Rating: 
Summary: Better than MP3, and great battery life!
Review: The best thing about this player is pretty simple: 1 AA Batter = 56 hours of playing time! I dont' care how much MP3 players can hold. It doesn't make a difference if you have to stop every 10 hours to change the batteries.You may be turned off by the little MiniDisc's you have to use, but in all truth, it's not really a problem. First, they are cheap, and well protected. And they are very simple to store. The software that comes with is really easy to use. Select the songs you want, and click on the Record button, and it puts it on the machine. I like the fact that it also makes sharing really easy. My GF has had one of these for 6 months, and loves it. We originally wanted to get her an MP3 player, and did a LOT of research. Asked a lot of people, and time and time again, people recommended this player. Wonderful player, wonderful price, lots of storage (and the storage is much cheaper than your average MP3 player). Simply a great buy.
Rating:
Summary: Stop Carrying All Those Cd's!
Review: I've had this player for about 2 weeks now and in that time frame I've given away my portable cd player as well as my MP3 player. This little guy is the best! As with everything it could be better...but not much. It is the entry level product offered by Sony so you don't get some of the bells and whistles that you will with other players. Remember bells and whistles = $$. The portability factor alone makes it worth the price. I no longer have to carry books of cd's everywhere I go. I just pull the tracks off and make my own custom minicd's. I haven't had any problems with the software and I'm running XP (Professional). It could also be that I am using my 600 disc cd collection to make my minidiscs and not downloading files off the net. Incidentally, I use LP4 when recording and have come up with over 5 hours of music on one minidisc without the reported differences in sound quality... great for the road, the gym and the office. Battery consumption is awesome except when recording but then again, its only one battery. It would be nice if it had an AC Adapter and better headphones but for the price you're getting quite a bit already. Since it doesn't come with a carrying case you can purchase the armband case like I have and take your show on the road, blades, bike...just about everywhere. So Cool!! Get one you won't regret it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad
Review: It's a really good MP3 player. It's a lot easier than walking around with a porable CD player cuz it's really small. The batteries last a long time on playback. The only thing i don't like is when your putting songs on the mini disc it eats up a brand new battery in like 5 minutes so you have to keep replacing the batteries just to put songs onto the mini disc. Other than that i don't have any other problems with it. It's a good buy if you like music and don't wanna keep changing CDs, cuz a lot of songs can fit onto a one mini disc.
Rating:
Summary: A very cool thing to have...
Review: A little bit of a story here. Several months ago I went to RadioShack and bought an MP3 CD Player. About two months ago, it stopped working right. If I kept it paused for too long it would lose its place in the current song. Sometimes it would freeze up while trying to load a CD. And once, when I skipped to another track, it continued to play the track I was previously listening to. So, I decided to buy something new with the $200 I had after my birthday. Instead of waiting like an intelligent person for the Archos 20GB MP3 Jukebox to go down in price like it did, I went to a local Media Play store and bought this. But, this was still a wise investment.... The only real gripe I have about this thing is the software. While the Simple Burner runs fast enough for me, the Sonic Stage software is annoying. It took me forever just to get two Ill Niño MP3s onto the disc due to the fact that they just can't let you add them directly to the disc. Other than the software problems, a MD Player is a wonderful thing to have. While it doesn't hold as much music as an MP3 player like the Archos Jukebox my friend has, the minidiscs cost about $2 for 5 hours of music, which is all I need. If you don't want or need a huge MP3 player, but want something better than a CD player? Put down the money for one of these and you'll be happy...
Rating:
Summary: great cheap minidisc player
Review: In the land of musical choices, Sony's MZ-NE410 rates among the best. Pros: cheap, fast, long battery life, easy to use
Cons: no microphone option, buttons feel cheap, max volume may not be loud enough for some individuals system review Speed: The mini disc player has easy to use software that worked flawlessly with Windows ME. This mini disc player is only compatable with a computer and transfers at the rate of 32X. It is a NetMD so it is capable of handling many musical formats including MP3, WAV, and WMA. Use: This player lacks a microphone and can only be used to play and record music. It has G-protection so it will never skip. G-protection is an anti skip device invented by Sony. Instead of saving music onto the devices in system memory the laser inside the player moves while you move, preventing skips from occuring. The player is light and easy to carry around. It fits in a pocket snuggly unless you enjoy wearing tight jeans. According to the box, this mini disc player has a battery life of 54 hour. It runs on one AA battery... not included in the package. The headphones given are good but they don't look cool. I wish Sony would have included a pair of their stylish street headphones. Other than that I have noticed that the control buttons on this player feel cheap. I wish Sony would have made this player with sturdier buttons but you get what you pay for. mini disc vs mp3: This player is the same price as an mp3 player but it holds more music. One mini disc holds up to five hours of music. Mini discs cost $ whereas memory for mp3 players cost large amounts of money ranging from $ to $. An mp3 player with 128 MB can hold about 2 1/2 hours of music. The advantages of MP3 players is the removeable memory used in mp3 players can be used for other devices such as digital cameras. Conclusion: This mini disc player is well worth the money I paid for it. Go get one unless you need microphone capabilities. Microphone capabilities can be used to create bootleg music at concerts, and record personal voice memos. If you can forego those options you can save yourself $50.
Rating:
Summary: Very good unit
Review: I am new to the whole internet download thing, but once I got into it I wanted a way to transport my music to the office with me. I tried a couple bottom-feeder MP3 players, not ready to step up to the cost of an iPod yet, before I settled on this player. I have been very pleasantly surprised! Although I have not had problems with the software that came with it, as some others have, I am using it with RealPlayer 10 and it works flawlessly. Even on the lowest quality setting (LP4) there is hardly any difference between MD and CD quality. You can fit over 5 hours of music on each disc in this mode. The discs are cheap and are REUSABLE. Battery life is outstanding. Sony says 56 hours, but I'm still on my first battery and I'm sure I've used it more than that. If you are looking for an inexpensive alternative to iPod, this is a very good one. It is far superior to MP3 players in its price range. My only complaint is that it doesn't have a belt clip and as far as I can tell no one makes one for this player. I found a cover for a personal "walkie-talkie" that works ok, and there are a couple PDA covers that might work as well.
Rating:
Summary: Nice as 2nd player or for language lessons
Review: I bought the MZ-NE410 as a secondary player since I already own an Archos Jukebox. The NE410 is small, light and has great sound w/ ATRAC3-132kbps. The minor inconveniences are that the display is tiny (you won't see a multi-line display of track name, lapsed time, and/or total length) and it's not backlit, which renders it nearly useless in low light conditions. The MAJOR drawback with the player, however, as other reviewers have pointed out, is that you have to use either the bundled software (SonicStage 1.5, Simple Burner, OpenMG), download Real Audio Player, or use some homegrown, freeware apps to upload/download music to the NE410. You are thus restricted from using multiple PCs to transfer/share music and God help you if a Windows XP system restore hoses your audio files - you'll most likely have to start rebuilding the music library from scratch, unless you regularly do backups. As compared to a non-proprietary, drag-and-drop player like an Archos, these limited use restrictions are very, very chafing. On a positive note, the player is great for audiobooks or language tapes/cds. You can upload about 5 hours to the player at 66kps and with a generic car kit adaptor, use it in the car. The automatic resume function lets you stop the player, pop into a store, then resume your place in the file when you get back in the car, SO LONG AS you don't eject the disc (which will reset playback from the beginning). The NE410 can't compete with the storage capabilities of jukebox MP3 players (Megabytes vs. Gigabytes) and the software restrictions required by Sony Music (vs. Sony Electronics) certainly turn off potential buyers. But if you want a second player for your morning commute or you don't want to transfer all your music to one device, I'd recommend you pick up this player.
Rating:
Summary: Good player
Review: I am very satisfied with this player. I use it to jog/workout and it fits in my hand, is very light and doesn't skip. The "hold" option is great because it doesn't let you accidentally press any buttons when enabled. The discs hold tons of music under LP4 compression with very little quality loss. If I had negatives they would be the software because it makes you manage song licenses and doesn't recognize music without them. The digital screen is small and not backlit, but that keeps the player [inexpensive] and makes for longer battery life (I bought rechargable AA's and they work great). A final negative (in comparison to mp3 players) would be the time it takes the software to burn the music onto the disc. They aren't just files you can drag and drop onto a drive, so it takes some time to make a full disc of music. Overall it's a great player though.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome Ipod Alternative crippled by retarded software
Review: Ok. The good news first. If you're on a budget...or just smart...and looking for an Ipod (read hard-drive mp3 player) alternative you've found it. The NE410 is the low-end Sony NetMD minidisc player. Essentially this means that the only way to put music on it is with a computer. With about 5 hours of music per 80 minute disk (in lowest quality format) and disks costing about a buck and a half apiece you get better sound quality than Ipod with unlimited store. Not bad. Now the bad news. Sony is a great company, but unfortunately it's like 10 great companies and Sony Music has managed to get Sony Electronics to cripple most of their mp3 capable hardware with stupid copyright protections. (Great idea Sony, but you get the short end when no other manufacturers follow suit). Ok, whatever. Sony should protect its own. But then they went and brought the betamax crew back from retirement to design the SINGLE WORST PIECE OF SOFTWARE I HAVE EVER USED. Don't think I'm exaggerating. It's that bad. But, in the end if you research some online forums enough you'll find some workarounds. But the Sonic Stage/Simple Burner software really should be given to some techie terrorists in some prison to play with...it's better than any torture they could possibly be being subjected to now. Ok. Deep breath. Do not let this deter you. The sound quality from this player is great. The capacity is great. It looks cool without being trendy. Just plan to set aside a good 4-5 hours to de-fu*k the software. And enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: I go snowboarding a lot and needed some music while I did. People may say that they won't bring this cause its flimsy and what not. Let me tell you I'm not that great a boarder and I fall. A lot. And this thign holds up to the cold and damp just great. Also much much cheaper than all those hard disk players.
| 
