I just picked up a cheap NetMD unit on eBay (Sony MZ-NE410). My thought with this would be to use it as if it were a MP3 player: copy stuff from CDs to it and carry it around with me.
I’ve been reading on the Sony NetMD software, and now i wish i hadn’t bought it. It seems everywhere all over the Web people are complaining that SonicStage messed up their computer, voted to reelect George Bush, gave them bad hair, or did other unspeakable things.
So, am i better off selling this thing right back unopened?
Has anybody here used NetMD? What can you tell me?
If you use it to transfer tracks to your mini disk you will likely have no problems. It is by far the best method of recording from CD to MD. Sonic Stage will also convert your MP3 files if you want to, if you do this keep a separate copy of your MP3s as they will be converted to ATRAC (Sony’s format).
Get a good set of headphones for listening to your mini disk and you will be surprised at how good the sound is.
I’ve got a NetMD, but I don’t use their software and have never installed it, so I can’t help you out there.
I read about their software’s check-in/check-out system, and decided it wasn’t for me…instead, I just use the analog line and live with real-time transfers, as silly as that is
I’ve got one of those minidisc players and it’s never done anything seedy to my computer. I think as long as you choose not to set it as a default for anything when you install it, it won’t change anything on your computer. The people who are whining about it probably just weren’t paying attention when they installed it.
Also about the check-in/check-out system, there are very easy ways of bypassing it to make more than 3 uploads of a song. All you have to do is take off the song from the playlist and then put it back on. Nifty, huh?
Thanks, everybody! I installed the software today (i went with the newest versions i could find in the bulletin boards (Sonic Stage 3 and Simple Burner 2E) instead of what came with the unit). I haven’t had to use SonicStage yet. Simple Burner works, although it couldn’t find the track names for the 2 CDs i copied, and kept crashing while i entered the track names by hand. So, it wasn’t painless, but still easier and faster than recording in analog mode. I think this will work well for what i need it for.
Note: rebooting my computer fixed the problems i was having with Simple Burner. I still haven’t had to use SonicStage.
Here’s some more on the unit: the MZ-NE410 is a very basic unit. I wouldn’t want to have it as my only MD: it has no recording or editing capabilities (can’t delete anything, can’t rename a track, etc) on its own; everything has to be done through a (Windows) computer. The display is way too small, and i’m having a little trouble convincing it to stay set the way i want (song name). Of course the fact that you have to use Sony’s software is mildly irritating. Their CD ripping software (Simple Burner) is adequate, but not a speed demon, and crashes a lot.
However, the sound is excellent, and it seems impossible to cause it to skip. So as a backup unit to listen to stuff, it works well. I much like the fact that it uses a standard AA battery. I hate nonstandard batteries. I’ve used it for a few hours (recording and playing music) for 2 days, and the battery still displays as being fully charged.
One thing remains to be tested: how will my non-MD Sharp portable handle the disks created in this Sony unit? I’ll take a couple of disks home to check.
