pata2001

This pretty much applies to most battery meter on most electronic devices. After I finish watching a video on my 5G iPod, the battery would be in red, but letting it idle for a couple of seconds, it will jump back to green (about 1/3 of the meter).

I wouldn't get the Vaio pocket now, unless you MUST have gapless AND color display/album art. It's just "too old," and there are/will be many new MP3 DAPs coming out after CES. The vaio pocket, although a good piece of hardware, it is big and its battery will always drain out, even if you turn it "off." A good unit for home use (thanks to its line out on the cradle), but not really practical for actual portable use. Not to bash the Vaio pocket, but with 5g iPod, I don't think iPod owners will be "jealous," noting that the Vaio pocket will ran out of battery first when both are "off!" If you still want it, I would keep the HD3 as the portable unit, while the Vaio pocket to be used as a home "jukebox."

Yeah, most movie DVDs are available under $10, while most UMDs are still $20 and up. The drawbacks of self-ripped movies is the limited resolution that Sony put on (320x240), while UMD movies are useing PSP's native resolution, and it's more expensive to buy multiple 1GB+ memory sticks than several UMDs. Maybe the new video download service would be the "killer app" for the PSP, unless Sony screwed up again (DRM, limitations, propietary stuff, etc). IMO, Sony USA should just concentrate on releasing games (there are still plenty of Japanese games not out in the US), instead of trying to copy Apple. Edit: wrong res mentioned

Region codes apply to UMD movies AND music. If you are interested in importing some Japanese movie/music UMDs, then definitely get the Japanese version. If you are only going to use it for games/self-encoded movies, then a cheaper local version is fine. In the US, the game selections for the PSP is pathetic. Japan has much much more games (even some magazines are bundling demos on UMDs). Japan has so many PSP games that they have "greatest hits" lineup already. 1 recommended accessory: the 2200mAh battery pack.

The 50hr playtime is assuming that a user uses Atrac3 105kbps compression. Higher bitrate will give less battery life. My guess is the unit is probably not charged fully at first. 2 hours of listening is really short time, unless it is only charged via USB for a few minutes.

That's pretty common. I can feel my 5G iPod's hard-drive spinning/"shaking" when viewing photos. I've also felt the Vaio pocket's hard-drive spinning when playing with it at a store. You probably can feel the vibration as "shaking" because the HD3 is so slim, so any minor vibration cause by the hard-drive can be felt easily. Don't worry. Just try not to shake the unit around when it is accessing the hard-drive.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-Ku6PN0uHUmv/c...%7CSony#see_all Crutchfield has them on sale already. In addition to MP3 and AtracCD, not they support WMA too. Seems to be priced well, the $200 unit has fluorescent display, a feature usually kept on high end units only. The only question is whether they will support seamless/gapless with AtracCD or not. Another "missing" feature is the 7 band EQ. Seems like all of them only feature 3 band EQ. Crutchfield's info says paramaetric EQ, so maybe it will be similar to the parametric EQ on the PCDPs (which is a 3 band EQ anyway)?

Oh yeah, bring it on. The only concern about Sony is price, release date (would Apple beat them to it, again?), and DRM crap.

Damage has the NE1, and I have the NE9, and I assure you that they play MP3 files.

The 1st gen AtracCD PCDPs can play MP3s just fine. You probably meant HiMD units. OT: Is there a website/CD walkman fan that keep track of pictures for all SonyPCDP models ever released? Sony Japan website used to keep older units in their catalog, but now they are ditching previous gen units very quickly (eg. 1st gen HiMD units are no longer listed).

Again, we are talking about Sony USA. You never know what they would do. Just look at the NE20/NE920. Sony intentionally disable kanji/hangul capability on the US version. DellDJ only has English as the menu language option, but it can display kanji and hangul flawlessly for song titles.

Wa are talking about Sony USA. Just go to local Bestbuy/Target, and you'll only find lowend PCDPs. Lately, they start putting the Exxx series also, but HD5 is hardly available other than at Fry's. Just because you don't use kanji, doesn't mean everyone doesn't. Creative, Dell, Apple, all provides easy way to display kanji characters on their players. Sony, on the other hand, intentionally disable kanji capability in units such as the NE20, NE920, RH10/DH10P, ditching kanji capable remotes, etc. Why? It doesn't make sense to me. This will actually increase cost since Sony would have to make 2 different firmware and create 2 different products for the same model, rather than just ship one from the assembly line.

The A6xx flash players would probably make it to the US, as I have seen Bestbuy's and Target's placeholders on the shelves (currently filled with E5xx). Maybe it IS a good thing that the A1xxx/3xxx is not coming to the US (other than the higher price to import for those who want them). Sony USA messed up so frequently (disabling kanji display, ditching accessories, little to no marketing effort, preffering low-end units, etc), that they could probably screwed the A1xxx/3xxx even more.

Is this a move to "force" users to upgrade to Vista? Due to the fact that Vista will be DRM-heavy, many users don't want to upgrade to Vista, when XP is "good enough." Hopefully software developers will have a say in this (or maybe more will prefer openGL).

Rip the CD directly to Atrac using SS (do not rip to WAV first).

Currently playing Tokobot. Platforming + puzzle. I don't really like platforming genre, but the robots are kinda cute.

Second that.

I only have 1 game too, Taiko no tatsujin portable. The great thing is Namco provides downloadable extra songs. Also, the game has game sharing, so I can play with my friends wirelessly, no extra game UMD required.

The HD5 can play MP3 natively, so why bother converting it to Atrac? You only get longer transfer time and lower quality.

Just get a regular audio cable with 3.5mm jack on both ends. Connect one end to your unit's headphone out, the other end to the boombox's line-in.

Only Sony makes boomboxes with AtracCD support, and so far, there are only 2 models on the market. This is what you want: http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP....PSYC&Dept=audio It has a line-in jack, so you can simply plug-in your E507 (or any audio device). It plays AtracCD, buy does NOT support gapless/seamless.

I don't understand the point of this. If you need to connect the faceplate to your PC, why don't you just burn your MP3s to a CD and play it via the CD part? With the cheap cost of CD-Rs, you won't be limited to 1GB. Looks like Sony is going nowhere. Instead of this, why don't Sony create a built-in interface on their car decks to connect with the network walkmans? Or implement seamless capability for AtracCD playback? Sony is getting dumber and dumber, and creating more divisions in their product lineups.

If you use WinXP, download MS applocale, and run SS under applocale. If your OS is other than winXP, your option is downgrade to SS 2.x.

Correction: 132kbps should be Atrac3 (LP2), not Atrac3+. LP2 (Atrac3 132kbps) is the most versatile, since it is compatible with all Atrac devices, including legacy MD (except pre-MDLP units) and all Network walkmans, and still give decent sound quality.

Your unit supports MP3 natively. I don't see the need to convert the MP3s to atrac. Just burn your MP3s to CD as data. Converting to Atrac will only reduce quality due to transcoding.