aob9

Hang on a second. A few days ago we were told that they WOULD be upgrading ATRAC based devices...ARE THEY GIVEN US FIRMWARE OR NOT?????????????????????????

You are probably right. They're not shy about price so if anyone will release a high capacity flash based player it will be Sony.....I'll limp along for now.

I agree, don't waste your time with it. The more you mess with it yourself the better chance of SONY Repair service telling you it's your own fault.

I AM a SONY fan, but I want a high capacity player and SONY doesn't have one. APPLE,COWON and CREATIVE,( to name a few), do have these players. Surely, they are missing on on market share there.

Sony need to release a series of WALKMAN, stick to it ( not a ridiculous 4 month run), and aggressively advertise and promote it to get it stuck in peoples minds. Give the bloody thing a name not, NW*&^$££"%%; Imagine calling a car a RV ( road vehicle) S ( sports) 1998( faster model)....nonsense. If they have any hunger for the DAP market a few simple policy changes could make all the difference....Oh! and one other thing occurred to me. In companies like COWON, APPLE and SANDISK there are probably hungry young professionals with their fingures on the pulse, somehow I don't think you could say the same for SONY.

Okay then, maybe I should rephrase my query a little bit. Does anybody think Sony will release a HIGH CAPACITY Walkman ( HD or Flash) in the near future. A 16GB version of either the 61* or 81* would ideal.

I take that as a 'NO' then..time to look elsewhere. Does anyone have an idea on a DAP manufacturer with good SQ and large capacity?

Are those display cases, now that's new!!!!!!!

Apple are crap...........cheap earbuds, poor SQ and now poor video. But I will only get away with making such a statement on this forum. I remember reading a review of the ipod nano in a PC magazine, they listed all the faults then gave it 5/5 stars. In the same mag they gave a review of the HD3, practically gave it the thumbs up and gave it 3.5/5.......where do go.? PLUS,I am already sick of the media crawling all over the bloody iphone and we don't even have in our country yet. From what I can see it is about the size of a small book, totally impractical.

My HD3 is showing signs of aging ( e.g battery life ) and I will need to upgrade soon. I use it in my car and it has almost 20GB of music on it. Trouble is, Sony doesn't have a device with similar capacity( and I will NEVER buy an ipod). Does anyone have any inside info on a high capacity Walkman coming in the near future? Seen as SONY have finally gone 'Drag and Drop' it may be worth waiting for.

I've made my mind up.................I'll upgrade the firmware for my A805. I've been messing around with WMP11 and it's cool.,especially if you've got Broadband.I'll have to stick with SSCP for my other Walkmans though.

I think that might be pushing it a little. I reckon the update will be for the A80* series only as it is practically the same as the NWZ-81* series in every way apart from firmware. They might stretch to the NW-s70* because they are still under warranty...........................SONY may feel committed to these customers.

Today, I pointed WMP11 to an album I downloaded from CONNECT and created a BURN list. I had to re-arrange the tracks because SS doesn't place them in the correct track list order when it downloads from CONNECT.....surprise ,surprise. To my amazement it converted the DRM'd ATRAC 132 kpbs files to cd format and burned a perfect CD. I don't believe it. I know this isn't very important in the scheme of things but it seems WMP11 was ready for ATRAC before it was required, plus, I thought DRM'd ATRAC was locked down to SS only.

WOO HOO! Result........... :D

I emailed Sony ireland Support a week ago requesting info on a possible firmware upgrade. I have been greeted with silence, not even an acknowledgment email. So, lets face it, their customer service is crap and at the end of the day their respect for the individual customer is crap. There will be no firmware upgrade from big corporate SONY. But I think we were a bit too optimistic to believe otherwise. But, I like their DAPs and the SQ and what more can I say without repeating myself over and over. As for APPLE, I just don't know how they get away with it, I mean 'The Ipod shuffle is now available in RED'. Mother of GOD.........IS THIS NEWS?????????? and iTunes????????????, I know people that have have their mental stability tested with Itunes software. So, Sony are crap but Apple are worse, they just do a good job of making us believe otherwise.... Rant and outburst over, sorry about that!!!!!!

I rarely bought tracks from Connect.......It's the SS support I am happy about.

Xillisoft dvd to mp4 converter. You can trial it and it works with A80*. In the drop-down Profile box select 'ipod(320*240) MPEG4 Normal) and rip.You can create your own profile if you wish e.g change bitrate etc.

Taken from Sony's UK website this morning............................ 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. Check for yourself... http://www.sony.co.uk/view/ShowArticle.act...;site=odw_en_GB

They were probably sorting their corporate crap. Looking at the design of the NWZ-81* and the fact that the A80* has video drag and drop, it would be fair to suggest the move away from SS was intended for the A80* series originally............we got caught.

This is exactly my fear. I don't care about being stuck with SS as much as I do about a future MS update botching it up. Surely, Sony cannot leave us swing like this, I mean my NW-S703F and NW-A805 are still under warranty!!!!!!!!!!!!!They have to stand by their customers..........and I wish they would just come out and say so !!!!!

I hope you're right aznbro85. And because I have several Walkmans (men) it doesn't make sense for me to sell my 805 for an NWZ-A81*.Because then I will be using SS for my older devices and WMP11 for my 81*. So for the short to medium term at least I will be sticking with SS and ATRAC and I hope Sony will do the same. I have calmed a little bit in the past few days. I know something as trivial as this shouldn't annoy me but I get really ticked off over poor Customer Support from big wealthy companies including Sony. I will still reconsider moving to another brand when choosing my next DAP though.

No.No.No..never go for a full O.S re-installation so easily........It's a nightmare. Have a look at the 'download' section on this site and you will find a utility for removing traces of previous SS installations.....at least try that first. I'm not sure about the utility and VISTA but give it a try, it won't hurt

Just a thought........... seen as nobody else has touched on this. The original thinking behind Sony DRM'ing the life out of music is because of their huge financial interest in the music industry i.e Sony Records. They were so afraid of 'rights infringement'( profit loss) and poor CD sales( profit loss) that they felt justified in DRM and the ATRAC format. This, of course, provided them with dilemma that effected the progress of the ever successful Walkman ( resulting in profit loss ), and the rest as they say is 'History'. What I would like to know is how do Sony feel about rights infringement now that they have introduced 'drag and drop' to their waning Walkman brand. Do they have so much faith in their ability to claim back their 'Walkman' status( profit) that they are willing to drop the heavy hand they have always used with DRM. Just a thought!!!!!!!

Probably

You know, I don't know what the hell is going on with Sony. They have ticked off so many people by constantly moving their goalposts and dis-regarding their customers while they do so. They are becoming like rogue builders, once they have your money, they are gone. However, I must admit this only applies to their Walkman range in my experience. I love their cameras and camcorders. As long as they have a hand in the recording industry the Walkman range will always lack something.........As for their software ................never,ever,ever........so, I agree Sony Walkman no more.