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Portable AV: MP3 support and USB charging for new Sony 20GB HDD Walkman
Posted on Nov 29, 2004 - 11:13 PM by sar7501
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Sony
Topic: Sony
Category: Portable AV
Technorati: Linking Blogs

Well, it looks like hell has finally frozen over - Sony has released a new 20GB HDD Network Walkman with support for MP3 playback, the NW-HD3. The new model will be available in four colours (silver, black, blue, red) and also adds support for USB charging. Existing owners of Sony's NW-HD1 and NW-HD2 will be able to upgrade their players to support MP3 for 2000 yen.





Sony will begin sales of the "NW-HD3" 20GB Network Walkman with support for MP3 playback from 10 December. It will have no set retail price but the expected street price is approximately 42,000 yen.

The new model is a successor to the NW-HD1 (July) and the NW-HD2 (October) and has improved functionality with the addition of support for MP3 file playback and USB charging. Four body colours will be available - silver, black, blue and red. Silver models come with a white LCD screen with the remaining body colours matched with blue LCDs.

The main feature of the new Walkman is the addition of MP3 file transfer and playback functionality. The NW-HD1 and -HD2 models only supported the ATRAC3/ATRAC3plus formats and MP3 files had to be converted to these formats using the included SonicStage software before being transferred to the player. In the case of the NW-HD3, MP3 files do not need to be converted with SonicStage and can be transferred directly to the Walkman for playback. The MP3 files will be transferred to the player as "OpenMG Audio" format MP3 files and, therefore, playback on other devices will not be possible.

Supported bitrates are 48/64/256kbps for ATRAC3plus, 66/105/132kbps for ATRAC3 and 32-320kbps for MP3. The player is equipped with a 6-band equaliser and high-quality sound circuitry such as Sony's VPT Acoustic Engine but these functions cannot be used during MP3 playback. However, bass and treble adjustments can be made using the "Digital Sound Preset" function (8 levels).

In conjuction with the addition of MP3 support, the included SonicStage software has been updated to version 2.3. New features include unlimited transfers for music ripped from CDs and, in addition to ATRAC3 CD, the ability to produce CDDA-format music CDs.

Inspired by:
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20041130/sony1.htm

News release:
http://www.sony.jp/CorporateCruise/Press/200411/11-1130/

Product information:
http://www.walkman.sony.co.jp/hdd_nwwm/

Also in Portable AV:

Also in Sony:



Comments (must be registered to post)
Anonymous
29.11.04, 23:49 		Trying to read the japanese page, do you have to send your HD1 back to Sony to get upgraded? bah...
zmcnulty
29.11.04, 23:50 		Just to clarify, the new player's specifications do not list USB Mass Storage as being supported. This means that although you can now transfer MP3 files directly to the device, you'll still need to use o­ne of the included software products -- either SonicStage or "MP3 File Manager."
zmcnulty
29.11.04, 23:52 		To answer the above, yes, that appears to be the case. Fiddlesticks.
Anonymous
26.12.04, 03:22 		The software for this player is full of bugs, you cant search for tracks once they are on the player - you are limited by Artist, Genre and Album - so you have to scroll through all of them to find the songs you want. This is a poor player, over priced and incompatable with anything other than Sony software
Anonymous
11.02.05, 22:49 		I am contemplating buying the NW-HD3 in Japan or in the US. I listen to a lot of J-Pop and I am concerned if I buy one in the US, the tune information will not be displayed property (known in Japanese as mojibake). Would anyone happen to know if Japanese characters will be displayed properly with the US version? I'd like to get the US version as it is a bit cheaper in the US. No shipping concerns from Japan as I will be traveling there in the spring.