aznbro85

conversion times depend on your computer's processing power. It's a very intensive process. And i think it's not converting the avi into an "atrac" file, i think it's doing it into either a AVC or MPEG file... On my P4 2Ghz computer, to convert a DVD movie into a compatible format, i use nero recode and it takes almost half a day. I usually just set it up and go to work and school, and hopefully when i come back it'll be done When you start converting stuff, you start to appreciate all those people that spend all that time producing all those files that can be found on torrents..... but that's a totally different story.. LOL

On-the-fly playlists would be from a firmware update, not from the Media Manager software onwards.. it doesn't specify conversions of video before transfering, but the footnote shows that you need to have quicktime 7.2 installed... hopefully it works in conjunction with quicktime to convert files before transfering.. just have to wait til ~ 11/23/07 to see what comes of it

The answer is slightly two-folded, i think.. The tracks *are* transfered in MP3, as in that they don't transcode the files into another format. However, sonicstage *does* put a DRM wrapper onto the tracks. If you had it do the transcoding, it would take longer but compress the files, and have the same end effect, so this was sort of like thier "short-cut" of sorts. The new non-sonicstage players don't have the DRM stuff (other than being able to play back protected WMAs). Looks like sony has gotten 'smart' and stopped 'defending' it's music leg in the company. If you want, try out the american verson of connect, which can be found at www.connect.com Though the music store will be gone sometime early next year, as long as you register your computers now, you should be able to use up to 5 computers per account/player.

Hey Kurt, Ok, so I tried the re-initialize thing, and indeed it did wipeout the player complete. There was no OMGAUDIO folder. When I plugged the player in and started up Sonicstage, I get this message: "Would you like to enable this device for use with the CONNECT music service?" I then clicked yes It looked like after I connected the player and opened sonicstage when the OMGAUDIO folder was restored. Have you tried to use a different USB port to see if windows/sonicstage detects it?

Hey Kurtto, Have you tried to initialize the player? to do this: hold onto the display button to bring up the menu, go to settings, "advanced menu", then "initialize", then "Format" and press okay. that should rebuild all the necessary folders on the drive.

i was asked to try out winamp playlists and that didn't work. haven't tried any other way, though i haven't had time to try messing around with it, as playlists aren't that important to me.. i either listen to whole albums or manually select what track i want to listen to at whatever time. i'll try out a wmp one and see how it goes. i was slightly disappointed though when i saw there wasn't 'on the fly' playlist creation though..

unfortunately, the NWZ-A81* doesn't have that function. I forgot to include that in my review. I'm kinda surprised they killed off the ability to do the on-the-fly playlists, since all the older HD ones had that capability..

Hey Akai Kenshi, I've tried the NWZ-A818 in Ubuntu Linux, and it gets detected, and you can drag and drop files onto it. check out my testing of it on page 5: http://www.atraclife.com/forums/index.php?...4094&st=40# And as for the docks, taken from sonystyle's website: Dock your compatible S610 and A810 Series Walkman® Video MP3 player on the BCR-NWU3 cradle and experience fast and reliable data transfers to your PC. You can also record music from any audio source with a stereo mini plug connector. For added convenience, this dock also charges your player while in use and lets you connect to external speakers so you can share your music library with everyone. Easy connection to Sony Walkman® with multiple-connector Cradle function (battery recharge, AC power supply, PC connection) Supplied AC power adaptor Data synchronization with a PC Playback of tracks using external speakers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The comment regarding the recording via line-in was for the S7xx series. I *think* it will work for the S6xx series too. I tried the stand-alone line-in cable that worked on my S706F, and it didn't seem to register on the A818. Maybe that function might be re-added in later with a firmware update? Here's to hoping, haha... @ tman, as far as I can hear, i *think* it's more of just split-second silence rather than a 'click', but I could be wrong.

regarding iTunes UK and Japan, probably a pipe dream indeed. My friend was anticipating Utada Hikaru's newest single when it came out sometime in late august, and he was thinking he could nab it off from iTunes USA, or somehow get it from itunes japan using his american account... no such luck, lol.. For music rentals, napster to go is a viable option, as is yahoo music unlimited, i think. I haven't brushed up on my online music download service info, as I am a CD ripper ~_~ But it will be interesting whether the Zune pass music will work on the A818 or not... keep us posted!

Yeah, that seems correct. All the newest models in Japan still support the ATRAC format. I think they only killed it off in the parts of the world where it was connected to the CONNECT music store (ie. North America and Europe). Japan has Mora.jp , and that's still live and well. I'm wondering how it is in other parts of the world that have Walkmans but no connect store.. will they get the non-ATRAC models too?

Hey tman, - When I ripped a CD in iTunes AAC 128kbps and dragged & dropped it into the player, there were gaps. - When I ripped a CD into AAC format from SonicStage, and dragged and dropped into the player, there were gaps - When I ripped a CD into MP3 using WMP11 and synced using WMP11, there was a gap - When I ripped a CD in WMA using WMP11 and synced, there was a gap. - When I ripped a CD in WMP using WMA Pro in WMP11, it had to convert the tracks (to standard WMA I'm guessing) before sending them over to the player. I haven't tried using any other software other than the forementioned ones, but in each case there still seems to be a gap between each track. It doesn't really bother me much since it's like less than a second, but there seems to be a few users on here that it being non-gapless is the single deciding factor of them not trying out/getting this player.

Hey Joe, Very interesting I guess Microsoft decided it was smart to let the new zunes (or via a firmware upgrade) to be able to use the playsforsure DRM. And vice-versa probably? It would make sense since it's their own format too, hehe Anyway, thanks again for the interesting 'mini' review/comparison Eric

Hey lamewing, Thanks for the review of all these players. It was quite an interesting read! The sony DAPs have a capacity of up to 8GB now. And yes, it does work with Napster/Yahoo and the like. The packaging of my NWZ-A818 came with a (14day? i forgot) trial to napster. Basically, with the new walkmans, if it's playsforsure compatible, it will work on the player. http://www.playsforsure.com/AdvancedSearch...nel&index=0 and from wikipedia: Content Providers that offer PlaysForSure-certified audio AOL MusicNow Directsong FYE Musicmatch Jukebox Napster PassAlong MTV URGE Wal-Mart Music Downloads Ruckus Network Yahoo Music Real Rhapsody weird thing i found out a while back was that the DRM that the Zune uses ISNT playsforsure. It's yet another proprietary DRM format. I would have thought that microsoft would have stuck with one DRM format, instead of implementing two. I guess they wanted to keep Zune users locked into the Zune music store or something.. As for the WM-Port, i think [hopefully] sony keeps with that standard, so they will have just one standardized connector and make universal accessories for their players, instead of having different ones for different models just because of different connectors.

Hey randomlyred, sorry to hear that your experience still isn't all that great. is the only problem now just getting the runtime error in windows when you are trying to use sonicstage? If that's the case, and since you dont use windows for anything else other than SS, maybe you should try formatting and reinstalling windows. That probably will correct that problem.

Yeah, I've been doing the same thing now for many years. I rip my CDs twice, once in 320kbps MP3 so I can fiddle around with those files. I also ripped everything into ATRAC3plus @ 64kbps. It sounds much better when you rip CDs at that instead of transcoding mp3s/wma/etc into that format. But that's usually the case i guess, less manipulation = less sound loss, haha