NW-HD5: 40 hrs of battery life? what?

[RobA]

So I've had my HD5 for 3 days now, love it. But I'm not buying this "40 hrs of battery life" thing.

In 3 days, it probably has about 6 hrs of use on it, max. But oddly enough, the battery meter is already at half-empty. Does the HD5 really last for 40 hrs? So far I'm not buying it.

I'm currently charging it with the usb port (nice feature!), anyone know how to make sonicstage not open when I plug in the hd5? Also the lithium battery isn't going to suffer any type of memory effect correct? So I can just charge it whenever I want?

Edited December 12, 2006 by Rob A

[thefanboy]

welcome to nw-hd5.

battery life depends on how long display is active and on bitrates of the song.

what do you mean by memory effect on lithum ion battery? feel free to charge whenever you want, there is no limitation.

[RobA]

welcome to nw-hd5.

battery life depends on how long display is active and on bitrates of the song.

what do you mean by memory effect on lithum ion battery? feel free to charge whenever you want, there is no limitation.

I was using the display very often in the last few days, all songs are encoded at ATRAC3plus @ 64kbps.

Some batteries suffer from a memory effect, where when you charge it when it's not fully drained, it remembers that spot where you charged it as empty. I want to know if the hd5's battery suffers from this.

[pata2001]

Some batteries suffer from a memory effect, where when you charge it when it's not fully drained, it remembers that spot where you charged it as empty. I want to know if the hd5's battery suffers from this.

The HD5 (and most modern electronics) use LiIon battery, which doesn't have this problem. In fact, it is not good to let LiIon battery fully drained.

Sony DAPs may have a good battery life for continous playback, but try turning the unit off and leave it off for a day or 2. I don't know about the HD5, but the Vaio Pocket and other Sony Network Walkmen will drain the battery significantly even when off. In contrast, iPods have deep sleep mode, so when it is not used for quite some time, it will not drain the battery so much.

[AlwaysTired]

There is a setting somewhere in Sonicstage to do this, cant remember where Im afraid and dont have it on this pc to check.

Mat

"anyone know how to make sonicstage not open when I plug in the hd5"

[aznbro85]

anyone know how to make sonicstage not open when I plug in the hd5?

Hey Rob A,

To make it so that SonicStage doesn't open up when you plug your player in, go open SonicStage, then go to "Tools" => "Options"

Then under the "General" tab, under "Automatic Run", uncheck the box that corresponds to "Run SonicStage automatically when an ATRAC Device is Connected".

That should prevent SS from loading up when you plug in your HD5 to charge.

[kerfuffle]

It'll only last for forty hours if you turn it on, and leave it to play. Browsing and fiddling with the player will decrease the battery life. (And if you have the backlight on. ) Forty hours is quoted for Atrac3plus at 48kbps.

[lamewing]

Sony DAPs are notorious for spinning up the HD when accessing the menu. Heck, the HD1 would spin up the HD if you even played with the volume buttons!!! This always leads to lesser battery life. My old iPod (ick) and my Cowons - X5L and A2 don't spin the HD up just to access the menu system and therefore last much longer. I clearly remember how quickly the Vaio Pocket (love the device, hated the battery) would loose a charge over a couple of days. Grrrr.

Does anyone know how the A1200 handles a charge if the machine is off? Thanks.

Joe

[navsimpson]

Yeah, the whole 40hrs thing is as likely as Sony selling music that isn't DRMed! But if your music is all at ATRAC3+ 64kbs, then you should actually get quite a lot of battery life - maybe 25hrs, which is good by anyone's standards. My HD3 gets about 12-13 hours playing a mix of 192 and 352 and about half that playing 320 MP3s.

-Nav

[triumvirat]

Probably 40 hrs is an overstatement but I don't think is less than 30 hrs. I travel with my unit without charger for 1 or 2 weeks without a need to recharge it. I specially listen to music while I'm in the plane (8 to 11 hrs) and during the night. All my tracks are recorded in atrac 256k and atrac lossless comp. (whose files are really heavy).

You must charge the unit using wall outlets, USb is not as "powerful" as an outlet.

Lastly, battery "dies" slowly, I mean, even though the battery meter shows half of energy available you still have a lot of playing time available.

You won't find another mp3 player with the NW-HD5 sound quality and lasting battery!

[cauldron]

First of all, if your HD5 is new, the battery meter will not be accurate. This is true for most devices that use Li-ion/Li-Polymer batteries. You may need to fully discharge, then fully recharge for 2-3 cycles, before you can "see" the real capacity.

Sony players use the hard drive for everything. I remember even releasing "HOLD" on the HD5 sets the drive spinning! That's going to be a real drain on the battery.

Also, HDD players work by reading a set amount of files into a memory buffer. When the HD1 came out, Sony was buffering up to 25 minutes (source: SonyStyle JP interview). That's more than double the iPod's buffer at that time, and I suspect this is the same with later models. If you're skipping tracks all the time, this will not be beneficial to you - it'll be a negative instead, and you lose more by always skipping tracks on a Sony HDD player.

But the HD5's battery life is still phenomenal. You can keep skipping around, play with the settings, and easily have double the battery life of other players, and I think that's the whole point of having that kind of battery capacity.

[pata2001]

atrac lossless comp. (whose files are really heavy).

You must charge the unit using wall outlets, USb is not as "powerful" as an outlet.

As far as I know, the HD5 does not support Atrac lossless, so you're using whatever lossy/transcoded part of the lossless file.

USB is fine, you just need longer time to fully charge the unit vs an AC adaptor.

This is true for most devices that use Li-ion/Li-Polymer batteries. You may need to fully discharge, then fully recharge for 2-3 cycles, before you can "see" the real capacity.

Wrong! There is no need for priming for LiIon. In fact, fully discharge a LiIon batter is NOT recommended.

Unlike nickel and lead-based batteries, a new lithium-ion pack does not need cycling through charging and discharging. Priming will make little difference because the maximum capacity of lithium-ion is available right from the beginning. Neither does a full discharge improve the capacity of a faded pack. However, a full discharge/charge will reset the digital circuit of a 'smart' battery to improve the state-of-charge estimation

http://www.batteryuniversity.com/partone-12.htm

[cauldron]

pata,

what I was talking about IS the "state-of-charge estimation" reflected by the battery meter and/or the management chip inside every Li-ion battery, not the battery itself. Please read carefully before you do the WRONG! thing

[sunnyb]

my battery goes in 10 hours why? all the files are mp3 .. various bitrates i also have the volume limit of

Edited January 7, 2007 by sunnyb

[kerfuffle]

Maybe your songs are encoded in high bitrates e.g. 256kbps. Also, if you browse on your Walkman heaps, it spins up the hard drive, which means more battery power is used. And if you use the backlight as well, that's more battery power used.

If you have your music in atrac3plus, you get a better battery life. Sony quotes forty hours for the NW-HD5 when the songs are encoded at 48kbps.

Edited January 7, 2007 by kerfuffle

[sunnyb]

Maybe your songs are encoded in high bitrates e.g. 256kbps. Also, if you browse on your Walkman heaps, it spins up the hard drive, which means more battery power is used. And if you use the backlight as well, that's more battery power used.

If you have your music in atrac3plus, you get a better battery life. Sony quotes forty hours for the NW-HD5 when the songs are encoded at 48kbps.

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread....mp;highlight=dj

hey i just read Kinel Post i think it is the volume limit im turned it of and going to see how long battery lasts