"Hot News" - Sony A800 Series To Be Replaced

Are you sure, its not just the US Version of the A800?
 
Amazing! I only just bought this player a week ago and already they are going to faze it out and start a new player up!

Going by what has been said, they are going to drop ATRAC completly as of next year, and support WMA (DRM & Non-DRM) MP3 and also mentioned was Lossless MP3.

In terms of transferring songs, the main bugbear SonicStage will cease to exist, moving to a PSP-type "Media Manager" which im sure is a much needed requirement in line with the Sony brand, which will make this a hot little device without complaints about software any longer!

All we need now is for them to say that this new player will have an increased storage space past the 8GB barrier and everyone will be happy!
 
what i want now is a large capacity player that i can just plug into my ps3 and copy the music onto it... seems like the direction sony are going in... just give me larger capacity and i'll be happy!
 
I've just got this email - looks like its over for Connect and Atrac

CONNECT Music Service to Phase Out
To Our Valued Sony CONNECT Customers,

Today Sony announced its intent to move to a Windows Media Technology platform for Walkman® products in the United States, Canada and Europe. We strongly believe that the decision to embrace a more open platform will enable us to provide you with a better music enjoyment experience. As a result of this change, we will be phasing out the CONNECT™ Music Service, based on Sony's
ATRAC audio format, in North America and Europe. Specific timing will vary by region depending on market demand, but will not be before March 2008.

All of Sony’s new Walkman music and video devices will be supported by a very wide range of third party services around Europe.

We are fully committed to helping you through this important transition away from a proprietary music service. In the coming weeks and months, we will keep you closely informed of the status of the CONNECT Music Service phase out in your country, and provide you with the best possible guidance on how to successfully transfer your music library to an MP3 or Windows Media-compatible format. Periodic updates will also be posted on the CONNECT music store and on the Sony Europe customer service site, http://support.sony-europe.com

We recommend that you use any outstanding promotional vouchers or account credits prior to March 2008.

Thank you for all your purchases and feedback so far, and for your continued support as we work to complete this transition with as little disruption to you as possible.

Yours sincerely,

Sony CONNECT Europe Team
 
Good news imo, this is something they should have done a long time ago. It is a shame as the codec itself was actually quite good, but the Sony forced you to use it through Connect was a bit of a shot in the foot imo.
 
To say that my blood is boiling would be an understatement!

I just came across this story today;
http://www.trustedreviews.com/multi...y-Dumps-ATRAC-Connect-Intros-Free-Walkmans/p1

So I headed over to the Sony site (http://www.sony.co.uk/view/ShowArticle.action?article=1187079490398&site=odw_en_GB) to check it out, sure enough, two new series of players with the NWZ-A815, A816 & A818 looking identical to my recently purchased NW-A808 (2 of them!).

The only difference? Yup, open format, sonicstage no longer required, just drag and drop. PS3 compatibilty for the future to. Now this is the right way to go, sonicstage is appaling, I love my two players and can just about tolerate that software.

Now my players are 3 weeks old, bought from the local sony centre where there was no mention of a new open format varient in the future so were does that leave me and the many others that bought this player. As far as I can tell the units (new and old) look identical. I am praying that a firmware upgrade is all that will be required to bring my NW-A808's in line with the newer guys but aint holding out much hope.

I've sent a letter to sony uk asking for an explanation, i.e you expect equipment to be superseded but not after only 4 months in circulation. If you are a UK owner then I would suggest you do the same. Address is:

Customer Information Centre
Sony United Kingdom Limited
Jays Close
Viables
Basingstoke
RG22 4SB

Come on Sony, do the right thing!
 
When my trusty NW-HD3 broke (it was dropped by me!) 6 weeks ago I was gutted. I also faced a real dilemma. The largest MP3 player sony did was only 8 gigs, but I wanted gapless playback which I thought only atrac could do.
I visited the Sony shop in Cardiff and nearly bought the A800 but I really needed something bigger. I bit the bullet and went to the Apple shop in one of the arcades.
After finding out that the 5th gen of Ipods give true gapless playback on aac and mp3 I bought one.
Close call I suppose. I has to be said that the sound quality of the ipod is not quite as good as my NW HD3, but with my pair of Sony EX81 headphones it's close.
Itunes is great, I have never purchased so much legal downloadable music before.
We have all been perhaps too set in our ways singing the virtues of Sony players/formats whilst poking fun at ipod owners.

We have all been led down the propriatry garden path!!!
 
Thanks for posting this thread, you've saved me a few quid! I was going to buy the 808 plus free speakers from John Lewis (out of stock until last night when 1 appeared). I have an iRiver H340 and a 80Gb video ipod (for car and bedroom). I've actually been quite impressed with the ipod but I can't stand itunes, give me drag and drop any day. The sound quality on the ipod is nowhere near as good as my iRiver so I will continue to use both. It's such a shame that iRiver and Sony can't come up with decent capacity machines to rival the ipod. The only real reason I bought my ipod is the increased capacity and the availability of accessories and functionality in the car. I have a JBL on time alarm clock dock which is fantastic and my headunit/remote allows me full control of the ipod tucked away in the glove box. Sony seem to be moving in the right direction but GIVE us more GB's!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I am a bit surprised to hear that the A800 series is being replaced so quickly.

Drag and drop will be of particular use to me, as my 808 was bought as a second player to my iPod 80GB. I prefer the sound so much that the iPod has been relegated to the car and the 808 is my main player, but this means I have to use SonicStage everyday:rolleyes:

I got the free speaker system with mine in the end, and that sounds fantastic (even if the wifi streaming does not work properly).

I think I will ebay my nearly new 808, and get the new 818. I do not like the way Sony treats their customers, but while their players sound (imo) better than anything else out there, I will continue to grudgingly give them more money.:suicide:
 
To say that my blood is boiling would be an understatement!

I just came across this story today;
http://www.trustedreviews.com/multi...y-Dumps-ATRAC-Connect-Intros-Free-Walkmans/p1

So I headed over to the Sony site (http://www.sony.co.uk/view/ShowArticle.action?article=1187079490398&site=odw_en_GB) to check it out, sure enough, two new series of players with the NWZ-A815, A816 & A818 looking identical to my recently purchased NW-A808 (2 of them!).

The only difference? Yup, open format, sonicstage no longer required, just drag and drop. PS3 compatibilty for the future to. Now this is the right way to go, sonicstage is appaling, I love my two players and can just about tolerate that software.

Now my players are 3 weeks old, bought from the local sony centre where there was no mention of a new open format varient in the future so were does that leave me and the many others that bought this player. As far as I can tell the units (new and old) look identical. I am praying that a firmware upgrade is all that will be required to bring my NW-A808's in line with the newer guys but aint holding out much hope.

I've sent a letter to sony uk asking for an explanation, i.e you expect equipment to be superseded but not after only 4 months in circulation. If you are a UK owner then I would suggest you do the same. Address is:

Customer Information Centre
Sony United Kingdom Limited
Jays Close
Viables
Basingstoke
RG22 4SB

Come on Sony, do the right thing!

Being an owner of a 10 day old NWA-808, I am particularly unimpressed with this move, surely this NWZ-818 has nothing other than a firmware update applied to lose the DRM. I'm guessing that Sony wont bother providing an update for the older model...this is completely unacceptable.
 
Hmmmm 2 day old owner of 808 and reallly unimpressed with this move, I guess Watchdog anyone?.

This behavious is ridiculous, I'm having a complete nightmare with Sonicstage and only managed to get 1 song on and that was a complete fluke.
 
Being an owner of a 10 day old NWA-808, I am particularly unimpressed with this move, surely this NWZ-818 has nothing other than a firmware update applied to lose the DRM. I'm guessing that Sony wont bother providing an update for the older model...this is completely unacceptable.

I agree. It is exactly the same hardware (if you look at the 360 view of the new machine, it has the model number NW-A808 on the back!)

I am currently importing my files (album by album) into SonicStage. It would be nice to know if they will update the firmware so I don't have to do this.

I am still considering changing for the 818, but don't really see why I should have to.

To everyone who has only had the A800 series machine for a few days, I would suggest you return it and wait for the 810. I am only keeping mine as I got the excellent free speakers from John Lewis, so would have to return these as well if I return my 808.:thumbsdow
 
As much as its a real pain in the back side, that just the risk you take with any product. They have to bring a new product out at some stage, it's just simple bad luck which you can't blame Sony for.

I think it's a dodgy time anyway right now to buy a portable MP3 player, what with the new iPod due this month and the other companies are bound to have new products on the horizon too.
 
As much as its a real pain in the back side, that just the risk you take with any product. They have to bring a new product out at some stage, it's just simple bad luck which you can't blame Sony for.

I think it's a dodgy time anyway right now to buy a portable MP3 player, what with the new iPod due this month and the other companies are bound to have new products on the horizon too.
I couldn't disagree more!
As I've stated, the product refresh on the NWZ-818 appears to be little more than a firmware update. If indeed my fears prove to be true (and it's highly likely given Sony's history here) why couldn't they just have provided the firmware update to existing users?
By their actions they will be effectively forcing users to upgrade and buy the new model.
 
I couldn't disagree more!
As I've stated, the product refresh on the NWZ-818 appears to be little more than a firmware update. If indeed my fears prove to be true (and it's highly likely given Sony's history here) why couldn't they just have provided the firmware update to existing users?
who's saying they wont?
 
who's saying they wont?
If I'm wrong about this I'll be the first to hold my hands up...didn't they do something similar to HD5 owners (of which I was one of them) with the lack of support on the ill fated Connect software when they moved to the A3000 series...the balance of probability based on their past behaviour says they wont.
 
I can't see them doing it. Why would they release a 'new' model if they were not just trying to get the current users to upgrade.
 
Sony are :censored: End of.

I have a Sony VAIO laptop which became faulty afer the end of the warranty, they wanted £290 to fix it. The local computer shop fixed it for £80.

Also the stupid drive never ever works despite being replaced 4 times.

Now I buy a 808 and they're releasing a new model with the features I want.

GRRRRR
 
As the owner of 2 808's I'm a little surprised that the 818 is coming so soon!! But .................. a very interesting fact seems to have been discovered over on the Atrac forum.............................that the 800 series uses Linux!! And the link http://www.sony.net/Products/Linux/Download/category7.html#5 gives the source code!?

Maybe someone somewhere might be able to come up with "unofficial" firmware or upgrades????
 
As the owner of 2 808's I'm a little surprised that the 818 is coming so soon!! But .................. a very interesting fact seems to have been discovered over on the Atrac forum.............................that the 800 series uses Linux!! And the link http://www.sony.net/Products/Linux/Download/category7.html#5 gives the source code!?

Maybe someone somewhere might be able to come up with "unofficial" firmware or upgrades????

Hmmmm thats interesting however, given that information why hasn't anyone come up with an alternative solution for Sonicstage?.
 
I know I might be alone here but I find Sonicstage fine. It's straightforward, simple and works.

What issues does everyone else have?
 

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