caledesign

I have used friends ipods to test them out and also just used my clie to play music files. The storage capacity, battery and compact size was the selling point though. I will say that it is over priced but thats what SONY does. Your paying for the name, but this one is worth it.

:cool: I have had about a week to play with the unit and I must say that I am impressed wit the player. Small compact and easy to use. The body is a brushed finish which doesn't show finger prints. I advice getting some type of screen cover for the glass part of the display because it seems though it would scratch easily. I used a clie screen protector that I had and just cut it down to size. Hopefully SONY will release one for the unit with some other accessories. In the box you will find the charging cradle, usb cable, a power adaptor, Quick user's guide, the CD software and a Connect card which allows you to to get 5 free downloads from the SONY Connect store. This card can be recharged in varying amounts so that you do not have to have your credit card number on file with the connect store. The only thing missing from the package is a remote which doesn't come with the US model. The unit fully charges in about 3hrs and the batteries last pretty long. I have gotten about 3 1/2 days out of one charge with the back light on. I really played with this unit, constantly playing with the controls and using two differnet compression rates 256 and 132. Battery last longer if you turn off the backlight function on the unit. I played the unit for about 8 hours on and off each day( no scientific test done here). The units functions are easily managed and easy to control, I picked it up pretty easily after a few minutes without reading the manual. The player allows you to listen in many various ways by artist, genre, album, group & others. While in this mode you can also just play as is progressively or using the shuffle function. You can also just shuffle your entire library The menu and mode function are loacted on the top of the unit along with the volume control. I must say that the unit is very loud for such a tiny package. I am using the Fontopia® Headphones MDR-EX51LP that i had prior and the sound quality is excellent. I am listening to my tracks in Atrac3 132 and Atrac3 Plus 256, after selecting the albums I wanted from sonicstage 2.1 I transferred about 16 gigs in about 15 minutes. The unit actually only has 18.6 gigs of available space the other 1.4 is dedicated to the unit itself. Sony Gives you many different sound modes including giving you the option to create three of your own. The beep that you tyipcally find turned on in most Sony audio products is turned on here as well but can be easily turned off. The other function that is nice is the Audio out menu that allows you to operate the volume on an external speakers or stereo system. The navigation wheel feels good and is easy to operate The whole unit can be operated with one hand. The only downside that I have experienced is the battery switch which is located on the bottom of the unit next to the hold switch. It is hard to get a grip on it to slide it over. The hold button has grips on it making it easy to switch on and off. The other major draw back is the fact that you cannot charge the unit without the cradle or transfer data without it as well. I am going to see If I can tranfer files from a Mac onto the unit in about a week hopefully it will work. SONY only states that the software is not compatible on Macs but makes no mention about data transfers, and since it is usb 2.0 mass storage compatible it should work in theory. Now all Sony has to do is add some more functions to the SonicStage software itself and the Connect store needs an overhaul. Then this thing can really compete with ipod. I love SONY but they have gotten a late start on Apple and they are going to be playing catch up for a while. Sony needs keep coming out with newer version of this player with more advance functions and larger hard drive space then people will start taking notice, like they did with there Clie line. This player has the potential to be better that an ipod It just needs the software behind it

:smile: Hi, I am a frequent visiter to the Minidisc Community Forums. I most admit that I rearly sign in though. I visit the site everyday and have been following the many discussions and let downs of the release of the new Hi-MD format. I was a owner of two older MD's a AIWA and a SONY.Since it was announced earlier this year I have been anticipating the NH1 but Sony has let me down. They kept pushing the release date back and the limitations that people have been finding out has thrown me off of it a little. I have got a collection of 300 minidiscs and about 100 of them I don't have backed up on my computer . I would love to be able to upload them so that I can have them archieved. So when SONY announced the new NW-HD1 model I started looking into it and have fallen in love with it. They set a release date and stuck to it. I picked mine up this morning at TWEETER, and I couldn't believe how small the thing actually is, the pictures on te web do it no justice. This thing is small light and beautiful. Did I mention small, the body has a nice brushed finish and feels good in your hands. The controls are nicely placed, even with my big hands I find it really easy to control even with one hand. The menus are easy to go through. I learned how to navigate them in a few minutes without even having to read the users manual. I havn't had a chance to listen to it yet because the omg files have to be converted into omg audio format. I found this out when I transferred abot 2 gigs this after noon and left out and tried to play them I kept getting the message track error. This is because i did not see the conversion tool that came with it. You only need to do this once. It doesn't convert MP3 or WMA files, only SonicStage files. I am converting all my files right now on my desktop, and It s only going to take 4 hours to convert 50 gigs worth of music at 256 in ATRAC3plus. They give you the option to keep the original omg files and the converted files or delete them when converted saving hard drive space, nice feature The only downside to the model is that it doesn't come with a remote and a seperate cable so that you don't have to use the cradle to tranferring files and recharge the unit. Like others in the forum I am going to spend the next couple of days playing with the unit and testing it and I will post a much more detail review and some pictures of the unit around sunday night. I'm not giving up on HI-MD's yet I am going to wait for the next round of them and hopefully next year they will get it right with less restrictions, and USB 2.0 We can only hope?

Thanks for the quick reply. I will most likely just play the recorded tracks on the player for now and get a bookself system in the near future.

Hi', I am new to this forum but I have had minidisc for many years and have compiled a library of 300 minidiscs. Currently I don't have a recorder/player, but am anticipating the release of the Hi-MD next month here in the states. The one question that i have is will I be able to upload my old MD into sonicstage or will I be able to copy the files through the USB mass storage drive so that I can have a copy on my computer.