If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

SONY nwza829 Walkman

A long long time ago we wrote an article on the SONY NWZA818 video Mp3 player and hailed it as the most likely to succeed out of those rivals to Apples Nano.

In truth, no other video Mp3 player has made great strides against Apple but the NWZA810 series is still amongst the more popular of the alternatives out there and now it’s got some heavyweight backup in the form of the SONY NWZA829 Walkman.

Withiut saying too much, the NWZA829 is probably the best Mp3 player you will see this year along with its siblings the NWZA828 and the NWZA826 SONY video MP3 Players.

The new SONY NWZA820 series is the bigger brother of the NWZA810 series and it certainly looks like a nice upgrade from it’s predessecor. As usual with the NWZA Walkman it comes in 3 flavours (click the links below for pictures)

.

Sony NWZA826 - 4GB
Sony NWZA828 - 8GB
Sony NWZA829 - 16GB

US $0.01 (1 Bid) End Date: Saturday Oct-11-2008 12:08:02 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

(We will use the versions interchangeably in this review as all aspects are generic of the NWZA820 series) Personally, I think that the NWZA810 series was prettier to look at but then again, the Sony NWZA828 is no ugly duckling. If you watched the featured video on the home page (and why didn’t you??) you would have seen SONY’s latest advert for the Sony NWZA826 and we have to admit it looks pretty slick.

Sony NWZA826, Sony NWZA828 and Sony NWZA829

The interface of the player has not changed much and the 2.4inch screen should be large enough to veiw movies and videos without discomfort (once you manage to get them on there - more on that later..). The screen is also multi-oriented and can dispaly your images, videos or slideshows no matter which what you turn it.

The Killer feature of the NWZA20 series is it’s ability to stream audio via bluetooth. That’s right, this opens up a whole new realm of Mp3 sharing. You can exchange files easily with others simply by having your bluetooth switched on and sending to or recieving from their player.

The other aspect of this is that you can use wireless headphones when you’re out and about which, if you’re anything like me, is an absolute godsend. I hate having to fiddle with the headphone wires to get it ‘just-so’ and then remain in position to ensure the lead does not come out of the player when I make a swift move. The cherry on top of this feature is that both 4GB and 8GB (Sony NWZA826 and Sony NWZA828 respectivley) come with SONY DR-BT21G bluetooth headphones which is a nice addition.

The Bluetooth love doesn’t stop there, you can stream audio to virtually any device that is bluetooth enabled. this includes, speakers, hifi’s and car stereos. This is one of the best features we’ve seen in a long time.

In the past, SONY has had issues with its proprietary transfer software on its video Mp3 players but carrying on from the leap forward made by the NWZA810 series you can now just drag and drop your files from and to the Mp3 player without hassle. (you can also use the supplied Media Manager software and add the cover art and additional information to each file). The SONY NWZA820 series is also in cahoots with Microsoft in the it carries the ‘PlaysFor Sure’ logo meaning that it can interact seamlessley with many third party online content providers.

However, this leads us nicely into one of the major gripes. Whilst the audio features and support are abundent, the same cannot be said for the video features. The video interface is not intuitive and can take a while to get comfortable with all the necessary requirements and parameters need for video to work properly. Video playback itself is crisp and smooth once it’s on there but you’ll probably be hunting around online for a guide to tell youhow to do it more easily.

The SONY NWZA829 is the kind of video mp3 player for those who want something cutting edge without having to follow the iPhone crowd. Audio wise It’s packed with all the right features, video wise it could do better but at least it does not make you feel like a sheep for falling for Apple’s marketing genius (who would of thought we would be saying that about a SONY?).

GadgetHeat gives the Sony NWZA826, Sony NWZA828 and Sony NWZA829 - 8/10

US $0.11 (2 Bids) End Date: Monday Oct-13-2008 20:06:57 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

US $15.50 (3 Bids) End Date: Monday Oct-13-2008 17:26:27 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

US $49.95 (1 Bid) End Date: Tuesday Oct-07-2008 16:06:05 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

US $46.00 (6 Bids) End Date: Saturday Oct-11-2008 15:42:50 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

US $11.50 (3 Bids) End Date: Monday Oct-13-2008 10:42:19 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

US $24.99 (1 Bid) End Date: Thursday Oct-09-2008 7:24:04 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

US $9.99 (1 Bid) End Date: Wednesday Oct-08-2008 20:19:00 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

US $15.00 (1 Bid) End Date: Sunday Oct-12-2008 17:41:46 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

US $21.50 (5 Bids) End Date: Friday Oct-10-2008 17:20:01 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

US $12.50 (3 Bids) End Date: Sunday Oct-12-2008 14:59:41 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

Everybody likes a list so we at HDTV Reviews came up with one. A few years ago if I told you HDTV’s would be under £500 you would have laughed in my face and asked me what I was smoking (ahem) but these days you can get some pretty nifty deals without blowing a hole in your pocket. If you’re looking for a second television or a HDTV dedicated to your games console, spending more than £500 is a bit excessive unless you really have money to spare.

We’ve put together a list of the top 5 HDTV’s for around the £400 - £500 that are definitely worth checking out.

1. Sony KDL32S3000

No surprises as to our number 1 the Sony KDL32S3000. This is a decent sized 32 incher and the SONY quality runs through this like a river. You get 3 HDMI ports plus the Bravia engine technology, what more could you want?

2. Samsung LE32R87BD

This could have easily been a SONY dominated list but we couldn’t over look the Samsung LE32R87BD. The winning feature of this set is the ‘game mode’ which makes all us Ps3 and Xbox 360 addicts extremely grateful

3. Toshiba 32C3035

This was the amongst the first Toshiba we reviewed and so far it has proved to be the best. Easy setup straight out the box, great picture and it also has a slick design that makes it stand out from the normal HDTV crowd.

4. Sony KDL32D3000

This is the bigger brother of the S series. More ounce to the bounce but slightly more expensive. If you’re not happy with the S series for any reason (and you got to be one tough customer not to be) the Sony KDL32D3000 would be a step up in the right direction.

5. Philips 26PFL5522D

We haven’t yet reviewed a Phillips at HDTV Reviews but this is definitely on our list. At 26 inches it is smaller than the other televisions on this list but it’s great value for money and looks fantastic both picture wise and aesthetically. It could do with a few more settings and options in terms of getting the picture just right so it won’t be making it any further up this list.

UPDATE - 21/12/2007 - I got a lot of hits from people wanting to get DVD’s onto their SONY NWZA818 or other A80x Walkman so I wrote a quick guide for you guys here - How to get DVD onto SONY NWZA818 / SONY A80* Walkman.

Ok so you got your fancy new iPod Touch, nano, iPhone or iWhatever and it looks great apart from one thing…how do you make and watch your own videos on the thing?? Fret no further as we guide you through this step by step and show you how to convert and encode your DVD’s, .mov, .wmv, mpegs, DivX and whatever else you may need to encode onto your iPod / iPhone.

Before we get started I know that most of you wil be wondering why not just use the facilities offered by iTunes? The menu image can be accessed by going to Advanced > Convert selection for iPod. The short answer is because it’s a bit average and, as we all know, average is the most offensive word in the English language. iTunes simply converts and encodes any video file you select into what it thinks is the most appropriate format but not neccessarily be the best format. For example, when converting mpegs with multiplexed audio files the end product will have no sound. The whole process of converting video files also takes rather longer using iTunes than if you used a third party sowftware application. You can also forget about encoding any videos you downloaded from the iTunes store due to DRM protection or any videos that iTunes already thinks is in the appropriate format but you may want to tweak and improve.

If you need to convert your DVD’s into an iPod ready format one of the best options is 1Click DVD to iPod Converter. This isn’t freeware and comes in at around $39 but as far as ease of use goes it’s on the the best.

Simply insert the DVD and click the start button. The software also automatically knows when you have a DVD with many episodes and converts them into seperate iPod video files. The default settings converts movies with optimal quality (max 20) and a relatively small size. Right clicking anywhere on the application will bring up more options such as resolution and video size but if you want something quick and easy for your DVD’s then this isn’t far off the mark. You can even remove the black bars from wide screen DVD’s by adjusting the zoom options (handy if you are converting to watch on an iPod nano or iPod Classic).

For converting mpegs, wmv’s and all other video media that you may download off the web there are several options, Roxio Crunch being amongst them. Crunch was originally a Mac application but has been ported over to windows. Its key feature is the ability to batch convert many files realtively quickly. Nice as that may sound it also costs $50 and when all is said and done, it is really just a subset of Roxio’s Popcorn application but streamlined to be more user friendly.

We don’t really want you to spend that money so we are going to focus on a freeware application and one of the best is HandBrake which is another orignal Mac application which thankfully has now got a Windows version.

Make sure you have the latest version of Apple Quicktime, download Handbrake for free from here and let’s begin.

When you install the program you may get a prompt telling you that you do not have the correct version of .Net framework installed, If so, just download and install from here. If you have Windows Vista on the machine you have installed HandBrake on then you should make sure that you run Handbrake as an administrator otherwise the DVD scanning process will NOT work. Simply go to the Program Files folder (usually on your C: drive) find the Handbrake exe (should be in the’Handbrake’ folder funnily enough) and right click the Handbrake.exe and click the option ‘Run as administrator’.

Once you have actually got it installed and start it up the Screen you will be presented with is as below (click to enlarge):

There are a lot of bells and whistles here for the more advanced user who wants his image and sound just so but if you’re a novice don’t worry about all the options as were going to go through the streamlined usage.

1. Go to the Source section at the top and select what kind of source you will be browsing to, ‘Folders’ (DVD’s) or ‘Files’ (ISO / TS / Mpeg etc). The default is DVD so you can leave it on the ‘Folder’ option. Either way after clicking the [Browse] button you will see a file open dialogue.

2. With the ‘Files’ option you just need to browse to where you have saved your image, mpeg or whatever and select it. Using the ‘Folders’ option you will see the typical folders selection window that you find in any application. You need to look for the name of your DVD with the drive letter above it. Click on the ‘+’ and the ‘VIDEO_TS’ folder will appear. Select this and press OK.

3. Click OK to the prompt that appears and you will see a DOS window pop up for about 20 seconds (could be quicker or longer depending on your PC and the DVD being scanned). This will dissapear after it’s done.

4. Go to the Title section on the Handbrake GUI and select the DVD title you want to encode (the one you want is usually the one with longest duration). Leave the DVD chapters on auto for now to encode everything. If you want to pick and choose which chapters to encode simply select the range from the Chapters section on the GUI.

5. Go to the Destination section and click [Browse] to choose the location of where you want th finished file saved to, type your file name and click ‘Save’.

6. On the right hand side of the Handbrake GUI there are the preset options. Choose the one you want, either iPod versions or iPhone in this case and click the [Encode Video] button at the bottom of the GUI.

That’s it! You’re done! Make sure you share this article with anyone who needs to know and if you have any feedback you can reach me at saif270@gadgetheat.com

You can also visit the Handbrake forums and read their own userguide here. If you have an iPod, iPhone or iWhatever you can also check out our sister site www.hdtvreviews.org.uk for HD TV Reviews