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Sony HMP-A1 Pictorial and Review

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I just thought I would add to this section my trusty Sony Hard Disk player that I recently bought. It is actually the very first Sony's HD player that natively supports MP3!

All in all, this gadget plays MP3 and WAV files, also plays Video and shows Photo.

I primarily purchased it for video playback of my ripped movies or PSP type short videos, since I already own a VAIO Pocket MP3 player.

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Some specs:

- 20GB Hard Disk

- 3.5" Color LCD @ 320x240 resolution

- MPEG-4, MPEG-2, MPEG-1, MP3, WAV, JPEG (Stills)

- 129.6 x 75.6 x 22 mm (L x W x D) or (5.1 x 3 x 0.86 inches)

- 250g (8.8 oz)

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This player has been released only in Japan, however it supports English menus as well. The application to transfer files to it called HMP Image Transfer Manager also installs in English.

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HMP Image Transfer Manager:

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It is a pretty easy to use application and reminds me slightly of Image Converter Plus. When you transfer videos you have options to choose as far as video format, etc. Since it has USB 2.0 interface, the transfer time is quick, but of course if you are moving several gig video, it will take an hour or so. Thankfully there is an option which if checked forces your computer to shut down after a successful file transfer. So you can leave it overnight and have a peace of mind knowing your computer is not sitting there and just running.

I really like the GUI of the player itself. You can change the color of the interface to Red, Blue, Orange or White. The player itself has touch sensitive controls. The buttons are arranged in a symmetrical pattern so that if you do want to flip the display 180°, you'll be able to navigate easily in either hand. There are physical buttons on the top edge of the player that are assigned to the Tools popup menu, Volume adjustment and Power. The Power button is actually a spring loaded switch. To turn the unit on or off, you have to slide and hold the Power button to the right for a few seconds. Next to the Power button is the status LED. This LED glows amber while charging, off when fully charged and green when powered on.

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The large groove shaped button is the scroll 'wheel'. As you swipe your thumb up and down, it will scroll in that direction. Resting your thumb at either end of the groove will cause the scrolling to continue automatically in that direction, and the scrolling seems to proceed at a snappy pace.

Along the left side of the player is the earphone / remote control jack, A/V jack, USB connector and DC in jack. The A/V jack, USB connector and DC in jack are protected by a rubber door that snaps in place.

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Sound quality through headphones or earbud is very good. Unfortunately, there isn't an internal speaker built into the unit. If you ever want to show a movie clip to a friend or a group of people, you'll need to let them borrow your headphones or hook the HMP-A1 to a TV with the included RCA cable. If you do hook up the player to a TV, you'll be able to play video, view pictures and play MP3s.

The display on the HMP-A1 is very very nice. It's bright, crisp, has vivid colors and a wide viewing angle. I also love that the display is protected with a thick layer of what looks like Lucite. This allows for very easy cleaning which is a good thing because the screen is a big fingerprint / smudge magnet.

Here are some more shots of the GUI:

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Nice featureof it is if you turn off the player while it is in the process of playing a song, it will remember where you were and will automatically continue playing that song at the spot you stopped when you power it up again. It actually does this for video and picture viewing too.

Video playback is very smooth and clear. It's like watching your TV. But, all you can do is play, pause, stop, skip ahead / back 15 seconds and increase playback speed by x2, x10, x30, and x120.

The battery can be charged through the included AC adapter or through the USB connection. Using the AC adapter, it only takes about 2.5hrs to fully recharge a depleted battery, while charging through USB will take about 7hrs.

Battery life for video is about 6-7 hours, music and photo 8-9 hrs.

I think it is pretty neat player, well built. Sony has not released a second generation of it, but I am pretty sure something really cool is on the way.

Here are some more pictures and comparisons with VAIO Pocket and VAIO U750P:

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  • 2 weeks later...

wow, what's this, i never seen this before.

when is it released? i believe it's not belong to NW but VAIO.

anyway, looks good.

I believe Sony released this toy back in 2004. It was created by the division in Sony that has no relation to Music or VAIO dept. If it had any ties with Sony Music, back then it would not support MP3s and Atrac is not supported on this device by the way. :ol_shocked:

Edited by vaiofreak
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