pata2001

This kinda bothers me. Is Sony going to abandon the older devices in favor of this new hardware-software combo? I hope the new Connect player is much better than Sonicstage, but disregarding previous devices is not good for the market. Can't blame them though, Sony is a consumer electronics company.

Unfortunately not. I went to Bestbuy one time, and tested them, and was disappointed.

Good review. 1 thing I find the ZS-SN10 still lacking is seamless/gapless. AtracCD PCDPs can do this already since 2nd gen. The addition of line-input is very welcomed though. I guess Sony cannot just make 1 thing right on the get go. Maybe on the next revision.

My guess is they're trying to tighten the firmware further. Homebrewers were screwed by post 1.50 firmwares, but I've seen people posting potential workarounds with the Japanese 2.0 firmware. Maybe Sony USA saw this, and causes the delay. Or, maybe they are just trying to improve the browser and wifi part (support/presets for local US hotspots?)

I have the E99, and I've been using it with 3 PCs (1 with SS3.2, 2 with SS2.3), and I don't have any problems. I don't even need authorization/registration. From the Vaio pocket manual, looks like you can authorize up to 5 PCs to transfer music from. I've been transferring my own self-ripped music from the 3 different computers to my DH710 without any problems either. The only thing is each SS has to rip the CDs independently. You cannot just copy and interchange the music library. After thinking about it, seems like this is the downside of the "atrac audio device," the new subgroup for the Vaio pocket, HDx series, and presumably the newer network walkmans (post E99). The E99 is recognized as memory stick unit. Glad I stick with my E99, the fact that it can playback all of the new Atrac3+ bitrates too.

The Vaio Pocket should work with most cameras that are USB mass storage compliant (ie. recognized by windows as USB mass storage without needing any drivers). Of course, the manual and Sony will only say their cameras.

Meh, nothing new. Just read CNET. LOL. At CNET, they practically subtract points for every non-apple DAPs that cannot play WMA, cannot play secure WMA, and don't have FM. Look at the iPod, and voila, perfect score. I have yet to see a review done by "professional" reviewers that touch basic music playback like gapless. Most of them go round and round doing comparisons with one of the iPod products, and/or listing the iPods' features, instead of doing an actual review of the intended product.

How about Region 2 UMD movies? I just ordered a PSP, but I didn't think about movie/music regioning. If I flashed the US PSP with Japan firmware, can it play Region 2 UMDs? It sucks that not only movies, but Sony also region-lock UMS music too. I don't know if I should cancel my order and get a Japanese PSP instead.

Interesting, especially that this is announced by Sony UK, but not available on Sony Japan web site. I wish they make 2GB version of it. Yeah, the built-in USB is welcomed, making the device more useful as a USB mass storage. Hopefully they are full USB2.0 compliant.

PSP is a very versatile device. However, it is severely limited by the dependency on memory sticks. Sony should either make UMD blanks and PC drives (unlikely), or release a PMP version with a built-in hard-drive (maybe a non-gaming non-UMD version). Also, user videos are limited to low res. I hope they will allow full res in the future.

Does Avex join iTunes? Avex is probably 1 of the largest labels in Japan. Plus, it has Eurobeat!

Not to go against the forum's title, but the Rio Karma is 1 of the best MP3 DAP out there, feature wise. It is the only MP3 DAP that can play MP3, OGG, and WMA gaplessly. Too bad it is discontinued already, but you can find it real cheap now. Other great feature is it has an excellent parametric EQ, which has been praised by almost every reviews. The drawbacks, it is not a USB mass storage device, and requires Rio music manager to transfer tracks. The Vaio pocket, although a good device by itself, IMO would be overkill for your purpose. Not only that it is probably too big/heavy to be pocketable, since it is a hard-drive, it will be more fragile for portable purposes. I would put it inside a good case, and inside your backpack. The good thing is it comes with a remote, and with 40GB, you can pretty much bring your whole music collection with you. HiMD actually seems to be a really good choice. 1GB would probably give you a good amount of music, especially if you use LP2 or HiLP (HiLP would probably be good enough, especially inside a bus), and you can always carry an extra disc. The only drawbacks is the slower transfer process (vs USB2.0 transfer of Rio Karma and Vaio pocket), and the extra discs (if you want your whole music collection with you).

LOL. Looks very cute. Looks like it only connects to the headphone jack. It would be better if Sonny integrated remote capabilities on this thing.

I still think firmware update should not be needed for playback. It's the same codec (atrac3+), only different bitrates, unlike MP3 vs atrac. An example is the 1st gen AtracCD PCDPs. When they were released, the supported bitrate for Atrac3+ are only 64kbps and 48kbps. Yet, when HiSP(256kbps) is available, those PCDPs can play it just fine. Another example is the E99. If it can play all bitrates, I don't see why the HDx, or even HiMD cannot. All we need is for Sony to allow SS to transfer those bitrates to any devices. My guess is currect devices might not be optimized in terms of power usage for those bitrates, so maybe Sony is afraid that their advertised battery life might fall short when the new bitrates are used.

奥井雅美 (Masami Okui). My #1 fav, especially since now she's under her own label. Other than that: V6 B'z T.M.Revolution dream ZONE (too bad they're disbanded already) move There are many more, but now I'm more into Eurobeat.

As for now, Sonicstage only allows the bitrates of Atrac3 132kbps, 105kbps, 66kbps, and Atrac3+ 256kbps, 64kbps, and 48kbps for AtracCD. Presumably the unit itself should be able to decode all bitrates of Atrac3+, but there's no way to burn AtracCD with the new bitrates. SP (Atrac 292kbps) is not possible via Sonicstage, so there is no way to see if the unit actually supports it (presumably it doesn't). As for MP3, Sony car units play all bitrates, including VBRs (--preset standard, etc) just fine. I would go with MP3 since there is no advantage at all by going to Atrac since current car units cannot play AtracCD gaplessly (plus, making AtracCD is more time consuming having to use Sonicstage, while you can just burn MP3s to a data CD using any burning software)

Ripped a track to 320kbps and 96kbps Atrac3+. SS3.2 transfers them to the E99 without any transcoding. Yup, the E99 plays both just fine. Presumably it can play all the bitrates then. Nice!

OK, I installed 3.2 US version. As I feared, kanji display is not supported on its own, even changing windows non-unicode program setting doesn't help. I have change back to English(US) locale, and use MS applocale, then kanji is displayed fine. Weird. Sony just cannot do this part right huh. I guess I have to stick with 2.3 for my win2k machine. Interesting is, when I connected my E99, look at the transfer setting screen: I have not tried transferring yet, so I don't know if the E99 actually support all the new bitrates. But it would be SWEET if it does!

Quick question: Earlier US version of SS3.x has problems with kanji display, it can't, even with registry edits. One can use MS Applocale, but it only works with winXP, not win2k, etc. Has this been "fixed"? 1 thing that keeps me from upgrading (in fact, I downgraded form 3.1 to 2.3 when I found out all my Kanji titled songs become ????) is this issue.

Yes. Instead of 1 big 1GB flash memoery, the E99 actually consists of 2 512MB flash memory.

That's nothing new. Sony USA has been trimming the color availability of US version of portable units since forever. Why? Only their stupid marketing team (if that actually exists) knew. Even after the slew of colorful iPod minis and Zen micros, Sony USA still won't budge, only offering boring colors (silver/white/black) for US units. The only line-up that get some color treatment are the low-end PCDPs, psyc units, and the HD3/5.

How about the Sony MDR-XD series?

Another stupid decision made by Sony USA. If Ishi's workaround doesn't work, try this one: Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sony Corporation\OpenMG\PD\{24FBD48F-275E-4b3f-A169-08969C996A0D} Change the "Char" value to 90 hexadecimal (or 144 decimal). The default value of US install of Sonicstage is 3. This is what I had to do to enable Kanji display on my E99.

Super Eurobeat Presents Euromach 10. In LP2 on my E720, in HiLP 64kbps on my E99. Disc 1: Ikemen Side 1.Ace - Take My Breath Away 2.Jimmy Bravo - Samurai 3.Dusty - Crazy For Love 4.Jungle Bill - Shake Me Up 5.Mr. M - Love Gun 6.Jungle Bill - Laser Gun 7.Bazooka Girl - Flying Around The World 8.Cindy - Gucci Girl 9.Ely Kotero - Sheik Yarbati Moves 10.Doki Doki - Baby Besame 11.Lolita - Baby Baby Blue 12.Doctor Stranger - Touch Me Baby 13.Kiki & Kika - Big Yeah 14.Ace Warrior - Fame 15.Ace - Don't Go 16.Giorgia Barrows - Queen Of The Night 17.Emy - Another Love 18.High Level - Take My Time 19.Kika - In Your Eyes 20.Christine - Crazy Generation 21.Dusty - You Make Me Feel 22.Lolita - Everybody Dance 23.Jeff Driller - Foxy Lady 24.Jeff Driller - Chica Loca 25.Joe Banana - Bang Bang Bang 26.Bazooka Girl - Velfarre 2000 27.Volta & Gabbana - Johnny Go 28.Fastway - Rocket Man 29.Jackie 'O - X-Man Story 30.Franz "V.I.P." Tornado & Bazooka "T.C.V." Girl - Super Euro Flash Disc 2: Gal Side 1.Fastway - 1 2 3 4 Fire 2.Dusty - Solid Gold 3.Fastway - Spacelove 4.Ace - Play The Music 5.Mel & Kim - Go Go To Heaven 6.Kiki & Kika - Easy Busy 7.Tri-Star - Ike Ike 8.Franz "Mad Cow" Tornado & The Yamanba-Gals - Ganguro 9.Joe Banana - Black Magic 10.Luna - Donna Tokyo 11.Linda Ross - Sugar Sugar Honey 12.Susan Key - Love Train 13.Niko - Made Of Fire 14.Ken Martin - Bad World 15.Ken Martin - Sexy Sexy Sexy 16.Dave Rodgers - Deja Vu 17.Lolita - Think Of You 18.Go Go Girls - Love Me Tonite 19.Go Go Girls - Do You Wanna Dance 20.Doki Doki - Celebration Time 21.Priscilla - Hello Goodbye 22.Christine - To Be Your Angel 23.Louise - I Need Somebody To Love 24.Bazooka Girl - Cantare Ballare (Happy Eurobeat) 25.Franz "Mad Cow" Tornado & The Bazooka Girls - Suck A Bazooka 26.Franz Tornado & The "Mad Cow" Girls - Bandolero Comanchero 27.Tam Arrow - The Boom Boom Power 28.Dave McLoud - Mikado 29.Nick Mansell - Stop Lookin' Back 30.Fastway - Money Go Round

Thanks a lot ishi. This is great, since Sony is never upfront with these kind of things (eg. frequency cutoffs). As for those who are curious in cutoffs for Lame MP3 for the VBR presets, check this thread at hydrogenaudio: http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=18091 Note, you can always override those settings with Lame.