* High Quality Video Playback at 30 frames per second * 2.0" QVGA LCD Screen * Compatible with Secure Windows Media Audio * 33HRS Battery life of Music * 8 HRS Battery life of Video * Video Codec Support: MPEG 4, AVC Baseline * Colors Available: Black, White, Silver, Pink (4 and 8 GB) * Length: 1.7 inches * Height: 3.5 inches * Width: 0.4 inches * Weight: 1.9 oz Sony, the inventor of "Walkman" line who later experimented with "Discman" and had to give up and return to "Walkman". Ever since they branded their personal CD players with Walkman brand, they never went back to trying any other line. Although "Network Player" made a brief appearance for a while, it was again replaced by Walkman. Unfortunately Sony lost the battle of naming the third generation personal music players (first being Cassette, second CD and third Flash/Hard Drive) to Apple. Just like how everyone called every available cassette player "Walkman" now almost everyone who isn't into gadgets call ever single PMP "ipod". How many times did you have to tell them you don't own an ipod, you own a Sony or Microsoft Zune or Sandisk, etc, and finally gave up and accepted iPod? Well, enough with the melancholy, it is time to take a look at what we get with the package here: - 1 Sony Walkman Unit - 1 Software installation CD (Not Required) - 1 Proprietary to Regular USB Cable - 1 Extension Cable - 1 Set of Earbuds with In-Ear foam insulation - 1 Pair of Extra Insulation pads for ear buds - 1 Plastic Stand - Packaging Material - Manual and Additional Printed Material
As soon as you take the walkman out of its package, you feel that it is complete, sturdy and incredibly light. Once I put this in my shirt's pocket, I honestly didn't even know it was there. Once you just slide it into your pocket sideways, it will be nicely tucked there and won't move around. Button placement is also great, it looks like Sony invested some time researching the button placement, other than the hold button. Hold button is in the back of the unit, almost looks like a plastic pad. I would prefer it if it was on the side of the unit, but I don't think you will be accidentally pressing any buttons with this layout. Buttons are almost flush with the unit, with a bit of curvature on the edges, makes it very easy to find, yet difficult to get accidentally pressed. There are total 3 buttons on the screen, plus directional pad around Pause/Play button. You can hold Option button to turn off (and next time all you have to do is hit PLAY), and you can hold back button to go back to Home Layout. Home layout icons are very similar to PSP (Play Station Portable) XMB. Then there are two buttons on the side, volume Up and Down. There is a CD included with the package, which has several applications, those are: - Napster (Circuit City + Napster - Operation Guide in PDF - Windows Media Player 11 - MP3 / ATRAC Conversion Tool There are no other tools or software, not that you need anything else. Unit is incredible simple to operate. You can completely ignore the CD and use your own way of adding movies/videos to it. Just plug in the USB and browse to the desired folder. You can just drop your pictures, movies or songs into individual section and that's all. One great thing about this Walkman is that it allows you to listen to your songs based on Folder Structure. Which is one of the most useful features of this device. Many other devices do not allow that for some reason. This feature completely eliminates the hassle of organizing music into playlists. You still have all other playback options, such as Artist, Album, Genre, Year, and a few other modes in addition to Folder and Play All. The package also comes with a little plastic stand. I am not sure how useful this little plastic is, but they really could do it without it. it is nothing special. You can view your pictures one by one, or by slideshow. One thing I didn't really like was that if you try to view your pictures during playback you will have a "beep" each time you skip to another picture. You can turn off this beep, but it will have to be ALL or NON. Other than this, I really cannot complain about anything else, everything you need is in the unit, some of the nice features include - Instant On (Just hit Play!) - Informative Playback Screen (Has both File Name and ID3 Info and Cover Art) - Various Playback Modes including Playback Range (A-B) - Equilizer with 5 Modes, and 2 Custom Settings - 5 Band + 1 Super Bass Equalizer - VPT Surround - Detailed Information and Clock Display - Intelligent Shuffle Mode and Initial Search by Artist/Album/Song - Time Machine Shuffle (Shuffle by Date of Release) - Sound Enhance and Clear Stereo The picture quality is very nice for this size screen, since it is QVGA. 2" is more than enough for this size player. It is very bright and has great contrast. Overall the unit is a great personal media player. It is light and very easy to use, and has various sound settings, and very crisp sound quality either with included earphones, or with any other set. I would highly recommend getting headset for optimum performance, unless you think they are too bulky. I can't think of any way to sort pros and cons, but if I had to change a few things, it would be following: - Move Hold Button the the side - Move audio hack to the top - Use standard Mini USB - Add expandable storage Last word, I wish it was a bit cheaper. 4,5 out of 5
Previous generations of Sony digital players had gapless playback. This and other players released after the summer 2007 doesn't have this feature. For me this was Sony's strongest selling point, and I am sad they don't support it anymore. So what is gapless? The audiophiles reference album through the times, Pink Floyds "The Dark Side of the Moon" is an example. There are plenty of other albums too where the tracks are segued into each other without gaps. I think that music players should be able to play albums exactly as it was intended to sound. But it is a common problem with most players that they don't. Right now I the only players I know of that support gapless playback is iPods from 5th generation on. Plus, of course, Pocket Player and a few other software based players for pocket PCs.
The most important features of a music player are not the looks and the menus, or the transfer software. Sound quality and gapless playback are the two most important features, and I hope that reviewers mention this in future reviews of music players.
I reviewed the Sony Walkman Video over at Just Another Mobile Monday a few months ago. I did spend quite a bit of time discussing the sound and video.
I admit that I did not test gapless playback. So, I gave it a try, using Dark Side of the Moon, which was your example.
It worked great. Perfectly gapless. :)
Doug
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Gapless playback is available with this unit, as long as you honestly have no gaps on your songs. :) Just like Pink Floyd albums or remix albums. However, you have to be careful, sometimes when you are ripping it adds gaps to the songs, you have to make sure that "REMOVE SILENCE" is selected on whichever CD Ripping Suite you are using.
I also had a chance to test one of those headsets over at Sony Style, it just blew me... Blew my mind off my ears, just incredible sound. The tiny buds don't do justice!.
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You're right, heydipin. Gaploss and lossless playback depend as much on how you rip your music than how it is played.
BTW, that little plastic stand is to allow the Sony player to fit into an optional docking station.
Doug
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Thanks for the info Doug.. I didn't read the manual, it must have been stated there.
I would just assume Optional Docking Station should include that little plastic, not the player itself :) although you can just stick the player there like a desktop clock.
Is anyone interested in 8GB version of the other model with FM radio? I will be receiving mine soon, it was a gift for me (I paid half of the price, though) so if anyone wants to buy one, brand new, 8GB, with Sony Warranty 1 YR. I can probably let it go for $130 or something like that. We paid $180.
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I agree, Heydipin. I have seen a number of these players include the connector for the dock. It seems like it would be much more cost effective to include it with the dock since many more people are likely to buy the player than the dock, so most will never need that connector piece.
Doug
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cactus, try using AUDIOGRABBER software with lame encoder.
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