MDX-400

Hmm, I don't know about Connect Player (it may be different) but SonicStage will not delete tracks you've deleted from your library when you do an Auto Transfer. In fact with SS, it actually asks you to confirm what will be done in an auto transfer before it does it. It will come up with a pop-up box saying what will be transferred to the player. You can uncheck anything you don't want to transfer right then and it/they will remain unchecked everytime you reconnect unless you check them again yourself. (That way say you have certain tracks in your library you never want to transfer, but add more tracks you do, the new tracks will automatically be checked for transfer but the ones from before that you selected not to transfer will remain unchecked.) Again I have no idea if Connect works this way but that's how SS works with auto syncing, anyway...

Interesting. I did notice that Vaio Music Move, but the sticky/faq thread about it there says that it can't transfer MP3s that are 320kbps? I saw that and thought that was weird. Most of my MP3s are 320kbps so that's why I avoided dl'ing that...

I just voted myself... To be honest, I think the V-SURROUND/VPT Acoustic Engine modes are quite good at what they do, they seem like very good DSP modes to me. (I've never had an MD unit with this feature so it was pretty nice to hear for the first time...) However, at the same time they are very prominent, not subtle in anyway. Whereas I used to have a Panasonic PCDP back in the day that had a single "Live" effect DSP, that could be used pretty much all the time as it wasn't nearly as much of an effect as the Sony V-SUR modes. Not that they are bad, but I just wish you could adjust the level of the effect like you can on receivers... But I ended up voting for Digital Sound Preset. Though the 6-band EQ is nice it just doesn't have enough bands because by the time I've adjusted it, it pretty much is the same as using Digital Sound Preset anyway. I.e. If I didn't have the 6-band thing and only had Digital Sound Preset, it would be no loss to me...

Okay still *NO* hiss whatsoever. I've tried hundreds of different ways now with all kinds of file formats, bitrates, different headphones, amps, speakers, etc., to reproduce this hiss, all to no avail. There just is no hiss on my Sony NW-HD3... Again I don't doubt you guys are hearing it, but it just isn't on mine (pink, serial #0300383) I never hear anything that could be considered the same as what people have described; and just to be 100% sure I always do the volume-to-minimum-play-a-file thing, and then unplug the headphones or the cable going to the amp to see if there is any difference--there never is. I mean it could be I'm losing my hearing but I seriously doubt that my hearing would be so bad as not to hear something like this... I can have other ppl try out my unit and see what they say; but I'm really trying to hard to find something that I no longer think even exists (on my unit at least).

Yeah I figured as much since I found nothing I could do in SS no matter what I tried. That's kind of stupid though. Once again they just make it harder for you to use their own ATRAC format. I don't get why they keep pursuing ATRAC--if they don't make it easier for people to use only less and less people are going to use it. I'm still sticking to it as much as I can, but to say the least it is really frustrating.

Yeah I figured that out a bit later, but it still isn't practical. For example if you have a lot of MP3s all in one folder like "Music" on your PC (which is what I have) then you have to make a folder on your PC and then put the files you want to transfer in there and then transfer to the HD3. Then you have to re-move the files on your PC and then delete the unnecessary folder. It is actually more of a hassle to do that then make the folders in SS first and then transfer with MP3FM. But either way it is too round-about. MP3FM is a pretty crappy program, all they had to do is add a right click menu so you could "make new folder here" or whatever and then you could add a new folder and name it in MP3FM. I guess that's too much work for Sony though, LOL. In fact either SS or MP3FM would be greatly helped by a general Windows Explorer right click context option. As in "Add to Library" for SS and maybe "Transfer to MP3FM" or something like that for MP3FM. Really if they could just make a context option for SS, it would be really easy. Just "Add to Library" the MP3s you want to transfer to your device and then use SS to transfer and delete the entries in SS you just made by adding to library. I don't understand how no one at Sony even thought of this. If anything they make everything harder for you if you want to use ATRAC3plus as the primary format on your device... No I completely understand groups for MD devices, but for the HDD based ones it seems fairly redundant. I guess you have a point when you say to retain NetMD compatibility they had to leave it in SS; but really they could have just made it different when you have an HDD device connected, because after all it is already different in terms of what formats you can transfer to each device, right?

Well if you rip the audio with EAC, you will undoubtedly be getting the full CD quality tracks being ripped. It's just the stupid little programs and sessions (as you noted) that the companies put on that play the 48kbps versions that are on the disc. It's a big waste of time, don't bother installing any of those "player" programs on your computer when you insert the disc. Yeah all the copy-protected CDs I have are actually EMI so I guess that's why I figured they were all 48k. Still, in any case, the copy protected discs with that nonsense on them are joing to have you playback low-quality compressed versions of the tracks if you use the software on the CD. Either see if you can bypass that session altogether (as in if you have a non-DVD drive in your PC, as above) or just rip the tracks in EAC instead.

What in the world is the point of Groups on my HD3? On MD I can completely understand groups but on an HDD DAP like the HD3, it seems very senseless and seems to make things harder for me... For example if I don't want to use SS to import all my MP3s ('cause I only want to use some of them on the HD3 and I want to keep all the MP3s I've ripped from CDs separate from the ATRAC files I've ripped) things aren't so easy. Because then you can use MP3FM but that doesn't allow you to create group folders it seems. All you can do is transfer files. Like here's an example... For some CDs I have a few tracks aren't on the CDs (e.g. I've gotten bonus tracks in MP3 format off the internet for some CDs). So I first copy the CD in ATRAC3plus in SS and then transfer to the player. Then I want to put the bonus tracks (which I only have in MP3) over to the player. So I figure okay the files will automatically go into the right album on the HD3 because its the same album name in the file tag. Then it transfers and I'm like where are the files? Try in MP3FM and can't see where they've gone; try in SS and can't see them either. So try the player and there they are... So I finally figure out that the files did transfer but there are Group folders that go over onto the HD3 which are named according to the original album you transferred but are otherwise not linked to the arrangement of the files on the HD3. So the files I transferred went into a Group with another album name. What I don't get is why did they bother with groups at all? It just makes more work for you because if you want to transfer MP3s you have to then go back into SS and place the files in the right group (so you know where to find them later as the group folders are named by album); and if you want to transfer other files that you don't have a group folder for you have to go into SS first, make the group and then go back to MP3FM and transfer the files? What kind of foolishness is that? I just don't get it?!?!? At first you think the group folders *are* the album folders but that isn't it at all. The HD3 just gets it's album arrangement info from the file tags and the groups are, well, senseless IMO. Does anyone actually use groups? I don't get why you'd want to use them... I guess maybe for making a playlist or something?

Interesting... Are these versions available in English though? Because for 3.4 I dl'd what I thought was the JE (Japanese English?) installer and installed from that and it certainly did ask me to initialise (though I was upgrading a 3.3 install that was probably for the Canada region, can't remember now). Nice to know that initialisation can be gotten around, though if I'd have to do it in Japanese or another language, it might be impossible for me, LOL.

You're right, though it is quite disappointing knowing that they will vapourise this firmware entirely just to make profits instead of providing better service and support. They should provide the firmware upgrade indefinitely, I mean profit or not all they have to do is connect the thing to USB and then update the firmware I'm sure (that's all they have to do to update MD firmware ever since the NetMD days); charge appropriately for it (even if that means more than they are now) but don't just tell people "too late now you're going to have to buy a new player so we can make money off you eventhough yours is working fine". Anway it is probably useful to bump or maybe sticky this thread until the expiry date so anyone browsing or visiting the forum with a non-MP3 capable HD1 will be well advised of the intention of Sony to have the upgrade no longer possible after the end of March.

What's the point of initialising the HDD on a Sony HDD DAP? When I got my HD3 (used) it had some small amount of music on it (not even a gig) which I could access and play fine on the HD3; but, I couldn't use the HD3 with SS on my PC until I "initialised" it. It was no big deal, the stuff on there I didn't care for, so I just initialised it and off I went and it works great so far... But what is the purpose of this? Is this to prevent someone who had a bunch of music on their player from giving/selling it to someone else who could then, in turn, use it on another PC? Seems kinda dumb to me. I mean I see eBay auctions for HD3s and HD5s all the time stating the seller has x number of songs already on the player or so many gigs of music on it already. Does this initialisation business mean anyone buying one of those (under the assumption that they will be able to use all that music) will be disappointed? LOL. Does this also mean if you were to have to format your HDD or reinstall Windows or SS or whatever, you'd be screwed? I did a search and didn't really find out about the implicatoins of initialising and why you have to; but I did see some people complaining that they had to lose everything on their players. I'm just trying to understand how this works and how to be prepared for a situation where you one might have to end up losing everything on their player 'cause it won't connect to SS...

No one knows the answer to this? Or is it just not possible to do this?

I'm unsure actually. Because if the unit is using a Li-Ion (not Li-Ion-Poly) battery then it likely would use some kind of contact points though they might actually be soldered in place (as opposed to being readily removeable as a "removeable" battery would be.) However I'd speculate that nearly all internal batteries would by Li-Poly and therefore use either soldered wires coming off the battery pouch or wires terminated in a small connector, connecting to the board. I fail to see why you'd have to follow buying only a Sony original battery? If you go with a Japanese or American made cell you should be fine. Chinese cells aren't that great for the most part, I'd have to say, but then again a lot of big companies are using MIC Li-Ion cells anyway since they are cheaper. I woudn't be surprised if Sony were using outsourced MIC Li-Ions themselves, in some devices, instead of using their own Japanese cells. Provided the cell is of good quality and of the same or higher capacity you should be fine. The Li-Ion chargers all work in the same way these days and you should be safe replacing with any Li-Ion cell of similar dimensions and capacity. In fact you might even be able to find a battery from a supplier that Sony themselves use, only buying the cell(s) somewhere other than Sony can cost you as little as 1/4 the price. Why pay nearly the cost of your entire unit just to replace the battery? If you're going to do that you might as well just buy a new unit! If you are buying the cells from a bulk supplier/store of these types of cells usually you just get the pouch (again talking about Li-Ion-Polymer) alone and have to solder on you own connections--you could easily remove the connector from the old battery and connect it to the new one. Keep in mind there is a special solder flux and procedure that must be used to connect wires to a Li-Poly battery. Alternatively a lot of places will make a cell/battery with the connector you need all soldered and ready to go.

Yeah, I certainly did that, Damage... I wouldn't just go trying to listen for noise with my hairdryer going beside me, LOL. I've tried it in dead silence and in many different ways (as stated above), and honestly I hear absolutely nothing--there is NO noise or hiss whatsoever that is in any way audibly detectible. Believe me, I have honestly tried very hard to reproduce this alleged hiss and can't detect anything (otherwise I'd never have made this thread). The only thing I've yet to try is lower bitrates, which if they do give any noise... a. I really don't care about that because I'll be using those bitrates barely, if ever at all; and, b. If that is the hiss that people are complaining about (that occurs at lower bitrates for some reason) I can't help but say to them "that's what you get for using low bitrates!" LOL. Still, I'm unsure if it will happen then either, but I will try it out soon just to see...

Yeah pretty much all copy protected CDs do that, though it is easily bypassed in varying ways. One is to use EAC and rip the tracks--you will almost always be able to bypass the copy protection on CDs this way (though on some drive and CD combinations you may have to wait an excrutiating amount of time for it to rip). Also if you have an older, non DVD-capable, drive you can usually simply forgo the auto-run on the CD (hold down shift, etc.) and then you'll have access to the CD tracks as if you had put it in a regular CD player. Most DVD-capable drives cannot do this however, because of the way they are designed to read discs. It's a retarded move by record companies though because it does nothing really to prevent illegal copying; in fact, it does a whole lot more to prevent legal fair-use copying because many of these discs also violate the SCMS standard and will output copy-prohibit SCMS from a consumer-level CD player, despite the fact that it is the original and not a copy of the original...

Just wondering if the silicone slip-on skins for the NW-HD3 are worth getting. I'm sure people here have seen them (they are all over eBay). Has anyone used one/does anyone have one? Thinking about getting one but thought I'd ask here first

True in the very strict literal sense of the term "DVD Walkman" but you guys are forgetting 1998's "DVD Discman", the very first DVD Discman by Sony, the PBD-V30... http://www.movie-mania.dk/Hardware/Sony/PBDV30.htm http://www.homecinemachoice.com/reviews/hc...SonyPBD-V30.php Since Sony stopped using the Discman name in favour of "CD [or DVD in this case] Walkman" and since the PBD-V30 is the same product type, there have been more than one of these made by Sony

I tried this just now, I hear nothing. Honestly absolutely nothing. When I put the volume to minimum as you say I can't hear anything at all--if I unplug the earphones it sounds exactly the same as with them plugged in. If there is a hiss there I cannot detect it; and again I do know what hiss sounds like. It simply is not there on my unit; MP3 or ATRAC3plus. I'm trying with 320k CBR (--alt preset insane) MP3 and 352kbps ATRAC3plus (I refuse to go any lower for my own uses) but I wonder if I tried lower bitrates I'd get the hiss? If it is as bad as you make it out to be (and any hiss really is bad, IMO) then I'm thinking it must be affecting only certain units and not all of them. I don't have many earphones or headphones, admittedly, but I don't hear it on MD stock buds (MDR-E838 and E808) and not with a few others I have. Also no more hiss than normal when I use my DA4ES receiver and turn my volume up pretty good. (There is always hiss from analog inputs even on good receivers; if I put the DA4ES in Analog Direct it is reduced by a large margin, but still with the HD3 connected it is no different than it being not connected at all). Surely I'd detect hiss through one of these means. When I say it is silent, I mean dead silence. I can't hear anything even remotely like hiss. Not only that, I don't even hear digital volume "clicking" (which is almost on all equipment using digital volume control) on the HD3. In my experience, the sound quality is very very good. The reason I bothered to make this post is because I do hear a lot about this alleged hiss noise and at first I thought it was real or perhaps exaggerated but now that I have an HD3 in my hands and cannot hear anything even remotely like hiss, I had to make a thread stating it because (given my experience) it just doesn't sense any make to say these units are plauged by hiss. I don't deny/contest that people are hearing a hiss (because it is marked and there is no reason why anyone would make that up); I'm just saying it clearly is not affecting my unit so I'm nearly certain it can't affect every unit out there. Well actually I think that around 80dB is supposed to be good for the majority of humans. Still it is all dependent on ratings, which are very exaggerated in the mainstream consumer electronics market. However, I notice that Sony makes no rating/claim for the HD3's S/N Ratio, so I'm guessing that is the actual measured S/N? Still 84dB is not bad at all. 90dB or higher is desireable though, for sure. What I don't understand is how some people can complain about S/N ratio and then they use like 128k MP3 or some garbage like that--I'm just thinking "hello?!?". If you're going to use bitrates that low, I think the compression is a little more of an issue than a mediocre S/N ratio... Again though, don't go by ratings. For example if manufacturer B gives a rating of "better than 90dB" don't go for it just because they say so; actual measurements though, it is usually safe to go by (though check what the tolerance was or how it was rated).

I've read a lot of reports here and there about Sony DAPs (both flash and HDD based) giving a problem of hiss/white noise at low volumes/silent parts of tracks. So I knew this before I purchased my HD3 and was all ready to hear it and was hoping it wasn't too bad. The HD3 I bought arrived yesterday and I must say I'm fairly impressed with it so far. I've never owned an iPod or any other mass-storage type DAP so I don't know what they are like but the quality of the HD3 has been to my liking so far, both build wise and user-interface wise. I've used different iPods before and I never really liked the interface to tell the truth (though I know most people seem to like it a lot); HD3 seems more simple and straight-forward to me somehow I guess. I got a pink unit and was surprised the backlight was pink as well That was a nice touch. I was initially thinking of doing a custom painting with it to make it blue (a different blue than the Sony HD3 "L") but the pink is actually quite nice and with the pink backlight and all, I'm leaving it as is... Anyway I really listened for this alleged hiss or noise and I can't hear it at all. I've tried with it on headphones and hooked up to my receiver (DA4ES and Athena AS-F2 main speakers); tried in both line-out and headphone out modes and at all kinds of different volumes. Listened between tracks, during quiet portions of tracks, right before it starts playing; as well as with MP3s and ATRAC3plus, all to no avail. I can't hear any hiss or noise at all, and I do know what noise sounds like. I'm quite impressed that I did not hear any noise (as I'd read about this a lot) and I don't really know where it is people are hearing the hiss, but I'm certainly not hearing it on my unit!

Yeah it is no use on the HD1 or HD3 either really. On the HD1 you need the cradle; on the HD3 you need the gHey a$$ "mini dock" connector thing (BCA-NWHD3), which is a POS. Since Sony only "did it right" on the HD5 with the regular USB and power connectors on the unit, I'd say the HD5 is the only unit worth using something like this on...

As you can see from the chart there Li-Ion is majorly affected by temperature, particularly when it is at full charge and not in use. Higher temperatures kill off Li-Ion cells probably more than anything else--this is pretty much why you see a lot of laptop batteries failing* after a year or two of service. Because laptops tend to run hot and people tend to leave their batteries in them all the time, even when they have them plugged into the AC with the laptop perhaps running for hours. From the above, you can see how this is the worst situation for the battery. *When I say "failing" I don't mean they stop working completely but capacity is markedly reduced. The other thing I would also mention is that Li-Ion has what I refer to as "anti-memory" (this isn't a real term it is just the way I refer to it). In other words where chemistries such as NiCad and NiMH (to some degree) suffer when you don't discharge the battery fully, Li-Ion works the opposite way. With Li-Ions they suffer when they are discharged fully, so you'll want to keep the battery topped up as often as possible. Plugging it in to charge everyday or two, or before you get to half capacity is a good idea. This is not to say don't use the battery to full capacity if you want to or need to ever but just don't make a habit of it. Lastly we have charge cycles... Batteries also begin to wear/"fail" after so many charge cycles. So there are a few avenues where wear occurs--hopefully this points out to you that as you use the battery it is going to suffer wear one way or another. With proper care, the battery should last a good while. As for replacement the thing they usually don't tell you is that Li-Ion batteries, particularly the Li-Ion-Polymer type, typically are manufactured in similar sizes for all sorts of applications. Where the "internal" batteries in these units can easily be purchased from Sony, the cost of the "internal" ones are usually high. However if it is using a Li-Ion-Polymer battery (or even a standard Li-Ion which connects internally with wires instead of contact points), all you need to do is find out the size of the battery (by dismatling the unit) and you can pretty much get a replacement from any supplier of such cells (Japanese or American cells are recommended). Li-Ion-Polymers usually have the exact dimensions right in a number printed on the pouch... A battery labelled as "VP383562A" would represent a Li-Ion-Polymer of 3.8mm thickness, 35mm wide and 62mm long, for example. Match the dimensions and you can usually easily get a replacement and at significantly less cost than buying the part from Sony. As an example, that VP383562A battery is the one found in the MZ-E95 MD unit. It actually uses two of those cells in parallel. The replacement cost for the two cells from Sony is over $100 US; the cells on their own can be found for around $12-$15 each, making a replacement as cheap as $25...

Well just got my HD3 and I'm starting to "import" some CDs in ATRAC3plus and copying them over to the device... But I'm noticing SS (using 3.4) doesn't allow you to just go straight from CD to the device. You have to "import" the CD first and then transfer to the HD3. Is this the only way to do it? I remember that older SonicStage versions (like 2.x) would let you go from the CD directly over to the device (like a NetMD); but as I recall it still left the OMG/OMA/whatever files on your PC taking up HDD space... My goal here, really, is to transfer CDs to the HD3 in ATRAC3plus 352kbps but *NOT* have the ATRAC files stay on my PC. For PC use it's best that I stick to MP3 (for a variety of reasons) and I already have a lot of CDs ripped to 320k MP3; I don't want to have to have 2 collections of music on my PC just because of the HD3, and I would like to use ATRAC3plus on the HD3 instead of MP3. I'm never going to use ATRAC files on my PC other than for transferring to the HD3. I know I can manually delete the imported CDs from SonicStage afterwards but I'm wondering if there's a way for me to do this so SS [essentially] rips from the CD right to the HD3 without cluttering up my HDD. Is this possible?

I believe that the US adapter is going to be 120V only, unfortunately. I don't know why Sony does that because the adapters for other countries are universal voltage and carry the same or similar model numbers but differ in their plug pins and the fact that they are universal voltage. I believe the adapter is the AC-ES608K or something? The US ones I've seen are 120V only and the UK ones I've seen (for example) have UK prongs but are 100V-240V AC input capable. To be sure about your particular adapter, look on the adapter itself... It should have a line that says "INPUT". There it is either going to say 120V AC or it will say 100V-240V AC. If it is the former then you do not have a universal voltage adapter and will need a voltage converter; if it is the latter it can use any voltage provided you adapt the plug to fit.

You know I've never dealt with this problem first hand but I do remember reading about something very similar... What you have to do, as I recall reading, is set the unit first to a different region (which allows the higher volume) like the US or whatever. Then save that and exit service mode. Then go back in and do the SP set and it should stick thereafter.

I always hate when people refer to an AC adapter as a charger. The AC adapter is simply that, nothing else. It provides voltage to the player but the actual charger is located in the unit in the form of a charge control circuit... Anyway, this exact same circuit is responsible for power control and charging; if the unit is plugged into the adapter the control circuit will indeed power the player from that instead of the battery. The charge controller/design of the unit may still be such that the battery is buffering the power supply to the unit, but that's fine you aren't really going to lose any capacity that you've charged up. The charge circuit is also always monitoring the battery, particularly in the case of a Li-Ion battery. Li-Ion can typically only "quick" charge to around 80-90% of their capacity before they must be tapered off to a slow charge to top it off, to be charged safely. (This is exactly why they have the option to quick charge the unit to 80%, because that's all Li-Ion will allow for safely.) The answer to the second question, then, is that yes it is fine to leave the unit plugged in for several days, the charge controller will keep the Li-Ion cell topped up properly and at full charge. The only problem I'd see in doing that is heat. Li-Ion typically does not like heat--that is one of the main causes of Li-Ion life-shortening. But if the unit isn't staying warm after it has completed the charge (and it shouldn't really) I wouldn't worry about it.