Bizkit Posted May 29, 2004 Share Posted May 29, 2004 I was looking for something that was small, would have alot of battery life, and was cheap. The Sony Net MD is all three of those. I have never owned a MiniDisc player, but I love this thing. First Glance: The first think that I noticed was how small it was. I knew that they were little, but good lord. I thought that I would lose it in my backpack it was tiny. I also liked the little discs that it uses. The disc is about the size of the player itself, although, the player is fatter of course. I also noticed that it only needed one AA battery. That was good cause that means that I can be cheap and only buy a pack of two. It came with three manuals, one for the basic operation and loading of software, one for recording on the player itself, and one for installing the software and system requirments for it. Not bad packaging. Simple and easy, just like it should be. Installation: Its not very hard to put a battery in something, and this was a peace of cake. The discs themselves have an arrow on the edge that you would insert first, and if you don't, then you player doesn't close. Not to hard unless you have no eyes. As far as hooking it up to the computer, I plugged the USB cable into my computer, hooked it up to the MD player, and popped the included cd in and Windows found everything that it needed. I was hoping for Windows to see it as another hard drive so I could just drag on drop the songs in, but no such luck. Looks like I would be using the included software as well. SonicStage: This is the basic layout of SonicStage. You click on the little hard drive to acces your hard drive (duh) and then you clikc on the MD player. You then open the folder to which your songs are stored and then pick which ones you want and then click the "Check Out/In" button and its starts the transfer. Now, depending on what compression you want will tell you how fast the trasfer will be. In this case, I picked the best compression it has, ATRAC3, which is also the slowest trasfer. Now this is because it has to convert all the songs to this format, which does take awhile. I managed to fit all 4 (I do not count New Old Songs as a real release) Limp Bizkit cds on this with alittle room to spare. Not bad for one little disk. Converting and transfering took about 4 minutes on my 2100+. One thing I noticed was that the battery life really sucks with you are transfering the songs. New Energizer battery was half gone when it was done. But when you turn it off, then turn it back on, the battery says its full, and 3 hours of listening to music didn't dent the battery metter. You can also controll the MD player while its hooked up to the computer. Now why anyone would do this I don't know, cause it plays the songs that are on the MD, but if its hooked up to the computer, then the chances are you already have the song and don't need to play it from the MD player. It also puts the output still on the md player, which I still don't understand. Now the website and packaging says upto 56 hours of music on one battery. I just let it play one CD for 52 hours before it stopped on a full battery. Not bad at all dosidering a pack of eight batteries runs you about $5. Thats alot of music. Conculsion: Overall I am very happy about this MD player. Its small, cost me around $112 total, $100 for the player, $7 for a pack of five discs, and $5 for a pack of eight batteries. I don't need my entire music collection with me if I am just gonna be jogging for an hour. Or on a plain trip for 3 hours. If I need more than the 4 cds I got on this disc, I just pop in another one. They are so small, I didn't even know the disk was in my pocket. Pros: Small Great battery life Cheap Unlimited space with the discs Cons: Have to use their software to transfer songs Transfering songs take alot of battery life Might not want to carry the extra discs with you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ryan Posted May 29, 2004 Share Posted May 29, 2004 Good review buddy. (Y) I'll have to give this some consideration once I have some spare cash. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Posted May 29, 2004 Share Posted May 29, 2004 Net-MDs are pretty cool, especially as they've come down in price now. MDs are still good for people like you, who dont need their whole collection with them. I have about 30 MDs, because sometimes I'm just not in the mood for one type of music, and as I've only got a normal MD, I dont want to be recording all the time! I haven't used mine since I got an MP3-playing phone, but the battery life is great, and I still use it for holidays etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premgenius Posted May 29, 2004 Share Posted May 29, 2004 I had a Sony Net-MD think it was N1 or something I liked the hardware but I hate the software so much and i sold it off and I bought a iPod, hardware is excellent the software is total :x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 29, 2004 Share Posted May 29, 2004 i just got one of them aswell - nice little things - not used it much yet oply got it today :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaffa Posted May 29, 2004 Share Posted May 29, 2004 i got a MZ-N505.. i love it. Pretty old.. too bad sony software is so ****** up.. but hey.. im used to it now :s.. nice review.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zero1 Posted May 29, 2004 Share Posted May 29, 2004 If you dont like the software, you can use OpenMG Jukebox ;) Not that much better, but its a little improvement. @ why would you want to control the md player, playing the songs on it: i use this when the MD is almost full, 'eliminating' songs so that i can fit more on ;) I also wanted the feature to make it show as another HD, and was disapointed when it was not present. To save the battery while transfering songs, plug into the pc and then dock it to its charger. The discs are troublesome to carry around sometimes, but they are at least cheap to buy ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dEs0lAt0r Posted May 30, 2004 Share Posted May 30, 2004 You don't have to use the included software (SonicStage) or OpenMG Jukebox to transfer mp3's. I posted an alternative in you other thread Bizkit (I want an NetMD) Here. I got mine in the summer, I love that little thing (MZ-N10). Good review. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
l77Il7H Posted May 30, 2004 Share Posted May 30, 2004 i got a MZ-N505.. i love it. Pretty old.. too bad sony software is so ****** up.. but hey.. im used to it no:s:s.. nice review.. i have one too. someone reason my buttons are ****** up. the buttons are all randomly mixed up. i have to press like 10x to get the darn thing to stop. i hate the stupid software too! why can't they make a audio player with a HD that you can just plug into windows xp and it can be view as a usb harddrive, is that too much to ask for? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
54622_1437839486 Posted May 30, 2004 Share Posted May 30, 2004 new hi-mds are expected to be out in june/july. these new mds can hold 1 gig compared to a normal one which hold 17x. these hi-mds can also store various files using the FAt system i believe so u can hook up ur md to a Pc and view ppt stuff. flagship model = US$400 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaffa Posted May 30, 2004 Share Posted May 30, 2004 i have one too. someone reason my buttons are ****** up. the buttons are all randomly mixed up. i have to press like 10x to get the darn thing to stop. i hate the stupid software too! why can't they make a audio player with a HD that you can just plug into windows xp and it can be view as a usb harddrive, is that too much to ask for? i have that too! :o bud mine is prolly because it fell a lot.. sometimes when i push forward.. it goes backwards etc etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
54622_1437839486 Posted May 30, 2004 Share Posted May 30, 2004 heres a link for those curious: Flagship Model for 2004 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaffa Posted May 30, 2004 Share Posted May 30, 2004 heres a link for those curious:Flagship Model for 2004 the cheapest model is already available in the US.. but my main problem is that those things are USB1.. that's because the recording mechanism can't record any faster so putting USB2 on it would be useless.. :(( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ecander Posted May 30, 2004 Share Posted May 30, 2004 heres a link for those curious:Flagship Model for 2004 I like MD and Hi-MD is cool but if the flagship is $400 I think I would rather pony up the extra for the 40GB iPod. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hash Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 If I could add my own thoughts on this product ... I too have this same exact MD player.. I bought mine for $60 brand new on ebay (so if you can use ebay and youre looking for an MD player, dont go to a store :p) and the battery life is excellent.. and he is correct about the battery meter when transferring songs.. it goes down but when you turn the player off and then start listening to music the battery is like it is brand new.. I've had my player for at least 2 months now and I'm on my 2nd battery only.. granted I don't use it EVERY day, mostly when I go to the gym 2 hours almost every day. The Sonic Stage software that comes with it is CRAP, the new SonicStage software that comes with some different MD player is a big improvement.. the biggest improvement is that there is no check in/check out crap to deal with.. its a free download once you find a link (i forget where i got mine from but it wasnt hard) also, the 66kbps ATRAC3 encoding sounds very good for what it is.. 66kbps.. that is the tightest compression to fit the most songs.. im not sure what the difference is with ATRAC3+ vs ATRAC3, but this specific player, the MZ-NE410 doesnt use the "+" so its irrelevant i dont think anyone mentioned it, even though most people should know this already, but the minidisc media are re-writable... so all you ever really need is one $2 disc and youre set.... personally i do want to get a second disc but i cant find any singles being sold... the only thing walmart has is a 5 pack and i dont need/want 5... heh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizkit Posted June 1, 2004 Author Share Posted June 1, 2004 If you can find the link to the new SonicStage, please, please e-mail me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sting3r Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 How much do the mini-disks hold? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hifive Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 MiniDisc Recorders are a pain to work with especially when copying over MP3s. Anyways, I recommend you either go the Nero route or RealOne route. RealOne Player will transfer directly to the MiniDisc making things a lot easier. Then go back into SonicStage to rename files, etc. This does away with the whole check-in, check-out process. Btw, check out the T-Station for more information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizkit Posted June 1, 2004 Author Share Posted June 1, 2004 The MiniDisc that I bought a pack of 5 of said its an 80 disc. I got 4 full cds on one though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M/\TT Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 I've got an old Sony Mini Disc, before Net stuff came out. I'm very interested in the new Hi-MD when it comes out in the UK :) 1Gb, yes please! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dEs0lAt0r Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 For anyone that wants it, SonicStage 2 can be downloaded Here or here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hash Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 How much do the mini-disks hold? the minidiscs come in 74min or 80min, just like a CDR.. but remember you are using Sony's ATRAC3 compression.. ive got 69 songs on my disc.. might be able to fit a couple more on there too.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d3nuo Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 i got ~230 songs on my last disc i made Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcb Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 i got ~230 songs on my last disc i made how did you get 230?? are these songs like 20seconds long? LP2 gives you 2x the capacity of the disc, so 80min --> 80x2 = 160min LP4 gives you 4x the capacity of the disc, so 80min --> 80x4 = 320min Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebuzz Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 Question: What format is the music stored on in the Minidiscs? AND Does ID3 showup on the player such as track names ETC. THebuzz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts