[leon]

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/do...1130/sony1.htm

Japanese release December 10.

The HD3 supports MP3 playback. However, VPT acoustic engine & the 6-band EQ will not function during MP3 playback. Instead, you will get an 8-step bass/treble control ("digital sound preset"), like on the R900-era MD portables.

No remote is bundled - you'll have to buy your own 35ELK or 40ELK or something else. The HD3 can be charged via USB. It takes 3 hours to hit 80% and 5 to fully charge. Battery life for MP3 playback is 22 hours @ 128kbps. The atrac3/+ battery life remains unchanged.

In Japan, Sony has announced they'll update the HD1 and HD2 until end of May 2005. For a 2000 yen fee, They will basically bring them up to par with the HD3's features: add MP3 playback, the bass/treble adjustments for MP3, and SonicStage 2.3. On top of these, HD1 units will receive changes to volume levels when EQ is used (presumably to minimize distortion), and changes to the shuffle mode.
Edit - USB charging will not be added

 

[aeriyn]

It's kinda sexy, in a mechanical robotic sort of way. =P

Unfortunately it's probably going to be utter crap since you're forced to use UselessStage with it instead of a real music management suite like iTunes.

 

[eddycha]

lol yes sony is gona make u use its biggest competitor in the markets, software to transfer music. That would be clever

hehe

 

[MartinJ]

And I just ordered the iPod Photo, oh well.

 

[mavis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MartinJ And I just ordered the iPod Photo, oh well.

Yeah, I just bought a 4G 20GB iPod too ... But, if I had known that Sony would be supporting MP3's this soon, I would've held out a couple of weeks longer - I live in Tokyo, so I could pick one of these things up the day they are released ...

What a bummer ... I'll be looking forward to seeing SQ charts, but right off the bat I can say that I'd probably be happier with Sony's low-end than I am with Apple's - I mean, hands down ...

 

[bangraman]

"MP3 Support" is not a drag & drop or even iTunes-style 'assisted transfer'. The MP3 file needs to be encrypted first by a Sony-supplied tool before they can be loaded onto the HD3.

 

[breez]

What kind of update is it for the HD1 and HD2? I hope they aren't asking money for a simple firmware update

 

[scottder]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bangraman "MP3 Support" is not a drag & drop or even iTunes-style 'assisted transfer'. The MP3 file needs to be encrypted first by a Sony-supplied tool before they can be loaded onto the HD3.

Sony: "Is that my foot?" *whips out shotgun* BLAMMMMMMM!!!

It amazes me that they succeed despite themselves....

 

[Latexxx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bangraman "MP3 Support" is not a drag & drop or even iTunes-style 'assisted transfer'. The MP3 file needs to be encrypted first by a Sony-supplied tool before they can be loaded onto the HD3.

If Sonic Stage does it, I would compare it to iTunes even if the files are encrypted because it is transparent to the user. Who cares what happens behind the scenes.

 

[bangraman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Latexxx If Sonic Stage does it, I would compare it to iTunes even if the files are encrypted because it is transparent to the user. Who cares what happens behind the scenes.

You still need two libraries if you want to keep your 'unsullied' MP3's. I've been giving Sonicstage a go with beyond the 9Gb or so of sample music that I was using with the test library for the Hi-MD/HD1 and have been recently using it with an 80Gb MP3 library to start with. I can say that the bigger your library gets, the more Sonicstage starts to suck very, very badly. With iTunes, it's the other way around. I know improvements are in the pipeline but they really have their work cut out for them.

 

[blessingx]

Here's an article with pricing in Europe-
http://reuters.com/financeQuoteCompa...4647462_newsml

Little research for this line though...
"... and can contain 10,000 to 13,000 songs, at least twice as many as an iPod because of Atrac's better compression technology"

 

[John Reeves]

Hi,

I understand from a japanese to english translation that the encoding rate for MP3's is limited to 128kbs. If this is the case then it's a no go for me at least.

Cheers

John

 

[Latexxx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bangraman You still need two libraries if you want to keep your 'unsullied' MP3's. I've been giving Sonicstage a go with beyond the 9Gb or so of sample music that I was using with the test library for the Hi-MD/HD1 and have been recently using it with an 80Gb MP3 library to start with. I can say that the bigger your library gets, the more Sonicstage starts to suck very, very badly. With iTunes, it's the other way around. I know improvements are in the pipeline but they really have their work cut out for them.

Does it really say that you need to keep your mp3s encrypted on the hd instead of encrypting on-the-fly when transferring.

 

[Latexxx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Reeves I understand from a japanese to english translation that the encoding rate for MP3's is limited to 128kbs. If this is the case then it's a no go for me at least.

From Babelfish: "MP3 playback correspondence (32 - 320kbps)".

 

[bangraman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Latexxx Does it really say that you need to keep your mp3s encrypted on the hd instead of encrypting on-the-fly when transferring.

I hear different things from different people at this stage. I can't comment definitely until I get an HD3 or hear something concrete from Sony.