Another example of retarded engineering at Sony

[cryowizard]

I was looking at Sony's second-best ES receiver STR-DA5200ES. Amongst the bells and whistles it includes a USB port so you could play your non-DRM MP3s and WMAs directly into the receiver from a stick.

Now the caveat -- you can only use three manufacturers' USB devices, one of which is Sony itself!! What retarded Sony engineer came up with this? When you are using a ubiquitous standard like USB, why should the manufacturer matter?

But hey, this could be worse -- they could try to make you buy some new proprietary Sony gizmo, the way they always do...

Lord, where is the innovative and smart company Sony used to be in the 80s?

USB Input: The receiver has a front panel USB input for listening to music on compatible USB devices. Audio formats that can be played back include ATRAC, MP3 and WMA. Files that have DRM (Digital Rights Management) copyright protection cannot be played back. You can use the receiver's remote to control the playback modes of the USB device. Compatible USB devices include the following:

* Walkman:
o NW-E002 / E003 / E005
o NW-A1000 / A3000
o NW-A605 / A607 / A608
o NW-E503 / E505 / E507
o NW-E403 / E405 / E407
o NW-E303 / E305 / E307
o NW-E205 / E207
o NW-HD1 / HD2 / HD3 / HD5

* MicroVault USB Storage Media:
o USM16A / 32A / 64A / 128A / 256A
o USM32U2 / 64U2 / 128U2 / 256U2 / 512U2
o USM32D / 64D / 128D / 256D / 512D / 1GD
o USM128E / 256E / 512E / 1GE / 2GE
o USM512EX / USM1GEX / USM2GEX

* Pavit Series USB Storage Media:
o AZ-RM128P, AZ-RM256P

Note: Other USB devices cannot be used with this receiver.