frustrated sony nf810 owner; have I got this straight?

[GrumpyGnome]

Hello,

For a few weeks off and on I have been trying to get my MD to record anc then transfer sounds to my computer. I have spent about 10 hours researching this and have given up. I did not want a new hobby when I bought this thing. I have a 20 year old cassette recorder that works just as good and only took 5 minutes to learn to operate.

I think these summarize the features of my MZ-NF810 MiniDisc Recorder:

SonicStage is mostly junkware and will not let you copy just any old audio file you have to the MD player.

SonicStage is crippled by the "check-in" feature that looks like it is to protect sony records not help the user.

There is no way to transfer the digital files from the "Portable MiniDisc Recorder" to my PC in digital format. I have to plug the headphone jack into the microphone input of my sound card and take whatever sound quality that produces.

If I want to transfer an mp3 file to the MiniDisc I need to use Nero and it's DiskImager utility and the Net MD Simple Burner

Sony uses the ATRAC3 codec which sounds great but is not portable.

I am hoping that I am incorrect in the above and someone will straighten me out. At this point I am feeling angry, stupid and cheated.

[Kaotic]

Unfortunately, all those things you mentioned are true. sorry to hear that you are disappointed about NetMD generation of MDs.

[Christopher]

Welcome to the forums.

SonicStage is mostly junkware and will not let you copy just any old audio file you have to the MD player.

Sonicstage 2.1 isn't that bad. I recommend you upgrade via connect.com.

SonicStage is crippled by the "check-in" feature that looks like it is to protect sony records not help the user.

See above; check-in/out doesn't exist with Sonicstage 2.

There is no way to transfer the digital files from the "Portable MiniDisc Recorder" to my PC in digital format.  I have to plug the headphone jack into the microphone input of my sound card and take whatever sound quality that produces.

Yes, but this is common knowledge that is easily available on any MD site, here, minidisc.org, minidisct.com/forum and others. Where did you do your homework at?

If I want to transfer an mp3 file to the MiniDisc I need to use Nero and it's DiskImager utility and the Net MD Simple Burner

Try Sonicstage 2.1.

Sony uses the ATRAC3 codec which sounds great but is not portable.

Can you be a little more descriptive? I'm a bit confused by this statement.