Sony WILL Release WMP update for older Walkmans!

[veggiemusician]

After calling Sony UK last week - they called me back today to comfirm that my walkman (A805) will be compatible with Windows Media Player and Napster soon. Sony will be relasing a "Compatabiltiy Update" for older walkmans so they can use WMP, Napster and other online music downloading sites. They shall be making a press statement soon.

Im not to sure when "soon" is but its before Connect store closes in March 2008 is how sony worded it.

Its good news neither the less

[shaft69]

yeah but I love atrac ... by giving up atrac Sony will get new customers but they will also lose the old

[shaft69]

Sonicstage + Atrac + MP3 make me happy... and they keep doing it in Japan.... I know that a lot of people wanted walkman to be UMS but atrac was a very good format

Edited January 1, 2008 by shaft69

[shaft69]

I just receive an e-mail from SONY France and it says that this firmware will never come because it's impossible for sony to do that (atrac only works with sonicstage because of SONY DRM and it is not compatible with WMP)

[Hurryken]

i'm still confused after reading this thread ...^^

what I wanted to know was, if the "new", updated series (A818) still supports ATRAC Compression (SS)...

I actually don't need the drag and drop feature at all - I'm fine with Sonic Stage ... but it's hard to get the old ones here in Germany (and they are even more expensive xD)

what to doooo ....

Thanks in advance ....

[juli_]

what I wanted to know was, if the "new", updated series (A818) still supports ATRAC Compression (SS)...

Hi HurryKen - no - the NWZ series doesn't use SS or Atrac. It's apparently what people wanted and the reviews are really positive for the new drag and drop models.

So there are 2 identical models - the NW-A808 WITH Atrac/SS and the NWZ-A818 without.

Like you, I am also fine with SS (didn't used to be) - but I am used to it now and I appreciate the features it has.

I guess the grass is not always greener on the other side of SS!!

[Hurryken]

thanks for your relpy ...

but it makes the decision even more difficult ... xD

[lanyu]

Hi Hurryken & all,

If you (or someone else) are interested, I can sell my NW-A808 with a very interesting price.

I like the player very mush, but I have a big problem with SonicStage. I'm from China and live in Paris. With SonicStage installed on a non-Chinese version (French in my case) Windows, the software just doesn't support titles and artists in Chinese characters !

If my NW-A808 can make someone else happy ...

Cheers

lanyu

Edited January 17, 2008 by lanyu

[Guest Stuge]

thanks for your relpy ...

but it makes the decision even more difficult ... xD

Not at all Difficult IMO .I will suggest you to get NWZ-A818 ,as drag and drop is a much better option .At the same its quite hard to find the difference b/w mp3 or Atrac of same bitrate .

[Trondis]

Not at all Difficult IMO .I will suggest you to get NWZ-A818 ,as drag and drop is a much better option .At the same its quite hard to find the difference b/w mp3 or Atrac of same bitrate .

The tradeoff is that the new NWZ-players are not gapless according to reports in this forum. And the superears will probably hear a difference between MP3 and Atrac of the same bitrate. There are listening tests that confirm this.

[MindVision]

I've so had it with Sony and all of their stuff. Can't even get a normal answer from them when calling. My earphones broke, I send them to be fixed and the next thing I get billed for 80 euro's. The same NEW earphones aren't even that expensive and it was in my guarantee-period. It wasn't cable-break or something, the sound just started to be cracky. I only used them on my NW-a808, nothing else.

I'm selling my nw-a808 and my DSC-W100, also my MDR-EX71's, screw Sony.

Edited January 19, 2008 by MindVision

[Fighting Phantom]

Argh, I saw this thread and thought there'd was hope, but then it sounded like my player (NW-a1200) won't get an update, and now it seems like none are getting an update. It's become impossible for me to transfer music to my player ><

FUCK YOU SONY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ascariss]

There was never a hope for an update, if a firmware update was the only thing needed then sony would have not released new players to begin with, instead they would have just offered the firmware update to allow wmp. But it appears that the chipset wasn't able to deal with such a change over, so new players had to be developed. I was never expecting sony to update the older A series since in reality the devices were already behind others on the market. I am also doubting a firmware update will come for the A81x players to solve some issues regarding images and new addons, if they do, it probably won't add new features to the devices. Sony will just released brand new players soon.

[aob9]

I've so had it with Sony and all of their stuff.

Me too......After years of buying Sony DAPS ( bought the NW MS7 at a crazy price years ago) I have decided to ditch them. My latest device is a Creative Zen 8GB and I'm quite pleased with it.They don't charge you for the software to use the device either.

In fact this forum has died a death as well, the last news update was months ago!!!!!

[aob9]

I've so had it with Sony and all of their stuff.

Me too......After years of buying Sony DAPS ( bought the NW MS7 at a crazy price years ago) I have decided to ditch them. My latest device is a Creative Zen 8GB and I'm quite pleased with it.They don't charge you for the software to use the device either.

In fact this forum has died a death as well, the last news update was months ago!!!!!

[aob9]

I've so had it with Sony and all of their stuff.

Me too......After years of buying Sony DAPS ( bought the NW MS7 at a crazy price years ago) I have decided to ditch them. My latest device is a Creative Zen 8GB and I'm quite pleased with it.They don't charge you for the software to use the device either.

In fact this forum has died a death as well, the last news update was months ago!!!!!

[aob9]

I didn't post the last comment 3 times...don't blame me!!!

[markey]

Me too......After years of buying Sony DAPS ( bought the NW MS7 at a crazy price years ago) I have decided to ditch them. My latest device is a Creative Zen 8GB and I'm quite pleased with it.They don't charge you for the software to use the device either.

In fact this forum has died a death as well, the last news update was months ago!!!!!

Do Sony charge for software???

[Guest Stuge]

Do Sony charge for software???

NO

[markey]

Me too......After years of buying Sony DAPS ( bought the NW MS7 at a crazy price years ago) I have decided to ditch them. My latest device is a Creative Zen 8GB and I'm quite pleased with it.They don't charge you for the software to use the device either.

In fact this forum has died a death as well, the last news update was months ago!!!!!

So who does?

[Guest Stuge]

So who does?

Kurisu and Ishiyoshi are the people who update blog Last new post in blog was made in 19 September 2007.Sadly after that blog has not been updated at all .

[aob9]

Do Sony charge for software???

Do you not have to pay to upgrade media manager to do manage the video aspect of the NWZ-A series.

Taken straight from Sony;

http://www.sony-asia.com/support/download/...site=hp_en_AP_i

"Media Manager for Walkman has no video file conversion function.

(Media Manager Pro for Walkman has video file conversion function."

[Guest Stuge]

@Aob9:I use image converter 3 which was provided to me with A808,I don't have NWZ series and Yes ,You will need to pay for Media manager Pro .Sorry for no providing you that info .

Its a sad ,but I have to agree again Sony is lacking a lot in MP3 department .They released NWZ-S7xx series (With Noise canceling) in Japan and no other part of the world and Secondly they relased A919 in Japan ,but they could have released its variant without TV,but they didn't .Looks Like I'm going to be one of the very faithful users who may again considering leaving Sony if they don't come out with something great .

[markey]

Kurisu and Ishiyoshi are the people who update blog Last new post in blog was made in 19 September 2007.Sadly after that blog has not been updated at all .

I was asking who charges a fee for software. I am fully aware of who does what on this site

[Guest Stuge]

I was asking who charges a fee for software. I am fully aware of who does what on this site

Ok ..my bad

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/produc...uct.asp?pid=462

I hope .Now I have given the right info .

[markey]

Ok ..my bad

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/produc...uct.asp?pid=462

I hope .Now I have given the right info .

Thanks Stuge. They shouldn't be charging a fee for this

[aob9]

Thanks Stuge. They shouldn't be charging a fee for this

Absolutley, exactly my point entirely.You shouldn't hae to pay for this...........I hate to say it but does Apple charge for itunes?

[Ascariss]

itunes is a resource hog

I use only free software for my 818, wmp and psp video to encode vids to the player.

[Old skool D]

Absolutley, exactly my point entirely.You shouldn't hae to pay for this...........I hate to say it but does Apple charge for itunes?

No they don't. But they do charge for software upgrades/additions:

http://www.apple.com/uk/ipodtouch/?cid=AOS-EDM-A30000076497