Pulse

In the options on some page (I can't remember which and I can't be bothered to open up connect to wait 5 hours for it to load , but i'm sure you'll find it) there is an option called "Write Metadata Automatically" or "Write Metadata Immediately" its one of the two, I can't remember the exact wording. Its a tickbox, make sure that it is un-ticked and hopefully Connect won't change your tags anymore.

An LCD screen that you can see in daylight, coloured if possible (colours actually do help usability somewhat, the OLED is stylish but its getting old now and the daylight thing is a real problem). Faster menus. Normal USB jack. USB HOST to connect a digital camera to use the player as a photo storage device (come on sony, get on the ball, you make cameras too ffs). Not fussed about video, would never even consider to use a device like that for video. Oh and finally: Software that wasn't written by a two year old. Edit: Hhmm damn im in rant mode now. Some decent physical control to scroll a list i.e a jog dial (thats like a mouse' scroll wheel). And change the hold button back to the switch thing like it was on the MD players.

That unfortunately won't happen for this player, sony would be in an absolute world of hurt if they did. I'm also surprised that they even added the 60 seconds one, although the old 20s one was a bit of a pain. Anyway, the screen is an OLED, it has a mean time before failure of around 1000 hours (that means if you leave that screen on for 1000 hours it will start to fail) - thats about 42 days or so. The reason for this is because of one colour in the screen doesn't cope so well as the others (the blue, yes I know theres no blue but I think its needed to make white, anyway, blue is just the colour most likely to fail, the others still fail as well). There is some recent technology though for these screens which allow them to last alot longer. Its still in testing though.

You're welcome. Sorry I didn't get back to you faster on what the ID3v2.3 tag was. If the files are in MP3 format (ie .mp3 and not .oma or .omg) then the file is split into 2 parts: the music and the "meta information". Meta information is what holds details such as the title, the artist, the album, the track number, stuff like that. You can use a tag reader program like http://www.id3-tagit.de/ to view and change tags. If its not an MP3 and its a OMA or something then it has an ATRAC tag. If you get down to the technicallities the ATRAC tag is basically an ID3 tag which uses the comment field to store its information. In either case you can modify both tags in sonic stage and also in connect player. The reason I call it ID3v2.3 is because it would appear that connect player (I don't know about sonic stage) can't read ID3v2.4. Anyway, I hope that explains a little, may be a little confusing but thats how it all works .

When you rip the tracks off the CD you need to make sure that the Track Number field on the ID3v2.3 tag has been filled in. If this frame on the ID3 tag is missing then I think that the device will try to put the tracks into either alphabetical or (more likely) into the order in which they were transfered to the device.

I don't think so. Those menus are built directly into the device database files. Those bookmarks aren't actually playlists they are designed more like menus to bookmarks, so I'm doubtful that you can delete them. (ie you can only delete their contents).

Hello, firstly I'm sorry for a thread resurrection but I have a question for Simon in the hope that he reads this. I'm unsure on the outcome of this (i.e I don't know if it would damage the player) but did you tried to format the disk through windows disc management utilities? Infront of me I have my disk manager open with the drive connected and it seems like it would format if I clicked "Ok". Im not quite so brave though, also I only have the standard hard drive in mine so there is no point other than for proof of it working I guess. If you want to check it out, connect the player to your machine. In windows XP - Right click my computer, click Manage, on the left click Disk Management. Find your player in the list, right click it, click format: EDIT: P.S Im aware the allocation bar shows 100% of the drive space for that partition (because my drive is only the 20gig version), but usually when there is extra space on the drive the disc manager should be able to see it. (Unless of course the firmware on the device hides that unpartitioned space too).

Agreed, heck i live in scotland where we dont even have sun and I cant see it when i take it outdoors on an overcast day.

Thats strange, my artist link started to work after the upgrade, it didnt before .

Something tells me that even if you did have a firmware to upload to the player that you would need to be able to digitally sign it otherwise the player will just spit it right back out. I've been kinda hoping rockbox comes out for the nw-a3000 but I know its not gonna happen.

I was under the impression that allofmp3 was a gray area, you should really point this out. The site is only legal if you live in russia and the only reason its not entirely illegal out of russia is because of some import law which says you may import a tape to your country for personal use only. The whole fact is that this hinges on the import of a "tape" being extendable to a digital format as well. Further more, just because I goto america to buy a gun, just because it is a legal good there it doesn't mean I'm allowed to bring it back into the UK with me because in the UK it becomes an illegal good.

It sounds like its been miss manufactured. What will be happening is some of the soldering for the headphone jack will no doubt be touching the metal casing, when you touch it you incease the resistance and prolly cause interfence. I'd take it to a sony shop and see what they say about it.

Was that a quote from one of the shops? If so thats criminal. I'd quite like to take my USB Cable to uni with me to use the player as a UMS but I haven't due to being too afraid of losing the cable. I definately wont be taking it anywhere out of my house if thats what it will cost to replace officially!

Hello mr le chat . (Sorry I can't help it, your name means the cat ). Ok ok, jokes aside: I hate to break this to you but as far as I know on the NW-A3000 you can't playlist a whole album like you want. You also can't add anything to the currently playing playlist. The NW-A3000 is a great player but I'd like to put forward the following in the hope that this forum's "Sony Voice" status can get this noticed. What the playist SHOULD do: a) The player should not beep OR (if you turn the beep off) cause a gap in play while adding a song to a playlist. You should be able to add a song / album to the play list that is currently playing. c) You should be able to re-order the now playing playlist (maybe you can do this one already, I assume not). d) Albums should be able to be added to a list as a whole by holding down the play button or selecting the bookmark just like you can with a single song. (This is a MASSIVE UI oversight imo. This is NOT uniform functionality - consider this: When you play a song or an album it adds the whole thing to the now playing area, so why not to the playlist?). Really the playlisting COULD be a GREAT feature on the device. I was loving it that I could create and REORDER (my goodness, how many other players can do that? Not many I don't think) playlists on the device. But since the functionality from points A) to D) above are non-existant the player is GREATLY let down, I'd go so far as to say its let down to the point where I NEVER use playlisting on the device. Does anyone agree with these proposed changes and is there any way to get sony to hear this plea?