I can get CONNECT player from? - Aalaap

I used SonicStage for a short while till I found the VAIO Music Transfer program. It's absolutely simple drag and drop mechanism, while keeping the tag editing ability, is the easiest way to transfer music to your Walkman. Now I only use SonicStage to delete/edit tracks at a later time if required. - Aalaap

Interesting! I'll check it out. By the way, off late I've been having some problems with the HD1 that seem to be associated with the HDD. I've filled up only around 1.5GB yet, but some 10% of the tracks either play blank, or stop playing after a few seconds. Some of the tracks even cause SonicStage 3.3 to hang upon selecting them. Bad sectors maybe? It's only been a month since I got it! Thanks for the info... - Aalaap

I had asked my cousin to get it upgraded before she got it down here for me, but she found out that they stopped upgrading the firmware since September or so. I doubt Sony India even knows any such device as an NW-HD1 or NW-HD3. They only know the NW-HD5 that's selling here right now. About the sound quality, well, I am very fussy about how my music sounds, but I have had absolutely no problems with ATRAC3plus at 64kbps. I tried 48kbps as well, but that was noticeably low in quality. 64 works just fine for me. It depends on the kind of music you listen to - since i mostly listen to house, trance, psytrance etc., it just seems to work fine for me. Anyway sound is a subjective thing, and as long as one person likes it, it works for him. I like ATRAC3plus at 64kbps, so I'm gonna stick to it I remember using a Sharp MD-MT20S a long time ago. MDs also use ATRAC compression right? Since the MD-MT20S didn't do USB or anything, I would play stuff in Winamp and record to the MDs via line in and it would sound sooo good with those excellent headphones! Thanks again for the help! - Aalaap

Okay so basically I'm not missing out on anything really important. Intelligent shuffle would be nice, but other than that there's nothing I really crave for in the HD1. Because SS or VMT transcodes MP3 to ATRAC3plus on the fly, I don't need MP3 or WMA support on the player. I prefer the horizontal / landscape orientation. I prefer OLED. I like the smallest-in-class size. The HD1 rocks! {love smiley} - Aalaap

Hey.. A cousin just recently got me an NW-HD1 and I'm pretty happy with what it is. No, actually I love it more than any other MP3... sorry... digital audio player I've used before! The thing is .. I can't seem to find any difference between the NW-HD1, NW-HD3, NW-HD5 and the more recent NW-A300. All are 20GB, all do ATRAC3plus, and other than the NW-HD1 (without the upgrade), they also do MP3. But what else is different? Other than the form factor, of course. Personally, I love the NW-HD1 the most because the placement of the control buttons are just much more convenient to use by the right hand thumb. The NW-HD3's centered button arrangement doesn't seem as comfortable. ANd I pretty much hate the square buttons on the HD5 in either portrait or landscape mode. The NW-A300 does look pretty svelte, though... I looked around the web for a comparison chart but I couldn't find anything useful. Perhaps someone could help me out with that? Thanks.. - Aalaap