Product Description

Get up to speed with Sony's MZ-NE410 High Speed Net MD Walkman Recorder. This product enables you to record your MP3s or CDs at up to 32x Speed, Play Back ATRAC3 Audio, MP3, WMA, and WAV, enjoy up to 56 hours continuous playback using 1 "AA" Battery (LP4 Mode), and play more than 5 hours of Music on one 80-minute disc. Take advantage of the supplied Music Management Software including SonicStage Software and the Net MD Simple Burner Application. Skip-Free G-Protection Technology enables a smooth listening experience, and "Easy Skip" Group/Folder function allows for easy navigation between multiple file folders. The NetMD Recorder is the best digital choice for you with the MZ-NE410.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #844 in Consumer Electronics
• Color: Black
• Brand: Sony
• Model: MZ-NE410
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds

Features

• Stores more than five hours of music on an 80-minute minidisc; speedy USB connection minimizes recording time
• Compatible with MP3, WMA, and WAV music files as well as with the pressplay online music subscription service
• Bundled software helps you organize your music by artist, song, style, or tempo
• ID3 tag cleaning ensures accurate artist and title information for your digital music files
• Up to 56 hours of playback from a single AA battery

Amazon.com Product Description
The MZ-NE410 Net MD Walkman recorder has everything needed to create great-sounding music mixes. In addition to transferring music at up to 32x speed (using its LP4 mode), the unit's SonicStage Jukebox software stores and manages digital music files, custom playlists, and music transfers, making it a cinch to transfer music to the device. The MZ-NE410 offers high-speed transfer from a PC via a direct USB connection, and it can record more than five hours of music on one 80-minute minidisc (using LP4 mode). It also uses Sony's skip-free G-Protection technology, which eliminates or reduces skipping during many active uses. The MZ-NE410 is compatible with the RealOne music player and the pressplay.com online music subscription service. It plays back ATRAC3 files and supports multiple Internet audio formats, including MP3, WMA, and WAV. The unit provides up to 56 hours of continuous playback on one AA battery.

The Easy Skip group-folder function helps organize songs into albums or groups. Once the music is transferred to the MZ-NE410, you can easily skip from group to group. Besides the bundled SonicStage software and SonicStage simple burner application, the MZ-NE410 includes software for creatively organizing music. MoodLogic software goes beyond typical jukebox applications, letting you compile music by mood or tempo rather than simply by artists and song titles.

MoodLogic corrects file information by identifying and retitling mislabeled tracks during ID3 tag cleaning. It also has a feature called Music Marker, which lets you "tag" music during playback. Once the device is reconnected to a PC, MoodLogic retrieves the marks, connects to the Musiclub Web site, and provides information about the song and artist and links to download new tracks, purchase CDs, or discover similar artists.

Note: The MZ-NE410's recording features and bundled software are not compatible with the MacOS operating system

Here's how you can use the included Sonic Stage Software to manage your music files:

Customer Reviews

MiniDisc vs. Mp3 Players
After browsing hours and hours for a cheap alternative to buying an mp3 player and something I could run with I spent about 2 hours in Best Buy and reading reviews on Amazon.com to find what I wanted. I paced back and forth through the aisles constantly going back to the mp3 area only to find myself so close to buying this open item iPod... it was 269 for a 10 GB old style iPod, however it was kind of beat up.

I realized its really not practical to buy that thing or any other flash mp3 player for that matter... if you ever wanted to change songs you'd have to head back to your computer to add or remove songs on to your flash mp3 player. I knew about the Sony MZ-NE410 and it was on sale for 99 dollars. I use to own a MiniDisc player and hi-fidelity is a plus for a minidisc player vs. an mp3 player. Ignore those SNR (Signal2Noise Ratio) numbers on mp3 players nothing compares to a minidisc player.

Last but not least LP4... I was afraid it was going to sound horrible like a 64 kbps mp3 or even worse... LP4 is freaking amazing let me tell you. There is a quality difference but the difference is hardly noticable to the average ear. I can hear flaws but there's no distortion and its very clear. Amazing product! 99 Dollars and CHEAP MEDIA! Each minidisc holds about 320 minutes (LP4 Mode), 160 (Lp2), and 80 min (SP NEAR CD QUALITY). It is about 1 ounce lighter then an iPod and MUCH MORE PRACTICAL. Stop throwing away your money... the iPod's Hard Drive is more likely to fail since there are moving parts in a Hard Drive. I listen to about 5 or more CD's on one minidisc. I am still using the one that came with mine. Its not as thin or as small as those keychain mp3 players but its great for jogging and small enough.

The minidisc player also plays just like Sony's recent mp3 products. It buffers music into its memory while it's playing and stops spinning the minidisc after gaining filling up its buffer space. This increases battery life (about 56 hours with E2 Energizer Batteries) and the actual players life and of course for movement protection (G-Protection). Most mp3 players only play for about 10 hours. Technically an mp3 player is suppose to last longer then something with moving parts but many forget that an mp3 needs to decode the music which is like processor power in your computer and translate it to a sound unit in your player just like sound cards in your computer. YOU CAN'T GO WRONG WITH THIS! There's no pretty LCD but you're listening to music not watching equalizer bars go up and down and see the lapse time of the song, screw the LCD.

Great Hardware, Worthless Software.
After quite a while of wanting an MD player, I bought my MZ-NE410 at the local electronics superstore yesterday. I'll start with the bad. The included software is almost totally useless. I have never encountered such a buggy program past its alpha stage. It crashed four times trying to catalouge my media. After I got about 20 MP3s in my list, it alerted me to the fact that all but 6 were unsupported, and couldn't be converted!. That was enough, so I went online, and downloaded Real One player. It works like a charm. I've been using Musicmatch to make playlists, then importing em in Real One.

As for the good, this player is tiny, light, and has a cool matte black finish much like that on a B-2 or F-117. The amazing sound quality lets me hear things I never heard when listening to music through my computer, and I have a high quality home theater system connected to my comp. The player seems to excel with classical and soundtrack background scores, but everything else sounds incredible too. One unusual thing is that the included headphones actually sound great too. The display is tiny, but easy to read. It does only show track name at the beginning of a song, but you can switch to a mode that always shows the title quickly, with only a few clicks, so you can just switch back and forth if you really want to.

In closing, if you're in the market for an MD player, go with this unit, just make sure to download RealOne. I'm sure the newest high end models are great too, but they cost twice as much, and still have the same enraging SonicStage software.

Don't buy this item if you want traditional recording
I bought this unit hoping that I can do the audio recording the traditional way(in the sense that the audio is picked up by a microphone which hooked up with the unit. And sony calls this 'Walkman RECORDER') Amazon also lists(at least as of until today 02/04/2004) Sony ECMDS70P Digital Recording Microphones(miniDisc) as the accessory of this unit. So I thought I got a great deal and I anxiously waited for the package to arrive.

When I open the box I finally received, I did not find any jack that I can plug a microphone in. So I read the manual and only find something talking about recording with a computer. After several more hours of finding and reading manual/spec on the sony site, I realize that most other Sony minidisc walkman/recorder has optical input(which happened to be able to be used for analog line level input also) and some high end unit has mic input also.

And right now I have hard time to get a full refund which I believe that I am entitled to due to Amazon and Sony's 'false advertisement'. Amazon said that they will at most refund me 50% to 80% if I return. I am even willing to buy another sony model from them!.
I will let you know how it goes. But at least the future buyers won't fall into the same 'traps' as me.(Of course, you will still be in the same situation if Amazon somehow block this review from showing up)