- Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 6 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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1.5 stars
"SonicStage kills this nice device"
Pros: Compact, easy to use
Cons: SonicStage is horrible.
Summary: I bought two of these for my two daughters. They are easy to use and the controls were not at all difficult. (Kids must be more intuitive than C-Net editors.) The kids thought the display was kind of cool. They can choose different graphics to be displayed while music is playing.
The big killer is the SonicStage software and you must be warned about its limitations. I have XP set up with user accounts. I am the admin and my kids have limited accounts so they don't screw up the settings or install software I don't want. Unfortunately, only admin accounts can use SonicStage to transfer files to the players. Not only do you have to put up with that insanity, but Connect (Sony's MP3 download site) allows only one account per computer! So, if my daughters want to purchase or transfer MP3's, I have to log into my admin account, and they have to use the same Connect account. (This pointed to another issue. Both players came with coupons for 10 free downloads. Because of all the above, we could use only one of the coupons.) I guess Sony is content selling one player per family.
Hardware-wise, this is a nice MP3 player that you can usually find on sale for $60. Software-wise it really, really stinks.Updated
SonicStage configures the player to be used on only one computer. If you try to use it on a another computer, you must reformat the player, which wipes out the tracks. And you can only transfer the tracks from the player to the computer on the original computer that you first connected to. Sony has gone WAY overboard to protect the music companies (of which Sony is one, by the way).
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