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

hey micks_address, I finally got a chance to try it out with my PS3. Indeed it does work transfering to and from the PS3. There's only one quirk with it, however.. when you're in XMB, when you select the NWZ-A818 in the music section, not all your tracks might be found. When i went into folders with subdirectories, it would show "no tracks available" to get around it, before selecting the NWZ-A818, I selected the triangle, then "Display All", which shows you all the directories on the player. From there go to MUSIC folder, and then you can have access to all the tracks in the sub-directories here's a vid clip of it happening in action, otherwise there are pics below, LOL..

yeah, here's a link to get the newest firmware, which is at version 3.0 http://support.sony-europe.com/DNA/Downloa..._A3000&l=en

opps... haha i re-read what i wrote super early this morning and I realized i wasn't too clear. I mentioned the 8inch dvd-player walkman, but i was referring to a bigger screen than the current 1.8inch and 2inch ones. I agree with you, the PSP size, though not 'pocketable', is a nice size for a 'video walkman'. If somebody wanted something 8inches, they might as well invest in one of those super portable laptops that are 11.1 inches As for the proprietary cable.. i'd rather keep the WM-PORT instead of going to yet a new format. There are bluetooth transmitters, line-in audio recording cables, docks, speaker systems and probably more crap in the future that will utilize it, so if sony was smart they would stay with the same connector (sort of like how apple has kept with the same iPod connector for so many generations, so all the 3rd party docks and car adapters work for all of them) for example, for the nw-a3000/nw-a1200, I had bought the SRS-NWM10 dock/speaker system (which was crappy, i might add) , and because of it's connector it can't be used with any other series of walkman but yeah.. keep it light, keep it thin, keep it simple...make it large capacitied, or make it expandable via SD and/or memory stick duo

unfortunately, i'm not that well versed in the Connect software, i only used it for a week or two before going back to sonicstage which i've been using for the past 6 or 7 years.. ~_~ hopefully another forum member can answer that aspect of your problem

you can send over a few albums at a time.. to do this, in the transfer window, just press "control" and click on the titles that you want to send over, and then hit the "transfer to a device/media" button ( ==> ) keep in mind, if you select a whole bunch of songs (40+ tracks), sonicstage might look like it has crashed. It is just processing the 'large' task and is just temporarily frozen. Give it a few minutes, and it'll start transfering. If in like 10minutes the top right hand corner doesnt start moving the __ of ___, then it probably crashed. But it does occasionally 'lag'/freeze when you try to send over a lot at once. Hence my suggestion about setting it to work overnight, haha.. EDIT: If connect works for you, then go for it. For a lot of people, CONNECT lagged, was an even bigger RAM hog than sonicstage, and had some other quirks, that i don't really remember... being in the US, sony USA wasn't willing to put connect into this region, since they didnt like the software at all. I got to try it out from my exports from EU and from Japan a lot of disgrunted first version connect player users: http://www.kanai.net/weblog/archive/2005/11/22/21h17m54s have you tried uninstalling sonicstage and reinstalling it? It sounds like the install might have gone bad since you get that runtime error. or maybe even better, since you said you don't have anything in windows other than SS, maybe try to reinstall windows and sonicstage? That'd be the best bet, but that'd be also the most inconvenient one hopefully a uninstall/reinstall will work ~~~~~ i should also mention that databases made in sonicstage and connect are NOT compatible. So if you try and decide you like connect, you wont be able to add songs using sonicstage. so i think it's advisable to get sonicstage working, since it's 'newer' than the defunct connect software.

One of the problems with the NW-A3000 was that it was laggy. I have an HD1 and HD5, and they seem more responsive than the A3000. I heard that one of the reasons was because of the intelligence features. try disabling that in sonicstage by going to "tools" => "options" on the left panel choose "Transfer" and on the right side under "Device/Media" select the ATRAC Audio Device and click "transfer settings", then click on 'advanced' on the 'intelligent features' tab, unselect "Use Intelligent Features" that clears out the clutter on the database a bit and it gets rid of the long hang while resyncing up to update the song stats and stuff (top 100, ratings, artist link, etc) each time you add or remove something from the player, it will update the database. If you disconnect the player while it's still syncing, it will render that database unusable, so when the player's hooked up to the computer wait til it's ok before taking the player off from the computer. that way, it should rebuild the database correctly. if all else fails, try to reinitialize the player and try again [Home=> Settings=> Initialize Disk] hope it helps

ah yes.. rockbox, that's a completely different ball game right there. the newest ipods *as is* aren't compatible with linux, after apple changed something in the coding to kill off syncing from 3rd party apps. Rockbox I dont think has a firmware for the newest iPod classics or ipod Touch yet either, so you'd have to get a 5.5 gen or a 2nd gen nano or something with the whole sony rootkit debacle and such I find it kind of hard to believe you would have went straight in with one of their products that you'd have to go through your computer. a quick cnet or google search would have informed you quite well about sonicstage and the non drag&drop-ness and other 'quirks' to it. and not only fan-boys enjoy these 'garbage devices'. ATRAC is an awesome audio codec that produces good sounding files at sizes smaller than MP3. Though it is 'outdated' now (compared to AAC and other audio formats), it's still gets the job done. That last comment of yours I know that you are just a hater and are just in here bashing. Fell free to read my review of their newest product. It works with all OSes and without any software restrictions. But again, we all have our own opionions, and if you dont like it, dont use it. Return it, and get something else

would you go buy a car without researching? a house? a pet? sports equipment? other A/V equipment for your house? I don't know about you, but i sure as heck would. And when I mean 'research' i don't mean like looking into every single facet about the item, just a quick read about it's specs and what it is able to do and not do, in comparison to it's competition. as for your sonicstage problem, it looks like it might just be a bloated install of windows or something. Sonicstage seems to work best when installed onto a very clean install of windows. I personally have never experienced that problem before, and hopefully somebody else in this forum might have encountered it and knows a way to get it fixed. What version of windows are you using? and fyi, about ipods working in linux... seems like it's not such the case with the new crop that just came out, though i'm sure it might work in the future, but as of now the new iPods don't seem to play well with anything other than iTunes.. http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/15/ipods-b...ing-with-linux/ According to the blog iPodminusiTunes, Apple has blocked the new iPods from synching with third party applications (i.e. anything that isn't iTunes). The most significantly affected userbase in all this is the Linux community, who've been able to upload songs to their older iPods using free software such as gtkpod and Amarok for a while now. The tweak to the new iPod database files doesn't appear to be incidental either, with a number being added to the front of the database file causing the iPod to be exclusively tied to a single copy of iTunes. Fortunately, the problem isn't beyond a little bit of reverse engineering, so Apple's rather pointless meddling could be reversed given time. And just a heads up.. for Sony's players.. only the NEWEST ones, the NWZ-A8xx, NWZ-S6xx, and the NWZ-B1xx series are drag-and-drop, so those are usable without going through any software, or if you want you can use software (not sonicstage or iTunes though).

Hey abuendia, Sounds like the ram chip might have gone 'bad'. If you keep trying to format it, via player and through the computer, and the memory doesn't clear, im guessing that the ram chip might have gone bad, since initializating from the player should have done the trick off topic: for sony support, was it via phone or internet chat? I find that a lot of companies try to save money by having automated chat-bots for online chats. I didn't know they existed until i read about it, and when i thought about it, the ones at sony esupport seem to be of that variety, haha..

Dear theFanboy, Thank you very much for your kind words, I really appreciate it I just did a semi-review and somehow it just snowballed and spiraled into something else, haha You are right though, I do have a passion towards walkmans [looks at list of all ATRACed devices ~_~ ]. I don't even know why i do.. Anyway, to answer your question about full screen video-walkmans... i don't know I know they have the 8inch DVD video walkman, but as far as a "walkman" kind with video functionality, I do hope that Sony produces one that is larger (but not too huge) has a lot of storage space (20GB+), with flash ram...built in bluetooth and of course the WM-Port! They've changed the port connector between the NW-A1000/3000 series and the S700 series, and hopefully they decide to stay with this proprietary WM-port, instead of going towards yet another new connector..