NW-HD1 upgrade?

Sure does.
U still have to use Sonic Stage for file transfer, but will be much quicker without the need for conversion to ATRAC3.
 
Buy one and get it upgraded! Fantasatic device.
Keep an eye on the Argos site for when they get more stock. I got mine for £149.95 and paid Sony £15 for the upgrade (They provide a Freepost address for returning the device for the firmware upgrade).
 
Yeah argos would of been good however i rang up customer services and they arnt getting anymore stock in because the models been discontinued!

:mad:

Has anyone found anywhere which does it for a similar price? The best i can find is £189.99!
 
Rs £179
 
How long does converting from MP3 or WMA to ATRAC3 take anyway? Per GB of data say? I have about 10GB (mostly WMA, some fixed and some VBR) I'd want to put on it. Will new HD1s start coming with this MP3 upgrade anyway, or are they phasing out the HD1 in favour of the HD3?

:)
 
Its my understanding that theyve discontinued making the HD1, however you can send your HD1 to sony to be upgraded for £15
 
Hi all,

Can someone tell me where to get the Sony contact for the upgrade in UK?

Robert
 
farnleygate said:
www.sony.co.uk has got the tel number in the support section

Freepost to send, with cheque - takes around 10-14 days from posting (well mine did)


And is there a therapy line to help me while I wait?

Robert
;)
 
I was, up until recently, going to get my HD1 upgraded for sure! However ive just heard some bad things about the upgrade and was wandering whether it was worth it at all. I havnt started to transfer my music onto the player as i have only just aquired it. But most of my music is mp3 format so it will be quite a long process without the upgrade!
Can anyone who's has had the upgrade done advise me on the advantages and the disadvantages, if any, of the upgrade?
Cheers guys!
 
A couple of weeks ago I visited Sony’s service centre in Dublin and within 20 minutes I had my upgraded HD1 and SonicStage v2.3 on CD all for €20.00 (thanks to the lads there!).
The problems started when I got home. The upgrade of SonicStage went smoothly enough, but when I tried to transfer my atrac files to the HD1 it reported that it couldn’t find the files, even though it would play the file if I double clicked on it!
Strange!
Let me explain something first – I would copy a load of mp3s to my hard drive from CD, encode them to atrac3+ and delete the original mp3s leaving the atrac files on my hard drive. This worked beautifully until the upgrade. I deduced that SonicStage was looking for the original mp3s to transfer to the HD1 instead of the atrac files.
The obvious thing to do was remove everything from the SonicStage library and import just the atrac files. The files I had converted to atrac from original CDs were imported correctly – Artist, Album etc., but the files I had converted from mp3 were all tossed into an “Imported files” album. All 2500 songs!
It makes it a bit difficult to find what I’m looking for but once the tracks are transferred to the unit they’re divided up by artist/album as you would expect.
Another problem I’ve noted, and this is the more serious one, is a definite hiss from my MDR-EX71s which wasn’t there before. At first I thought it was only when playing mp3s (the first tracks I transferred were mp3s) but when I eventually got my atracs back on, the hiss was still there. It’s only really noticeable at low volumes with little or no background noise, but it’s there and I didn’t notice it before the upgrade. It won’t bother me, I’m not an audiophile, atrac3+ @ 64kbps suits me fine but it could upset some people.
On the plus side, mp3 transfer is fast once the files have been imported to SonicStage. Another change you may notice is in the Sound menu - there is a fourth option called “Digital Sound Preset” which has two options “Custom 3” and “Custom 4”, which follows on from the existing “Custom 1” and “Custom 2” under the Sound EQ menu. I don’t know why it is done this way…
To summarise, if your music collection fits onto the hd1 at the moment then don’t bother with the upgrade, just leave your PC to convert your music to atrac over night and all is well. If on the other hand you regularly get new CDs full of mp3s and you just can’t wait to convert them to atrac or your music collection is so vast that you don’t have the disk space to store them as atracs and mp3s then the upgrade may be worth while, but try to listen to an upgraded model to find out if the hiss will bother you.
Let me know if anybody else has noticed a hiss after their upgrade...
 
The hiss problem was highlighted early on in some HD1 models and not in others.

My one has just gone off for the upgrade but it had no hiss to begin with.

However, if you went into the service menu, you would hear a hiss whilst in there. As soon as you came out it went as well. I hope it doesn't come back with it :(
 
Well I got mine back and have tested it with a few tracks.

It left with no hiss. It's returned upgraded with no hiss.

I'm a happy bunny :thumbsup:
 
Hi guys, well I have just ordered mine the NW-HD1 I cant believe Sony took away the cradle on the newer models.

Am I right in thinking that I can just copy over MP3's onto the player say using Real One player? Or do MP3's still have to be converted to Atrac3? if so whats the point then?
 
No, you must use SS 2.3 to transfer MP3's to it. It will transfer the file as it is stored on your PC. If it is ripped as MP3 that's what it will get transferred as, if ripped as Atrac then as that.
 
So if I got MP3's then the player will play them as MP3's? cool!
 
Yes it will after you have upgraded the HD1, not natively.

Atrac+ is a better codec anyway IMO, so you may wish to use that over MP3.
 
Good I will use Atrac 3 as I used to have the NW-MS90D (US version) all the tracks on my PC are still in Atrac 3 in Sonic Stage v2.3 so I should be able to just plug in the new player and transfer the music right?
 
Atrac3+64/256. Personally I prefer 256kps.
 
I cant hear any difference from atrac 3 plus 256k in comparison to atrac 3 132k. Could you tell me how one would or can tell the difference in sound?
 

The latest video from AVForums

TV Buying Guide - Which TV Is Best For You?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom