Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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89 of 97 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nice System, but what is SONY thinking?, October 23, 2004
This Player is very nice and capacity is OK for a removable media, however the whole Hi-MD---OpenMG----SonicStage---ATRAC is very inconvenient to use.
I will summarize:
PROS:
-ATRACplus algorithm sound decent at 64kbps, comparable to MP3 at 128kbps in my opinion. There is also a 256kbps option which sounds very good, but files are pretty big for the Hi-MD capacity, makes it inconvenient.
-The advertised price for the Hi-MD blank disks is ok, around $7.
-Price compares to that of the MiniIpod or some Flash MP3 players, however this is "supposed" (read below) to be upgradeable by buying more blank Hi-MDs
-Runs on AA battery.
-You can run with it and get no skips.
CONS:
-You MUST use SonicStage software to transfer files to / from the MD.
-No MP3 support on the unit, only plays ATRAC. MP3s are transcoded by the PC software.
-SonicStage is a little bit unreliable.
-You CAN NOT upload songs from MD to your PC. So you can't use the MDs as a backup of your PC music collection, because if your PC fails, you can't upload the songs again.
-Even if you encode songs in ATRACplus with SonicStage, you can't move the files to another PC. And I'm not talking about illegal moving, you might have more than one PC.
-You can only play (so far) ATRACplus files with Sony's software (in your PC, I mean).
-Hi-MD blank discs are scarce, not even sony online store has them in stock at the moment of this review.
I think this unit is a good alternative to a Flash based MP3 player of medium capacity (256-512MB) if you can find it for less than $200.
For a little more than this you can get a 4/5 GB HD player like the MiniIpod and save the hassle of the propietary format, algorithm, rights protection format (OpenMG) and having only one choice of software.
I think Sony could have made a good product but it's taking the wrong path towards protection of copyrights. They shouln't do so at the expense of reducing the product functionality and reliability.
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40 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome player AND portable drive, June 15, 2004
The player is on par with Sony's excellent track of Minidisc players. The new 1 Gig discs are awesome! They can take up to 45 hours of music. 7 hours if you are using the best quality. The player increases the capacity of regular 5 hour Minidiscs to 13 hours! So you can more than double the capacity of your old dics. Battery life is awesome. 30 hours or so with HD discs and 50 with older ones. Best part for me, the player can be used as a portable drive! Only using HD media, you plug the player to your PC using the USB cable, and voila! You have a 1GB drive ready to use without installing any drivers! Just works! Best part, no adapter needed for the player when it's connected. The player takes power from the USB cable and does not use your battery while connected to the PC. Overall, this player is awesome! I love it! Go get one :)
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Sound, Perfect Alternative to iPod, July 25, 2004
OK, right off the bat I have to wonder how the earlier reviewer took 12 hours to download 1GB of music to the MZNH600. It took me about 1 hour! While that may still seem like a long time, considering how much music you're transfering, I don't think it's a problem.
I was seriously considering the Apple iPod. The Sony Hi-MD won me over as a great alternative - it uses a standard single AA battery which last an incredable 25 hours. There's no hard drive to worry about - excellent shock resistance. It doesn't hold as much on a single disk but it's not that big a deal to change disks. Besides, 1GB on the Sony is about equivalent to 35 CDs... it works for me. Took it on a 800 mile car trip to Oregon and back and it was flawless.
Some have complained about the SonicStage software but I've found it to be just fine. I've used iTunes and I'm annoyed at how iTunes takes over the CD-ROM functions to the point that it disables other CD software! At least the Sony SonicStage doesn't do that!
Sound quality is excellent at the Atrac3 64kbps rate. This is the next to highest compression which allows about 35 hours of music to fit on 1GB. At the highest compression, I noticed that voices started to sound a bit odd. Still, at 64kbps, I can fit more music on 1GB than a typical mp3 player - I estimate about 50% more. So compared to other mp3 players, the Hi-MD is really equivalent to 1.5GB to 2GB.
If I have a gripe, its the tiny display. It actually works fine but it's not backlit and navagating the menus takes a little practice. The controls, while small, actually work quite well, though.
I also considered some of the solid state mp3 players but to get the same amount of music on a Rio Chiba for example, would raise the price way beyond that of the Sony. This little Hi-MD player is an excellent value - Oh yeah, and did I mention that it doubles as a 1GB plug and play portable USB data drive... I highly recommend it.
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