I want a MiniDisc player!

[Bizkit]

Ok, so I want a MiniDisc player. I think that they are cool with their little discs and everything. Does anyone on Neowin have one? What do you like about it, and what do you wish was better? Let me know so I can get a good one. Thanks.

[Quik202]

I've got a Sony NetMD MZ-N707, its great as I can store around 4-6 albums on each disk, and there isn't much difference between the recording quality modes. Its small / light and the inbuilt remote is handy. The only thing thats annoying about the player itself, is if you want to record from a stereo, it takes as long as the cd lasts, and if you use the USB connection to transfer music between the PC and the player itself, the software is awful, it just keeps crashing, although it has got a little better since i upgraded to XP-Pro. At the moment I see no reason to purchase an MP3 jukebox its perfectly suitable for my needs. Sony are planning to release a new version of minidisc (Hi-MD) in the summer which has much more capacity per disk (1GB per disk), although you will need one of there new players, as the disks arent backwards compatible. The first generation of Hi-MD players are set to cost $200, and the disks to retail at $7. The source of this info is here.

[Bizkit]

Wow. Thanks for that info!

[hifive]

Hi-MD is now available at Best Buy.

[GrandMaster]

i had one a while ago but i didnt like them.. so i traded it with a sucker for his mp3 :))

[theMaxx]

I have a NetMD and I must say it is a pain to use.... The transfert of files is long and the software limits the amount of times a song can be sent to the NetMD (3 times if I'm correct). Sometimes, the transition between songs can take a while, like 3 or more seconds. The sound is excelent when the source is an original (A bought CD) but degrades when it is from an MP3. Also, if you want to carry lots of music, you'll need to carry the other disc with you.. witch are as large as the player itself, just thiner.

I deeply regret getting one.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

Hmmm, the idea of music stored sequentially bothers me. I got my girl an MD but I went the MP3 route.

[DarkLordSouron]

my mom got one its very cool

aspecially the netMD you can hook the minidiscplayer to the pc and add mp3s to it

there also are Minidisc-drives its a 3.25 drive bay and it has the same use as a floppy disc but its faster and has more capicity

my minidiscdeck has a capicity of 74minutes lp1, 74x2minutes lp2, 74x4minutes lp4

but your minidiscman needs to support capicity

Edit: sorry 4 mah english :blush:

Edited May 22, 2004 by DarkLordSouron

[S.MULLA]

ii've had a mini disc player for over 2 years now, sony mz-g570. simply excellent..i mostly use it for recording university lectures..

few pics below [beware 2048x1536 res shots, over 1mb images each]:

pic1

pic2

pic3

pic4

:D

[parad0x]

I bought a Sony MZ-N505 about a year and a half ago. It's compact and lightweight, and the sound quality is excellent. Not to mention the battery life is outstanding (50+ hours of playback on a single AA battery)

Unfortunately, transferring songs to it tends to be a bit of a pain. I personally use SonicStage instead of the bloated, clunky OpenMG Jukebox program that came with the player. Even with SonicStage, transferring songs is quite slow, and the software restricts the number of times you can "check out" or transfer each song to your player.

Overall, I am quite pleased with it, but I would definately prefer an mp3 player with faster song transfers and higher capacity. If you can find one for cheap, go for it. Otherwise, you'd probably be happier with an mp3 player.

[Zero1]

I have the Sharp IM-MT899 NetMD, and im pleased with it. Probably had it around 2 years now and its served me well (better than the 2 mp3 players i had before it ;))

The good thing about minidiscs is that you can buy a lot of storage media for a relativley small amount of money, in relation to a flash card for a mp3 player.

The one thing i dont like about it: why dont they make the damn clip things on the hand control stronger?? mine broke off a few weeks ago. Come to think of it, i probably need a new one after all this time ;)

Thing that looks cool about it is that when you play a track, or alter volume etc it has a little light built into the USB port thing at the top, so it flashes different sequences. Uber cool at night ;)

[yert*]

  theMaxx said:

I have a NetMD and I must say it is a pain to use.... The transfert of files is long and the software limits the amount of times a song can be sent to the NetMD (3 times if I'm correct).  Sometimes, the transition between songs can take a while, like 3 or more seconds. The sound is excelent when the source is an original (A bought CD) but degrades when it is from an MP3.  Also, if you want to carry lots of music, you'll need to carry the other disc with you.. witch are as large as the player itself, just thiner.

I deeply regret getting one.

I HAD a NetMD...I got rid of it because of all that

[Winston]

I've had alot of experiences with MD's, had 3 of them

MZ - R91, MZ-N1, MZ - N10,

i liked them however it's limited, i mean... it's not the best now, portable players are better, you'll get sick of changing discs, and carrying them around, you should go for an iPod. Anyways, you probably decided already, my advice is wait for the new HI-MD, i think that's what they call it, it's the next generation MD's holding a capacity of 1GB.

[Bizkit]

Thanks for all the feedback. I haven't picked up anything yet, as I get paid on Tuesday.

I am looking for something cheap, like around $100, so a good mp3 player is out of the question.

If you can hold 3-5 CDs on each disc, that is great for me, and I will only have 2 or 3 disks with me then. Not a big deal to me. Alot like cds players.

I will let you know of what I plan on getting, and make a review out of it.

[yert*]

You could always get an mp3cd player, but those aren't nearly as cool on md's.

[dEs0lAt0r]

If you still plan on getting netmd's, download simple burner, m3usb, and deamon tools. You can import files or m3u's into m3usb which will mount virtual images of cd's into D-Tools. Then, you can use simple burner to burn it on MD. I use this way because you don't have transfer limits and the data is not protected (you can edit name and track marks on the player itself). Much better than Sonicstage or OpenMG.

[ifsixwasnine]

I really wouldn't recommend a MD player unless you realize what you are getting into. If I were you I would get a good CD player or save a little more for an MP3 player. I had an MD player and I rarely used it because it was so inconvenient to record the discs and such. But it's your call.

[Zero1]

  dEs0lAt0r said:

If you still plan on getting netmd's, download simple burner, m3usb, and deamon tools.  You can import files or m3u's into m3usb which will mount virtual images of cd's into D-Tools.  Then, you can use simple burner to burn it on MD.  I use this way because you don't have transfer limits and the data is not protected (you can edit name and track marks on the player itself).  Much better than Sonicstage or OpenMG.

You have no idea how long i have been looking for something like this :|

Are there websites for those apps, google seems to be choking on m3usb

is this the deamon tools program here?

Edited May 23, 2004 by Zero1

[dEs0lAt0r]

  Zero1 said:

You have no idea how long i have been looking for something like this :|

Are there websites for those apps, google seems to be choking on m3usb

is this the deamon tools program here?

Yeah, thats Deamon tools. M3U2SB is Here. You can get all the links for the files and even more methods around SonicStage Here.

[Iain]

I've got a lovely little player, although I dont use it, because I have an MP3 phone.

[hash]

for everyone who says get an mp3 player or a mp3discman, an MD player will beat the hell out of any of them for battery life alone.

i bought a mp3 discman once and the batteries would die within 15 minutes.. the "specified" battery life was > 40 hours

the same deal with go with mp3 players too.. not to mention the cost of them

i got the sony NE410 and love it.... $60 on ebay brand new.. $40 off retail price..

as for the software, as i just posted in another thread the new version of sonic stage eliminates that check in/check out bullcrap..you just transfer the files.. no problems..

check it out https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?show...0entry2195949

as for the sound quality.... like i said this other thread the 66kbps sounds just fine... from original cd, from mp3, from whatever... its all the same.. theMaxx, what do you expect for a portable player? theatre sound? nah.. i was totally impressed with how good the quality of sound was with the 66kbps ATRAC3 encoding.... cant go wrong with that

i was skeptic about mindisc players in general before i bought one.. i did a lot of research (aka reading consumer reviews) on different websites getting everyone's good and bad opinions on the stuff.. but in the end i bought the 410 (because thats all i really needed) and am completely pleased with it.... $60 well spent indeed.

[Ecander]

  parad0x said:

I bought a Sony MZ-N505 about a year and a half ago. It's compact and lightweight, and the sound quality is excellent. Not to mention the battery life is outstanding (50+ hours of playback on a single AA battery)

Unfortunately, transferring songs to it tends to be a bit of a pain. I personally use SonicStage instead of the bloated, clunky OpenMG Jukebox program that came with the player. Even with SonicStage, transferring songs is quite slow, and the software restricts the number of times you can "check out" or transfer each song to your player.

Overall, I am quite pleased with it, but I would definately prefer an mp3 player with faster song transfers and higher capacity. If you can find one for cheap, go for it. Otherwise, you'd probably be happier with an mp3 player.

Yeah I like my N505 too but unfortunately the sony software is just simply getting on my nerves too much. I'm most likely getting a 60GB Xen Xtra since the Flagship sony Hi-MD is $400

[deepfriedmario]

I bought one a long time ago, probably three years, so mine isn't as good as the current ones as they use a program to record music onto the Minidisc while I had to record them like I would with a tape. I am going to sell mine for AU$100 and then I'll be getting an iPod.

While we're talking about Minidiscmans, does anyone know what the cord that is used for the line-out to the headphones slot called? I need to buy a new one for my MD.

[moeburn]

why not just get a good, cheap mp3 player? They're alot less expensive since they don't have the Sony brandname on them, and if its an mp3cd player, they can hold more stuff.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

I bought my girl a Minidisk player/recorder (portable one). Really not impressed at all by it. Expensive for the type of device, it's still a very 90's device despite all the developments. Go MP3