pata2001

US $300 for the A3000 and US $250 for the A1000 won't get these new walkmen anywhere. For the features you get, those are prices 2 years ago. The 8GB A1200 for $250 is more reasonable, but still expensive. For the same price, you can get competitor products that have at least color screen and picture support. The A3000 should be $250, and the A1000 should be $180. If Sony really goes with the first set of prices, then they'll have to do more than play catch up next year.

I wish Sony would just ship the product instead of doing paper launches. 5th gen iPods are shipping already, Zen micro photo are available in retail stores already (8GB, color OLED Screen, $250). Sony needs to re-think about the pricing.

Unfortunately, the Vaio pocket doesn't have a power mode option. Also, removing the battery or completely discharging it will reset the device, forcing you to go through with the G-sense setup and re-assigning album art from the photo folder. For the power issue, same thing with most other MP3 DAPs, like iPods. To reduce boot-time, most DAPs keep draining power to remain "stand-by." My Dell DJ 2nd gen is pretty good though, usually I can leave it not used for several days, and still have some juice left. Another option is DAPs that have removable battery, ala iRiver H10, Creative Zen, Sony HD5, where you can buy extra batteries and pre-charge them before your trip.

You definitely want to use the same bitrate for both settings. Setting them to different bitrates will result in transcoding, which degrades quality further. The E407 only supports specific bitrates of Atrac3/3+. If you want best quality, choose Atrac3+ 256kbps. If you want good quality/more space, pick Atrac3 132kbps. If you really want to cram many songs, pick Atrac3+ 64kbps. It sounds decent enough outdoors. If you have Sonicstage 3.2, don't bother with the other bitrates, since they are not supported on your unit (except 192kbps, but I cannot confirm that). As for the setting in the "transfer" screen, pick the standard mode. This way, your music won't get transcoded, and transferred as is. IMO, since the E407 supports MP3, I would just encode all the music to MP3s. Use Atrac only if you need gapless, or if you need to cram tons of music (by using Atrac3+ 64kbps). MP3 Lame --preset fast medium is very good.

I like it when they said they are "loosing money." If they ARE actually loosing money, they'll be out of business already. They are NOT loosing money, they are just not making as MUCH money as before because they failed to advance their business strategy to cope with technology. They complained that people are not using CDs and MDs anymore, but they already making profits from legal music downloads also. This is like taxing every VCR, DVD player, DVD recorder, etc. Problem is, will the revenues actually go to the artists, or the music execs? My guess is the later. I'm all for supporting the artist, but most of the times, things like this only benefit the music execs. Plus, I only want to support artists that I like. By paying this tax, that means I'll be supporting crap junk artists that I would never listen to. Oh, and what if I already bought the CDs. Also, if tax are put in, does that mean it's OK to pirate/download illegal music? IMO it sends that message to he consumer. "Well, I paid tax for it, so the artists are compensated already. That measn it's ok for me to pirate or download MP3s instead of paying for legal downloads." I don't think that's the message you want to send to the consumers. Also, the government is supposed to work for the people, NOT for a specific business entity, especially to increase the business' profit. What's next? Tax on every possible devices that can play music? Tax on PCs? Tax on hard-drives since they can be used to store music? Tax on your ears since they are used to liten to music? How about put a tax on air since it can trasmit sound? http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/736.html Unfortunately, it IS probably inevitable.

One reason, gapless. The iPods cannot play anything gaplessly. Sure, there is a workaround using AAC and AAC chapter tool, but so far that's Mac only, and only for AAC. Apple kept releasing nice products at good prices, and tons of accessories too, but until they can do gapless, I will still consider Sony as a choice, and I know it's hard since Sony is not doing things right.

Sony Releases New PCDP: D-NE830 and D-NE730 D-NE830 Expected retail sale date: November 10, 2005 Expected MSRP: 15,000 yen or approx. USD$131 Features: High-quality aluminum front panel Digital amplifier with parametric equalizer G-Protection Headphone maximum output （JEITA16Ω／mW）: 5+5 Available in two colors: blue and silver Support MP3/ATRAC format Support CD-R/RW Remote features: backlight with Kanji support Worldwide 100-240V AC Adaptor Size: 135.8 x 135.8 x 17mm (d/h/w) Weight: approx. 176g D-NE730 Expected retail sale date: November 10, 2005 Expected MSRP: 10,500 yen or approx. USD$91 Features: Thin and compact body Digital amplifier with parametric equalizer G-Protection Headphone maximum output （JEITA16Ω／mW）: 5+5 Available in two colors: silver, blue, pink and black Support MP3/ATRAC format Support CD-R/RW Remote features: backlight *remote features should be identical to the one bundled with the D-NE720 Worldwide 100-240V AC Adaptor Size: 135.8 x 135.8 x 17.9mm (d/h/w) Weight: approx. 172g I want the NE-830. Droooooooooling.

Will this new firmware locks your ability to downgrade? I know there's a hack to downgrade 2.0 to 1.50 for people doing homebrew/emulation.

Yeah, that IS good battery life for a music player. The downside is only 3h for the 60GB video playback. Also, iPods are battery drainer, since they don't completely shut off, so regardlerss of battery life, you probably would have to charge it in 2 or 3 days anyway.

Yeah, this will be bad news for all the upcoming DAPs (zen sleek photo, A1000/3000, etc). CNET already penalizes DAPs that don't have WMA playback, and/or FM radio, yet the iPods kept getting perfect scores. Now video playback. IMO the new iPod is NOT a video player. It is still merely a DAP with video gimmick (small screen, short battery life, limited codec support). Maybe it's just a test ground for Apple to release their new video content in iTunes, and then maybe release a full PMP iPod if enough people are buying the content. As for Sony's sound quality, Apple claims the new iPod will have a sound quality as good as the shuffle. If that's true, than the new iPod will have an upper hand in SQ. Objective tests already showed that the shuffle has a superior SQ vs Apple's own regular 4th gen iPod. The only things left for Sony are battery life and gapless with Atrac (which is actually a big thingfor me personally). The HD5 had an upper hand in having removable battery, and yet Sony needs to take that out. Oh, and regarding making DAPs at a loss, a cost analysis on the iRiver H3xx showed that companies are making BIG profits from DAPs. http://www.eetasia.com/ARTICLES/2005SEP/C/...SEP_TEA_WK2.HTM Apple is cutting through the market by making less profit on the hardware, in hoping people will jump for content in iTunes (the profit is still good, Apple is probably making ~$40 profit for each $99 512MB shuffle). Sony makes their own flash memory, so that should not be a problem. Interesting enough, I don't see Samsung releasing 2GB/4GB DAPs, pointing the fact that they're the one who is supplying Apple with the NAND chips.

Yeah, Apple is kicking butts today. Sony has not even released the A1000 and A3000 to the market, yet Apple is coming with the new iPod in a week shipping form apple.com. What happened Sony? It seems Sony's new walkman is doomed before even it reaches market, unless Sony sells them for much cheaper. Sony better start designing flash based thinner A1000s, bring back the Vaio pocket and put video capability ala PSP on it, or make a PSP with 40GB HDD in it. Really, Sony has potential products (eg. PSP with its excellent screen and capabilities), but nothing is done to make use of them.

The packaging is very similar to Creative's Zen micro. Another question is the price. Creative has the Zen micro photo, with color OLED screen, 8GB, removable battery, for $250. The A1000 needs to be at $200 price point to be competitive, but my guess it will be $250. Sure, its OLED screen is attractive, but many people are turned off by the name "Sony" already, thanks to Sony's past history with MD/OpenMG/SS/HD1/Atrac, etc. Still, the A1000 will probably be the only micro HDD DAP that can do gapless (atrac). And btw, will this packaging be universal? Japan version of Sony portables always use cardboard boxed packaging. However, US versions are always in the dreaded plastic wrap packaging.

biozet: Do you know if Sony have any plans to release a competing product for the iPod nano? Meaning a 2GB or 4GB flash based DAP will full GUI system like the HDx or Axxxx series? (not like the current Sony flash based units). HD based DAPs are not that interesting anymore. Almost every manufacture has released a unit with micro HDD already (iRiver H10, Rio Carbon, Zen micro/photo, etc). Even Creative is going to release an 8GB zen micro photo, for only $250! Sony is really running late in the game. A flash based and thinner A1xxx unit would be nice.

Just to add a couple tidbits: If your OS is WinXP or win2K with SS2.x, you need to change windows' non-unicode program/locale setting to Japanese. No need for Applocale with SS2.x. If your OS is WinXP with SS3.x, don't set windows' locale to Japanese. Doing so will prevent the Applocale utility to work. You HAVE to use Applocale to get Japanese displayed correctly. Unfortunately, MS applocale is only for WinXP. Win2k users are out of luck if they install ss3.x, like me =(. Hopefully Sony's new Connect player is unicode so we don't have to deal with all these crap anymore.

I would just use MP3 Lame --preset standard. If you want more songs, use Lame --preset fast medium. Since the HD5 can play MP3s, the only reason to go with Atrac is gapless.

Kinda old thread, but just a little update on the S2 models (D-NS505/707F). These models are based on the 2nd gen units (having to use 2 AAs), having similar features like seamless, etc. They have strange design, with a hand-strap built-in on to the unit. The LCD and some controls are on the hand strap. The interesting part is the LCD on these models can be reversed ala the 55ELK on the menu setting. However, button placements for volume and playback are awkward, no backlight on the LCD, and no custom parametric EQ (there are only presets). Also, body wise, it is plastic, not as solid as the MZ-S1.

LOL. Yup, the TVCM is kinda weird. I don't think I want a device that knows what I'm going to listen to tomorrow... LOL.

Yeah, Atrac3/3+ sounds better at lower bitrates vs MP3 at the same low bitrates. However, you have 20GB of space, and at higher bitrates, you probably won't notice the difference. I would just go with MP3, using Lame 3.97b1 (the new recommended version at hydrogenaudio) --preset fast standard. The result will be pretty much trasparent compared to the original CD. Why MP3? Because you then can play the MP3s with any software and any players, if you buy other DAPs. With Atrac, you're locked to Sony players. I would pick atrac only if you need gapless.

OK, under the new reign, Sony is undergoing changes. There have been rumors on what product line that will be axed. Let's hear your opinions/speculations. 1. PCDPs. IMO, this is probably going to be axed. I don't want it to be since I like Sony PCDPs, but Sony pretty much doesn't have anymore significant feature to add to its PCDPs. The last lineup pretty much have almost everything: gapless/seamless playback, backlit LCD on unit(for the NE920/520), digital amp, even korean display support on the 55ELK remotes. Maybe Sony can add in 5 band EQ or HD amp, but nothing much else, unless they decide to explore new codecs. Hopefully not axed, but seeing that the focus now is on the network walkmen, maybe Sony will just release crappy plain PCDP low-enders like the EJ001. 2. MD/HiMD. A lot of us are weary whether Sony, under the new management, will axe this or not, especially since units sales are not doing well, especially in the US, and the fact not many followers doing HiMD (sharp, kenwood, pana, etc). Sooner or later, it might be axed, but maybe not anytime soon. However, the network walkmed is getting new lineups quite frequently, while there is no rumors/announcements at all regarding MD/HiMD. Might be axed, or maybe the focus is shifted to be only pro devices like the M10/100. 3. Atrac. The codec itself. With focus on MP3, and the Axxxx series getting WMA support, plus PSP supporting AAC, Sony seems to be doing mixbag decisions. With the recent opening of the codec to support the general bitrates, maybe we'll still be seeing Atrac around for a while, but who knows. Discuss.

Maybe Sony is waiting for the perpendicular hard-drives to be more common in the marketplace?

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000227059950/#comments Read the user posted captions. LOL.

This is because of Sonicstage, not the Vaio Pocket. If you have SS3.x and XP, the easiest way is to use Microsoft's Applocale program to run Sonicstage using Chinese locale. Note that the Vaio pocket, like other Sony products, only support chinese characters that are also available as Japanese kanji characters. So even if all the characters are shown properly in Sonicstage, few characters will still be displayed as "?" on the Vaio Pocket.

Pretty bold claim Sony. Stop talking, and release the product instead. When Steve Jobs announced the nano, it is available that day/few days afterwards. Sony talks about a product that is not going to be on sale untill November, and that is Japan only. US + worldwide is probably closer to christmas/06 release. Plus the price. What if Apple decides to cut the nano and shuffle prices when Sony releases their products? Oh, and don't forget Sony USA's tendencies to cut things and funtionalities for US versions. Sony is going to the right direction, albeit at baby steps. But iPod killer? Not yet.

Hopefully Sony does not cripple the new units, ala some of the PCDP models, where LCD remotes work, but no display.

Shows you that there are many conflict of interest inside Sony. MD/HiMD doesn't get MP3 until this year, yet Sony's PCDPs and Car decks have MP3 support before Atrac.