Customer Reviews:
 DON'T LET THE THREE STARS TURN YOU OFF>>>READ MORE>>> May 16, 2006
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I just got my player yesterday, so I can not give a fair review, as I've not had the time to test everyting out yet, so please don't let the 3 stars scare you off. I really love this player, actually, I just need time to let it earn its 5 stars, if it will. So far the player is very intuitive. The sound is good. I love Hi-MD, now, in addition to standard MD. Recording onto it is easy enough. I must say, too, that sonicstage is not bad so far, despite what other reviewers have written. That's my twopence about the matter. Anyway, I'll give another review in about 6 months to a year if I remember...hehehe. But good so far. LONG LIVE MINIDISC!!! DOWN WITH THE EVIL EMPIRE ADORNED WITH GLOSSY WHITE EARPHONES!!!
 Piece of junk March 27, 2006
3 out of 15 found this review helpful
The battery is so poor, I wonder if it may infact be defective. The user interface is awkward, clumsy and hard to use. And then after 5 months of usage, the thing finally broke completely. waste of money. stay away.
Great Item. March 24, 2006
1 out of 11 found this review helpful
This is a great piece. But I needed one with a microphone line input and found thi to have the same features plus a line in http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000F55G5Y/
 High Quality Recorder March 22, 2006
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
I purchased the Sony MZ-RH910 Hi-MD Walkman to make musical recordings of live performances. It works well with an external microphone, but records to only the left channel with a mono microphone. The coupon offering five free music downloads, however, didn't work.
An excellent alternative March 20, 2006
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
This is my second MD player. My first one was a first generation model from Sony. I was happy enough with that one, but the SonicStage v 2.X software could be a nightmare.
I'll start with the software.
- If you have experience with previous MD units, particularly with the SonicStage 2.x software and are hoping they have improved the software, they have. SonicStage 3.0 is a HUGE improvement over 2.x.
-While not a drag and drop interface, the code monkeys did a good job with making this software intuitive. The relatively short learning curve more than makes up for the minimal documentation. Any reasonably computer-literate person should be able to figure out how to do what they want in a short time.
-I'm not sure if this is a software, firmware or hardware quirk, but I've noticed that if I have a disc in my MD player and hook up the USB cable before I boot, SonicStage will insist that the disk was formatted by a source other than SonicStage. I'll add that this doesn't happen every time. This isn't a huge problem. Boot up, start SonicStage, THEN hook up the player and put a disc in.
- Sony thankfully did away with limiting the number of transfers you can do in all cases. In previous versions, every track you converted to ATRAC3 had a limit of three transfers. I know there are cases where the number of transfers is limited, but I can't figure out when this applies. I have music I've downloaded from the web, stuff I've ripped from CDs and things I don't remember where I got. The number of remaining transfers in all cases is unlimited.
-SonicStage is a little picky about DRM. I had tracks I'd previously ripped from CDs that had DRM on them. The software wouldn't deal with them. I re-ripped the tracks using SonicStage. They play and transfer just fine with no limit on uploads.
- There will be times when the software has appeared to freeze when you are ripping or transferring tracks, particularly if the job is big. However, after the transferring is done, SonicStage updates the disc status, which can take a little time. A little patience saves a lot of frustration.
-I was happy to see that Sony decided to start supporting MP3 and WMA. You don't need to convert all your music to ATRAC3 anymore. I don't know how it deals with the MP3 or WMA format and frankly, I don't care. I do know it transfers and plays both types just fine. That is what I care about.
- Tranfers are neither particularly slow nor particularly fast. I'm not a real fanatic about transfer speeds, so this wasn't a huge issue.
- You can make playlists and songs are played in the order you want. This is a small point, but sometimes I want songs to play in a specific order.
Now, the hardware.
- The player came with some bud-style headphones. Normally, I toss OEM headphones because they are garbage. The ones that shipped with the unit were pretty good. After I tweaked the equalizer a bit to suit my tastes, I was impressed.
- YOU CAN REPLACE THE BATTERIES. Sony ships the unit with a replaceable battery. Thank you. My last MP3 player (a Rio Nitrus) was retired because the battery was dying. The addition of the external battery case makes it nicer. I frequently find myself away from AC power for days at a time. Having AA's as an option (but not my only option) is nice.
- For some reason, I like the thought of having my songs on removable discs. I can honestly say I've never been in a position where tossing a couple of mini-discs into my bag or in a pocket has been a burden.
- The unit is a little larger than previous generation MD players. This isn't a defect or a quirk, it's just something that is. I had two cases that had seen service with my previous MD and MP3 players. The 910 was a little too big to fit into either.
- The USB cable is pretty generic. I have two or three of the same type so loss shouldn't be a problem. Sony ships the unit with two extra EMC shields.
- The sound. Obviously, you don't expect Surround Sound with something like this, but it's still pretty good. I've hooked it into my home stereo, cranked the volume and it still sounded good.
- Disc availability. The unit ships with a 1GB disk. I bought three more from a vendor here on Amazon, but I haven't tried to find any locally yet. I do know the smaller ones are available at the store down the street.
Conclusion:
I don't understand why the MD format never quite took off, or why Sony isn't really marketing these things. I suspect they are the personal audio version of the Brooks leather bicycle saddle. Those who like them, really like them, but they do lack some measure of the techno-sexiness of more agressively marketed units.
I chose this unit because I'd liked my previous MD player (software and firmware issues notwithstanding). This model had specific features I wanted (removable batteries, flexibility in how songs are arranged, mechanical durability) for a reasonable cost.
I would recommend buying one of these, particularly for people who have used MD players in the past. I would also recommend it for people who can't quite find what they want with hard drive or flash-based MP3 players.
I would not recommend them in the following instances:
1) If having a single, self-contained unit is a high priority (it isn't for me, but it takes all kinds).
2) If you use any OS other than windows 2000 or higher. It's kind of a shame that they don't have SonicStage for Mac or Linux.
3) If a high-degree of techno-sexy is important.
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