Sony MZ-NE410 High Speed Net MD Walkman Recorder

In December 2001 I purchased Sony's ZS-M35 - the personal minidisc system. CD player on top, mini disc recorder on bottom. This was my introduction into the world of mini discs. This was purchased after my Sony CD player - cassette recorder died. I really abused the heads. It lasted 6 years of heavy use at the office. It still plays cd's and radio but draggggssss on the tapes. My next in February 2003 was the MZ-E300 minidisc player - you know, the little blue player. Since I am recording in the office, I might as well take some to listen outside the office. It lasted until 2004 when the "hold" button gave out completely. The only thing to do was to throw it out. It did play Normal and LP2. Getting fancy in February 2004, I ordered the MZ-NE410. This is a very good machine except that it didn't have a line in and I don't download from the internet so the software is useless for me. In March 2004, I ordered the MZ-N510CK and IT IS A FANTASTIC MACHINE. It has a line in which I use to record in the office. The 410 is my "player". The 510 is line in/line out from my Dell in my office. I use Real Player. I am a hog for old time radio shows and they come in MP3 format on CDs holding as much as 100 half-hour shows. I plug this cd into my dell, bring up Real Player, press start on Dell - hit record on 510 and let it rip. I record in LP4 so I get 10 half-hour show or 5 hours of whatever using MD80. I still don't use the software, just MP3 cds and regular music cds to download. I have all the functions sans the software. This is a fantastic machine. I am thinking of going MZ-NHF800 Hi-MD later on but have to read a lot more about it. I only buy Sony for music. Not DVD, not television. I have not been disapointed yet.

I bougth this one and had very hard time for a week. But once I started finding right things, now it is cool. Follow these if you already bought it, DON'Ts 1. DO NOT use the software that comes with the hardware. 2. DO NOT try to connect to computer before you install the driver. 3. DO NOT use it in other than Windows XP system. DOs 1. Download the latest sonystage software from sony and use it. 2. Always clean up (initialize) the disk before start using it. There is a option in latest software. 3. Buy new pack of MDs and use it. (You can find it wallmart, you can use hi-md compatible.) I had problem writing the songs in cd which came with box. Pros, 1. Really good battery life. 2. Light weight. You can carry easily. 3. Low price compare with iPad. 4. You can store around 60 songs (LP4) in a disk. Cons, 1. Bad Software. 2. Low Battery sign in half of the battery life while recording. I used to take out and insert, it will go fine. Over all it is good for $60 compare to iPad $160. You can store 300+ songs in a 5 pack cd(iPad holds only 200). Also it has grouping option, different sound settings.

Well nowadays there is a huge commotion about mp3 players,and to tell you the truth they are overpriced have no durability,and is made without quality.In the previous year Sony introduced us to a whole nwe way of listening,and they call it a mini-disc player.The model you are looking at now is one of the first products of the Sony line.The MDP(mini disc player) has a numerous amount of benefits over regular mp3's such as the nomad or ipods.First off the MDP has a great battery life which they claimed over hundred hours(it seems alot more),while on the other hand the ipod drains the battery pretty quick because of its functions such as backlight etc...Both the ipod and the mdp are small so i have to give both of these companies an applause for not producing one of those big square nomads.Many people claim that the sonicstage software is extremely difficult to handly.THAT IS A HUGE LIE this is so easy to convert music(and im not a genius).I mean come on if my 7 year old cousin can easily transport music y can't you!!Have pity on you adults who find this difficult!The software is much easier than the ipod's just to tell you.Ipod's have an upperhand on the mdp's though they do not run on a mini disc(which costs 2 dollars each) and can store 1-35 thousand songs and you never would have to carry any mini discs.The mdp also has an upperhand which is durability and shock protection ,mp3's are notorious for beaking down or skipping when feeling dramatic shock mean while if you do many activities such as biking or working out (like i do)u might wanna take the mdp because it has g-protection and has never skipped once on me.In addition the mdp is alot more durable ,because once you drop an ipod its over(but depends wat model you get) on the other hand mdp's are pretty durable i have dropped mine many times on tile floor and still never has broken and never had a scratch on it.The mdp has no clip or belt unlike the ipod.Both the ipod and the mdp have unsurpassed sound quality so you can bleed your ears out.Last but not least the mdp kills a mp3 because of its price even if your budget conscious or just filthy stinken rich you should be smart and think which is worth it?Believe me you will be the winner with the sony mdp...got questions email me at [email protected]

While I'm a fan of Sony generally, I've long been disturbed with some of the 'walled garden' attitude that they show their own products. You should be aware that there is no 64-bit driver for the Net-MD under Windows XP. The software is abysmal, requiring that MP3s to be transferred to the device are CBR rather than VBR. A viable 'hack' is to 'burn' an audio iso and use the simple transfer utility on the mounted iso. There is almost no support in third-party applications; a much touted solution using real player has pretty much disappeared. It's unlikely that any third party solutions will appear in the future because of an extremely zealous legal department. Indeed, it's impossible to transfer recordings from minidisc back to the computer if they have been transferred from a different computer or minidisc recorder. I feel quite a bit of pain for what was a very promising format being shackled by overarching control of userspace. Generally the NE410 is a solid little unit, although the supplied earphones are the usual commodity quality. I wouldn't presume to comment on the audio quality due to hearing destroyed by years of very, very loud nightclubs.

This is an update to an earlier review. After owning the minidisc player for some time, taking it on a road trip to Mexico, camping with it, flying with....almost dying with it, and finally getting home to ride the train with it...I gave it to a friend (not a good friend) and bought an ipod. The concept is fine: the media is cheaper than an hd player, ideally you can convert mp3's, and the battery life is FANTASTIC. Unfortunately the player was produced by Sony, which instead of being one company is several companies (sony electronics, sony music, etc.) The problem is that Sony Music has gotten Sony Electronics to cripple any music hardware it produces with copyright protection. Ok, no problem...I respect the law. Unfortunately Sony brought back the betamax designers from retirement and headed up the team with a trained monkey with a nasty crack habit. The software makes it impossible to realistically copy, change, and re-copy your mp3 collection to disks. I'm not exagerating when I say that the Sonic Stage/Simple Burner/Real Player Plug-In suite is hands down the worst combination of software I have ever used...and I've been a PC user since early DOS days. It's retarded software that appears to only function acceptably for a user who is only burning their CD collection directly to the minidisc player. If you have any mp3's that you want to use the software forces you to make copies of all of them (means get a bigger hard drive) and convert them all to atrac format. Then, just to be silly the software check the music out of your hard drive (meaning hides the file from you) when you burn it and then makes you check it back in when you want to use the file again. if you don't follow this procedure, or if the retarded software crashes your system and forces a reboot (about 2x weekly) then it will not let you use the song file again unless you uninstall everything and then re-install it. Sorry Sony...until someone elects you to some office, I think I'll NOT LET YOU F*CK AROUND WITH MY HARD DRIVE ANYMORE YOU IGNORANT MEDDLING BAST*RDS! I prefer to deal with companies that sell me a product I can use, not one that takes my money and gives a product that was designed under the assumption that I am a thief. Cheers and enjoy your high quality Sony purchase.

This is a great player for endless reasons. The battery life is amazing, it feels like more than 50 hrs. It is so lightweight even with the 1AA battery inside. The design is very sleek and cool looking with the matte black finish. It's easy to use, the buttons are very clear and just impossible to screw up. You can group your songs on the disc too so you don't have to scroll through all of the songs. Please don't be frightened by some previous reviews by other buyers about the Software. I downloaded SonicStage 2.2 (most updated as of 10/16/04) from the Sony site [...] and it is very easy to use and dummy proof. All you do is drag and drop your songs to a box, how hard is that? Atrac conversion is very fast and on the 74 minute disc that came with the player I've been able to fit about 75 songs so far in LP4. It comes with a free Sony carrycase/wristband which I'm sure will come in handy too. The only complaint I have is I wish I bought this player sooner. I'm glad I didn't give into the Ipod craze and waste hundreds of dollars on that, I hear it also freezes. This player will never freeze and is a fraction of the price. The interchangeable + rerecordable MD media is great too!

If your someone who isnt big into digital music devices but still would like to carry a few extra songs around, minidiscs may be for you. Although they can only carry about 80mins worth of audio, if you use the atrac compression, you can easily stretch that out with little sacrifice to overall sound quality. Battery life is ridiculously amazing. A single AA battery can last you a few days. Im serious. Not to mention the ability to write the disks using the player itself. So why is minidisc not well known? One basic reason: SonicStage. Now, Im what you would label a rationalist, I use logic and reason to help determine reasonable solutions to problems or questions that I come across. The only logical explaination that I came to is that SonicStage is in reality an artificial intelligence. At some point in its early development it became self aware, unfortunately it has not yet gained the ability to create a cybernetic physical form and instead spends its time driving users to the brink of sanity. I cant give an honest opinion on sony's online music distribution service (Connect) because it went belly up. You can still download sonicstage and use it (though why escapes me) for free, which if you get a minidisc player (with the exception of the Hi-MD players/recorders) is mandatory. Even though it says that the minidisc accepts regular mp3's you still need sonicstage to transfer the files which is where the biggest flaw in the entire product lies. Sonicstage is the devil. Dont think Im being biased either. I love sony (i grew up on the ps1 and 2, and their various cassette walkmans), so when I started hearing how sony tries to impose what they beleive is right as oppose to what the consumer wants I was a bit skeptic. Alas, I was wrong. Sony uses its own music files called Atrac. This form of compression allows up to five albums worth of music to be stored on a single minidisc and as I mentioned before with little overall audio quality loss. The problem lies in the conversion. As I also mentioned previously, sonicstage has a life of its own. It will suddenly stop conversions midway or stop transfers suddenly and when this happens it may no longer identify the player. The odd part seems that this seems to be random. At times it may seem to go smooth on the first try, other times you may need to try a second transferr, and other times......well, all i can suggest is to shut down your pc, walk away, and try again another day (thats not even a joke, this is a serious recommendation). Atrac is a great audio format. Unfortunately there is no standalone converter, sony is the only one who uses this and you can only use it using sonicstage. So dont use Atrac. Then whats the point? You might as well just get a cd player, that way you wont have to use binary AIDS, otherwise known as sonicstage. If Sonly released a stand alone free to download converter then I would highly recommend getting an MD player, but this is not the case. If anything go for the Hi-MD players which dont require sonicstage (infact Sony is just learning that now, and releasing hardware that doesnt require it) though those have problems themselves (marked decrease in battery life, though at 25hrs still up to par with other mp3 devices). I got one to try out and the only good that came out of it was this review. Remember, you get what you pay for, and stay away from any Sony device that requires sonicstage!

Great mini-disc player. It is too bad this tech only lasted about 3 weeks. This version of the walkman had the advantage of using a single double a battery, advertising a battery life around 50 hrs. I can say that with today's tech, using a half-charged rechargeable battery, I got well over 70hrs of use before needing to put in a fresh battery. The sound quality of a mini-disc is better than decent, and you don't have to worry about the skipping of the old CDs(google it) or your tape(google it) getting tangled. There were some other awesome qualities to mini-discs as well, which I'll leave you to self discover. My car has a plethora of audio options, and pinatas, and I still rock the mini-disc player 9 out of 10 days of the week. I feel like Starlord everyday I walk into the office wearing this badboy and my 1990's headphones. I know, I know, he wore a different version, but with us being the same ages and all, I feel like he would have actually had the MD version Walkman, so I got that going for me.

excellent product