Sony MZNH600D Hi-MD MiniDisc Walkman
See it at Amazon.com for $195.99Average Customer Rating
(4.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
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(3 out of 5)Nice System, but what is SONY thinking?
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.
(5 out of 5)Awesome player AND portable drive
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 :)
(5 out of 5)Awesome Purchase
THe new minidisc by Sony is awesome. 1 minidisc holds a Gig of memory, shock resistant and it is very portable. The sound is awesome, becuase Sony allows you to customize the sound on 6 different levels meaning sound can be adjusted to your preference. Battery life is around 30 hours which is great. Runs off one regular one AA battery which is great and this thing is light. You can use to workout or whatever it perfecty sets itself up to be any type of player you want it to be. Atrac3plus is a great addition to the Hi-MD, even Atrac3plus at 64kps is better than Mp3 128kps. Overall this is a great product I recommend this over any Mp3 jukebox or flash player.
(3 out of 5)Product 4, Software 0
When I dropped my original MD player I had to replace it in a hurry. I didn't think to look to closely at this product and wish I would have. My original one allowed me to record to MDs by several different ways. With this one you can only go directly from a computer to it. Also no microphone function on this one either. There is also no ability to use AC with this so you will be stuck using batteries.
The software that comes with this is not very user friendly but once you get the hang of it you might not think it is so terrible.
(5 out of 5)Great Sound, Perfect Alternative to iPod
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.