Draw backs to MiniDisc player?

[Uncontrol]

I plan on getting this for my birthday:

Sony NetMD Walkman Digital Music Player, MZ-NF520D

What are the cons of this MiniDisc player alone or MiniDiscs in general?

[XChA1NzX]

you can't delete songs from them like CreAtive's MuVo NX. they take long to make MDs (what I've heard). they have bad battery life? (what I've heard also.

[infiltrate200]

The only draw back is buying the disk and well noting really. They are cheap and they get the job done. Way better than a CD player but not as good as a good MP3 player.

[Unregistered Account]

XChA1NzX

you can't delete songs from them like CreAtive's MuVo NX. they take long to make MDs (what I've heard). they have bad battery life? (what I've heard also.

They typically have a fantastic battery life.
The software which loads music onto the device is supposedly pretty awful, though.

[monkeyv]

Uncontrol

What are the cons of this MiniDisc player alone or MiniDiscs in general?

Of minidiscs in general is that they are not populer and it will be harder to find anything for it.

[-PluR-Zen]

XChA1NzX

you can't delete songs from them like CreAtive's MuVo NX. they take long to make MDs (what I've heard). they have bad battery life? (what I've heard also.

Wrong wrong and wrong. Nice try though ^.^
(The most time consuming part is converting the audio format. The battery life is great.)

Only two drawbacks to the MD that I've found:
1. Sonicstage (the proggie used to transfer songs) can be a b***h at times. Generally not too bad though.
2. The fact that the MD format (.omg) is proprietary can be a pain in the a**. Not a huge deal, really.

The one you're planning to get isn't the newest type (Hi-MD) but NetMD is still speedy and convenient.

You'll not be able to find lots of music released on MD, but they're better for use a personal music players and recorders.
http://www.minidisc.org/

[Foolish]

and they are great for taping concerts ;D

[Uncontrol]

You'll not be able to find lots of music released on MD, but they're better for use a personal music players and recorders.

I can just use the mp3s on my computer, right?

..and can I import mp3 from the mini disc to my computer? Like load them onto the Mini Disc, delete them from my HD, and then import them from the MD when I want to.

[/dev/fox]

Uncontrol

..and can I import mp3 from the mini disc to my computer? Like load them onto the Mini Disc, delete them from my HD, and then import them from the MD when I want to.

You probably can, but you probably don't want to. I believe that the MD players convert other audio formats into ATRAC3 format. Converting between formats incurs a loss in audio quality, and is generally not a good idea.

[Uncontrol]

/dev/fox

Uncontrol

..and can I import mp3 from the mini disc to my computer? Like load them onto the Mini Disc, delete them from my HD, and then import them from the MD when I want to.

You probably can, but you probably don't want to. I believe that the MD players convert other audio formats into ATRAC3 format. Converting between formats incurs a loss in audio quality, and is generally not a good idea.

Hmm..I see. Just to confirm this..I CAN use mp3s that I download from the internet on this, right?

[Levilprivateer]

Uncontrol

I plan on getting this for my birthday:

Sony NetMD Walkman Digital Music Player, MZ-NF520D

What are the cons of this MiniDisc player alone or MiniDiscs in general?

Some cons that I've not seen covered are:

- If you use it for jogging / running, it may skip (moving parts versus solid chip memory)

- Minidiscs require an ongoing investment in media, whereas hard drive / solid state mp3 players have reusable space.

[MalikTous]

The main problem with Sony's Minidisc format, including their HD and RAM-based players, is that their default ATRAC formats are excessively bogged down with DRM garbage. For a portable HD or RAM based device, there are many MP3-capable players ranging from the iPod and Creative Nomad/Zen, through units that play MP3s from USB chipdrives like the Lexar Jumpdrives. Compressed music formats like MP3 are popular precisely because they lack DRM capability, DRM (digital rights management) sucks.

Some later Sony devices include MP3 capability, but it's not as good as on devices designed for it like the iPod, iRiver (also does OGG), RIO, or Nomad/Zen. The minidisc format is no better than standard DVD or CD, and the players are more proprietary. I'd go with one of the others or a CD-based player with anti-skip. If you want high-quality recording, learn to boot an iPod in UNIX and bypass Apple's silly recording limitation.

[Unregistered Account]

Uncontrol

Hmm..I see. Just to confirm this..I CAN use mp3s that I download from the internet on this, right?

Yes but you will have to use the included Sony software to convert every song into the format (ATRAC3) used by the minidisc player.

[ParoX]

MalikTous

The main problem with Sony's Minidisc format, including their HD and RAM-based players, is that their default ATRAC formats are excessively bogged down with DRM garbage. For a portable HD or RAM based device, there are many MP3-capable players ranging from the iPod and Creative Nomad/Zen, through units that play MP3s from USB chipdrives like the Lexar Jumpdrives. Compressed music formats like MP3 are popular precisely because they lack DRM capability, DRM (digital rights management) sucks.

Some later Sony devices include MP3 capability, but it's not as good as on devices designed for it like the iPod, iRiver (also does OGG), RIO, or Nomad/Zen. The minidisc format is no better than standard DVD or CD, and the players are more proprietary. I'd go with one of the others or a CD-based player with anti-skip. If you want high-quality recording, learn to boot an iPod in UNIX and bypass Apple's silly recording limitation.

The omg format has been surprisingly liberal these past few releases. The only DRM limitation on you now is that if you put mp3s onto an MD from computer A, you can only take them off on computer A. HiMD does even better in that it can be used as a USB mass storage device, removing the OMG limitations on the file types.

@Uncontrol:
Yes, you can dl mp3s and put them on minidiscs.

[Tjash2010]

My little review...

I love sonys Mini disc players. They are more effient then regular Mp3 players in the fact you odnt have todo so much deleting.

With the compression software you get fit around 5 1/2 hours of music on 1 disc and the quality is still really good.

The mini-discs are cheap too...around 1 and 2 dollars a disc. Get like a legal music downloader like Itunes or something like that. You know they are legal when you can go to bestbuy and get a download card from them or if they are companies like MSN (Microsoft)

The mini disc player it self is a good size about the size and weight of a MP3 player.

They are almost identical to MP3 players except the fact you can change the discs and thats about the only thing.