Walkman hacks
Thanks to an email I received from ‘Mr Walkman’ my NW-A55 digital music player now thinks it’s an £8000 music player from Australia. Not the usual type of video…but I thought it was interesting enough to share.
I hope you're all doing well.
UPDATE
Removed one word ‘European’ as while accurate it seemed to be a sticking point.
Comments (34)
Just watched this with my partner. She isn't really interested in audio gear, but she likes your videos. She thinks you have a knack for making uninteresting things interesting.
One day I'll find something interesting - then things will really start happening. ;-)
Hey Mat, I've been casually chatting with this forum guy who has a RCA Mag Tape system and is potentially getting a bunch of original tapes and original documents from the estate of the lead designer. I haven't mentioned anything, but is that something you might be interested in for your Youtube Channel? I could put you guys in contact.
http://www.indianaradios.com/RCA%20MagTape%20VCR.htm This is his website
That DAB+ requirement is a strange one. Meanwhile here in Ireland we are due to turn off all DAB broadcasts and go back to FM. Go figure.
Great video, Mat. Reminds me of an early Canon dSLR camera I had for which it was possible to obtain firmware that would give it several of the features of the next model up in the range. I remember feeling slightly cheated that I had bought the hardware capable of various functions that were disabled by the software, but these days I suppose we have to be more sensitive to the value of intellectual property as well as tangible property. I expect many manufacturers are wise to that now; the disabled features on your Walkman seem to be administrative rather than them wanting you to but the next model up. Have a good weekend!
Interesting to learn of the FM EU/ French restrictions Mat. Ahhhh RockBox. Great site - they recently updated the firmware for the iRiver H140 I have. Well; I was impressed.
Let us know how many people you get telling you how to install Obs or similar for screen capture :)
It’s going to be fun.
Are it really EU regulations or is it that some countries in Europe have stricter rules and Sony just chose to make a generic European Version they can sell in several countries and avoid having to make a like a special French version?
It was both - the headphone output is EU - the DAB Radio rule is French. But that one might also apply in another couple of countries too I’m not sure. If you pause the video at the right point the articles I’m showing give a brief explanation.
At 11m 45s I saw my favorite album in the world, "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", and gave a small cheer. My favorite song on that album is the title song. And I always use a FLAC copy of "GYBR" to test whether I like the output of headphones and equipment. Is there a specific song, album, or artist/group that you recommend for testing the range and quality of equipment and/or software? Or is it up to the listener and what they prefer?
I always test with Bruce Springsteen’s Thunder Road from the 30th Anniversary version of Born to Run in FLAC. The only reasons are that I’m used to listening to it and it’s one of the few ‘Hires’ albums I bought from HDTracks. It starts off quiet and gets louder and there are some early parts where I can hear breathing or popping on the mic if the device is capable of fully realising the song.
I have an A45 and the radio is already activated here in the UK, but I can't say I've ever used it. I do randomly have my sound fade sometimes, so I'll have a look at Mr Walkman's site. What with Mr Walkman and Dr DCC... ever thought of calling yourself Professor Nixie?
Viscount Video? Yes the A45 was the last model to come out in the UK before that French DAB+ rule killed our Walkman radios.
Interesting video. Device hacking now that makes good videos. Can u get my sky q box to have Amazon prime on it so I don't have to have a separate device (it has netflix, Disney ). Also worry when flashing firmware will it become a expensive brick. Great video. Hope u health ok.
You’re right it would be good having Prime on the Q Box. That’s one where we’ll all have to hope for an official version given how easy it is for Sky to update or block the device from their end.
Anyone else get a virus warning? Trojan:Win32/Glupteba!ml
Not another virus.
Woah this is crazy, I just brought one myself for offline flac listening!
I'm surprised that the Australian setting didn't flip the screen upside down. ;)
I was expecting it to add a few F-bombs into the menus.
Great video as usual, but this points out one issue I have with modern technology reviews in general. Updates! You document something, then 2 weeks later it could be completely fixed. Dating the video. With retrotech, its not changing (unless its being modified in someway, which is rare for a lot of mid range stuff). Its like if you had an album, you listened to it 3 times and there were parts you enjoyed and parts you didnt. Only then to find out they changed it later. (I think Kanye did this actually...)
Oh it was a real hassle when I reviewed dashcams - stuff was getting changed all the time. The worst problem with modern tech though is when it’s a small startup who introduces a device that relies on being able to talk to some service in the cloud - then they run out of money or get bought and your device dies. I’ve bought enough things like that to be super wary of featuring any more of them.
One other recent annoying audio-related EU ruling is that PC speakers must automatically switch off when not playing. Try listening to music at a low volume level and the speakers will end up cutting out after 10 minutes. The wake up time also means they don't play short notification sounds. As for screen capturing on Windows, OBS Studio is a great open source (free) utility that many gamers use as it can record the screen and also live stream it. I've used it to share screen recordings of software or website issues with developers.
This was the first time I’d booted that computer up since 2017 - I’m not a big Windows user anymore.
Brexit still worth it, if they can’t remove stupid limitations like this 😄
For what it's worth, you can use the "Snip and Sketch" (formally the Snipping Tool) on a normal Windows install to grab screenshots, though, you probably already knew that and decided it was easier to just point a camera at things, so I'm not helping, am I?
man, how you can get me to watch a video about a thing I'll never buy, and then another one about it's new custom firmware is beyond my understanding
Witchcraft
interesting, i have a NW-A55L
1st thing to say before watching this one: Is it possible that it's about the actor Gene Hackman becoming disappointed with a film role and walking off the set;D
That’s a stretch - but you’ve guessed it bang on.
Cool!