Like the Sony N1 or the 707.
Is it really painless? Does the transfer software convert MP3 to ATRAC?
Can you transfer recordings to the PC quickly?
EDIT:
OK - Koing and whoever else, here's what you wanted.
I bought an MZ-N707 with OpenMG Jukebox V2.2.
Transfer from PC to MD: Standard recording (SP) from 192Kbps MP3 is pretty much real time when you take into account the conversion time (on a 1.33Ghz Athlon). Bad. I haven't tried 2x and 4x LP because I'm quite fussy about sound quality and some of my other MD decks aren't LP compatible anyway.
This transfer process is called checkout, and there is a limit on how many times you can checkout a track from a PC (3). I have no way of telling whether this checkout code affects the original MP3 file since I haven't installed the software on my other PC's yet, but if it does make any changes to my MP3 files to enable this copy protection, then I'm suing. For the moment though, deleting the song from OpenMG Jukebox and re-importing it seems to reset the count.
The transfer/conversion procedure is also very buggy. I've tried to make 5 MD's and 2 of them were unplayable - the tracks would come up on the player but no sound would come out, but not for all of the tracks on the disc - 2 tracks worked on one, just one on the other. I tried the offending discs in my MD decks but they wouldn't play either - so a problem at the conversion process.
Transfer from MD to PC: It denies me access to all the tracks that I've recorded on my MD decks, because it only supports tracks that have been 'checked out' using the above method. Even if it were possible, it can't be converted into a WAV file for editing. Useless.
<rant>
On the whole, I'm disappointed about the USB facility. Too much functionality has, in my view, been sacrificed to placate the RIAA, and especially their lawyers, who are a bunch of greedy, scheming fvcking bastards. Did you hear about what they tried to introduce on the back of the anti-terrorism legistlation? I'd personally grab an Arab fundamentalist, arm him to the teeth, point him in their direction, and say "look, a bunch of infidel American Zionists, have fun..."
</rant>
I needed a Minidisc player anyway, and as a 'traditional' MD player/recorder the MZ-N707 is very pleasant. Otherwise I would have taken this back to the shop, as the PC integration features are next to useless for my needs. The microphone socket means that I can use it for recording conferences, and the LP facility means that no matter how long the speaker drones on (and no matter how long I go to sleep), it's all on the disc. The only thing I could miss compared to other MD units I've had is a backlit display on the remote.
A minor point, but too many of the OpenMG Jukebox software messages are in Japlish. With a 'global' company like Sony, they should have picked this up.
The facility to simply alter track and disc titles from the OpenMG software is nice, but I can do that simply through my main MD deck as well (it has a PS/2 keyboard socket on it)
The fact that the player uses standard Nicads also is good.
I'd give it 7 out of 10 as a regular MD recorder/player, and 2 out of 10 as an Internet music device.
Is it really painless? Does the transfer software convert MP3 to ATRAC?
Can you transfer recordings to the PC quickly?
EDIT:
OK - Koing and whoever else, here's what you wanted.
I bought an MZ-N707 with OpenMG Jukebox V2.2.
Transfer from PC to MD: Standard recording (SP) from 192Kbps MP3 is pretty much real time when you take into account the conversion time (on a 1.33Ghz Athlon). Bad. I haven't tried 2x and 4x LP because I'm quite fussy about sound quality and some of my other MD decks aren't LP compatible anyway.
This transfer process is called checkout, and there is a limit on how many times you can checkout a track from a PC (3). I have no way of telling whether this checkout code affects the original MP3 file since I haven't installed the software on my other PC's yet, but if it does make any changes to my MP3 files to enable this copy protection, then I'm suing. For the moment though, deleting the song from OpenMG Jukebox and re-importing it seems to reset the count.
The transfer/conversion procedure is also very buggy. I've tried to make 5 MD's and 2 of them were unplayable - the tracks would come up on the player but no sound would come out, but not for all of the tracks on the disc - 2 tracks worked on one, just one on the other. I tried the offending discs in my MD decks but they wouldn't play either - so a problem at the conversion process.
Transfer from MD to PC: It denies me access to all the tracks that I've recorded on my MD decks, because it only supports tracks that have been 'checked out' using the above method. Even if it were possible, it can't be converted into a WAV file for editing. Useless.
<rant>
On the whole, I'm disappointed about the USB facility. Too much functionality has, in my view, been sacrificed to placate the RIAA, and especially their lawyers, who are a bunch of greedy, scheming fvcking bastards. Did you hear about what they tried to introduce on the back of the anti-terrorism legistlation? I'd personally grab an Arab fundamentalist, arm him to the teeth, point him in their direction, and say "look, a bunch of infidel American Zionists, have fun..."
</rant>
I needed a Minidisc player anyway, and as a 'traditional' MD player/recorder the MZ-N707 is very pleasant. Otherwise I would have taken this back to the shop, as the PC integration features are next to useless for my needs. The microphone socket means that I can use it for recording conferences, and the LP facility means that no matter how long the speaker drones on (and no matter how long I go to sleep), it's all on the disc. The only thing I could miss compared to other MD units I've had is a backlit display on the remote.
A minor point, but too many of the OpenMG Jukebox software messages are in Japlish. With a 'global' company like Sony, they should have picked this up.
The facility to simply alter track and disc titles from the OpenMG software is nice, but I can do that simply through my main MD deck as well (it has a PS/2 keyboard socket on it)
The fact that the player uses standard Nicads also is good.
I'd give it 7 out of 10 as a regular MD recorder/player, and 2 out of 10 as an Internet music device.
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