[Embio]

im hearing $20 for the upgrade to the HD1 and 2.

surely it would be available as a 3rd party hack? (legal or otherwise)

 

[stymie miasma]

I'd love to see external battery support on the NW-HDx series, a la the NH900 HiMD recorder. Otherwise, it looks like Sony are slowly (painfully) heading in the right direction. Streamlining SonicStage would be nice as well

 

[JeffS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Embio im hearing $20 for the upgrade to the HD1 and 2. surely it would be available as a 3rd party hack? (legal or otherwise)

There was some question as to whether or not they would need to change out one of the chips on the board for the decoding. It may be more than just flashable firmware. Makes sense considering that it requires going to an authorized service center. I think even Sony would allow a usb based firmware upgrade if it were available. Well, I hope they would at least.

Either way, I think this might replace my MD for portable listening....

-Jeff

 

[Morphling]

embio, Sony is actually changing the chip in the sony HD-1's so there's no way to hack mp3 into it :/

 

[nismo96]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morphling embio, Sony is actually changing the chip in the sony HD-1's so there's no way to hack mp3 into it :/

Morphling, have you seen a confirmed account of this fact? I ask because Sony once offered an upgrade like this for a Clie PDA, it turned out that it was in fact only an firmware upgrade. Sony had people mail in their PDAs for something that most people could've done via USB. It could be the same here.

 

[Morphling]

http://www.dapreview.net/comment.php?comment.news.721
I realized that it's just what he thinks but I pretty much agree with what austin said in the news post. If it was firmware upgradeable they would just make it available. :/

 

[adi123]

can anyone tell me if on-the-go playlist creation is as crappy on the nwdh3 as it is on the nwdh1? the bookmark feature on the latter sounds like a terribly unintuitive way to make playlists.

 

[bangraman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morphling http://www.dapreview.net/comment.php?comment.news.721 I realized that it's just what he thinks but I pretty much agree with what austin said in the news post. If it was firmware upgradeable they would just make it available. :/

No they wouldn't as the Network Walkmen (at least to date) were not firmware upgradable. The first to break this mould were the new flash memory Walkmen. The HD3 may be firmware upgradable but I am not sure.

 

[mavis]

Actually, the HD1/2 will be upgradable via firmware - no mechanical alteration of the unit will be required. "Sony's earlier NW-HD players will gain native MP3 support too, but in Japan at least, it will be made available on a ¥2000 (£10.30/$19.50) CD, available until 31 May 2005."

(source: The Register)

 

[Filipe]

I don't get it..
So what's the point of Sony bringging out the HD3, if you can just upgrade the HD1, that also comes with a craddle.
Unless the HD3 is cheaper. Is it?
Does anyone know the UK price?

 

[bangraman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mavis Actually, the HD1/2 will be upgradable via firmware - no mechanical alteration of the unit will be required. "Sony's earlier NW-HD players will gain native MP3 support too, but in Japan at least, it will be made available on a ¥2000 (£10.30/$19.50) CD, available until 31 May 2005." (source: The Register)

True, but until now Network Walkmen did not support user-triggered firmware upgrades, which is the true meaning as far as 'firmware upgrades' are concerned.

 

[myself, aka me]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Filipe I don't get it.. So what's the point of Sony bringging out the HD3, if you can just upgrade the HD1, that also comes with a cradle. Unless the HD3 is cheaper. Is it? Does anyone know the UK price?

HD3 is cheaper yes. This is because it doesn't come with the accessories. (remote, cradle). It does have a remote port so you can get the remote as well as an added accessory I guess, although those remotes tend to break early.

 

[Naybor]

Reading this thread, as a HD1 user, here are a few thoughts:

The "wrapper" for the MP3 files is most likely transparent to the user. As SS now remembers the location of MP3 files, I think you will be able to Drag and drop MP3 files to a SS 2.3 album. From there, you can most likely transfer to the HD3 and when doing select MP3 rather than an ATRAC conversion rate as you do now. I think the wrapper will go on when the file transfers. Since the overhead to add the wrapper would be tiny, it would add imperceptable time to the transfer. I think the MP3 file would not be duplicated, but kept as is in it's existing location, unless you convert it to ATRAC. This is speculation of course, but would fit the existing logic of SS.

The addition of USB charging is very nice for the HD3 and shoud be a serious consideration to buyers thinking about HD3 vs. HD1/2 choices. This part is not going to be upgradeable. It might also explain what appears to be a slight weight increase for the HD3, which is being quoted as 130g vs. 110g for the HD1. The deletion of the cradle is too bad. It is handy for charging. But perhaps with USB charging, just plug it in at night, your done.

Using groups rather than playlists is not great. On the other hand, you can sort the groups on the HD1-3 manually in SS and they will appear in that order in the Group mode in the player. This is nice to make your most favorite groups appear at the top or bottom of the list. Also, the shuffle function is more flexible than the ipod, but you have to understand the "play unit" idea they have to use it properly. Once you do, it provides great flexibility.

Overall, the navigation on the Ipod is so much faster that it wins hands down in that aspect.

SS is not as good as itunes, slower, less elegant, but some opinions of SS are impacted by whether the user has had bad luck with it. In Aeriyn's case, where it crashes all the time, of course you'll hate it. There is no excuse for the software to be that buggy. I had this problem with the pre 2.x releases, but it has proven perfectly stable for me in the post 2.x stage, so I can live with it. It does some nice things also. You can tag a file with a document or text so sometimes I tag songs in SS with the guitar chords and tab to help when I play along. Nice to have it all in one place. Overall, I find SS workable and I have a 20+ GB database.

The MSRP in Tokyo will most likely be discounted 10-15 percent, if not on day one, perhaps within a week or so. BIC is showing it on their website with a 10% point credit right now for release on Dec. 10. Sometimes the credit in the shop is more and can change for special offers on weekends sometimes.

 

[mavis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Filipe I don't get it.. So what's the point of Sony bringging out the HD3, if you can just upgrade the HD1, that also comes with a craddle. Unless the HD3 is cheaper. Is it? Does anyone know the UK price?

I guess there have been internal changes as well, the HD3 is capable of charging via USB whereas the HD1/2 are not ... As for other changes, I wonder if Sony changed the decoder with the HD3 to make it more efficient ... ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by bangraman True, but until now Network Walkmen did not support user-triggered firmware upgrades, which is the true meaning as far as 'firmware upgrades' are concerned.

So then, it's a start! Maybe this signals a shift in Sony's policies going forward: first, adding MP3 support FINALLY!!! and second, allowing users to perform firmware upgrades at home ... I'm certainly not complaining!

 

[mirage]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mavis I noticed on Sony's press release that the MSRP is Y42,000 - it shouldn't be too hard to find them for this price at most major electronics shops, maybe less (slightly) at a few shops in Akiharbara ... Whatever. If the Laox by my house (or the Bic Camera) has it for Y42,000 on the 10th, I'll be buying it at about 4:30PM ...

do the jap sets have english support or are the menu and everything else all in jap?