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Review of SONY NW-HD1 20 gig hard disk player

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caledesign

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:cool: I have had about a week to play with the unit and I must say that I am impressed wit the player. Small compact and easy to use. The body is a brushed finish which doesn't show finger prints. I advice getting some type of screen cover for the glass part of the display because it seems though it would scratch easily. I used a clie screen protector that I had and just cut it down to size. Hopefully SONY will release one for the unit with some other accessories.

In the box you will find the charging cradle, usb cable, a power adaptor, Quick user's guide, the CD software and a Connect card which allows you to to get 5 free downloads from the SONY Connect store. This card can be recharged in varying amounts so that you do not have to have your credit card number on file with the connect store. The only thing missing from the package is a remote which doesn't come with the US model.

The unit fully charges in about 3hrs and the batteries last pretty long. I have gotten about 3 1/2 days out of one charge with the back light on. I really played with this unit, constantly playing with the controls and using two differnet compression rates 256 and 132. Battery last longer if you turn off the backlight function on the unit. I played the unit for about 8 hours on and off each day( no scientific test done here).

The units functions are easily managed and easy to control, I picked it up pretty easily after a few minutes without reading the manual. The player allows you to listen in many various ways by artist, genre, album, group & others. While in this mode you can also just play as is progressively or using the shuffle function. You can also just shuffle your entire library

The menu and mode function are loacted on the top of the unit along with the volume control. I must say that the unit is very loud for such a tiny package. I am using the Fontopia® Headphones MDR-EX51LP that i had prior and the sound quality is excellent. I am listening to my tracks in Atrac3 132 and Atrac3 Plus 256, after selecting the albums I wanted from sonicstage 2.1 I transferred about 16 gigs in about 15 minutes. The unit actually only has 18.6 gigs of available space the other 1.4 is dedicated to the unit itself.

Sony Gives you many different sound modes including giving you the option to create three of your own. The beep that you tyipcally find turned on in most Sony audio products is turned on here as well but can be easily turned off. The other function that is nice is the Audio out menu that allows you to operate the volume on an external speakers or stereo system.

The navigation wheel feels good and is easy to operate The whole unit can be operated with one hand. The only downside that I have experienced is the battery switch which is located on the bottom of the unit next to the hold switch. It is hard to get a grip on it to slide it over. The hold button has grips on it making it easy to switch on and off. The other major draw back is the fact that you cannot charge the unit without the cradle or transfer data without it as well. I am going to see If I can tranfer files from a Mac onto the unit in about a week hopefully it will work. SONY only states that the software is not compatible on Macs but makes no mention about data transfers, and since it is usb 2.0 mass storage compatible it should work in theory.

Now all Sony has to do is add some more functions to the SonicStage software itself and the Connect store needs an overhaul. Then this thing can really compete with ipod. I love SONY but they have gotten a late start on Apple and they are going to be playing catch up for a while. Sony needs keep coming out with newer version of this player with more advance functions and larger hard drive space then people will start taking notice, like they did with there Clie line. This player has the potential to be better that an ipod It just needs the software behind it

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Yes, this unit can be used as a mass storage device, but OpenMG encrypted files are transferred to Sony digital music players (Network Walkmen, Hi-MD and ATRAC CDPs) in much the same fashion.

It creates one long file, with the information of titles, groups, etc stored internally, and as such, music can only be placed on these devices with SonicStage.

So Mac users should just buy an iPod. :happy: They'll get a lot more out of it, trust me.

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SONY only states that the software is not compatible on Macs but makes no mention about data transfers, and since it is usb 2.0 mass storage compatible it should work in theory.

my thought on this is, Sony intend to leave Mac Users out. why can't Sony put a lot of effort into their R&D, so their first HDD DAP entry can play other codecs besides ATRAC.

Now all Sony has to do is add some more functions to the SonicStage software itself and the Connect store needs an overhaul. Then this thing can really compete with ipod. I love SONY but they have gotten a late start on Apple and they are going to be playing catch up for a while. Sony needs keep coming out with newer version of this player with more advance functions and larger hard drive space then people will start taking notice, like they did with there Clie line. This player has the potential to be better that an ipod  It just needs the software behind it

Instead of your wishful thinking, my wishful thinking is that Sony should just make their HDD players capable of playing all sort of codecs..ie ogg vorbis, mp3, wav, etc..etc. Not only it can compete Ipod, but it will leave all other HDD DAPs in the dust. The way I see it, this Sony HDD DAP has no potential to be better than Ipod. In fact, it will just be like any other HDD DAP on PC side.

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my thought on this is, Sony intend to leave Mac Users out. why can't Sony put a lot of effort into their R&D, so their first HDD DAP entry can play other codecs besides ATRAC.

Like I've said many times, this is due to the fact that Sony is a publisher of intellectual property, and they can tightly control the usage of ATRAC codec, since it is always secure digital media and can only be encoded/decoded on their own devices and software...

... Sony doesn't want Sony's music being stolen and used on Sony's devices. Or somesuch thing.

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I have the NW-HD1. I don't have any Kanji titled tracks so can't test this for sure. However, the unit has the option to display menus and messages in Japanese, English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. This leads me to believe they do not have a Japan specific model so you may well be able to display Kanji on it.

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