lamewing

The only DAPs, that I know of, that work with the xbox 360 are the Zune and iPod. The Zune works naturally and the iPod connects after you download the iPod update from xbox live (silver is all that is needed). I don't think you will find much love with the other DAPS. For what it is worth, both the A818 and PSP hook up to the PS3 and trasnfer files just fine.....more than just the streaming capability of the xbox.

G-man, I also have an A808 which I use every day. I tried THREE different iPod Touh units; 1 8GB and 2 16GB from weeks 37 and 38. ALL of them had a horrible hiss that was easily discernible at medium to high volumes. Do you notice this or not? I have heard that the problem has been addressed in the newer units, but I am unwilling to buy another one since my A808 and PSP sound great and both work seamlessly with my PS3. Yep you heard it here, I don't use my PC for music anymore. it is all on my PS3. I love how I can connect either device to the PS3 and transfer my music back and forth. This is a feature that MS should add to the xbox360/zune. Let me know if you notice any hiss and what week your Touch is. Thanks. Joe

I will wait on the Xbox 360 until they work out the overheating issues as a whole. The new falcon chip/chipset seems to be available on some of the Halo 3 units, but I will hold off til I know more. I mentioned earlier that I do have a PS3. The funny thing is that it is still sitting in my closet as we pretty much are just using our Wii on a daily basis....yeah RE4. I truly don't know if we will hook up the PS3 before Xmas or not....we might even wait til after we get an Xbox 360. Pata what do you think of Eternal Sonata and Blue Dragon?

I agree with you Pata that Sony changed directions midstream after giving MS a hard time about limited software-based BC. I spoke with a Sony rep yesterday and it was infuriating. All I kept hearing was "future proof", "BC isn't important, just buy a PS2", "the PS2 will last another 3 years", "we still have BC in the 80GB model", etc. I just don't understand why they kept BC in the 80GB model and dropped it in the 40GB model. The US Sony President(?) even stated that dropping BC didn't save much money. So, it really makes no sense to drop it from the 40GB...unless Sony has no intention of continuing firmware updates to support PS2 BC on the 80GB. I am complexly vexed by this nonsense. Either keep the BC in all models, or drop it completely. This will only add to consumer confusion this Xmas. In regards to the PS3 exclusives....I don't care if there are only a few exclusives.....as long as they are blockbusters. If I can get a game on the XB360 or the PS3, I will choose whichever one has the best performance. If the performance is the same, I will that the PS3 game. I am more concerned about the LACK of current and future "Japanese style" RPGs. The PS2 used to be the only true choice for such games, but now NONE of the systems really have much to offer. I expected Sony to provide the system of choice for RPGs, now I am not so sure..... Still, "gots" my 60GB system with "real BC" so all is well in Texas.

I have to disagree with many of the postive comments regarding this unit. I bought mine at the local Fry's (and replaced it with the same model as I thought I had a dud) and took it back after one day. The whole unit felt cheap and plasticky, unlike the S7xx series. This unit also creaked whenever I used the controls. Also, the screen is terrible when compared to the S7xx model. I just don't understand the downgrade in quality of this unit versus the S7xx players. No dice here...happily returned the both. I guess the feeling of moving from the S7xx to this was the equivalent of moving from the HD5 to the A1000. The A1000 had some nice features, but...yuck. Joe

All you have to do is load applocale with the correct language and then SSCP 4.3 will load accept the files. For instance if you have Korean and Japanese, you would have to load SS using applocale for the Japanese and then separately for Korean.

You can download either of them....heh heh. BUT...the Japanese version will not install even if you change everything in your OS to Japanese. No go. The Asia-Pacific doesn't provide Asian support without applocale. The only advantage (and it is to me) of the AP version is you don't have the Connect store cluttering up your version of SSCP.

As expected in regards to the LCD screen. Thanks for the info!!!

So does the silver version resist fingerprints and oil well? The black one, as expected really shows oil from one's skin. Joe

I checked the local Fry's last Friday and today for the new Sony's. Last week there were over 15 A818 models ( 2GB to 8GB ) and a similar number of A6xx models. NONE of the A818 models are left but there are still 11 of the 6xx series models. It seems the consumers have spoken on this... Joe

I am running Vista Home Premium on my Mac Mini (bootcamp) with 1GB of RAM and both it and SSCP 4.3 run flawlessly. So much so that I ended up buying a A808 today.

One thing to consider is that even though the new Sony 6xx ande 8xx series can use WMP 11, there are still limitations. WMP 11 will NOT recognoize or transfer AAC files. No such luck. This is really annoying considering the Zune software (repackaged WMP 11) handles AAC just fine. The only way to tranfer AAC files is drag and drop, which can become a hassle when dealing with many, many folders. I may send my a818 back to Sony and import the A808 instead. I didn't mind SSCP too much, but I really do need software to keep track of my files. Are there any other options besides WMP 11?

On OS X (mac mini intel) I used Handbrake with PSP settings, with a change to video resolution of 320 x 240 and audio at 768 kbps and it worked perfectly. Joe

I would say the 808 and 818 are the same to my ears. The zune isn't quite as detailed, but it is still very enjoyable! Not nearly as poor as the iPods. I was happy to see that the 818 does show up on my new mac mini's desktop and I can transfer files to it just fine. I hope that helps.

It is official. I took the ipod classic back today and mailed the zune back to amazon. On a hunch, I stopped at Fry's and sure enough they had the B-series and the A818 in stock. Got one of each. Good to go now. I cannot believe the difference in sound quality!!! Lesson learned. Edit: This player will indeed play rented music on the Zune pass. The only catch is that the DRM confirmation info that is downloaded with the files is only good for two or three transfers. After that when you transfer the files the zune software will update the info and transfer to the Zune, but this doesn't work when you transfer to the Sony via WMP 11. So it seems the only "lock" MS put on the Zune Marketplace and Zune Pass has to do with the renewal of the DRM right confirmation. Pretty lame. Nonetheless, using the Zune really got me interested in using a music rental idea. I have seen the list of choices, but does anyone have expereince with using these other services? Any of them provide Jpop, Kpop, and Cpop options? Thakns.

Thanks for the suggestion on how to do that search. I never expected to see so many lazy sellers who all listed as sony mp3 player...wow. In regards to your suggestion of players. I think you are pretty much on target. I have returned the Touch and Nano today. The return at Best Buy was completely painless, but the return at the Apple store really reminds me why I don't like to shop there. The sales guy was appalled that I would choose to return such a "fine product". He told me that there would be a restocking fee (none at Best Buy) for the return and I said that there is no reason to charge me $20.00 when it was unused, merely opened. He finally (1 hour of waiting) agreed to this but made sure to tell me that, "next I will have to follow the rules and that I am not special" I kid you not!!! Grrrr. So now I have the iPod Classic and the Zune. The Zune is nice, but the battery life is just unacceptable these days. The Classic gets 40 hours of battery life, but the sound quality isn't up to par and the UI is just downright SLOW and JITTERY, so that is going back tomorrow. So it is up to a Cowon D2 or the Sony A818 to fullfill my needs, I guess. I would be happy with a Cowon X5L or a Sony HD5, but they are hard to find. I will look at ebay some more. The hardest part of this decision is that neither of these units are sold locally. I am not driving 55 miles to Dallas (just say not to Dallas traffic) just to visit the Sony Store. I guess I should have bought the A808 in Tokyo while on vacation.

The rental part is a pipe dream, buying off another country's iTunes is a snap. Just set up an account with the other country by using some address in that country...a friend, a university, a business, etc....as well as a phone number. Heck, you can use Apple's phone number in that country! You cannot use a credit card unless it has a billing address in that country, BUT you CAN use an iTunes gift card. I used to get them from ebay and now I have some friends that will help me out. They email me the gift card number, I enter it in iTunes and poof, instant purchases. Many of the newer, more expensive purchases are iTunes Plus (256kbps AAC, no DRM) and play on anything that takes AAC. If your friend needs help setting up an account in the U.S. have him contact me. I can also buy the cards and email him the numbers at cost. If he can cover the paypal fees ($1.00 or $2.00) then I would be glad to help. Joe I still have the Zune and the iPod classic and I let them do a shoot out last night by playing a single song over and over again at factory defaults. Wow, the Zune (14 hours estimated battery life) is almost empty after 10 hours and the iPod barely shows any battery use!!! This might push me towards the Sony as it has better battery life.

Eric, I don't think the Zune can use any other DRMed music. What I meant was that supposedly the creative can play the zune pass music. I am curious if the Sony A818 can do so. I guess I will know in a week or so. No matter the outcome, this music "rental" idea is not half bad, especially if you are in the mood to experiment with many different genres....for the price of a single CD. I wish iTunes would adopt this option and allow a "rental" option as well as a purchase option. THAT would be wonderful as I could test out all sorts of music on the japanese iTunes (and the UK as well). Probably a pipe dream though.

I am sorry that my quick review was not very professional or very systematic, but I had some free time at lunch and wanted to jot down my thoughts.... I stood in my batheroom at 1am (true) and turned the volume up to max with nothing playing using the apple earbuds, zune earbuds, and some senheiser earbuds. All of them registered a very LOUD HISS. I have heard some white noise on some of the Sony flash-bashed units, but nothing like this at all. The Nano, classic and Zune were hiss free. I am going to order a Cowon D2 and the Sony A818 tonight and try them both out. Both are great players. I wish the A818 came in indigo like the A808 in Japan!!! I would just be happy with a Sony HD5 at this point. I actually bought 5 of them at Fry's two years ago at clearance and sold them off online for a small profit. I wish I had kept two of them!!!! Joe

weird thing i found out a while back was that the DRM that the Zune uses ISNT playsforsure. It's yet another proprietary DRM format. I would have thought that microsoft would have stuck with one DRM format, instead of implementing two. I guess they wanted to keep Zune users locked into the Zune music store or something.. Weird part is that I can download songs via Zune pass, yet WMP 11 can see and play them. Some folks have said that the Zune Pass songs will then load on the creative players....no way to test this. Joe

Okay, I will keep this short. Oh, hello from Texas! EDIT: This isn't very short after all!!! This weekend I went temporaritly insane (since I completely paid off my credit card) and decided to spend the entire weekend comparing DAP units. I bought at Best Buy (easy return policy and many stores to make returns...so I don't bring them all back to the same store) the following: iPod touch, iPod Classic 160GB, iPod nano, and a Zune. In addition I bought a new NWZ unit from Frys. Why? Because I was tired of driving around trying to listen to all the different players to determine sound quality. That was a worthless attempt as each store had a different sound level and only the Zune had any music loaded on the player. Here is a VERY short comparison of the units: 1. The iPod classic is built like a tank. It feels as sturdy as my old NW-HD5. Too bad the back is still shiny and ready to be scratched up! The noise floor is dead silent, no hiss at all. The standard Apple iPod restrictions apply. The new UI is very pretty, but too slow and jittery for anyone who is even slightly anal-retentive. Battery life at 37 hours on a charge. 2. The iPod touch is solidly built and seems well designed. It is a slick looking device, but I cannot get used to the lack of tactile response. No external volume control is a downer. Its battery life was as advertise, around 22 hours. The BIG PROBLEM is that this device produces (and I tested another unit too) HORRIBLE HISS. When the volume is all the way up (nothing playing) the hiss sounds like a snake! The Classic didn't show this problem. 3. The Nano basically is a small, flash based classic. I have dropped it four times ( to the carpet, luckily) with no damage. It sounds just like the classic and the UI is faster since it doesn't need to access a HD. NO HISS. The square shape makes it hard to hold with small stubby fingers. 4. The Zune is big and bulky compared to the other units...or so it seems. It is actually only a few mm thincker than the 160 classic and only a few mm longer then said classic. It shares the same dimensions as the Touch, except about 1.5 times thicker. I think the large, horizontal screen makes it seem larger than it really is. No scroll wheel (no loss),but instead solidly constructed buttons. It is feels as sturdy as the Classic, but the silky, rubberized body gives it a very secure feeling in your hand. The rubberized body doesn't collect dirt like a silicon skin does. NO HISS at all. I have acutally used the Zune "squirting" ability - what a name - in my Japanese class to share songs. Nice idea which needs better implementation. NO UNICODE SUPPORT WITHOUT SOME SERIOUS HACKS. 5. The Sony is small (too small) at 2GB. Also, this is the 6xx series so it is physically smaller than the A8xx series I played with in Japan, so I am not too worried. The horizontal screen gives the unit a much better feeling in the hand than the nano; much more secure. I also like the physical buttons on the sony. The UI is workable, but a bit dated. I detected little to no HISS. In the end... 1.I am taking back the Touch because the HISS is just terrible. 3 differnt buds (apple buds, zune buds, senheiser buds) and it was still there. 2.The classic is going back because there is something about the sound it produces that actually HURTS my ears. I had the same problem with the 600 series HiMD unit. No idea what the problem is. Maybe the highs are off, but it actually gives me a headache. 3. The nano is going back as I am afraid it will fly from my hands some day. The sound quality is the same as the classic....same headache. Grrrr. I am left choosing between the higher capacity Zune or the flash-based Walkman. Both sounded wonderful. I think the Sony might sound a little "wider" for lack of a better term. It feels like the music is outside my head moreso than when listening to the Zune. It is a close comparision and I would be happy with either. The Sony no longer relies on SSCP and after using the Zune software I could easily use WMP 11. I did get try out the Zune pass and so far I am very pleased. This is a great way to check out new (and old) music before buying a CD. It beats the iTunes "listen to 30 seconds of a song" idea. I have found several songs that are almost all silence during that 30 second clip!!! Since the Sony now uses WMP 11, I ASSUME that I can now use something like Napster, Yahoo!, etc if I choose the Sony over the Zune. What did I learn? That Apple's DAPs aren't for me, even though I do use iTunes to buy music from iTunes Japan. More hoops to jump through to get that music on anther player, but it is cheaper than importing a CD and finding out the CD was a dud. The Sony is a nice unit, but the lack of storage is grating. No more high-capacity units from Sony I guess??? I can replace the HD in Zune with a 100GB HD for more storage later too. I don't want to give up on Sony's DAPs, but nothing has really interested me since Sony backtraced with its HD-based DAPs after the cancellation of the HD5. What happened to the vertical AND horizontal orientation? What happened to the removeable battery? What happened to the solid METAL body? What happened to the standard mini-usb jack? Well, I can live with the WMP port as it allows for nice accessories. I guess I am also concerned about the Zune as it has been almost a year and MS has still not added unicode support in a firmware update, even though the player is 100% capable of displaying kana, kanji, hangul and chinese...it is only FOUR font files...jeez. Tough decision. Thanks for "listening"

TheFanboy...not need to be so worried. The 7xx series doesn't need an update as Sony clearly stated on their European website that SS CP will continue to be updated so that models just previous to the 8xx series will stay operational. Here is the link... http://www.sony.co.uk/view/ShowArticle.act...;site=odw_en_GB I quote: "If you currently own a WALKMAN® everything will remain exactly the same. So you can still enjoy unbelievable sound quality, long battery life and great looks. And you’ll continue to use the SonicStage digital music management platform to organise audio tracks and synchronise your music player. SonicStage will still be updated so you can always keep your WALKMAN® up to date. And buying music from the Sony Connect Music Store will still be possible until at least March 2008."

I use Vista 32bit, CP 4.3, and applocale and all works perfectly.

Yep, Fry's stock is pretty much sold off by now. I was lucky to find a 2GB unit...returned. There were some indigo units (2 or 3) at my store. All were 1GB and cost $79.00...strange when the pink 1GB model (both 703F) was $100.00. The knob was about as loose as any other 7xx series unit. I think they are supposed to be loose. The problem was the control button was loose and slid about 1-2 mm up,down, right, left. Also the button made a fairly lould POP every 3rd or 4th time I pushed it. All in all, the lack of U.S. warranty was the deal breaker. I either need a U.S. warranty or a Japanese warranty...friends in Japan. Good luck with whatever you decide on.

You can do what I did after I confirmed my worries about the warranty. Sent the thing back to J and R and instead bought a 2GB model at the local Frys for a little less than the 4GB model. I realize I am paying more per gigabyte, but the warranty is more important to me than the extra GB.