Sony 2GB Walkman MP3 Player $80 +FS at CircuitCity.com

[niji1875]

Sony 2GB Walkman MP3 Player (Black) for $80 with free shipping.
Link

 

[onelove]

according to user reviews on CC, this uses proprietary software to transfer (and apparently re-encode) your mp3 files to the player. just a heads up. would love to replace my old mp3 brick, but guess this one aint it.

There are three BUTS:

1. It converts your music to ATRAC files (when I'm so used to seeing the '.mp3' files.

2. It takes a while to figure-out how to create and edit playlists and transfer to the player.

3. My software 'SonicStage', often encounters an error (crashes) and the application has to close-down the music is not visible on the player listing however, the memory keeps getting smaller.

 

[KDKPSJ]

All the Sony players do that when it transfer files. SonicStage converts any files into ATRAC3 and transfer them to the player. But ATRAC3 is known to have better quality at similar bit rate, it shouldn't be problematic much.

 

[imported_cheapdude]

Originally posted by: everydae
All the Sony players do that when it transfer files. SonicStage converts any files into ATRAC3 and transfer them to the player. But ATRAC3 is known to have better quality at similar bit rate, it shouldn't be problematic much.

If you are converting a mp3 to atrac3, how would it yield better quality???

 

[slpaulson]

Originally posted by: everydae
All the Sony players do that when it transfer files. SonicStage converts any files into ATRAC3 and transfer them to the player. But ATRAC3 is known to have better quality at similar bit rate, it shouldn't be problematic much.

Converting to ATRAC3 direct from the cd wouldn't be bad, but converting from an already lossy mp3 is only going to hurt quality.

After using a Sony MiniDisc and their SonicStage software, I wouldn't touch a Sony mp3 player with a 10 foot pole....

 

[onelove]

Originally posted by: cRazYdood

Originally posted by: everydae
All the Sony players do that when it transfer files. SonicStage converts any files into ATRAC3 and transfer them to the player. But ATRAC3 is known to have better quality at similar bit rate, it shouldn't be problematic much.

Converting to ATRAC3 direct from the cd wouldn't be bad, but converting from an already lossy mp3 is only going to hurt quality.

After using a Sony MiniDisc and their SonicStage software, I wouldn't touch a Sony mp3 player with a 10 foot pole....

yeah, I just say no to proprietary formats (and further processing a perfectly usable mp3 file for no good reason).

Also, there is really no reason that benefits me as a consumer to have to use proprietary software to move files to a USB device.

I'm sure Sony really cares that I'm not buying their little gizmo because of these things - haha.

 

[onelove]

umm, sorry OP, my comments sorta resulted in a threadcrap. how about this: great deal if you like proprietary drivers and formats for listening to your music files.

However, in defense of the threadcrap, remember this is Sony, the folks that brought you XCP and MediaMax rootkit spyware.
http://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/Sony-BMG/

 

[ScottAnthony25]

i picked up on of these a few weeks ago

AMAZING battery life compaired ot he time i takes to charge
and its size is great and very light,

but the sofware drove me nuts and ended up returning it

 

[OCedHrt]

All of that is incorrect. I will address them point by point.

1. ATRAC and OMG are different. OMG is merely a container. MP3's are stored in the OMG containers as MP3. You do not have to convert your files to ATRAC unless your player doesn't support MP3 (older models). Thus, this is now an invalid argument.

2. I don't know what version of SonicStage he was using, but it's quite easy.
[Screenshot] - Click, click, drag and drop.

3. Just by looking at #3, you can tell the reviewer is an idiot. It is true however that older versions of SonicStage 2.x and earlier are POS. The current iteration 4.x is finally a mature product. The only complaint I have with it is the lack of unicode support in the UI (the players support unicode).

Originally posted by: onelove
according to user reviews on CC, this uses proprietary software to transfer (and apparently re-encode) your mp3 files to the player. just a heads up. would love to replace my old mp3 brick, but guess this one aint it.

There are three BUTS:

1. It converts your music to ATRAC files (when I'm so used to seeing the '.mp3' files.

2. It takes a while to figure-out how to create and edit playlists and transfer to the player.

3. My software 'SonicStage', often encounters an error (crashes) and the application has to close-down the music is not visible on the player listing however, the memory keeps getting smaller.

 

[onelove]

yah, looks like a slick little player, OCedHrt, if it wasn't sony & didn't require me to install something superfluous, I'd be in for one.

 

[OCedHrt]

Just as a heads up, there are a few open source java apps that can for the most part replace the SonicStage program. I haven't tried them though.

While Sony doesn't have much of a good reputation left, no where else do you get this kind of battery life. An older line (NW-E4xx, NW-E5xx) will get you 50 hours battery for about the same price if you can find them. These do not require SonicStage at all, as there is a basic file transfer program that was made available by Sony.

 

[brucekatz]

I am confused. Beginning of this year I called Sony, tech support told me this one can drag-n-drop, Sonic Stage is not required. Sony's tech support goofed? Or, reviews at CircuitCity were wrong?
By the way, Sonic Stage 4 isn't bad, I've been using it for a few months, it retrieves info of Japanese CD like no others, somehow, EAC can't retrieve info for quite a few Japanese CD. I think Sonic Stage uses lame 3.94.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: onelove
However, in defense of the threadcrap, remember this is Sony, the folks that brought you XCP and MediaMax rootkit spyware.
http://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/Sony-BMG/

SonyBMG gave you the rootkit, Sony owned 50% of that company, a German company owned the other half. To be fair, they should share blame with Bertelsmann.