Beethovenian

Why these things still don't have support for Atrac? Sony likes to shoot its own feet. They could perfectly offer wireless Connect songs downloads. And users of the Network Walkmans could adopt these phones.

Thanks, Ishiyoshi. Can you say anything about lag when accessing the menu? Does it still have the 3-4 second wait like the HD1, 3, 5?

I'll repeat some still unanswered questions: - Is there a lag when accessing the track list and menu, or when jumping to the following track, as in previous Walkmans? - Is there anything that seems to justify the bigger size? (Higher output, for instance.) And a new question: - Does the Artist Link just show artists in the same genre or does it do something else (what)? Thanks

So far, nothing seems to justify it being bigger and heavier. Sony doesn't have the cool factor, nor it's cheaper. It can't go bigger when Apple is making its players smaller.

Thanks Any indication as if the output continues to be the same 5 mW as previous players? Also, how is the lag time when accessing menus? Do you still have to wait 3-4 seconds each time you want to do something?

Can you pause and quickly fast forward to a point in the track, as you can with the HD5, or does it require that you keep the track playing if you don't want to jump to the following track?

I think they just believe the market for bigger capacity players is not big enough. Still, it's lame. Others offer this. There's a niche there, among others with Sony's own customers who would like a better reason to upgrade.

Wow, Dinko, I'm impressed. You post is very authoritative and convincing. I can't really compare SonicStage to iTunes because I hated iTunes when I downloaded it (I hate programs that seem to be done for dummies and that keep installing themselves everywhere and trying to be active all the time) and unistalled it right after. That said, I don't consider SonicStage a good program. It's not as stable as it should, it can be very slow and it's a nightmare if you have any kind of file authorization problem. But I agree with most of your points about editing track information and logic in the general way it works.

I second that. Sony doesn't have anything to gain by keeping Atrac proprietary. Just let others use it freely. It's a very efficient codec. If it becomes more common, it will certainly help Sony.

Totally agree, Iyareu. To beat Apple, Sony has to lead, not to catch up. They have to come up with a player that goes ahead in terms of features and design. It has to be as small as it's possible (or impossible, to use Apple's term), it has to have color screen, preferably in higher resolution than the iPod's, it has to wow. I think the best thing Sony could do is try to make the Walkman talk with the PSP. Make a video Walkman (before Apple launches its video iPod) that will show music clips and that will be able to use videos formatted for the PSP. Let the Walkman connect wirelessly with the PSP (even if that requires using an optional accessory) and stream music or video, as well as transfer photos. And, following that same line, let one Walkman owner wirelessly stream music to another Walkman owner. Not that I want video support or think it's important to share music with others, but I think these thing would create a lot of buzz, something that the new line of Walkman won't, in my opinion.

Yes, I agree. I don't see these players as iPod killers, especially at higher prices. They don't bring anything that the iPod doesn't already have, and they're unjustifiably bigger. It's sad, because I would like to see Sony giving Apple a run for its money (we need competition, this iPod dominance is becoming as annoying as the Windows dominance), but I seriosly doubt it will be with this series.

I just don't see any reason for this player to be bigger than the previous ones. All it adds, besides a screen a little bigger, is software-related. Why is it so much bigger and heavier? Granted, it's still in the iPod range, but the NW-HD series was always closer to the iPod mini. They should at least offer the new perpendicular 40 GB HDs.

Reading only the comments, not the actual review, I can have a pretty good idea of what it says. Pata resumes well what I think about these things. They always go along with Apple's marketing (imagine if Sony had launched a player without screen before and the Shuffle would probably never exist just because of the complaints the lack of screen would have generated). In general, I think there's a pretty strong bias against Sony here in the US, at least among tech forum posters and reviewers. Most of the complaints are originated in Sony's stance against piracy and restrictions from years ago, and Sony indeed created some clumsy ways of protecting copyright material. Yet, as much as a burden as that was, it always seemed to me fair that they wanted to create obstacles to piracy. But among the lots of people who complain about these things, nobody ever offers alternatives.

I have also noticed that transfers are much slower with non-DRM Atrac files. A track that would take a second to transfer to my HD1 now takes at least a couple of seconds, and my assumption was also that during transfer the file was being DRM'ed. It's still acceptable, but they should find a better way of doing that. I think it would be better if they just encrypted the folder in which they put all music files, instead of doing it for each file.

Very nice to see this new forum. And even nicer to see that Sony seems to be doing the right thing to keep Atrac as an alternative. If the removal of DRM restrictions is confirmed, that's great news. I like the format, but I hate how you can lose all your files if your computer crashes and you hadn't backed up using the awful SonicStage backup utility. If it wants to protect against piracy, I think Sony should, instead of DRM'ing each file, encrypt the folder in the player where it puts the files. And I'm eager to see the new bitrates.