[highlander1]

Was searching for a new mp3 player as my sony minidisc was well passed its sell by date, but didn't want to go down the road of an i-pod as everyone has one.....well just about everyone.

So I was checking out if sony had anything on the market and to my surprise they have this new mp3 network walkman to compete with the i-pod.

Now i've heard the i-pod is pretty big and only has a playback of about 12hours before charging and this sony boasts a 30 hour playback before charging and even then takes only three hour to charge, is 20GB hard drive (13000 songs worth) and about the size of a credit card.

That was it for me, bought one next day (only about £220 or whatever the exchange rate is £ to $)

Sony Network Walkman NW - HD1 20GB

Check it out a http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_BrowseCatalog-Start?CategoryName=pa_DigitalMusicPlayers_Network&Dept=pa


This product is well worth a look at!!!!!!

 

[DRB]

That isn't a MP3 player. It has to be in Sony's format. Supposedly in the future sony is going to support MP3 but not now.

If you don't want to go IPOD, look into the creative products. I still have my JB3 (with a new harddrive) that I keep in the car.

 

[binary visions]

That isn't a MP3 player. It has to be in Sony's format. Supposedly in the future sony is going to support MP3 but not now.

Nope, sorry:

Plays Back in ATRAC3™ Audio Format, Supports Multiple Internet Audio Formats (MP3, WMA3, WAV)6 The Network Walkman player plays back ATRAC3 and ATRAC3plus™ files and supports the most popular Internet audio formats

They push their own format but support the others.

 

[syadasti]

That isn't a MP3 player. It has to be in Sony's format. Supposedly in the future sony is going to support MP3 but not now.

If you don't want to go IPOD, look into the creative products. I still have my JB3 (with a new harddrive) that I keep in the car.

You can send in your existing model right now and get the firmware changed (I guess its not flash upgradable - dumb!). I have heard the new version still isn't all that (still have to use their crappy software and DRM issues). Hopefully Sony will get it right soon as they definately have the best technology, its just a matter of the music division putting too many restrictions on their electronics (or maybe red chair software will make some software for it that makes it a lot more usable like they do for other players and some other third parties have been doing for the iPod).

Rio, Cowon, iRiver, Creative, Dell, and others all make good mp3 players which easily surpass the Apple offerings in one way or another and all-around are better for various reasons. Apple does have the best marketing for sure.

 

[syadasti]

Nope, sorry:


They push their own format but support the others.

Wrong... The player only plays those other formats by transcoding them in to Atrac unless you get the mp3 upgrade which supports mp3 codec natively...

 

[binary visions]

Wrong... The player only plays those other formats by transcoding them in to Atrac unless you get the mp3 upgrade which supports mp3 codec natively...

That'll teach me to actually read the webpage for once

 

[highlander1]

Thats true that you can only fire your cd's to sony's format and download from sony related sites, but hell I can fill this thing with the amout of cd's I have and thats all i'm looking for to bust the slopes....

 

[syadasti]

Review on NW-HD1:
http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/solution-20040728.html

Review on Japanese NW-HD3 (native mp3 out of the box):
http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1114659&posted=1

Upgrade to native mp3 on sony HDD players:

NW-HD1
http://esupport.sony.com/perl/news-item.pl?mdl_id=1791&news_id=63

VGF-AP1 and VGF-AP1L
http://www.vaio-link.com/vaiopocket/firmware/firmware.asp?l=en

 

[highlander1]

At least they have an upgrade in the making for mp3 format.

 

[Toshi]

At least they have an upgrade in the making for mp3 format.

and at least you didn't buy an ipod. good thinking there, reward sony for putting out an ill-conceived product

 

[Curb Hucker]

word of warning to you: watch your battery life closely. If you like to listen to music loud that thing might die very soon. I've had 4 various Sony Network Walkmen (bought 1, 3 were warranty) all of which developed charging problems within 3 months. The battery would just not hold charge, I would return the units to sony for warranty, they put a new battery in each one, only to have the same problems occur with a new battery. Im very disappointed with sony portable mp3 players. Sure they took care of me on the warranties, but the product still doesnt work.

 

[highlander1]

Thanks for the advice. Will keep a close eye on the battery life.

 

[Spitfired]

the new mRobe 100 and 500 from Olympus look pretty nice. The 100 is just an audio player while the 500 has a camera and touch screen along with the music player.

I have an iPod and I continue to say it's one of the best purchases I've ever made. I use it every single day, quite literally. My battery is starting to loose it, but it's been put through daily use for over a year and a half now, so I guess thats understandable.

 

[-dustin]

i just saw those Zen Micros...they look pretty damn sweet. still $250, though.

 

[JMAC]

That isn't a MP3 player. It has to be in Sony's format. Supposedly in the future sony is going to support MP3 but not now.

If you don't want to go IPOD, look into the creative products. I still have my JB3 (with a new harddrive) that I keep in the car.

Yup creative has good stuff, I have the Zen xtra 40GB....sadly it's on warrenty right now though I don;t know how I'm going to survive school in the next few weeks.