Leland

Hey, Nismo96! My post was over 12 hours earlier with the same link! Some respect here!

Sony support website confirms that US customers will have access to the firmware upgrade to the NW-HD1 HDD Player to support native MP3 playback. It is described as "coming soon". http://esupport.sony.com/perl/news-item.pl...1791&news_id=63

I did this upgrade on the weekend without any problems but also without any noticable improvements. I guess I will find out when I upgrade the firmware in my HD1 player. On the other hand, no negative effects either. Hopefully, a few innocent and previously undetected bugs (to me) have been also fixed.

Reading the mechanical translation of the Sony press release, it appears there are some new features in Sonicstage 2.3, perhaps related to management of songs and their locations on various devices. Very hard to understand. Still, I am happy my NW-HD1 will be upgradable. I am quite happy with this unit, since I was already willing to suffer the downsides of SS software with my MD system. MP3 compatibility will be a bonus.

The new slim PS2 is supposed to be dead silent, which would be nice.

You have to understand the principal called a "play unit" with this device. It is described on Page 25 of the operators manual (second half of the page). By using "Unit Shuffle" and selecting the right "play unit" you have a very powerful shuffle capability. The way it works is based on where you are in the heirarchy of the music directory. At the top level of albums, all tracks from all albums will play randomly. If you select a specific album and the display shows the tracks from that album, only those tracks are shuffled. Now, lets say rather than being in "album" mode you change to "genre" mode. Again, at the top level all tracks will shuffle so it is no different. But if you select a specific genre, say hip hop or be bop, it will shuffle all tracks that have that genre assignment. You could also say switch to "artist" mode, select Miles Davis, and shuffle all the tracks in your database that are tagged with Miles Davis as the artist. In one review, the reviewer said the "play unit" concept was bad because it was too complicated. Frankly, I think it is elegant and very powerful. Hopefully that helps.

The nice thing about the Sony one is the 100-240 V voltage flexibility so you can plug it in (if you have the right plug adapters) anywhere in the world. It is also pretty small and has relatively high (1000 ma) rating.

That's great, bhangraman! :laugh: If you glued it directly to the unit, I can just imagine it bulging out of one's jacket pocket.

Avil, I think the problem will be getting SS to recognize the emulator as a CDR. I didn't Alcohol could do this so you might try it, but I think alcohol and nero will only creat a virtual cd for which you can create an image from within alcohol or nero, not actually a cdr emulator.

Larry, the statement I pulled from the help file has been there long before 2.2, so if you systems works now I would bet it will continue to work with 2.2.

Jadeclaw, I have noticed that files imported (mp3's, wav from files) cannot be edited sometimes. If I move the original imported file so SS can't find it, then delete the reference to it File Info tab of the track Properties, the song becomes editable. It is a pain because it has to be done to each track separately. Could that be helpful in the situation you describe? I guess I'm refering to imported files, which is not actually the same as uploaded files. I noticed I cannot change the genre or other atributes of songs downloaded from connect. That is a pain as I use a limited set of genres, force fitting some, to reduced the number in the list to simplify searching by genre.

In the feature set for the 2.2 upgrade, it says: * Addition of Connect Music Store Radio. I cannot find it in the SW. I cannot log on to connect at the moment however as I am in Japan, so perhaps it only shows up when you are logged on. Has anyone tried this out?

Yes, SS does have problems with Variable bitrate MP3's. It also has trouble with some high (>320mbps) bitrate files. The following is from the SS help file: However, the following music files cannot be transferred to any other devices/media, even if imported into My Library. MP3 format music files with a bit rate of less than 32 kbps. MP3 format music files with a bit rate of more than 320 kbps. MP3 format music files with a variable bit rate. Hint SonicStage supports ID3tag Versions 1.1, 2.2, and 2.3.

Nice idea. Is your interest in ripping many tracks or just some? I have used CD-RW for this purpose in the past. For one or two tracks, Total Recorder is a very simple way.

I think what I would do is keep the charging cradle somewhere away from my PC (which already has too many wires and power plugs cluttering the floor). Perhaps put it in a convenient location to grab an go like on my dresser or in the Kitchen. Perhaps also a location where I might have it hooked up to some powered speakers. Then, its handy and charged when I want to use it. When I went to make MD's, just grab a cable and plug it in to the PC. In some respects it is better. When the USB is plugged in, the computer always has to recognize it regardless of whether you plan to download tracks or not. Sometimes I prefer to be able to charge a device (like my N10 or NW-HD1) without the computer being in the loop. I keep my HD1 usb cable unplugged most of the time for this reason.

I'm sorry if I state the obvious, but of course the other parameter depends on where the content for those 300 MD recordings came from. Any for which you have the original CD's for, you can easily rip into your computer and have available for rapid download to NetMD, HiMD or ATRAC HDD (the NW-HD1). Ripping 300 MD's worth of CD content is a chore, but is achievable. Do you still have access to the original source material? The big question this brings then is if you are starting from scratch creating a digital music database, do you want to go Sony or are you better off with another solution that is less proprietary. There are many threads on this and other sites debating this.

From the SS 2.1 help file: "Automatic Transfer button Displays the "Automatic Transfer Settings" dialog box. This allows you to transfer albums in My Library to an ATRAC HDD (if all the tracks in the albums are not yet transferred), and also to select whether to start transferring these albums automatically when the ATRAC HDD device is connected to your computer. Note This button is available only when transferring tracks to an ATRAC HDD." So the answer is no, unless you have a Vaio Pocket or the NW-HD1.

I still have discs from 1992. They are extremely robust.

I've used it clandestinely to record my kids while we were hiking along on vacation a couple of times. It's great because it is so candid, whereas photography or video is obvious to the subject, so they react unnaturally at times.

Kurisu, I'm sorry for my lack of loyalty. I will try to improve by buying something soon! :cool: I am interested in Hi-MD for recording from analog and mic. Once the upload hassles are solved, and they nearly are with things like total recorder, Marcnets program and the future promise of wavconverter from Sony, it is clear that HI MD represents a superior portable recording format. I have old MD's that I recorded from analog sources no longer available to me that HI MD recording would help me move to my PC. Also, some vinyl to record, and mic recordings. I am simply waiting for the 2nd gen systems. Since I have a new toy in my NW-HD1 and my Gibson Les Paul standard, my toy satisfaction level is pretty high at the moment. This will not last forever.

To keep the backups more reasonable in size, you can move the non-atrac files (mp3, wav) to a different location after you import them. SS then can't find them, but the consequences are not problematic. If I was you, I would get the 800 model to try out. It is only 50 bucks more than the 600. If you buy from a retailer with a decent return policy, you can always take it back within 30 days. I did this to audition a 600. Decided it was not worth having without the record capabilities.

All things considered, my MZ-R50. This was an early Japanese released model that with the right combination of button presses would shut SCMS off: even saying so on the display. The firmware was updated on the model to defeat this within a month or so of it's release, but I got the early buyers advantage.

One of the reasons I got the Sony NW-HD1 was to have the size of the Mini with a 20 gig capacity and longer battery life. Tradeoff is SS tie in as we all know and the ipods have a better navigation system. Still, I am very pleased with it. It has replaced MD for me except for recording and in the car. I also keep an old MD player on my dresser driving a couple of old PC speakers for ambient music to fall asleep to or some music while getting ready for work. In that environment, just popping in an MD is fine. I would find the 4-5 gig capacity players too limiting as I would always be thinking of another album I "might" want to bring along. It is great to just grab the device when I have a trip and not have to think about which MD's to take. Plus, at 18-20 grams per MD, I was carrying more weight in MD's around than the player itself by factors.

I have the NW-HD1. I don't have any Kanji titled tracks so can't test this for sure. However, the unit has the option to display menus and messages in Japanese, English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. This leads me to believe they do not have a Japan specific model so you may well be able to display Kanji on it.

etronics also claims to have them in stock for 9 bucks in 1, 5 and 10 packs. http://www.etronics.com/product.asp?stk_code=sonhmd1g