Sony's MZ-N1 NetMD player/recorder - $273.95 SHIPPED - Smoked Pork HOT!!!

[HotDealFreakGuy]

Sony's newest minidisc player and recorder, the MZ-N1 just was released in the US three weeks ago with a suggested retail of $359.99 . I was thinking about buying this directly imported from Japan until I found this deal. Thought I would give back to the forum for once. I have the player sitting next to my computer now downloading my new $6.99 N.E.R.D Cd from Best Buy . I never thought about buying a MD player in the past because of the 1X recording speed involved, but with this new NetMD player I get around 16x transfers direct from CD. Here's how it goes:

Videodirect.com has the MZ-N1 listed as $270 for some weird reason. They didn't look very reputable to me so I tried to find a pricematch store I could get the deal at. That is when I discovered the magic of J&R's PM policy which I never knew existed. Pricematches must be done over the phone so call 1-800-806-1115 . *Politely* ask for the pricematch with VideoDirect. The CS rep will be like WTF? That price is below cost! Then they will search the Videodirect site for the price etc. I finally coaxed the CS rep into giving me the deal after 5 minutes of talking with his manager. You must stress that it says on VD's (I know that sounds bad) site that they are an authorized Sony dealer. I ended up getting t he spankin new player for $270.00 plus $3.75 two-day shipping. Since I live in PA there was no tax. This is one of the best deals you will see for a while on this player and Sony will come out with firmware updates in the futuer.

The player is great and is in a magnesium shell and a LCD remote is included. The cradle is nice for charging and USB upload but one problem is the charger does not shut off when the unit is fully powed. I am planning to use this for some DMB recording this year . Good luck to y'all! This is def. 10x better than any MP3, CDMP3, or alternative music player. Plus it records live... If you got questions post them.

-Mr. B

 

[dahamond]

you are right, that site does look very crappy. but anyway, my third message at AT

 

[Koing]

hey have you had any problems with your MZ-N1? Any problems with it not recording any mp3's to your MD? I've heard that it doesn't work at 'times'? I heard at times it doesn't record some mp3's and such.

What is THE ACTUAL recording speed of it? I have a few MD's myself. The only slight niggle is the fact that its real time. I want something faster and I am considering getting the MZ-N1 as well. I have the E900 myself. I got this 15 months ago. Great small player.

 

[HotDealFreakGuy]

<< hey have you had any problems with your MZ-N1? Any problems with it not recording any mp3's to your MD? I've heard that it doesn't work at 'times'? I heard at times it doesn't record some mp3's and such.

What is THE ACTUAL recording speed of it? >>



I have had not one problem since i got my MD player two weeks ago. I heard alot of B****ing about problems with it but most of those people were using Japanese software on their US computers. Sony has revised the software since the Japanese release. Using Simple Burner, the program that copies directly from CD to MD, it take about five minutes for my computer to read the disc and transfer the album to MD. I am not doing any calculations or anything to give you exact read and write speed. It probably varies depending on yhour computer. My computer is mediocre and three years old, so it is still pretty fast.

 

[JSang]

Did you have to request a price from video direct?
did the J and R rep just request a price quote from them when they pricematched?

 

[hanns]

Hi,

I would be interested in this unit but I'm hesitant because of the openmg software. Do you find the openmg software very restricting?

 

[mdplayer00]

The OpenMG software is a bit buggy. But Sony will keep updating that till it works perfectly. As for the recorder, It's the best MD to date and $270 is a insane price.

 

[DoOLiE11]

yeah tahts a great price on the N1

my mz-r900 is still goin strong though....

actual recording times do vary though, because it takes time to covert the mp3 to atrac files.. so even though it will record at 32x...its actally a bit slower after u figure in all the conversion time and stuff

 

[Koing]

<<

<< hey have you had any problems with your MZ-N1? Any problems with it not recording any mp3's to your MD? I've heard that it doesn't work at 'times'? I heard at times it doesn't record some mp3's and such.

What is THE ACTUAL recording speed of it? >>



I have had not one problem since i got my MD player two weeks ago. I heard alot of B****ing about problems with it but most of those people were using Japanese software on their US computers. Sony has revised the software since the Japanese release. Using Simple Burner, the program that copies directly from CD to MD, it take about five minutes for my computer to read the disc and transfer the album to MD. I am not doing any calculations or anything to give you exact read and write speed. It probably varies depending on yhour computer. My computer is mediocre and three years old, so it is still pretty fast. >>



SWEET. I'll go buy one and see what times I get. If I get about 5 minutes that will be PERFECT for me. How about moving mp3's on your computer to your MD how long does it take? If it is about 1 minute or less I'll be very keen to buy another MD. The player looks great and I got the E900.

Thanks

 

[randomlinh]

5 minutes? i find that a bit skeptical.. and maybe a very best senario case. I own the mzn505 + the remote from the r900.. decided i couldn't save and wait for the n1 I love MD, but the software is definately the biggest POS i've ever used. 32x is only for lp4, which isn't all that great for music, IMO. LP2 is as low as i'd go ("16x"). All the speeds are pretty accurate.. assuming the files are already converted (except stereo mode.. which is useless using netMD.. just do realtime if you want that).

Convertion will depend on the speed of your computer. i have a celeron 720, and overall time i've found to be 4-5x realtime. roughly. but i've already done convertions for a lot of songs so i won't have to do it later.

But back to the software... it's screwy.. i try to add my songs to the database.. just list it.. but sometimes, it insists on converting it. I can't figure out why yet. Its also crash prone, more so on my friends win98 machine than my xp.

Altho the MD is a great price, and i love the technology... but sony really didn't do a good job in trying to convert ppl. MD will still only be for the hardcore fans and live recordings mainly.

Oh, and i'm using the US release of everything.

 

[winryan]

OPEN MG SUCKS!!!!! I have a sony MS-9 mp3 player and the software is so shotty. The player is badazz which is the only reason I put up with the shotty software. But it is truely crap and I've never seen an improvement through up updates they make. Face it, sony can't write software period. Wish I could just upload mp3s straight to the player instead of having to go throught the converting BS. Oh well, player is still the sweetest thing ever

ry

 

[YukisMyName]

For those who have regular MD's recording at real time, why not wait for the Sony NetMD drive to come out? I've seen these on the new VAIO's.

 

[randomlinh]

NetMD drive will probably cost a bundle. no, it will.

 

[jreuschl]

I went ahead and ordered one from them, but they are OOS right now. Possibly getting them in within a week. I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

BTW, no questions about purchasing accessories or anything. I'll call back every few days and check stock. If they keep on pushing the date back, you apparently can talk to Patrick at J&R at extension 1040 and he'll do the price match based on posts from minidiscussion.com

Videodirect.com has the MZ-N1 listed as $270 for some weird reason. They didn't look very reputable to me so I tried to find a pricematch store I could get the deal at. That is when I discovered the magic of J&R's PM policy which I never knew existed. Pricematches must be done over the phone so call 1-800-806-1115 . *Politely* ask for the pricematch with VideoDirect. The CS rep will be like WTF? That price is below cost! Then they will search the Videodirect site for the price etc. I finally coaxed the CS rep into giving me the deal after 5 minutes of talking with his manager. You must stress that it says on VD's (I know that sounds bad) site that they are an authorized Sony dealer. I ended up getting t he spankin new player for $270.00 plus $3.75 two-day shipping. Since I live in PA there was no tax. This is one of the best deals you will see for a while on this player and Sony will come out with firmware updates in the futuer.

 

[creation]

My brother just bought this a week ago, and I've tried the software and the player. The software is so crappy, and so freeze-prone that makes you just wanna return the MD. He bought the MD for around 315 after tax, and was expecting nothing but the best, but the program really sucks @ss. The converting is from mp3 to ATRAC files is also a problem. I hate the way that they advertise the speed to be 32x "record 5 hrs of music under 15 minutes" or something like that, and when we realize it's only 32x in LP4, and LP4 being so crappy, and the converting takes just too long... Also there is no MD pouch included in the US models. Those are really good to prevent scratches. There can be so many things that Sony can modify with it's MDs to make it better, but right now, no MD is perfect.

 

[brianafischer]

Just picked up a MZR-700DPC off of ebay for $184 shipped. Complete retail kit. What are the advantages of the MZ-N1 over this player?

-Brian

 

[randomlinh]

mzn1 is slimmer, no bulge, magnesium, a MUCH better remote. aslo, the r700 isn't NetMD

 

[mcdull]

lnguyen:
MD has overtaken the market of CD in Japan and Asian countries for years. Not Sony doesn't try hard to convert American, it's most Americans are reluctant in accepting foreign technology.
VHS rental has been long phased out in most Asian countires, they all use DVD now while DVD is only growing here.

BTW, MD has better audio quality than MP3 (using standard 128kbps MP3 bitrate), so I always suggest converting audio from CD to MD directly. (and try to compare 2 bucks MiniDisc to expensive flash memory for MP3)

 

[EightyK42]

Direct Link

But where does it say the price????

 

[brianafischer]

Well....call me a fool! I thought the DPC unit supported optical transfers faster than realtime. I guess I mistook the 700 for the 707. Is it worth getting the MZ-N1 over the 700DPC (extra $90)?

-Brian

 

[Robbed]

If only the player could transfer from MD -> your computer in faster than real time. I only use MDs for bootlegging and this step is the most pain in the ass ever. I hate sitting there for several disks to take 80 minutes to transfer... grr...... when I saw those Vaios with the NetMD drive i thought they could rip from the MD, but sony won't allow it.

rob.

 

[randomlinh]

Brian, yes. It's worth it for more than just the NetMD.

mcdull, i know MD is everywhere but here... someone here from England has a HUGE stack of MD's But the purpose of NetMD it seems is to compete w/ mp3.. and let ppl "put mp3's on their MD." The quality of the software IMO will hurt them badly in that attempt. Even tryign to sell to the current MD market... the software is just painstaking to use sometimes. But like i said, i'm one of the few who really like the technology enough to put up with it.

 

[brianafischer]

I just bought one from J&R. Thanks for the info guys...now I need some advice on what to do with my extra R700DPC. Could I return to best buy or something around here? I bought it in the retail package for $184 shipped. Any ideas?

-Brian

 

[GraveJoKer]

Howz the reputation of J&R??
Can nebody shed some light on this store...
Looks like resellerratings rate them pretty good...

 

[mrbentley]

Speaking of pork, where's my free peppered bacon. I'm hungry.