lamewing

sold

This is the third time I listed this player on ebay. If it doesn't sell this time I will donate it to good will for a tax credit.

Rerip an entire collection? Riiiiiight. I have over 800CDs. There is no way I would rerip all of my music just to get them on a particular player...I would rather just get an iPod....oh, wait, that is exactly what I "settled" for.

You can always do what I did....sell it all off. I got tired of the NWZ series nonsense. Why do I need to use multiple programs to just load songs and video onto my player? Use WMP = no AAC. Drag/drop = no cover art. etc etc. There are many other players out there.

I simply gave up on Sony because I wanted simplicity in many areas of my life. Example: New Sony Walkmans with drag-drop and Windows Media Player support. Sounds great but there are problems. 1. If you use WMP you cannot transfer AAC files. 2. AAC files can only be tranferred by drag/drop and then they loose cd art. 3. Videos must be converted with third party software as the Sony software costs an additional $13.00...and doea a worse job than the free software. The lack of a single piece of software to manage my music and support all my file types was too much for my lazy brain. I love Sony hardware and I have regretted how nice it made my office look (compared to an ugly white brick), but ease of use is more important at this point in my life. Plus, my hearing is so poor that I cannot tell the difference in an mp3, aac and atrac file of the same bitrate.

I am selling the last ATRAC item I own. It is a Sony NW-S703F player, along with the recording cable and charging stand. All have been owned about 1.5 months and have seen less than 2 hours of use. I simply don't need thhis stuff anymore. I have placed it on ebay at about 50% of the original cost. I am asking $85.00 with full shipping using buy it now and paypal. Ebay Item number: 140230714637 If you have any questions feel free to PM me or email me via ebay, which is preferrable as I don't visit this site much anymore. Why? I have moved on. My iPod Video 5.5 works perfectly and sound more than "good enough" for when I am out and about. I hope some ATRAC fan will give a good home to this player. Joe Edwards

If it were an updated HD5 with video capability, high capacity HDD, and no reliance on SSCP, sure, but that will never happen.

From Sonyconnect.com: "Now that the music store is closed, you will not be able to purchase or download music, but you will be able to continue to use several features to maintain your library through the end of 2008." Check out their website for more information.

I played with a A720 from Best Buy for a few days and I was able to change the menu to Japanese.

I will be Tokyo from May 23 to June 2. Joe

I made a comment earlier about the A728 having a plastic back and the A818 having a metal back. I think I was wrong regarding the A818. Maybe the plastic is thinner on the A728, but perhaps it is just a matter of the A728 having a wider area, who knows. I returned the A728 but after using it to watch videos of a distance learning class I must say that the larger 2.4 inch screen trumps the 2.0 inch screen. The Zune's screen is great, but it is a weird trade-off. There seems to be slight vertical interlacing on the screen, but at the same time the COLORS looks so good that it is like looking at a plasma TV screen. The iTouch didn't do it for me as I really like having physical volume controls. The Zune works well in this area, but the Sony is the best with true dedicated volume controls. I think I will hold off and wait for a 32GB model in the next iteration. If I was more confidant that we (in the West) will still be able to use SS a year or more down the line I would pick up a ATRAC-based model in Japan this May, but I fear Sony will close the servers and then we're out of luck.

The Sony players (unsure about the A900 series) can display the menuing system in multiple languages. My A818 is in Japanese right now.

Pics on ebay. 24 hours left. Price dropped to 125 dollars.

Price dropped again on ebay. ONly three days left.

That sort of is the point. The plastic on the backside of the player doesn't provide the feeling of "well built" say compared to heavy plastics used in other products. it is very lightweight (too much so) and sound very hollow and weak when held.