SimonGrafftey

Try here: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SONY-WMC-NW20MU-WM-P...0QQcmdZViewItem

It looks like it won't be available until November. It has never yet appeared on SonyStyle Europe, only on the Sony website. A Sony store told me they were expecting a big delivery towards the end of November. The Sony stores do seem to have the 2GB S515 model and most of the accesories including the cases. I bought an S618F on ebay from a US seller (I paid $200), they have been available there for several weeks. It's a great little player!

Yes they are, even the original Walkman (LPS2) and the MZ-1 minidisc. Great bits of kit in their day.

Here are some oldies...

You are probably running Windows XP SP2 or Vista, but have you tried the Microsoft Hotfix for OpenMG: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en This solved a similar problem I had ages ago with SonicStage.

I am in the same position, but I am hoping that Sony will provide some software to transition between SonicStage and WMP11, converting ATRAC files to MP3/WMA/AAC and allowing ID tags, album art and playlists to transfer. There was some vaguely encouraging language in the email "we will keep you closely informed of the status of the CONNECT Music Service phase out in your country, and provide you with the best possible guidance on how to successfully transfer your music library to an MP3 or Windows Media-compatible format" They did provide software to transition between Connect Player and SonicStage CP, although admittedly that was less dramatic. What I want to know is whether previous HDD models will be updatable to use WMP11 and drag and drop? Otherwise, these devices are effectively redundant in the new Sony world, limited to being used with software (SS) that is no longer supported. There are no signs of a new HDD Walkman either - I worry that Sony simply won't have a device in their range that you can carry all your music on, leaving Apple in an even stronger position.

I have just received this email from Sony Connect: "CONNECT Music Service to Phase Out To Our Valued Sony CONNECT Customers, Today Sony announced its intent to move to a Windows Media Technology platform for Walkman® products in the United States, Canada and Europe. We strongly believe that the decision to embrace a more open platform will enable us to provide you with a better music enjoyment experience. As a result of this change, we will be phasing out the CONNECT™ Music Service, based on Sony's ATRAC audio format, in North America and Europe. Specific timing will vary by region depending on market demand, but will not be before March 2008. All of Sony’s new Walkman music and video devices will be supported by a very wide range of third party services around Europe. We are fully committed to helping you through this important transition away from a proprietary music service. In the coming weeks and months, we will keep you closely informed of the status of the CONNECT Music Service phase out in your country, and provide you with the best possible guidance on how to successfully transfer your music library to an MP3 or Windows Media-compatible format. Periodic updates will also be posted on the CONNECT music store and on the Sony Europe customer service site, http://support.sony-europe.com We recommend that you use any outstanding promotional vouchers or account credits prior to March 2008. Thank you for all your purchases and feedback so far, and for your continued support as we work to complete this transition with as little disruption to you as possible. Yours sincerely, Sony CONNECT Europe Team" I presume this means that Sony will provide some form of conversion software for ATRAC files from a SonicStage database to MP3, WMA, AAC. Hopefully that will include ID tag information and album covers. I have 5,500 ATRAC files and can't face having to use HIMD Renderer and then retag and get album cover pictures for them!

No, artist link isn't supported on the NWA800 series. The only "intelligent" functions supported are My Favourite Shuffle (which is generated in the player itself, producing a list of the 100 most played songs) and Time Machine Shuffle, which shuffles on the song year release. Artist Link was only really available on the NW3000 and NW1000 and more recently on the NW S700 series. Originally "intelligent" playback functions were meant to be the unique selling point for the NW3000/1000 and was first built in to the disastrous Connect software which came with those machines. The frustrations of Connect created a lot of hostility, much of it reported on ATRACLife! Sony then issued a new version of SonicStage (called SonicStage CP), and added the artist link functions into SonicStage. I'm not sure whether Sony will persevere with artist link as a function. I think originally there was a vision of creating intelligent devices which choose music for you on the basis of mood, genre, era etc., eventually being able to download tracks on the fly according to your criteria. But this highlights the "silo" problems deep within Sony - all this functionality was thought up by the network side of the business, who then ran the online download Connect business. The hardware people were never truly convinced, although the mobile phone side must be thinking this way, hence the development of the Walkman badged Sony Ericsson phones, which perversely do not use SonicStage or even support ATRAC, Sony's own proprietart format! The Connect download business (including SonicStage) is now part of the Sony Music business, so who knows where the functionality will go next.

I think the playback information is transferred back, whether or not the tracks are transferred back or deleted on the player when connected to SonicStage. The playback data is held in the database file on the player, not in the track data itself, and I think updates centrally when the player is connected, not track by track. Also, if you delete tracks on the player using Trashbin, the transfer count etc. will still increase in SonicStage next time the player is connected to SS.

I have had the same problem for ages (through several versions of SonicStage) when transferring tracks back from a number of ATRAC devices - NW-A808, NW-S706, even NW-HD1. Doesn't seem to matter what ATRAC format the tracks are (ATRAC or ATRACplus) or what bitrate. Personally it is not too much of an inconvenience as I just highlight and delete the tracks that don't transfer. I think it may have something to do with the built-in DRM in SonicStage, which is pretty much redundant now, and relates back to the early versions of the software. Originally, ripped tracks could only be transfered out a maximum of three times with out being transferred back. The early versions of the software (some may remember OpenMG) used "Check out" and "Check in" for the process. For some years now the DRM on ripped tracks has been lifted - the no. of transfer times is unlimited - so actually whether you transfer in or delete non DRM tracks from the player comes to the same thing. I have found the most effective way of managing tracks is using playlists and the Auto transfer settings. If you tick "delect tracks from both playlists and album" in the Auto settings, any changes made to a playlist in SonicStage are then automatically made to the playlists on the device next time it is connected. This works effectively like the sync function in iTunes, and is much easier than manually transferring tracks back and forth. I also find making playlists, either manually or using dynamic playlists as easy if not easier than in iTunes.

The A800 series plays MP4 simple profile as well as AVC Baseline. I use the freeware converter Super to convert files to MP4 , 320x240 at 15fps or 25 fps which play fine on my NW A808. You can also set Image Converter to convert into MP4 instead of AVC Baseline of that helps, both play fine on the A800 series.

Does anyone know more about this article which came out on paidContent.org on Saturday? "Sony Connect To Close Music/Video Services; Focus on Servicing Playstation Group; 20 People To Go By Rafat Ali - Sat 16 Jun 2007 01:05 AM PST The Sony Connect experiment is about to get, well, disconnected: it will be winding down its music and video services in the next couple of months, and focus on servicing the Playstation group on the technical needs, paidContent.org has learned and confirmed. In an all-hands meeting yesterday in Sony’s offices in Los Angeles, employees were told that about 20-plus jobs are being phased out during this winding-down phase as a result of this closure. The eBooks division will remain however, as it will be servicing Sony Reader product. Steve Banfield, the head of the Sony Connect division, will be leaving in the next few weeks, and Tim Schaaff and Fumi Kanagwa from Sony corporate will now run what’s left of Connect engineering team. The remaining team of around 80 will be devoted support Playstation. Few things are unclear: whether Sony Connect brand will remain after this restructuring; and whether SonicStage software will continue. An unfortunate end to a business hampered from the start by the internal politics, and inability of the corporate parent to give any real attention to this digital media unit. For instance, check out the two posts Staci did earlier yesterday, about Sony’s plans to relaunch Grouper and Sony-MySpace Minisode network." The url is: http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-sony-...cing-playstati/

No problem! I'm sure its technically possible to create a line out lead, but it would need some small circuitry (as is inside the cradle) to switch output to line out - I don't think the sound is automatically sent to pins on the WM-Port. I don't think you could adapt a USB data cable, as the "male" WM-Port plug only has active pins for data and power - the rest are empty. For a portable solution, bluetooth maybe the best bet - there are several battery powered (or rechargeable) bluetooth receivers available (Look on the Expansys website - they have several). A2DP (bluetooth stereo) sound is pretty good as it is transferred at 732kbps.

The WMC NWR1 lead won't work as a line out lead with the NW A800 series, it is really only for use with the NW S700 series for recording (ie line in). The only way to create a line out from the NW800 series is to use the BCR NWU3 cradle (or the BCR NWA800 which I think is only available in Japan) which has a 3.5mm lineout. Alternatively you could use the Bluetooth adapter (WLA -NWB1) with a bluetooth receiver (Sony does the HWS-BTA2W, which can send and receive bluetooth A2DP sound) to provide a line out. Hope this helps!

SonicStage does allow you to manage playlists very effectively now, in my experience. You can create your own manual lists or create dynamic playlists according to a good number of criteria. They also work properly in transferring to newer devices such as the NW S700 series or the NW A800 series. Most recently (I think from 4.2 onwards) you can now check a box "Delete track from Playlist and Album at the same time when updating the playlist" in Automatic transfer settings, so if you delete a playlist there are no orphaned tracks on the player. I find this very useful using dynamic playlists, so that any changes to the list are added or deleted each time an automatic transfer is done. I know everyone criticises SonicStage, but I think it has improved enormously since a lot of the major problems have been sorted. It's not very intuitive, but there is a lot of functionality if you look for it, such as track editing and splicing and transferring in your own recordings from the NW S700 series etc.

I have had exactly this problem and the rubber ring on one earbud has completely ripped and come off. I think it is because it rubs against the outer ear when inserted and simply wears away. The rubber is pretty thin and won't stand up to much. I don't think it has any effect on the quality of the sound or the noise cancelling though. It more for design, keeping dirt out and perhaps for comfort.

No, a ZIF connector HD drive won't work in the HD5, as it has an ATA multi pin connector. The NW A series uses HD drives with ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) connectors, which are a more recent development by Toshiba. Any of the earlier Toshiba HD 1.8" drives should work.

You do not need to worry about the firmware. The hard drive is automatically initialised after it is inserted and the battery reconnected.

The largest you could fit into an HD5 at the moment is a Toshiba MK4007GAL which is 40gb. The larger 60gb and 80gb drives are dual platter and are therefore too thick (8mm v. 5mm) to fit into the HD5 casing.

I tried the defrag having seen YosNoor's post and my A3000 does work much faster now. It may not be quite as fast as it was when I previously used CP, but SSCP is so much easier to use and much more robust than CP. I did the same thing, I transfered back all my tracks using CP, installed SSCP and then did auto transfer to transfer back to the A3000. I then uninstalled CP. I found the A3000 was really quite slow before the defrag (I have 4500 tracks) so many thanks to YosNoor for the tip!

I had a similar issue having upgraded to SonicStage CP 4.0. Each time I opened SSCP it asked whether I wanted to update CD info for tracks that were untitled or had no release year data. Intriguingly each time more tracks were updated, but it is very unlikely to complete the task as the CDDB database may not have the info for every track - especially if your track database contains edited tracks (merged or divided using the SS editing functions) or own created tracks such a live recordings or edits. I have about 4,500 tracks in SSCP and it has found artist link data for about 3,500 of them. I have swithched the auto CD info update off though as it doesn't seem to be able to find anymore and the pop up scrren is irritating! The auto CD update function also seems to confuse the transfer of playlists to an intelligent function device such as an A3000 or A608 - I found if the auto CD update function was on and playlists were checked to transfer in auto update, when it tried to transfer the playlists the auto CD info update widow would come up again. If I pressed no, the tranfser seemed to stall and I got an omgbox.exe error and SSCP shutdown. With the auto CD info switched off all transfers seem to work fine. Switching the auto CD update function off only effects existing tracks, if you import new tracks the CDDB enquiry still happens automatically.

I have managed to obtain a copy of the NW A608 service manual - however it makes no mention of a Sound Pressure setting, which the HD models use to cap the volume in different regions. I am happy to upload the manual if someone can tell me how to!

The HD5 uses a MK2006GAL drive, not a MK2008GAL, which has a ZIF connector and is used in the NW A3000 (the 30GB version MK3008GAL is used in the latest 30GB ipod) You can buy a MK2006GAL (20GB) or a MK3006GAL (30GB) to fit in an HD5 - I have sent you a link to the store where I got the 30GB drive.

It's not that hard. You need to take the back off - to do this you need to prise off the silver Walkman symbol, which is held by a thin sticky pad, beneath which is a screw. Remove this and then the back slides upwards slightly and comes off, it is held by two small hooks, one on either side. The front cover can then be pinched and pushed off through the back of the four slots which hold the front cover, two slots on either side. The front cover has three components - a thin matt film which covers the circuitry on the front, a transparent plastic cover which only has the Sony log on it and finally the outside coloured cover. They are easy to wipe clean and put back. The clear screen provides the illusion of depth the A3000 has by reflecting the oled display and providing a ghost image of it.

I agree with you. Given the marginal cost of a larger capacity drive at manufacture it seems odd that Sony didn't put the maximum available into the A3000, which I believe would be 40gb. Toshiba make a single platter 40gb 1.8" drive now, which is the same thickness (5mm) as the 20gb drive they actually used. Given the amount of space inside the case of the A3000, I think they could have even got a 8mm thick drive in there, which could increase the capacity to up to 80gb with Toshiba's latest 8mm drives (by contrast Apple has to increase the thickness of the 60gb ipod in order to accomodate the 8mm drive). Probably relatively few people do need/want to use more than 20gb of music storage. But I have seen several comments by people here and elsewhere concerned about capacity. If you use high bitrates in order to ensure quality with either Atrac or MP3 you can eat up 20gb pretty quickly...