Firmware Upgrade opportunity for NW-HD1 may soon expire...

[MDX-400]

Just looking at information about the HD1 and upgrading it for MP3 on the USA website I found that Sony seems to be saying right now that the firmware upgrade offer expires on March 31st, 2006...

I don't know whether this means the $20 price will change or whether you may not be able to upgrade it at all after that date, or what... But I thought it would be useful to inform anyone here that is planning on upgrading an HD1 or getting one, about this date Sony USA has specified as of right now.

Here's the link to the support issue @ Sony.com...

http://esupport.sony.com/perl/news-item.pl...WHD1&news_id=63

[Guest Stuge]

After 31, March 2006 they will not do the upgrade ..They have also stopped the upgrade of Hd1 in U.K (I`m not 100% sure)

[MDX-400]

After 31, March 2006 they will not do the upgrade ...

What's the point of this though? It's just a firmware upgrade right? So they don't actually have to replace any hardware, correct? So what's that big deal? Why must they stop doing it altogether when all they're doing is loading new firmware onto the thing? It's not like they are really losing anything from upgrading firmwares--it's a nearly costless operation. What happens to the firmware after they stop doing the upgrades just delete it from existence and then pretend it was never available?

That is "teh weirdness"!

[pata2001]

What's the point of this though? It's just a firmware upgrade right? So they don't actually have to replace any hardware, correct? So what's that big deal?

Money. It costs them money in labor and time to do those upgrades. Less support means less spending/more profit. It's called business. Same thing with Microsoft not providing support for old windows like win3.1 or win95.

[Guest Stuge]

Just to add on ::

So they can concentrate on their new products ...

[MDX-400]

Money. It costs them money in labor and time to do those upgrades. Less support means less spending/more profit. It's called business. Same thing with Microsoft not providing support for old windows like win3.1 or win95.

Yes well I understand that, but keep in mind the upgrade isn't free, you have to pay for it! Even if they are giving the upgrade at a loss right now, they could simply increase the price past that date.

Also Windows 3.1 and 95 aren't the greatest analogies. Windows 3.1 was useless anyway, lol. And the HD1 is not over 10 years old. Plus I'm sure you can still get drivers and updates for Windows 95 up until they stopped making new drivers/updates. It's not like those drivers and updates just disappeared off the face of the planet thereafter. You can still viably use Windows 98 and ME if you really wanted to, it's not like all of a sudden all the past drivers/updates that were around for them have disappeared of the face of the planet.

Plus you can still get stuff from MS like DirectX for older OSes like Windows 98, Windows ME, and Windows 2000. (The very latest version of DirectX is still available for those OSes.) MS didn't just set a date like 2 years after XP came out and say "that's it no more Windows 98 support" and even if they did the last DirectX update (for example) they made for that OS would still be available.

Just to add on ::

So they can concentrate on their new products ...

Well yes there is that, but it isn't like their repair/warranty technicians (especially those in the US I'd imagine) work on R&D for new products. How does repairing/updating older products through their service network stop them from concentrating on new products? Perhaps it's true that the techs do have to learn how to work on and repair new products that are released but that's their job; just because they learn how to work on a new product doesn't mean they just throw out everything they know for older products! Part of their job is knowing about the technical aspects of past products and learning about new ones.

[Guest Stuge]

Hi MDX-400,

At some point or the other i may also agree with you but I think Sony is thinking on the lines that after sometime people rather upgrading there old player will like to buy new player with better technology .Also after sometime they(Sony) will not gain any profit by upgrading the old player .Remember All companies want profit if they don`t get profit from something they will automatically shut down it .

Also If this upgrade was going to give them large profit then why they are performing this upgrade only in one service centre ( Sony's Laredo Service Center) ??Why not every centre in US ????

This just tell us that they are not gaining much profit by upgrading the firmware...

[MDX-400]

Also If this upgrade was going to give them large profit then why they are performing this upgrade only in one service centre ( Sony's Laredo Service Center) ??Why not every centre in US ????

This just tell us that they are not gaining much profit by upgrading the firmware...

You're right, though it is quite disappointing knowing that they will vapourise this firmware entirely just to make profits instead of providing better service and support. They should provide the firmware upgrade indefinitely, I mean profit or not all they have to do is connect the thing to USB and then update the firmware I'm sure (that's all they have to do to update MD firmware ever since the NetMD days); charge appropriately for it (even if that means more than they are now) but don't just tell people "too late now you're going to have to buy a new player so we can make money off you eventhough yours is working fine".

Anway it is probably useful to bump or maybe sticky this thread until the expiry date so anyone browsing or visiting the forum with a non-MP3 capable HD1 will be well advised of the intention of Sony to have the upgrade no longer possible after the end of March.

[grenert]

Looks like the upgrade offer has been extended to March 31, 2007. Thanks, Sony!

http://esupport.sony.com/perl/news-item.pl...&news_id=63

Maybe this should be pinned?

Edited June 21, 2006 by grenert

[kerfuffle]

Peh. I don't think Australia offers any firmware upgrades for the NW-HD1 here.

Oh well. I like the Atrac3plus format anyway. I can live with the fact that I have to convert all the MP3s I download into .oma files.

[MDX-400]

Looks like the upgrade offer has been extended to March 31, 2007. Thanks, Sony!

http://esupport.sony.com/perl/news-item.pl...&news_id=63

Maybe this should be pinned?

Oh wow I hadn't even noticed this post... I remember the upgrade page disappearing from Sony's support page for the HD1 but it seeems it's there again. Well until March 31st, 2007 anyway. I'd advise all HD1 users without the update to upgrade ASAP before the offer expires again!

[kerfuffle]

I think the offer's already expired in Australia, last year.