Just a few basic questions!

[Hornby]

Just got my VAIO pocket and I have to admit it's super cool in every possible way apart from SonicStage of course.

Though I still have a few questions, so here they are:

1) Why does the battery discharge after use?

2) All my music files are encoded at 192 Kbps will this drain the battery life of my player?, are their any better rates which would suit my player better if my current rate (192) isnt convenient?

3) Does anyone notice the G-Pad gets confused/weird sometimes?

4) Could you guys post some links with other compatitble headphones they must be SONY? (price dont matter)

5) Any person know where I can get a case for my player, It would have to be delievered to the UK?

Thanks in advance guys!

Really happy with my player, and it certainly is the IPOD killer.

Ipods = common = simple = apple = <profanity removed by moderator>!
Sony = Vaio = style = sturdy = Class!

Dont ask my why i wrote those 2 lines lol ^^^

[nickkr]

Well done !!!

Don't feel too bad about spending 40 quid on the case.
It isn't leather but it is very good quality and embossed with a smart VAIO logo.

There is also a nice (but posibly useless!!) wrist strap included.

From my previous experience of SONY cases for Video and camera etc. they are just very expensive.

I'm a bit mystified by the £9.95 price on thr Micro Anvika site - common sense say that an original SONY accessory will cost more than this. In fact I have never seen the case In Stock on the website or heard of anyone post on this site who paid this price for the case.
Maybe someone can prove me wrong.
Anyway - I'm glad the forum was of some practical use to help you find a case.

p.s. I still can't help feeling there is a big box of these cases in a stockroom somewhere

[Hornby]

lol. Yer it's a shame to pay so much for an electrical good and not protect it.

[saltire2005]

The pdair case is pretty cool......

http://www.pdairshop.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=224

[nickkr]

The pdair case is pretty cool......

http://www.pdairshop.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=224

It's lovely, made from from fine grain stitched leather and a bargain at £20 .............

...........But I had to send the one I ordered back because It doesn't fit the 40GB VP

There is a 3mm difference in size between the 20GB and 40GB VP - just enough to stop it fitting.

[@4967457401015621]

I'm a bit mystified by the £9.95 price on thr Micro Anvika site - common sense say that an original SONY accessory will cost more than this. In fact I have never seen the case In Stock on the website or heard of anyone post on this site who paid this price for the case.
Maybe someone can prove me wrong.

I put up a link to this site aaages ago, my brother and I both bought cases from there soon after we bought VPs. £4 is a lot for postage though on an item that weighs almost nothing..
I'm also a bit disappointed to hear Sony have stopped stocking VPs because of reliability issues and done nothing for those already with them, that's precisely the reason I bought the VP and didn't replace my iPod.

[nickkr]

[quote
I'm also a bit disappointed to hear Sony have stopped stocking VPs because of reliability issues and done nothing for those already with them,


What ?

I don't understand - There are a lot of "problems" with the VP posted on various forums, but I've not seen much evidence of reliability issues.

So, WHAT ARE thses reliability issues ?

SONY Centres, a multitude of websites and shops are still stocking the VP

Or do you mean it's been discontinued by SONY ( which frankly isn't a surprise)

I think you need to explain !!!

[@4967457401015621]

"My local Sony centre tell me not to buy the VP as it has been discontinued in the UK due to it crashing and peeps losing data."
I know it's not in this thread (it's in this thread), I just happened to be writing in this one. I think the VP is great, and I've had no reliability problems, but I thought the same of the iPod when I'd had it 11 months, it doesn't mean things won't go wrong. Sony must have had a reason to withdraw it, and if this was a move taken recently then shops will have remaining stock. (By the way, Sony centres have nothing to do with Sony othere than they stock Sony products. They're run by a company called Sonnex I think.) If Sony have discontinued the VP that would also explain why nowhere has the cases in stock anymore and so why they're going for silly prices on eBay. I'm just annoyed that they've discontinued it on reliability grounds and haven't even informed the people who've registered VPs with them.

[nickkr]

Thanks for the reply Bentate.

As I said in a previous post on this thread ¿ Personally I¿m not surprised that the VP has been discontinued. Product life cycles are very short and a model rarely stays current for more than a year. SONY has at least two HD players in their range that are probably replacements for the VP (albeit less well specified)
It¿s true that reliability issues may shorten the life span of a product ¿ but if occasionally crashing is the limit of the problem ¿ I would be surprised if that figured highly in the decision to discontinue the VP ¿ I¿m quite prepared to be proved wrong. So far I¿ve not experienced such problems.

Think of a VP as a computer ¿ computers crash!!!
Hence the ubiquitous reset button.
If something has a reset button it will inevitably need to be reset sooner or later !!!!

I have computers, cameras, IPaqs, Navigation Systems, bits of Hifi etc etc that all occasionally get confused and need to be reset ¿ I guess it¿s a modern day curse!!

Reports of hard drive failures would be more worrying ¿ but as yet I¿ve seen nothing so severe posted.

The fact that the case is discontinued may be a bit of a red herring. From what I have been able to gather this case was NEVER officially available in the UK. The packaging it comes in is written entirely in Japanese ¿ which is very unusual for products intended for the UK

Some SONY dealers may have acquired stock through various means and then sold them on at inflated prices ¿ did you see the case that went for £106 on eBay? ¿ Wow - talk about supply and demand.

Your local SONY centre ( who you point out are nothing to do with SONY) seems to have some , possibly anecdotal, evidence of crashing and data loss ¿ but I have to say there doesn¿t seem to be much evidence either on this forum or other AV forums that I contribute to.

Maybe the faults only arise after several months use ¿ We will have to wait and see I suppose and hang on to the receipt and guarantee !!!!

[@4967457401015621]

I agree, personally I'm not that suprised the VP has been withdrawn, but the reasons for it's withdrawal are more important to me. It wasn't me who spoke to the Sony centre about its discontinuation, but the obvious reason I can see for it is that it competes with the other Sony MP3 players - I'm not sure if you're aware of this but the Vaio Pocket and the HD3 were released almost simulteaneously by two different branches of the company - arms that don't communicate very well if at all. The Vaio range obviously lost that battle, as there wasn't much promotion of it and all the rest. I also see where you're coming from about products not being in production for a particularly long time, but as far as I'm aware there is no replacement for it in the Vaio line, which isn't common. I would suggest this is either because of the point I made about competition or because they think the design is basically flawed in some way. Whilst I don't particularly think this is the case, they do seem to have made a bit of a mistake with the battery cover, as I noticed it was live when the unit was charging. Have Sony found other faults we haven't yet? There are plenty of changes I would make, predominantly to the software, but if it has been discontinued we're unlikely to see anything other than Sonic Stage updates (which are only likely to push up demands on the system - SS3.1 takes up over 100mb of memory when it's running on my PC, so it's just not practical to listen to music through it). I don't have any particular problems with crashes or anything, my amp 'crashes' more often than my VP! Admittedly I haven't really been using my VP a huge amount recently, mainly because I can't put the playlists on from a computer and I can't be bothered to add a couple of hundred tracks individually on the VP.
I have seen the cases on eBay, my brother and I both bought them for £10 apiece with £4 postage on the 2 of them, selling them on eBay now looks very tempting!
If it's any help I've had my VP for about 6 months now and haven't had any particular problems that stand out, but again my iPod worked fine for 11 months before my troubles started. This is the first piece of Sony computer hardware I've bought (I've had CD players etc before but never anything VAIO) and I probably wouldn't buy from them again. The build quality is great, but some of the features aren't wonderfully implemented, the software is poor (in my opinion) and there has been a lack of support I feel. I know Apple have had a resurgence thanks to the iPod - it's not a particular money spinner for them but it attracts people to break away from PCs and go to Macs when they decide to change their computer. I wouldn't, based on my experience of the iPod, though I'd love to be able to use OSX. Similarly, I doubt I'll buy Vaio now. I won't buy Compaq/HP because of my experience with their low end laptops - nothing massive has gone wrong with them, but in my family we have 5 and every one has had something break or has needed to be sent back. it's a pity companies no longer build a product to work well and last, I'm sure it must cost them sales. Anyway, as I have an exam this afternoon I'd better stop typing!

[nickkr]

I agree, personally I'm not that suprised the VP has been withdrawn, but the reasons for it's withdrawal are more important to me. It wasn't me who spoke to the Sony centre about its discontinuation, but the obvious reason I can see for it is that it competes with the other Sony MP3 players ....

One final thought to muddy the water somewhat...

VP still seems to be current model in Japan !!!

http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/Products/VGF-AP1/

:smileygrin: