New user opinions of NW-A3000

[mgillespie]

Wanted something other than the "follow the crowd" iPod, so picked up a A3000 today in purple from Argos (£10 off, and 10% discount makes £169).

As always, Sony hardware is awesome, and likewise, Sony software is utter shite. The Connect software, even after updating is REALLY bad. To make matters worse, you are forced into using it, (or Sonic Stage, almost as bad, and reduced functionality).

Unless Sony buck their software development up, they will never crack the iPods dominance...

I am toying with the idea of taking the player back, as the software is so bad. It's a shame with such tasty hardware, but being locked into Connect, is seriously bad news.

Any potential purchasers, beware...

(have CC'd Sony on this, not that that care particularly...)

[Tetsugaku-San]

Wish I could disagree, sadly I can't:(

I did play with the idea of taking it back, but Connect does work in the end, you just have to have way way way too much patience, my only hope is that a nice fat patch will fix it cos I *DO* love the player itself.

[mgillespie]

Well the software does not work at all for me.

I have wasted an evening so far, trying to import my music. Nowhere in the Connect documentation, does it mention that you cannot import music from a network drive share. Does it work? Does it hell, the OK button is greyed out.

Totally useless, as all my music is on a remote LAN pc.

The more I use connect, the more frustrated I am getting. I keep thinking back, "if I bought an ipod, it would be working by now...."

[Tetsugaku-San]

well not being able to import froma network drive would be daft - have you tried just dragging and dropping the files into the connect library window?

[Ascariss]

well not being able to import froma  network drive would be daft - have you tried just dragging and dropping the files into the connect library window?

←

Hmm, not sure that works, never tried it myself. My favourite method of import is using ctrl=I, or the import file option, just select the files and click ok, not tried the import directory one, since it has crashed a few times on me, could be the pc though, as it isn't that fast.

[mgillespie]

Well here are my results from trying to import from either a network driver letter, or UNC path:

1/ Import Directory(Ctrl +D) - does not ungrey the OK button, so no go.

2/ Import Files (Ctrl+I) - Allows files to be selected, but when trying to import, they say "Skipped... xxxxx"

3/ Watch Directory - allows folders to be selected, but when trying to import, they say "Skipped xxxxx"

4/ Dropping network folders onto Library - Works!!!

So there is no consistancy here at all. I have used method 4, and it seems to be working, so there is no reason why 1 -3 should not work.

Is there any way of reporting bugs in Connect to Sony? Looked on their support site, and there are a few feeble FAQ's and the downloads, no email support or anything like that. No wonder the software is so bad, when users cannot feed back problems...

[Rumz]

I need to get my hands on a Connect CD and give it a whirl to see how it is. I actually have grown to like iTunes to an extent (it's convenient anyways) so dragging and dropping files into the player seems like one of the most convenient ways to add songs to the library. I never much liked the import commands in Sonic Stage by comparison to dragging and dropping in iTunes.

[mgillespie]

Well, it's not quite as simple as my original post.

I cannot drag and drop more than 1 tree of files. I also cannot drop a root directory, as they screws up the scan.

I wonder if Sony did ANY testing of Connect before shipping it? Time for a long night of importing data, artist by artist.

GGRRRR, If I meet those Sony Connect programmers down a dark alley, I will not be responsible for my actions....

[Pooh]

GGRRRR, If I meet those Sony Connect programmers down a dark alley, I will not be responsible for my actions....

←

I'm not convinced that Sony can recover from what is fast turning about to be a debacle, at least in the UK. The "Gen Kanai" weblog linked to a post at this website about the Connect Player and received a veritable torrent of complaints about the same. This can't be doing Sony's image much good. Sony is selling a large number of the new players, in large part as a result of the TV ad campaign they are currently running in the UK. God alone knows what many (most?) of those people are going to think.

Sony Connect Player 1.0 review

http://www.kanai.net/weblog/archive/2005/11/10/06h20m47s

[mgillespie]

I'm not convinced that Sony can recover from what is fast turning about to be a debacle, at least in the UK.  The "Gen Kanai" weblog linked to a post at this website about the Connect Player and received a veritable torrent of complaints about the same. This can't be doing Sony's image much good. Sony is selling a large number of the new players, in large part as a result of the TV ad campaign they are currently running in the UK. God alone knows what many (most?) of those people are going to think.

Sony Connect Player 1.0 review

http://www.kanai.net/weblog/archive/2005/11/10/06h20m47s

←

I have been in contact with Sony today by email, and pointed them (initially) to my Blog, which details my problems. After they suggested that installing the latest version on Connect would fix the "minor problems"!!! I informed them that I was already running the update, and that there were masses upon masses of people all suffering similar problems, I pointed them to the "Gen Kanai" weblog.

I have not heard back yet. I asked them for a ETA of new software, or the possibility of beta testing, (current software is pre-Alpha quality...).

[Pooh]

I have been in contact with Sony today by email, and pointed them (initially) to my Blog, which details my problems.  After they suggested that installing the latest version on Connect would fix the "minor problems"!!!  I informed them that I was already running the update, and that there were masses upon masses of people all suffering similar problems, I pointed them to the "Gen Kanai" weblog.

I have not heard back yet.  I asked them for a ETA of new software, or the possibility of beta testing, (current software is pre-Alpha quality...).

←

I don't believe anyone at Sony cares, or, if he or she does care, that they are in a position to do anything. My own belief is that Sony management is in chaos. What else could explain the lunacy over CD viruses and now the almost complete joke that is the Connect Player?

[Darth_fool]

hardware great - software shite is all i can say.

ok so far i can work around "most" of the limitations of the software mainly the fact that its so damn slow.

Connect Players fine as long as theres only 500 max songs in the library after that it just grinds to a near halt. The only way i can get round it is to import 500 odd files and then rename the library direcory and start from scratch. It works but its a pain. I really don't understand why its so slow a slimmed down install of mysql or somthing similair could handle the same amount of data using less cpu and memory than connect player and would still be quicker!!

Is there anything out there that can modify atrac tags?? the only problem i really can't get round is that all my compilation albums seem to have put the song artist into the album artist so instead of 1 album with 15 songs / artists i have the same album in the library 15 times and editing the track info through connect player is painfull ( 2 secs to make the change and 30 secs while the library works out what you've just done !! )

[Ascariss]

I had the same problem, go edit the properties of the songs in CP and you will see differences between them. ie there is artist, and also album artist, I believe CP orders it by Album artist to group files.

I had to reorgnanize around 2000 mp3s after I realized my errors, so now, I have no problems when I import files into the program.

[Ascariss]

Well the big daddy arrived today. It is much bigger than my A1000 of course, wasn't expecting it to be so much larger as well. Here are the 2 songs that come preloaded:

Paperface - Dance Karate

Colette - Feelin' Hypnotized (Kaskade Mix)

both in atrac3plus at 256kbps. The screen is much larger and looks great, and it does have a greenish tint to it and isn't white. Will post pictures later on.

[Olz]

I havent got my NW-A yet, but don't you think its just crazy...Sony go and make two really amazing players and with such poor software that can't handle more than 500 songs according to one of you, you cant fill them up. Sony have made it impossible to use all of the space on the hard drive that you have paid for. You are essentially paying for something you cant use. The first 2GB or so are usable but after that...well its just pointless.

Im not complaining at the player, which I just cant wait for, and know is going to be amazing, but as everyone knows the software is what is seemingly letting it down.

Does anyone know when the WMA functionality is being added to the player (apart from 'December')?

[Ascariss]

I filled almost 6 gigs on my A1000, so more than 2 gigs is usable.

No word on wma yet. I personally don't care, never liked the wma codec.

[Rumz]

Well the big daddy arrived today. It is much bigger than my A1000 of course, wasn't expecting it to be so much larger as well. Here are the 2 songs that come preloaded:

Paperface - Dance Karate

Colette - Feelin' Hypnotized (Kaskade Mix)

both in atrac3plus at 256kbps. The screen is much larger and looks great, and it does have a greenish tint to it and isn't white. Will post pictures later on.

←

Hmmm... what's interesting to me is that those are 256kbps. What does the Connect Music Store currently offer? I assume those tracks are promotional such as to stimulate interest in buying music online?

[Guest Stuge]

Hmmm... what's interesting to me is that those are 256kbps. What does the Connect Music Store currently offer? I assume those tracks are promotional such as to stimulate interest in buying music online?

Those tracks are put to check whether the player working or not working properly when you buy ......These are just sample songs

[Ascariss]

Full length songs. The Connect store ins't available in canada sadly, which is a mistake since there are online music stores here.

Perhaps someone who bought music from the connect store can tell us what bitrates can be chosen.

[Bijl]

SonicStage works fine, I don't understand all the fuss about it (Connect doesn't work), what is easier then dragging your music to the library, go to the transfer screen and just pick what albums you want to put on it or have it done automatically?

Edited December 11, 2005 by Bijl

[Ascariss]

Problem is, certain features will not work now on your player when using SS.

[ChanLokHang]

I am curious as to what features would not work properly? I have done some testing on my player, "got it yesterday". I wanted it to have 2 partitions so I can use the first one for the player itself "music" and the second ond for PC files. The silly thing is Windows will detect the first partition but not the second, however in DOS both of the partitions are detected. Has anyone else tried this and found a way to resolve it?

I have not had any problems with my CONNECT Player software. I have 547 tracks in the library and it seems to be working fine... maybe... well it loads a bit slow "roughly 20 seconds". Other then that everything else seems to be fine.

[Ascariss]

Possibly my favourite 100 shuffle won't work, as won't any of hte other intelligent shuffles, nor will play history, but perhaps play history works with SS. anyone want to check that?