Sony Nw-e99 - I Have Some Questions About It...

[batfastad]

I saw the sony NW-E99 in a dixons store recently. Obviously I'd never actually buy anything from there as I could save £30-£50 buying online.

I'm in a 'no portable music' situation at the moment which is killing me.

I was going to hold out until the next himd players come out but I'm not sure I can make it.

My old minidisc players are all battered.

Ideally I would like a minidisc portable again as I have loads of MDs but I think the new HiMD portables will still have too many restrictions.

I don't want a hard-drive based MP3 player - i do loads of skiing and mountainbiking and in a crash a don't want to total a £200 ipod. I don't need anything more than 1GB of music on the move - let alone 60GB!!

I've also heard the ipod battery life isn't great. I don't want an ipod on principle.

My questions about the NW-E99 are...

1) The sales person told me it has a rechargeable battery inside. All the stuff on the internet about it says it uses a AAA battery.

Does it use a AAA battery?? - I hope it does.

2) Is it USB2 or USB1?

I've found conflicting information on this. The Sony UK website doesn't say anything about usb2/1 so i'm assuming that it's only USB 1.

Which sucks but oh well.

3) Do you have to use some crappy proprietory software to transfer mp3 files on to it?

It says it includes SonicStage 2, obviously for transferring in Atrac format. Which I will never use again if I can help it.

But it says it comes with a thing called MP3 manager?

That worries me? I already know how to manage my MP3s thankyou very much.

4) Does it support VBR MP3s?

It used to annoy me that I couldn't convert vbr mp3s to atrac for use in netMD.

I assume the device pops up in my computer for you to transfer pictures and other files.

But can you transfer mp3 files that way?

Or do you have to use mp3 manager or something?

Anyone got this device? How are you finding it? Any annoyances? Should I buy?

Thanks

Batfastad

Edited February 22, 2005 by batfastad

[Michael1980]

1. Yes

2. USB1

3. Mp3 Manager, a program which you launch from the disk itself. Wraps mp3's in drm, pretty slow (faster than NetMD/HiMD though).

4. Yes.

And wait for the E505/507 series, which have an OLED screen and some other advantages (USB2?).

[batfastad]

Dagnammit Sony!!

I thought I'd found the one that fits the bill.

MP3 Manager??

Oh well.

The only way I'll buy another sony digital music product, either mp3 or MD, will be if the old USB Mass Storage works, just transfer mp3s and off you go.

Guess I'll have to keep looking.

Thanks for the reply

Batfastad

[Guest tony wong]

I'd like to know what are ur old md players

my suggestion is u take it for repair and use for some times

then(after a few months?) buy Hi-MD units

u shouldn't move up to network workman if u DO have tons of MD

(but yes if u will consider buying MD/Hi-MD unit at a later time after u bought network walkman)

[added]and what is the restriction u mean on Hi-MD?

Edited February 23, 2005 by tony wong

[atrain]

there is a review & conversation about it here

http://www.t-station.net/forum/showthread....10&pagenumber=1

there is a bit on zdnet

http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/Sony_Network_...6-31219623.html

take internet reviews on amazon, zdnet &c with a grain of salt, ignorance in the pros & cons of the user reviews are rife.

[batfastad]

I have an old mz-e75 which doesn't play anymore. I think the motor's bust or something. The disc doesn't seem to spin when I use the controls.

It is over 5 years old though.

I also have an mz-n1 and I get read errors when I try and play most of my mds.

All my mds play fine on my mds-jb980s deck though.

I have about 60-70 mds but most of my music I rip to MP3 nowadays.

I think I'll wait for the newer HiMD units to become available.

I just hope that drag and drop mp3 support is available. Just drop an MP3 file onto the drive and you can play it. Then I'll definitely go for HiMD.

Oh and USB2.0 would be nice as well.

Oh and charging through USB would be really useful too.

I am now seriously looking at a Panasonic SVSD85 - pretty expensive for what it is though. You can just stick an SD card into it though.

Maybe I'll wait a couple of months for the next HiMD portables.

Thanks guys

Batfastad

[Guest tony wong]

very personal opinion :

for mp3 player, u don't have to go for Sony

personally do think there's ain't much difference except it's look from the cheap models u can find

more important would be the ability to play other format e.g. wmv

it just ain't necessary to buy a mp3 player same price as a Hi-MD unit

or maybe u can think mp3 cd portable as a option

it's cheap

u can play both mp3 cd and normal cd with that

that will mean u can player normal cd without doing an extra thing, just buy it and put into the player, and it plays

and with the latest model from Sony, u can even make a ATRAC3plus cd then play it with the cd portable

[batfastad]

The size of the portable is my main thing.

The sony one seemed to have great 40 hrs battery life, whilst being 1GB and really small.

But it uses some kind of DRM wrapper to get the music on.

I want drag and drop.

Guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens to HiMD

Thanks guys

Ben

[atrain]

have a look for the jens of sweden mp140 released this week, OLED colour display, 1 gb, drag n drop & decent batt life, slightly smaller than an ipod shuffle.

[batfastad]

I can't find much info on the device you mention.

Apart from this...

http://techdigestuk.typepad.com/going_for_...ns_new_ran.html

Is it going to look like the picture.

Looks cool and sounds like a good price point and has features I'd be looking for.

Ideally though I'd still like to be able to play MDs - I guess I'll just have to rip my MDs to CD through the analog outputs on my hifi and then rip them to MP3. A real pain though.

I had also seen this device...

http://www.internethifisdirect.co.uk/panas...layer-deals.htm

But £150 is too much to pay for it I think.

We will see!

I might just get a cheap thing off ebay for the time being. There are a few different MP3 players all listed on there that claim to have SD/MMC slots to expand the memory.

Thanks guys