Customer Reviews:
 Great Product for Awesome Price February 8, 2005
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is my second Sony MD Walkman. I bought the first one, an newer model, a few months ago. I loved it. I recently went to the Sony Outlet store and got the NE410 for about $35.00. I just can't pass up a great deal! I had purchased an MP3 player a while back. I have not used the MP3 player since I purchased my first Sony MD Walkman.
Granted, the software is not the best out there, but it's definitly not the worst. If you want an affordable music player with an amazing battery life, this is for you. If you want something that has a million bells and whistles, go look for something that will cost you in the range of a few hundred dollars. Most MP3-CD players, like digital cameras, suck up the battery life. So for those that insist this is too bulky or don't like MiniDiscs--- well, with other MP3 players, you have to always carry around extra batteries or a charger! I travel extensively and use this device on airplanes. It's small, convenient, and I rarely change the battery. Keep in mind too, that one mini-disc holds about 305mb/or about 13.5 hours worth of music. The sound is pretty good. The headset it comes with is fine. It does not deliver amamzing sound- but then again, at an average price of around $60.00 some odd dollars-- what do you expect? Want Bose quality, spend Bose-type money. Want iPod versatility with 40GB, spend $300.00. Want an inexpensive portable music device that delivers nice sound, battey life and has some of the nicer qualities of the more expensive players such as a small, skip protection pocket device? Then this is the product for you.
 Aweful software and "un-hip" design December 26, 2004
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
I received this item as a gift and my first impression was that the design was cheesy. It has the look of a walkman for sure. After seeing the cool mp3 players that are out there, I was fairly disappointed in the bulk and am not real pleased with having to use a disk for storage. Although it can hold more songs than a CD player, I wanted to get away from having to keep up with additional pieces of hardware.
The second problem I have with this devise is the aweful software. Lots of problems occured with getting songs recorded onto the disk - too many to mention - because of conflicts with my computer's operating system. A chat with a live help customer service representative gave me a solution for one problem, but it only gave way to new problems.
I am returning this minidisk player as soon as the holiday return lines dwindle and have already purchased an actual mp3 player that I have read wonderful reviews about time and time again.
 Great Product, Software very bad (Spanish) December 25, 2004
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Well, I live in Mexico City and I recently bought one of this Net MD. So, I want to write my review, but in Spanish, for people who can't read very well the English. And you can practice your Spanish:
Compre este Net MD la semana pasada, eran traidos de EU, asi que no tenian garantia en Mexico. Abri el empaque muy feliz, trate lo mas que pude de entender el instructivo (no me fue muy bien) y me dispuse a instalar el software. FUE UN VERDADERO INFIERNO. Pase dias tratando de hacer que las canciones pasaran al MD pero simplemente cuando lo hacia, Windows XP me decia que habia pasado un problema, y que tenia que cerrarse. Ya estaba contemplando la posibilidad de venderlo y comprarme un MP3, hasta que finalmente baje un parche del sitio de Microsoft, instale el SonicStage 2.3 y todo resuelto. La interfaz la encuentro muy comprensible, pero se necesita un poco de experiencia. La unica critica que encuentro es que cuando quemas los discos de MD, el reproductor devora baterias. Fuera de ahi, todo es perfecto: el sonido (te aconsejo que cambies los audifonos incluidos por unos mejores), la vida de la bateria cuando solo reproduce, el agarre de los botones es muy bueno, es muuuuy ligero, le caben cerca de 5 horas de musica en un disco, se pueden acomodar las canciones del disco en carpetas. Lo recomiendo si tienes paciencia con el software. Ademas es el mas barato de los Net MD.
Comments? Write me: covalto@msn.com
Really Good November 18, 2004
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I have owned a refurbed unit for almost a year now, and used it almost every day. It fits in a pocket-T perfectly, only uses one AA battery, and a rechargable Ni-Mh battery lasts a long time. The Sony Software takes a little getting used to, but to be honest I use the CD recorder software the most. I will convert mp3s to an audio Cd and use them. I did have a problem with the volume down button not working too well. The funny thing is I had what should have been a horrible accident fix it about 5 months ago.
I had my player in a cargo pants pocket, and put it in a washing machine while I was doing laundry (which I discovered after the load was done). I took out the battery, and opened everything up, stuck it in a brown paper bag in the sun for an hour to dry out. An hour later I put in a new battery, and she fired right up, and the volume controls work fine again.
I might also mention Sony put a great set of headphones in the unit as well. A tough unit which I highly recommend.
GOOD... BUT a few problems sink its ship.... November 16, 2004
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
BACKGROUND: I bought my MZ-NE410 approximately 1.5 years ago and use it quite regularly (2-3 times/week).
PROs:
- excellent playback battery life (50+ hrs)
- good volume of storage (i.e. # of songs per disc)
- good sound quality
CONs:
- transferring songs EATS up batteries
- main play control button breaks/malfunctions after ~6 months of use
- having to convert all of your mp3s to another file format via the supplied software
From my experience, transferring a full minidisc uses up 75% of the life of a good battery. There should be a way around this problem. After all, who wants to waste expensive batteries when you're sitting three feet away from a wall socket? Make no sense!
Also, the forward/back selectors on the main control button began to malfunction after 6 months. For example, pressing the 'forward' button to select the next song will often select the previous song instead (i.e. I am on track #10 and want to advance to track #11, so I press the 'forward' button. Instead of advancing to track #11, the player begins to play track #9.). If you're lucky, you can get the player to play the NEXT song by pressing the 'forward' button very hard. However, this seems to work only half of the time. This is a MAJOR INCONVENIENCE. I do now know if this problem is widespread or not. All I do know is that it is a problem for me.
The third problem with this player is that you have to convert all of your song files to another file format in order transfer them to the device. This will probably be a nuisance for those with older computers as it requires extra disk space and processing power. The slower your computer is, the more time it will take you to convert your songs. I have a 500MHz cpu and the process takes me about 30-60 minutes per disc. I expect that this will be less of a problem for those with newer computers.
OVERALL:
- DON'T buy it
From my experience, I would say that this player would be a great buy if it weren't for the defective buttons. However, this problem is apparent every time I attempt to change songs. As a result, I don't recommend the MZ-NE410.
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