Jump to content

Breaking News: Prototype Hi-MD Unit(s) Displayed @ CES

Christopher

By Christopher,
in News

 Share

Recommended Posts

Fat Tires Newbie

Fat Tires

Posted
Posted

how do they actually wrap the mp3's in drm??  How restrictive is this too, do you know?

Sant430, There's a review at Head-Fi on the NW-HD3 with all the necessary info to answer your question. There's more useful info in the thread, so grab a Coke and a snack and get ready for a long read.

http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=96770

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Fat Tires Newbie

Fat Tires

Posted
Posted

Chris, I know that YOU know all about that review. There are several nuggets of good info in that thread though.

Now as for the DRM wrapper, I don't think that it'd be much of an issue to any legitimate user if they have one PC. For people who are used to copying MP3s to a device and then copying them to a second PC there may be an issue of concern.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
sant430_ Newbie

sant430_

Posted
Posted

Chris, I know that YOU know all about that review. There are several nuggets of good info in that thread though.

Now as for the DRM wrapper, I don't think that it'd be much of an issue to any legitimate user if they have one PC. For people who are used to copying MP3s to a device and then copying them to a second PC there may be an issue of concern.

good thread; you're right about a long read! I see what you're saying about drm too. I think in terms of eliminating the whole transcoding issue, the drm thing is pretty minimal. I wish they would've done this earlier.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
sant430_ Newbie

sant430_

Posted
Posted

Amen to that. If they'd just gone this route with NetMD we'd all be better off, so would the format.

NOW i remember what i wanted to say. With the native mp3 option, it's going to be really interesting to see what format people are going to use (moreso for those who rip to mp3 format from CD, and not mp3s they didn't get from a CD)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Fat Tires Newbie

Fat Tires

Posted
Posted

Well, I guess for many, the choice will be MP3 for compatibility with other playback applications and other portable gear. I think that I might fall into that catagory. I don't mind reripping my tunes to my PC one last time.

Then there is always a group that will simply look at file size only and use the one that is the smallest per track.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Christopher Grand Master

Christopher

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Chris, I know that YOU know all about that review. There are several nuggets of good info in that thread though.

You're right, and what I said was immature. It just really bothers me that his review was heralded as a piece that is trustworthy about the HD3, when there are several fallacies rampant. Yes, I know the earphones he is employing with such are probably the most susceptible to picking up such noises, but c'mon, no need to shout it from the rooftops and assume that every unit will have such issues. And the way Sonicstage is represented.. it just kills Sony. It's not that bad. The saddest thing? It's probably the most favorable view of Sony outside of these forums..

Link to comment
Share on other sites
sant430_ Newbie

sant430_

Posted
Posted

You're right, and what I said was immature. It just really bothers me that his review was heralded as a piece that is trustworthy about the HD3, when there are several fallacies rampant. Yes, I know the earphones he is employing with such are probably the most susceptible to picking up such noises, but c'mon, no need to shout it from the rooftops and assume that every unit will have such issues. And the way Sonicstage is represented.. it just kills Sony. It's not that bad. The saddest thing? It's probably the most favorable view of Sony outside of these forums..

I personally found the entire thread pretty informative. While it did go back and forth on some (imo) offtopic issues, the overall thread/review was throrough. I actually didn't think the HD3 was that good. After this thread tho', I'm seriously thinking investing in one. I'm going to do some searches on how it sounds amped as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
The Rule Newbie

The Rule

Posted
Posted

You're right, and what I said was immature. It just really bothers me that his review was heralded as a piece that is trustworthy about the HD3, when there are several fallacies rampant. Yes, I know the earphones he is employing with such are probably the most susceptible to picking up such noises, but c'mon, no need to shout it from the rooftops and assume that every unit will have such issues. And the way Sonicstage is represented.. it just kills Sony. It's not that bad. The saddest thing? It's probably the most favorable view of Sony outside of these forums..

Man, I havent posted here in forever.

But anyways, I also don't think SonicStage is that horrible, I mean...it's useble at least. Just not seamless.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
orb_cz Newbie

orb_cz

Posted
Posted

Eventough this hasn't been confermed by sony, it's still great to hear.

(garyc - T-Board)

"was just talking to a guy I know in the sony centre here, asking him about 2nd generation units, Hi-MD home decks ets... he says his boss is heading to Rome tomorrow for the new product announcements, will have catalogs etc next week at some stage"

Link to comment
Share on other sites
chevysony Newbie

chevysony

Posted
Posted

Does someone have this mp3 manager software for download? I know it doesn't work with MD's now but it is nice to fool a bit around with it to find out exactly what is does and how convenient it is.

v 1.1 (NW-E75, NW-E95, NW-S23)

http://esupport.sony.com/perl/swu-download...25&PASSVAL2=SMB

v 1.2 (NW-E99)

http://esupport.sony.com/perl/swu-download...27&PASSVAL2=SMB

The MP3 File Manager software came preinstalled on the NW-S23 that I got for my mom, it works well, easy to use.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MAVickers Newbie

MAVickers

Posted
Posted

What about existing Hi-MD's???  mad.gif  sad.gif

Check this article out:

http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/01/21/sony/index.php

Notable:

Sony formed an internal group in November called Connect Company that spans several business units. Its goal is to tie together its digital music efforts in the areas of hardware, content, online sales and software, and to help Sony develop a more user-friendly digital music system. Later that month Sony said it would offer a new version of its Network Walkman player with support for MP3. Owners of earlier models can get their players upgraded to support the format.

Not sure how reliable this outfit is in its reporting...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
chevysony Newbie

chevysony

Posted
Posted

That IS talking about the Network Walkmen, unfortunately.... :/ But it doesn't rule out (or rule in) HiMD...

Yeah, they have already released the firmware update for the VAIO Pocket VGF-AP1L and the Sony website currently says: "A firmware upgrade will be available for NW-HD1 devices to support ‘native’ MP3 files. Please check back soon for further information about this upgrade."

Link to comment
Share on other sites
poe Newbie

poe

Posted
Posted

Something just came to me while going through the equipment browser. I notice something familiar with the E606W the wireless remote control. It looks a awfull lot like the round devices in the mock up picture. Maybe wireless remotes, that would be cool.POE

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Jammin72 Newbie

Jammin72

Posted
Posted

There's no reason that they couldn't offer a firmware upgrade to the HiMD units for .mp3 compatibility. I wan't it!

You think they would make us send them in... can you imagine people trying to hack code that allows you to re-write the operating insturctions on the Hi-MD units! tongue.gif

If we're dreaming of upgrades...

Let's see those two gig discs! Seamless .wav Sets.

How about .flac support!

Here Here to the backlit display

For Goodness sakes give us an optical out! We know you can make combo jacks Sony give it to us!

Also in response to the previous request for digital amps... MZ-NH900's and MZ-N1's already got 'em!

As far as the 24 bit requests go... until the storage capacity goes way up it's kind of useless in my mind.

I would love to see an input buffer that would allow you time to swap discs without loosing data.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
batfastad Newbie

batfastad

Posted
Posted

- Nice mp3 drag and drop compatibility so I never have to use SonicStage

Though SonicStage is a fair improvement over OpenMG Jukebox (!!!!!!!)

- Really go to town on the looks - magnesium, carbon fibre.

Or just silver chrome on the top surface.

- Optical out

- Drag and drop of recordings onto your PC/Mac - stored in MP3 format on the disc.

- Backlit display

- VBR support (i'm not sure on the status of this at the mo)

- Now wireless remotes...

When someone suggested that above I was like - hell yeah!!!

But I'm not so sure. I hate having to mess about with batteries. And the batteries for the wireless remote would have to be those little fiddly ones.

So I'll think about it some more.

- Firmware upgrades would be v cool for existing users. To be honest I'd rather they got it all spot on first time round though. I think you'd expect a flood of 04 HiMD stuff appearing on ebay.

I think you'd have to take your unit to your Sony Centre or something though. No way would they let everyone download a file which has the secret of flashing the internals of the device.

Although I think it would be a good idea as you hopefully get loads of 'creative' firmware releases on these forums.

Firmware upgrades to allow addition of new codec support - ogg, acc etc. I'm sure some people would appreciate that.

Now this talk of the DRM wrapper...

Is it really necessary?

If I wanted to pirate loads of music I'd stuff loads of MP3s in a zip file. Put it on the HiMD disc and away you go. Or just burn a shed load of them to a dual layer DVD-R or something. I dunno!

Why bother? Probably just to please the Sony Music execs.

If this drag and drop native mp3 support happens that will be superb!

A cool removeable disc drive/MP3 player/recorder! Shove a 3megapixel+ camera into the unit and Sony are on to a winner!

Lets all hope it happens.

No doubt Sony will still botch it up again as usual.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest tony wong

Guest tony wong

Posted
Posted

for some people always hoping for mp3 playback support, this is the facts I know :

all along the way, the long playing time of MD(attention, not Hi-MD) is because of it is using a chips to decode the ATRAC/ATRAC3 stream

well, I am not sure on why the new Hi-MD will suddenly drop the playing times(maybe just because they don't use chips to do that anymore?

it's a doubt)

but, if in case they are still using chip for decoding

mp3 support seems not that realizeable as the chips may not have support for playback mp3 stream(attention on the word "may not"

that will mean not even a firmware upgrade can make the 1st generation Hi-MD player can support mp3 playback

Link to comment
Share on other sites
hobgoblin Newbie

hobgoblin

Posted
Posted

unless they can move some amounts of atrac decoder chips the use of a dedicated chip is a waste of production costs. its allso becomeing more and more common with programable chips these days where the chip itself gets reconfigured by software but after that acts works as if the chip was made for the task. basicly your not running a software on top of a general cpu but rather rebuilds the chip useing software. atleast for tasks like music format decodeing a system like that would make sense.

drmless drag and drop mp3 support will not happen, ever. for that sony have to much invested in their record label.

still, whats stopping people from doubleing up the device? or makeing one himd with playback on and one with the mp3s stored as datafiles? when you get to the place your going to, change mds and copy the music over tongue.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...