pata2001

In this situation, I'm not against the NW-A1000, I'm just against a BAD deal. Simple.

The 3 PSP games you have are probably equal to the price of the A1000 already. Memory stick is getting cheaper and cheaper. The A1000 is hard-drive based, not expandable, and only 4GB. By next year, you can probably get 4GB memory stick at the same price as today's 2GB. To me, it's still not worth it. The PSP can play games, movies, music, have Wifi, can do RSS, and much more. Even if you go by value, it is till much more than the offer, unless you can get more cash than $45. Besides, you can sell your PSP anytime later, and it probably still hold its value, while the A1000 will not.

Nope. Don't do it. Your PSP worth more than the A1000.

You want my take on that? If you look at the pictures from Sony Japan, the colored units are obviously can display kanji. Now, read my sig. I'm guessing Sony USA is too lazy to disable kanji on those, that they just make 1 color for the US.

Man, Sony announced this reader like long time ago. People were excited about it. Then, it's delayed and delayed. Now, nobody cares anymore. Typical stupidity of Sony. As for lack of atrac support, it is expected. Sony ericsson cellphones never even support Atrac, despite bearing the walkman logo. If Sony is smart, they should support HE-AAC. Today there is virtually no DAP that support HE-AAC outside of cellphones. Sony has the experience form Sony ericsson, so if they want to revive the walkman, HE-AAC is the best way to edge out Apple and the competitors. HE-AAC is the first codec that I actually find listenable at 48kbps, especially when compared to Atrac3+. Atrac does not even have VBR mode, which is used by all other codecs for efficiency and giving constant quality. Even WMA uses VBR now.

Haven't installed the latest firmware. Will try that.

nope. And as you already said, the only way to do it is to rip the CD wo WAV with other program first (eg. EAC), and then convert it with SS.

At the time of PSP being born, 1GB flash memory is more expensive than it is today. UMD provides more storage space on a cheaper media. Same basic idea when the PS1 using CD-ROM vs N64 using cardtridges. As far as speed, it would be up to the developers to optimize their games. I mean, devlopers can simply use the memory stick as a "cache" memory. As for low power, battery life of the PSP is actually pretty good. The only time you have so-so battery life is when you're watching UMD movies, since the unit has to read & spin the disc constantly. the PSP has many potential. however, who put a limit on the video resolution? who put region codes for UMd movies and music? I doubt the playstation team would even think about those. It would have to come from Sony music/pictures.

AtracCD is a dead end format. It can only be read by AtracCD devices, nothing else. So, there is no way you can "rip" those back. Your only solution is to buy an AtracCD compatible Sony PCDP or CD deck.

Price cut for now only confirmed for Japan. Hopefully it will spread out to other countries as well. At least now the cheap PS3 will get HDMI too, 1 of the main criticism against it. I don't care. I still have plenty of RPGs that I need to play on the PS2. Games are still coming out for the PS2 (DDR supernova comes to mind, also FF12). Damn, I'm not even done with FF10 and Xenosaga episode 1. By the time I'm done with all the RPGs for PS2, PS3 will probably be $200.

Me too. That's why there is ratings. I simply don't have time finding the music I want among hundreds of albums. Smart playlist can cycle my favorite songs automatically. The only thing I still find missing is BPM info from gracenote/CDDB. With that included in the tags, I will have fine-tuned mixes of my Eurobeat collections.

Have you tried smart playlist? You can also subscribe to podcasts using iTunes. It is more useful that you think, and definitely more useful than many other jukebox software out there. Try importing 10000 tracks through Sonicstage, and see what happen.

Decoding MP3s use so litle processing power that I doubt there will be a significant difference. I have 5G iPod 60GB, and it has a 64MB cache, so what matters is file-size, not CBR vs VBR. Considering VBR is more efficient than CBR, giving better quality/smaller file size, in the end I would think VBR is better. Battery life is more affected by having the LCD on and/or skipping tracks frequently. First, clean your CDs. 2nd, use EAC in secure mode to rip the tracks. Good luck.

Well, you cannot have both. You can only either view the track info, or the clock. There is not much screen space anyway.

The NW-A3000 doesn't support WMA lossless, period. I'm not aware of any DAPs that actually support WMA lossless (maybe the Zune?)

Sandisk is not gapless. If it did, the people at dapreview would have known already. Is video really useful on a screen that small? Have you tried iTunes' smart playlist? I don't even have to "drag-n-drop" anymore. Just plug my iPod, iTunes will automatically update it, and with live-updating smart playlist, iTunes automatically cycle the songs from my library for me.

1. Use the latest recommended version of lame: http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Lame_Compiles 2. Use VBR. Recommended setting is -V2 --vbr-new. It's well known, even at Hydrogenaudio, that with CBR, FhG seems to be better. But at VBR, Lame is better. 3. Did you do ABX? Don't mean to be mean, but without ABX, your comments about "very audible" artifacts don't mean much.

Yup, that's the one. Thanks ishi.

I think there was a user that figured out how to fix that by adding somehing to an XML file. I forgot whether that was at this forum or T-board. With that "hack," you can choose to display the music by groups on the device. Yeah, Sony is just dumb.

My 32MB Rio PMP300 still works, aside from a loose battery cover, and the fact I don't remember where I put the parallel port cable adaptor. Beat that. I remember buying the optional remote for my Rio, Yeah baby, 32MB of music in my pocket, and I can control it via a remote! I also have an older Sony PCDP. Works fine, but it has problem reading CD-Rs and the LCD remote display is dying. As for Atrac devices, my NW-E3 is still in pristine condition (aside from some scratches on the LCD, body is metal), and my MZ-N510 still works fine and dandy too, considering it's my main unit to transfer music to MDs before HiMD came out.

Did you even look at the prices of the S2? At that price point, the obvious competition is the iPod nano, unless Sony decided to sell the units under $100.

How many cases available on the market for your NW-A1200? How many cases available for the nano? You get the idea. Sony does have good accessories, but they are all only in Japan (SL corded earbuds, remotes, Eggos, etc).

Neither do I. In fact, I never have any serious problems (crashes, etc) since OpenMG jukebox. MD/HiMD and my E99 are free from the re-initializing problem. My only grudge against Sonicstage is the fact it is not unicode compliant (see sig).

Welcome to sonicstage hell. That's your reward for being a Sony fanboy. Try downloading the Asian version of sonicstage from http://www.atraclife.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7 Some users said Asian/JP version doesn't have the re-initializing problem.

History speaks for itself. Great example: Sony. Apple iPod becomes todas'y walkman. At the same point, I am doubting Apple's ability to create a PMP/Video iPod, based on the same reason, Steve Jobs is the main shareholder of Disney. Examples of excellent PMPs come from manufactures not-related to movie industry, like Archos and Cowon. IMO, Cowon A2 is still THE PMP, released last year, 8 hour battery life for video, support Xvid/Divx.