Domo arigato, Mr. Walkman

December 30, 2010 12:14 PM

My dad went to Japan and all I got was this lousy digital media player. No, wait, it's fabulous! But wait, it's all in JAPANESE. Halp!

I got lucky in the family grab bag this xmas and scored a Sony Walkman X Series Digital Media Player NW-X1050. It seems awesome. But it's all in Japanese. And the handbook is in Japanese.

How can I change the display language to English?

I googled and couldn't find any info for this model. The info I found for previous models -- like, "Choose the 3rd menu option, then choose the 2nd, then the 4th..." -- didn't work for this model. So what can I do?!?

posted by BlahLaLa to Technology (12 answers total)

Well, here's the English instruction manual.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:40 PM on December 30, 2010

Response by poster: Alas, the English manual isn't helpful. It says, of course, go to settings, then to Language Settings and select English. But since mine is in Japanese I can't tell which is Language Settings. The general settings area has an icon, which I recognize. But beyond that I'm lost, and there are a jillion options.
posted by BlahLaLa at 12:54 PM on December 30, 2010

babelfish says this:

言語

means "language"

and:

英語

means English.

not sure if you can find those, but if so it might help.
posted by edgeways at 1:11 PM on December 30, 2010

Use skype/netmeeting and find someone that can read Japanese?
Hold the camera up to the webcam?
posted by gatsby died at 1:12 PM on December 30, 2010

Yeah, 語 is the important character here. If you don't want to look at a zillion stupid lines to try to match things up, here's a tip: Just look for something that has a small box in the bottom left hand corner, and a larger box in the bottom right hand corner.
posted by soma lkzx at 1:23 PM on December 30, 2010

Oh, and by 'important character' I mean, "it's the one that means language" - if you have the misfortunate of the languages all being in Japanese it isn't going to help you, but if you can find it on any other screen you'll at least be able to stumble onto to the language select option.
posted by soma lkzx at 1:25 PM on December 30, 2010

Best answer: This post has this to say:

"all NW models lack english language support for the menu, but english will appear in th song titles.

only NWZ models support english in their menus."

Looks like you may be out of luck with that model.
posted by qwip at 1:26 PM on December 30, 2010

Best answer: Yeah, it looks like you might be out of luck. This is the Japanese manual, which doesn't cover language settings, and poking around finds you an FAQ includes

日本語以外のOSを使っている。
- 日本語OS以外にはインストールできません。

Which our pal Google Translate turns into

OS you are using a non-Japanese.
- OS other than Japanese can not be installed.

Which I think translates to "total bummer."
posted by soma lkzx at 1:45 PM on December 30, 2010

Best answer: In non-Google-Translate, that says:

"Using a non-Japanese OS
-It is not possible to install a non-Japanese OS".

I looked through the options and "other tips" sections of the Japanese manual soma linked to, also, and I didn't see anything about English. I think you're stuck with Japanese.
posted by vorfeed at 2:03 PM on December 30, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks for the help, peeps, even though the answer was tragic.
posted by BlahLaLa at 3:52 PM on December 30, 2010

I would recommend Rockbox, but there appears to be no port to your player. If you're a programmer, you can perhaps pitch in on the development of a port of Rockbox to that model.
posted by Simon Barclay at 7:47 PM on December 30, 2010

Response by poster: For anyone searching this question, FYI here's more info about what I did with this MP3 player.
posted by BlahLaLa at 6:00 PM on January 27, 2011