34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
Small, durable, light and long-lasting.
The unit actually does run 50 or 60 hours on a measly AA battery. Using a NIMH battery, it runs longer. Taking the battery out of the unit makes the unit feel almost weightless. Unit is smaller than a standard man's wallet. Place it into a ziplock bag for protection. Software has complicated interface but it is not insurmountable; there is a learning curve; it could...
51 of 62 people found the following review helpful:
A great music player, but crippled by looney software
At first glance, this seems like a perfect portable music player. Much greater storage capacity than a MP3 player, and smaller than a CD player. The storage media (MiniDisc) is inexpensive. The product specs promise fast transfer speeds.
However, you are forced to use Sony's propietary file compression system (ATRAC), and Sony's software. The software is designed NOT...
34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
Small, durable, light and long-lasting., July 17, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Sony MZ-N505S Net MD Walkman Player/Recorder (Silver) (Electronics)
The unit actually does run 50 or 60 hours on a measly AA battery. Using a NIMH battery, it runs longer. Taking the battery out of the unit makes the unit feel almost weightless. Unit is smaller than a standard man's wallet. Place it into a ziplock bag for protection. Software has complicated interface but it is not insurmountable; there is a learning curve; it could have been optimized better for friendliness. Biggest problem is when file transfer lock ups occur due to incompatible bandwidths of source media, but such error may not be immediately recognized because the software does not throw an error message. MP3 conversion is not difficult. CD conversion is not difficult but eats up disc space on host computer; solve this by finding "storage" files and deleting them. Using a third party music conversion program may be useful to generate lots and lots of WAVs repetitively if that is what you want to do. Sound is excellent in full stereo recording mode; it is acceptable in LP4 compression mode; compatible with MP3. Holds about 1.5 CDs per minidisc at full stereo mode, and about 5 to 6 CDs at LP4 mode. Unit does not skip with lots of jostling around. Can't figure out how to record in the usual manner because all my hardware is non-optical. Better than MP3 in my opinion because you can pop the data disc OUT. This unit/system is not well suited to the technologically challenged; proper use of it is demanding. Can't believe its this [price]; must be threat of MP3 players. USB in, optical ins and outs, headphone, pseudo-holographic colored display, weird plug in thingey next to headphone jack, more supporting documentation than I've seen in a long while. Turns your notebook computer into a recording studio. Don't know how they crammed this much technology into something this small. Much much sexier and more intriguing than MP3ers.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Pros: 1) Amazing battery life 2) Great sound in SP, LP2 modes 3) Good sound (and 5h20m recording) in LP4 mode 4) Will not skip. 5) For fast CD to MD ripping via USB, Simple Burner software is quick and easy. 6) Flexible editing features (change track order, erase tracks, rename, combine, and delete tracks.) 7) very small and lightweight 8) Inexpensive, re-recordable media
Cons: 1) OpenMG software is restrictive (check-in, check-out) and slow. It has to convert all file types (wma, mp3, etc.) to ATRAC, and leaves copies of these converted files on your computer. 2) No upload capability. A bummer for live music and field recordings in particular. 3) No true SP support (Simple Burner has no SP or SP-mono option at all, and OpenMG software converts all files to LP first, so you don't get true SP quality.) The only way you can record in true SP is real-time. 4) No microphone input and no remote for the headphones. No big deal -- if you need these features, buy the MZ-N707. You can also upgrade to remote headphones at www.minidisco.com.
Overall, I really like this player. I'm thrilled with the fact that I was able to fit the entire 4-CD studio recordings of The Police on one minidisc. It's flexible, easy to use and sounds great. If you are heavy into mp3s downloaded files, this may not be the most flexible solution, but it works. If you're like me and you just want a portable means of carrying music from your CD collection around, Net MD is perfect.
Sony could make this into a home run by a) giving full SP and SP-mono support to Simple Burner and OpenMG b) allowing for uploading (at the very least, for non-copyrighted material). c) speeding up OpenMG file conversion.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
The ideal portable digital player would have the following properties: 1. can easily fit into your pocket, 2. have generous and inexpensive storage capacity, 3. be rewritable, 4. allow movement of material back and forth from the computer to the player, 5. have a microphone for recording, 6. have excellent battery life, 7. play all kinds of media files. I have been a mini disc user for many years. Prior to the MP3 era this was unquestionably the best portable format. Unfortunately it has, to date been stymied by low storage capacity per disc, slow recording times and file incompatibility. This new mini disc walkman is fantastic value for money...As a mini disc player, it records with the superior atrac R format, and as recording can also be done from the CDROM of your computer, the CD database can be accessed, and the names of the songs downloaded (no more fiddley track naming). Interestingly, this does not access the built in CD database in the windows operating system, by which programs such as Musicmatch "remember" CDs. The sound quality at standard recording is excellent, at LP2 it is marginally worse than 128kbs MP3 and at LP4 there is considerable quality dropoff, which is often unnoticable when walking around with the player. LP4 allows you to record up to 5 CDs to one $2 minidisc. So far so good. The software is rather tempermental. Although advertised as a "NetMD", MP3 files have to be first converted to Atrac 3 before they can be imported into the player. This is painfully slow. The conversion program is OpenMG jukebox. This program recurrently crashes on me when I try to convert MP3s. I have given up with this process and use my MP3CD player. Furthermore, the net burner software is not great either. It grinded to a halt, in the midst of recording at LP4, several times. Overall, as a media converter, this is not great, and I would recommend this more for re-recording your own CDs than MP3s downloaded from the internet. The slower play function is a major advance for minidisc. One of the great things about this format is that you can record virtually anything. For example, last week I plugged mine into the audio out plug of my TV and recorded a concert at LP2 (150 minutes). You can subsequently insert track tags, and delete the ads (the tracks then squish together without a gap). It is a pity that this walkman does not have a microphone socket...Being able to record for 5 hours on a single disk through a microphone and upload the recording to your PC would make this the ultimate voice recording device. The battery life on this unit is awesome. I have used my MD walkman daily for the past 3 weeks on a single AA battery. I would strongly recommend obtaining the wonderful fontopia ear bud headphones to add to this device... This is an exceptionally good product, let down by mediocre software, and Sony's obsessional attitude to digital rights management (why can't I make as many copies of my own personal recordings as I want?). 5 out of 7 criteria ain't bad
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
I spend an average of 3 hours commuting daily. I was looking for something small that allowed me to listen to music for a long time, with no skips and good quality. First I looked into MP3 solid state players, but I didn't like the limited memory. Then I looked into CD players with MP3 playback capability, but I didn't like to spend time ripping songs out of CDs and then burning them. I'm not into downloading MP3s, all I wanted was a better way to carry along my CDs. I came accross the Sony MiniDisc recorder/player and it was just what I needed:
- Great capacity. With the maximum compression (LP4) a single MiniDisc holds 5 CDs. You don't need to carry CDs with you nor bother looking for them and the sound is still CD-quality. - Great battery life. A single AA lasts for 56 hours. - Skip protection. It hasn't skipped once. - Simple to use. The bundled software, Simple Burner, allows you to copy CDs to the MiniDisc via the USB port. You can select the songs you want and group the CDs by album in the MiniDisc so you can jump easily to whatever you want to listen to. It uses temporal files in your hard disk that eventually get erased so it doesn't clutter it. - Reusability. A MiniDisc can be rewritten over a million times. You can delete or rearrange contents any way you want. - Price. A MiniDisc costs [relatively little].
The Simple Burner application runs fine in the background, meanwhile I'm doing something else. If you're connected to the Internet you can get the album information (artist and tracks names) for free and it gets written in the MiniDisc itself. It'll display it as is playing it. Whatever the source is, all sound is recorded into the MiniDisc with Sony's propietary format, ATRAC3. The actual transfer to the MiniDisc is real fast, but first the music has to be converted to ATRAC3 and that takes time. For some reason, when a song has been converted beyond 50% the second half goes much faster than the first. When it's done converting the song, it transfers it to the MiniDisc in a matter of seconds.
There's another application bundled to organize and copy MP3s into the MiniDisc, OpenMG Jukebox. I didn't try it yet as I'm not into it, but it'll allow you to make up to three copies of the same song. A protection system to avoid piracy.
You can also download the free RealOne player and a plug-in to copy music to the MiniDisc directly from it. Didn't try it either.
I put it in my pants left pocket, run the headphones wire inside my jacket so it doesn't tangle and enjoy the music as I commute. Some controls have marks on them so you can locate them with your fingers and every time you use them you hear a beep through the headphones. Many times I adjust the volume or select the song without even looking at it.
Bottomline, the perfect solution for a commuter. Is also great to work around the house or to exercise.
Thanks, Juan Carlos
P.S. I tried recording in a MiniDisc from a cassette player. I had two CDs recorded in a MiniDisc from a 80's Scottish group, "Deacon Blue". I finally found a cassette I had of them with another album. I connected the MiniDisc recorder to a cassette player and recorded the whole thing. The manual says the recorder will add automatically a track mark whenever it finds silence during two seconds at least. In this case the songs were too close for that to work, so I had to add them manually later on, a very easy task which didn't take too long. The recording has to be made at 1x speed, though, as with any external source. Then, with SimpleBurner I named the album and the songs and placed the album in the correct chronological order. I like to see how a band's sound evolves through the years. Rearranging groups is as easy as dragging them up or down as they're displayed in the SimpleBurner window. Is a really fast process, I think they just change the order in which they're played rather than physically moving them around the disk. So another great feature to add: the ability of recording from different sources in a single disk and sort the groups any way one wants.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
An optical minidisk player/recorder is the perfect mp3 vehicle: records in high quality (CD) or compressed (mp3), converting any source to its own format during download. Its replacable media is a true optical disk... almost as small as any memory cartridge, and competes with mp3-player expansion memory at the ridiculously low price of [money] for up to 80 minutes of music. Each minidisc is rewriteable forever. Now that Sony has perfected the USB interface and Long Play Mode, there's no reason to buy an iPod for nearly 3x the cost (buy two of these and 50 discs instead). This model, in particular, is a bargain. Light, rugged, with immaculate sound. Comes with headphones, battery, USB cable, PC software (no MAC available), and one disc.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
So my Rio MP3 player died, and my old Sony Discman was starting to skip on lots of CDs (that played fine with other players). Time to replace it with a new Discman... that is, until I found this little electronic marvel.
Sony's got a real winner with this player. I listen to music a lot while working, and I'm always having to haul CDs to work. Now I'm going to just make personal mini-discs of my CDs and carry those around.
Lots of other reviews have covered all the cool features and complaints about this unit. The obvious pros (to me) are: the 56 hour playback on one AA battery, the ability to fit hours of music on one little minidisc, even editing minidiscs with the player itself. Very cool.
The OpenMG software *is* confusing until you get used to it, but I found it to be very flexible, and filled with little touches that make things go faster. One in particular is that when ripping a CD to ATRAC3 format (the MD-specific format) and copying to minidiscs in one shot, OpenMG will multitask and copy completed tracks while it's ripping away... very nice, Sony!
However, OpenMG takes FOREVER to install and actually runs about 10 different installers behind-the-scenes. If you are running Norton Systemworks (or some other package that monitors installs), you are going to see a lot of warnings about installers starting.
Several other people have mentioned (and complained about) the SDMI locks the software uses. This basically limits you to making 3 copies of any song you have. You can gain back the copy by "checking it back in" to OpenMG (essentially erasing it from the MD). I understand about the need to prevent piracy, but this one feature is what keeps me from giving the unit 5 stars. I bought the music, and I should be able to make personal copies, not deal with some check-in/check-out process.
Otherwise, this unit rocks... definitely recommended!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
I just bought one of these units on Friday and I must say I've been pretty happy with it. The first thing I noticed about it, was that it didn't have a belt clip, since I was going to be using this unit while running, I was concerned. In practice, it turned out just fine. Even while slipped in a pocket, the unit is so light and small that it wasn't uncomfortable at all. The unit comes with one Mini Disc, and as for recording I took mp3s and sent them via the USB cable (also provided). The recording process through the software provided wasn't necessarily a no-brainer, but if you have been able to burn your own cd's, I'm sure you can figure this out. The USB port also supports USB 2.0 which is great if you can take advantage of it since this method transfers data much faster. It has a good variety of recording sources, since it can also take analog input (tapes, albums, whatever) when recording directly from the player itself. Recording length seems good also. The discs hold 80 minutes at a normal rate, but you can record in two levels of compression doubling and quadrupling the record time respectively (also with a lessening of sound quality). Controls are everything you'd expect. Standard controls that would be on any cd player as well as some advanced track grouping controls that I haven't even delved into. Display gives you encoded artist name and track time. It runs off of one "AA" battery (battery meter is also on display). In two half hour sessions the first battery I put in hasn't drained much. All in all I'm very happy with this unit and would recommend it to someone looking for something smaller than a traditional portable cd player that has more flexibility than a standard mp3 player.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This review is from: Sony MZ-N505S Net MD Walkman Player/Recorder (Silver) (Electronics)
At first glance, this seems like a perfect portable music player. Much greater storage capacity than a MP3 player, and smaller than a CD player. The storage media (MiniDisc) is inexpensive. The product specs promise fast transfer speeds.
However, you are forced to use Sony's propietary file compression system (ATRAC), and Sony's software. The software is designed NOT for ease of use, but to protect the music publisher's copyright. I don't mind that, I really just want a convenient way to listen to my CD's and music files. The software you must use to transfer music to the disc player is so hard to use, and so goofy, that I have pretty much given up on the player.
Transfer speed? It takes about 15 minutes to transfer a CD to the Minidisc, because the files must first be converted to ATRAC format. If you have MP3's on your computer, they have to be converted as well.
You might want to convert the CD to ATRAC first, then transfer it. Then you are confronted by one of the protection schemes. You can only transfer the file three times. (Even if it is your OWN CD, being transfered to your OWN player!) After that, you have to re-convert the file. Why three times? Why even limit transfers if you only need to re-convert the file to get three more transfers? Who knows?
I am constantly finding more limitations to the software. Re-install your operating system, and the Sony software has to re-configure your music files. You can't re-install the Sony software unless you have an open internet connection. You can't even delete the files on the player unless it is connected to your PC. How could it infringe on publishing rights to delete a file from your player?
It is just too frustrating for me. I am fairly "computer-literate", but this is just too time consuming and complicated.
What I really think is crazy is that Sony has ruined this player by forcing you to use their software, all to protect music copyrights. However, you can buy a Sony MP3/CD player that will be MUCH easier to use, and play all the music you want with no copyright protection!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
I'm starting to wonder whether Sony is even on the right track in trying to remain relevant in the mp3-centric digital music world.
I think something like NetMD would have been utterly fantastic three years ago, when USB-enabled computers were starting to gain mainstream adoption, and before hard disk and cd-r burner prices hadn't dropped low enough for more people to rip and burn their music collection. Then, I think, the ability to transfer up to five hours of music onto a single, (relatively) inexpensive minidisc would have held greater appeal.
Regardless of timing, the NetMD technology is still pretty neat. You are able to transfer digital content, either imported mp3/wma or audio CD's, directly to minidisc using one of three compression settings.
SP, the full-bore setting, allows up to 80 minutes on one disc, and is the best sounding of the three. It is "lossy" compression, like mp3, but to my damaged ears, they sound at least as good as CD's. LP2 doubles the storage time, but the increased compression makes the resulting recordings sound like... well, ALMOST as good as a 160kbps cbr mp3. Almost.
LP4 quadruples storage time, but as you might guess, the sound quality is pretty dodgy, comparable to a poorly ripped 128kbps (or lower) cbr mp3. LP4 is pretty much a lost cause as far as most rock goes, but it is surprisingly passable for hip-hop and spoken word (and probably for most electronica, but I have yet to test this).
As far as transferring existing mp3/wma content goes, I wouldn't recommend it (I know, it pretty much nulls the hype of NetMD, doesn't it?). I've tried converting a batch of 160kbps cbr mp3's to SP and LP2, using the included OpenMG Jukebox (or as some folks call it, the OMFG Jokebox). At SP, the sound quality is comparable to the original, but the transfer to MD takes almost as long as the length of the content. Transfer in LP2 is faster, if you disregard the processor-hog conversion to ATRAC LP2 mode, but the sound quality takes a nosedive.
From what I've read, OMFG Jokebox is notoriously unstable. Or so I've read. I've been able to successfully install it on two separate Windows 2000 Pro machines, and I'm feeling so lucky, I'm going to buy a lottery ticket once I'm done with this review.
That said, once you fast forward to 2002, where more people than not have gigabytes of existing mp3's on her or his hard disk, you have to wonder whether it's more convenient to rely on a solid state mp3 player to take small sections of this content without any further format-shifting, or dump them en masse to CD-R/W's for use with 3" or 5" disc-based mp3 players. If NetMD handled mp3's and wma's natively, I think this product would have much more relevance today. However, due to intellectual property concerns, I think Sony hamstrung itself with its convoluted content management system.
In the meanwhile, I've been using the Net MD Simple Burner program to transfer audio CD content directly to MD (mostly in LP2 mode, with some LP4, but for some weird reason, SP is NOT available as a transfer mode with Simple Burner!). I have started amassing a usable variety of discs packed with songs for the gym or for walks in the park, and from there on, it's straightforward MD goodness. Compact form factor, high skip resistance, durable media, high battery life. Basically all the things that most CD-R/W mp3 players (especially the 3" units) aren't.
I'm inclined to think that Sony munged the Minidisc yet again, this time with questionable software, but the good news is that I am still able to make use of NetMD. Drop me a line if you have any questions or war stories to share.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Back in the day when Minidiscs first hit store shelves, I didn't pay much attention to them, and dismissed them. But today with the prospect of fitting 5 hours of music on one 80 minute disc, I reconsidered. I asked for the MZ-N505 for Christmas, and I recieved, and I am VERY impressed. I've bought 3 five packs of Sony colored Minidiscs, and so far, I've fit about 18 full albums on 7 discs. I love the fact that I'll be able to compress my collection of 250+ CDs on to about as half as many MDs.
The method in which you rip CDs on to MD is Sony's Simple Burner program. It's quick, and simple. Plug your MD Player into a open USB port on your PC, plug the AC adapter in (highly reccomended: saves batteries), and you're ready to go. Put a CD in your CD-ROM drive, and the program uses the CDDB to look up the disc and track names, then hit transfer, and you're ready to go. The drawback to the program is that you can't record in SP mode, only LP2 and LP4. I've recorded all my MDs in LP2, and contrary to what all the audiophiles have been saying, it sounds really good. The average music listener will NOT be able to tell a difference between CD quality and LP2. I've even had my MD player hooked up to my 500 watt stereo reciever with Bose 301 speakers though a Mini Stereo Y cable, and I must say it sounds quite awesome (althouh the bass boost on the player is overkill).
And to the people complaining about OpenMG: just don't use it. I've burned at least 30 MP3s to my discs without using OpenMG. You can make a CD image of your MP3s with Ahead's Nero Burning Rom program, then mount the CD image to your hard drive with Nero's ImageDrive, then burn the image with Simple Burner. It's quite simple, and if anyone wants more detailed instructions, e-mail me.
Overall, I reccomend highly reccomend this player. It's the best christmas present ever...for a music fan like me. For those who like to listen to their music anywhere, anytime, it's ideal. I take the player to work in my pocket, and listen on break. And the battery life is awesome: the package says 56 hours on on the box, and that is not a lie. I've been listening to the player non stop since December 25th, and the battery indicator on the player has not budged from full power.
Go buy this player now. As in right now.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
(
Saving...
