new to NET-MD, just got the MZN510CKKIT

[skoprowski]

I was looking at MP3 players at WalMart last week and was shocked to see the MZN510CKKIT Net-MD player marked down to $49.00 US dollars! They had 3 brand new, never opened players. Well, I read the box and it sounded like I could put my MP3's or WMA files on minidisc and use it for my car- so for $49.00 I went for it. Well, I didn't read the fine print and was disappointed to find out the player will only play tracks that are converted to the ATRAC format. I have been trying to give the player a chance, but it is a pain to get music on the player. SonicStage 2.1 still kind of stinks. I just wish someone could make a plugin to convert mp3/wma to ATRAC and then a way to just drag and drop files onto the player using and easy file explorer utility. None of the current options are that friendly- even Real Player.

Any words of encouragement before I just sell the player and get an Ipod or something? I am very frustrated.

[aeriyn]

I hate to say this, but Sony has been fiercely protective of its ATRAC encoder and no other software programs other than SonicStage and the realaudio plugin can encode in ATRAC.

So, you either have to deal with SonicStage (how lovely), or use the Nero ImageDrive/Simple Burner technique, which I tend to prefer (on the rare occasion I actually put my MP3 music on MD). Generally, I use MD Simple Burner direct from my CDs. It's fast and relatively easy compared to SonicStage. I usually have to pull up SonicStage to retitle tracks (especially those Japanese music CDs I listen to, US SonicStage titles them in unrecognizeable ASCII characters) but overall I prefer it to dealing with SonicStage for recording my CDs to MD.

If you do not do any live recording or are not invested into MD in any way (like if you had close to the 100 or so blank MDs that I have) you should get an iPod.

Hell, even I want an iPod. Maybe next year's tax return...