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"Great Net Radio Player for the house." on by SFCMCGEE
Pros: Great sound for such a small unit. After upgrading the Firmware it was a completely different player. alot more functions.
Cons: Bluetooth and expandable memory would have been nice. Firmware Upgrade only available from SONY JAPAN website.
Summary: I Like the unit so much I am going to purchase a second one.
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"Major disappointment" on by ricemi
Pros: Nice sound, of course the only thing I can get to play is their pay-to-listen internet radio, Live 365.
Cons: Does not support 64-bit VISTA. Impossible to figure out how to use, and I'm a computer program.
Summary: In March 2009, I bought a Sony VAIO laptop and the Sony VAIO VGF-WA1. I just wanted to stream pandora.com to a portable device. They should work together, both being VAIOs, right? Wrong.
After over a week with Sony support and Sony engineering, Sony engineering declared: "This device will not work with 64-bit Vista." Of course, my new VAIO laptop was delivered with 64-bit VISTA.
I explained my situation and asked Sony to pay for downgrading to XP. Nope. So I bought a copy of XP myself and degraded the system, and, yes, I was able to get connected.
So I tried the the internet wireless radio feature, hoping I would see Pandora in the play list. Nope. Sony support (another hour with them) declared that the device only plays the pay-per-listen Live365 service. Bummer.
So I attempted PC streaming. Forget it. It says you need to register the device with Media Player. There is nothing anywhere that explains how to do that. I did an extensive Google search on the topic. Nothing.
They blithely write about integrated services servers, media servers and proxy servers as though the average Joe, or even a programmer like me, has clue as to what they are talking about. You are also supposed to be able to use this device just as speakers. How?
So, after over 1 month of working on this, I can play a few "teaser" radio stations on Live365. That's it. Not PC streaming. No Pandora.com.
This is my first, and last, Sony experience. I wish I had bought a MAC.
Sony's first line support gives the illusion of service. But all they do is ask robotic questions and refer you to the reference manual -- which, of course, I had already read.
My guess is this device will actually do what I want it to, but no one, including Sony, can explain how. -
"Don't waste your time" on by fjwilson
Pros: Looks nice in the ads
Cons: Consumer is stuck with limited number of mostly pop music stations from Sony's internet radio service. Programming anything additional to that requires a software engineer.
Summary: My wife is from Hong Kong and I purchased the radio so that she could listen to her favorite HK stations. I purchased the radio from Best Buy, because I could get my money back easily if the product did not work out. After setting up the product, we discovered that Sony only offered selections from its music service which was abysmally limited to mostly pop music stations from around the world. After numerous failed attempts to access our desired HK stations, we tried contacting Sony's customer service for help. Apparently, Sony never told its customer service reps that it had created the VGFWA1 Wireless Streamer. Each call that we made was met with complete ignorance of the product. We were shuffled from department to department and from country to country. One rep in El Salvador informed us that the warranty on the product had run out and that we must pay a fee for any further assistance. I informed him that I had just purchased the product, and he told me to fax my receipt to him in El Salvador at international telephone rates. Consequently, I took the unit back to Best Buy and bought a nifty notebook computer on sale, and now my wife can listen to all of her Hong Kong stations - and watch HK TV as well. There is a real need for user friendly wireless radio. Sony failed miserably on this one, both in engineering and in customer support.
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"Great sound from a little box" on by shancock1965
Pros: Sound Quality
Cons: Was not supported by Windows XP SP3 (Only 2) Had rollback
Summary: It was not easy to setup due to the fact that no one from Sony could help me figure out the wireless connection manager would not install on XP with a SP greater than 2 installed, I was actually the one who figured that out. After I rolled back to SP2 all was fine. I then rolled back up to SP3 and alls well. Other than that glitch, I love this little sound monster. Highly recommended!
Sony VGF-WA1 user reviews (black)
Results 1-4 of 4
Results 1-4 of 4
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