Leland Posted July 31, 2004 Report Share Posted July 31, 2004 Both the MZ-NHF800 and NW-HD1 are shipping now from Sony.com. You can also order them by phone at 1-877-865-SONY. I ordered the NW-HD1 and paid about 10 dollars for 1 day shipping. They said it will ship Monday for delivery Tuesday. I would assume the MZ-NHF800 would be the same. Sweet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doclloyd Posted July 31, 2004 Report Share Posted July 31, 2004 Very cool! I had noticed the NW-HD1 being available on the site for a while, but always had the "pre-order" button on it, saying available 8/6 or something. It's amazing that this product made it out to market (in the US) before some of the Hi-MD models. I wonder if these will end up in any stores for sale.. like Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. I would love to see one up close. (Not that I need something else to listen to music on... ) LeLand, I can't wait to hear about your thoughts and experience with this new device. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sxc Posted August 1, 2004 Report Share Posted August 1, 2004 I tried this when I was in Japan - the only thing really going for it is a fantastic form factor. Very sexy looking device. But the menus etc make it hard to use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leland Posted August 1, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2004 I'm committed to dealing with whatever ease of use issues there are. My main driver was that I wanted a HDD player but didn't want to re-create my database of 6000 songs which are all in the Sony format. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leland Posted August 3, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 3, 2004 I just got the Sony NW-HD1, 20 gig HDD player. It's really cool. Very small and light, good capacity, stylish design, much better look and feel than all other makers except apple, long battery life claim. It also claims to have a sophisticated HDD protection system using accelerometers to detect potential shocks and retract the head. The build quality is excellent. Solid metal feel, mostly metal body, except perhaps the bottom. (not the back, the bottom) The battery is built in, but it can be removed by taking out two screws. I wouldn't do it unless the battery died, but one could easily replace the battery if it failed by ordering one from Sony parts and poping it in. The charging cradle is nice but is required for charging. That is a bit of a downside, but it is very small and light so bringing it along on a trip to charge with is not a problem. The player locks into the cradle with a snap to prevent accidental removal during music transfer. File transfer speed is very fast. Navigation is not perfect, but after reading the manual (yes I did!) it became more obvious and I find it adequate. The Ipod inteface is better, but frankly the difference is not a make or break issue. That being said, the placement of the buttons is great for operating it without looking at the unit. You can easily know where your fingers are and what to do to change tracks, volume ect. without pulling the unit out and looking at it. This is very nice. Sound quality is fine. I never expect miracles from portables and I am used to the ATRAC3 sound and like it, so I have everything in ATRAC3 132 and that's what I want. One thing I like is the selectable Line-out setting for the output. This is better for feeding a stereo system or powered speakers than using a headphone feed. For me, it was an easy decision. I wanted a HDD player so I didn't have to carry so many MD's with me and all my music is in a Sonicstage database. I didn't want to have to rebuild a 6000 song database, so the Sony device was up and running with 14 gigs of music in less than 30 minutes. Plus it has a fine overall feature set. It's a little expensive, but that doesn't bother me. This will probably represent my gradual exit from MD for anthing other than a recorder. I will still make MD's for the player in my car, so again, for me to have SS up and current serves a good purpose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted August 3, 2004 Report Share Posted August 3, 2004 That's a fantastic review, Leland..I'm glad your content with this unit. It's refreshing to actually see a review of a Sony portable music player that isn't completely blowing it out of the water. It's apparent that in your situation this unit is ideal. Grace us with pics? :happy: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doclloyd Posted August 3, 2004 Report Share Posted August 3, 2004 Thanks for the review. Quite interesting to hear you got it already... makes me really want my NH900. I don't have the library you have setup, but the fact that your library transferred so quickly is nice to hear. Was it over USB2? How do you sync the device w/SS? I'm assuming it's just like transferring tracks to MD. Not syncing per se, but choosing what you want to put on there. If I think of more questions, I'll post later. I wish I could justify spending the $$ on it. Any chance you could post any pics? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leland Posted August 3, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 3, 2004 Yup. High speed USB2. You can selectively transfer like with MD or there is also an automatic transfer mode that is like a sync similar to ipod. I started with the auto transfer and then changed. This is all from my laptop. I will have to redo it when I get home to my main computer that has my more complete database on it. The display is a bit weak and the volume level is a bit low, about the same as my N-10. The country of manufacture is Japan. I'll see about pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leland Posted August 3, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 3, 2004 Here is a reference to some pics. http://www.msnusers.com/NWHD1pics/shoebox.msnw?Page=1 Enjoy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jadeclaw Posted August 3, 2004 Report Share Posted August 3, 2004 Looks good I say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leland Posted August 3, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 3, 2004 I should have mentioned: even though the player did not come with a remote control, the remote from my MZ-N10 works with it, providing fairly complete functionality. It would be interesting to try the three line remote from the NH1 with it to see if the scroll wheel on it works. Either way, I don't really care as I rarely use the remote, but from time to time it is handy. Also, the unit comes with a CD with SonicStage 2.1, which is required. It actually converts the .omg files to .oma files which are nearly the same size. I don't know the difference, but it is not a transcoding, more like some change to the file header or something. It can convert them on the fly, but they would be slower to transfer. I converted mine before the player arrived, so I was ready. It took about 40 minutes for a 14 gig database. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doclloyd Posted August 3, 2004 Report Share Posted August 3, 2004 Did this double-up your DB size or did the "conversion" actually get rid of the .omg files and replace them with .oma? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leland Posted August 4, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2004 It gives you the option to delete the old files, but you need to have double the HDD space available before it can do this. Could be a problem for some. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted August 4, 2004 Report Share Posted August 4, 2004 Looks damn good indeed; so good that I'm considering it over other certain HDD units. :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doclloyd Posted August 4, 2004 Report Share Posted August 4, 2004 Maybe after the price comes down (or the next gen version has more features) I'll consider one. What would be cool, though it doesn't really work in the use of a HDD player, is having a SimpleBurner type app that would let you directly copy CD's to your HD1 instead of to the PC first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazeybt1 Posted August 4, 2004 Report Share Posted August 4, 2004 Leland i'm still awaiting your opinion on their claims with the battery life and if possible the G-Sensor Shock Protection Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leland Posted August 5, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 I do not plan to test the gshock on purpose, sorry :happy: I'm not really sure what you would measure to test it. I've not done a real battery test, but I used the player last night for a dinner party on the back patio. I hooked it up to some powered speakers to have music outside. I had it set to shuffle mode for my Jazz genre and played it for about 6 hours straight. All my files are ATRAC3 132kbps. After I was done, there was only one segment down on the battery indicator, so it clearly will outlast an ipod. I think 20+ hours would be no problem, unless you keep turning on the backlight and settings etc. PS Contrary to the reviewer in the WSJ article, it is not that hard to use shuffle mode and the idea of music units is very powerful. It lets you shuffle any subcategory as wide or narrow as it is. I agree that the ipod software is easier to use and sure itunes is better than SS, but that guy must have been an idiot at using gadgets if he couldn't figure it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ppk3000 Posted August 5, 2004 Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 I do not plan to test the gshock on purpose, sorry :happy: I'm not really sure what you would measure to test it.I believe the measurement is the amount of memory buffer (in MegaBytes?) the "shock protection" has to hold pre-fetched temporary data. Obviously the larger the better, but also a higher drain on the battery. How does one test? I have no idea... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazeybt1 Posted August 6, 2004 Report Share Posted August 6, 2004 hmm....you all misunderstood the question.. the unit claims it have both the "G-Sensor Shock" and "G(ravity) Protectiong" i believe the G Sensor stands for that feature where the unit automatically sense it's being droped and remove the magnetic head from the disc so as to reduce damage and as to your method of testing.. i was just suggesting that you could have it play with your head phones on and see for instance if the music actually stops or what ever if you droped it from one hand to the next :smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spare Tire Posted August 6, 2004 Report Share Posted August 6, 2004 Well, the music is probably buffered in memory anyways so... Constantly accessing the HD is pretty bad for it so i'm pretty sure it's all on memory and only on rare occasions would you drop it and coincidentally it was reading from the disc. One would have to be lucky to make use of that G-Sensor shock. You could always time your shot and when you feel the disc is being accessed you drop it off and see if it stops :laugh:. Who has time to lose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazeybt1 Posted August 6, 2004 Report Share Posted August 6, 2004 you know although i was thinking the same thing i still had to beat my curiosity by asking :smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leland Posted August 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2004 So you can understand why I don't want to test this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rumz Posted August 18, 2004 Report Share Posted August 18, 2004 I'm bugged that it takes twice the space... I would have liked it if Hi-MD and the HD1 used the same format so your same sonic stage files could be used interchangably. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryB Posted August 19, 2004 Report Share Posted August 19, 2004 I tried this when I was in Japan - the only thing really going for it is a fantastic form factor. Very sexy looking device. But the menus etc make it hard to use.Not sure what you mean, here. I have this device and besides it being a very elegant, well made player with excellent sound, the menus, IMHO, are exceedingly easy to use. They even slide along from right to left as they do on the iPod. In 10 minutes I was using the player with one hand like a pro. The only quirky thing I've noticed with a menu or setting is the distinction between track shuffle play and unit shuffle play. I think I understand it from the manual but at times it ends up not doing what I expect, particularly the track shuffle play command, not so much the unit shuffle play. It would take a bit more time to discuss fully than I want to do here, but if someone wants to discuss it with me, I'd be happy too and maybe I would learn something :smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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