Sony High Speed Hi-MD Walkman Digital Music Player - MZ-RH910

Good battery life, need to get some different earp ...

Strengths: Small, powerful! HiMD disks are easy to use, hold A LOT! It is also nice to be able to record.

Weaknesses: Gets a bit hard to find your music if you have lots of it.

Summary: Good battery life, need to get some different earphones. Would be nice if it came with a remote. But I still think it's worth it even without the remote. Would be nice if SonicStage would let you deal in MP3 instead of ATRAC. Overall a very good system. Having removable media instead of flash is good for me. You can get HiMD for $6 and regular MD for $1.25. Even regular MD will fit 13hours of music in ATRAC. No other media is so cheap for so much space!

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You can record your band or a concert in stereo no ...

Strengths: very versitle. More features than an IPOD. The Sony software is far better than IPOD software

Weaknesses: No backlit display. bigger than most MP3 players. Less volume than IPOD

Summary: You can record your band or a concert in stereo no less. Play MP3 and waves. Record audio off od movies tv etc. It is far more versitle than any other MP3 player. It is for someone that needs a swiss army knife audio tool.

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Sony Hi-MD Walkman MZ-RH910

Strengths: Economically priced audio recording device that gives you Linear PCM on affordable media. Extra battery pack.

Weaknesses: No LCD backlight, a lot of DRM and restrictions, no optical line-out

Summary: This is a great audio affordable recording device, compared to other DAT and harddisk recorders in the market. A microphone is required (obtain it separately). The new Hi-MD format allows up to 1.5 hrs uncompressed Linear PCM recording, compared to older models recording in ATRAC3. The Sonicstage software is restrictive, requiring you to "check in" and "check out" your mp3s to restrict distribution and copying. Old MD format tracks cannot be uploaded to PC. As mentioned in an earlier review, mic recordings can only be uploaded once, otherwise the disk will be wiped. But you can now upgrade to Sonicstage 3.2, which lifts this one time upload restriction. In addition, compared to the older MD player/recorder models, this does not have an optical line out, another one of these restrictions. Otherwise a good all-round player and recorder. There isn't anything you cannot get around...

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Sony's RH910 is a good unit for its intended uses

Strengths: Decent UI, nice form factor, AA battery pack for additional battery life (which is already long!), incredible recording quality, great playback quality, nice display, improved software

Weaknesses: Feels a bit cheaply built, some of the buttons are way too tiny, does not remember some settings after you turn it off, no remote control included, MP3 not "drag and drop"

Summary: The Sony RH910 is a good introduction to the HiMD family, and a good all around unit. It may lack some of the sleekness of the higher end models but has all of the necessarily functionality. It is the 2nd to highest end unit in the 2nd generation of HiMD units, and as such has a bit of polish in the design and interface compared to the first generation.

HiMD is the latest version of Sony's long-lived, much-maligned Minidisc technology. Originally intended as a high quality digital recording and playback device (when cassettes were dying off, and well before CDR ever reached the consumer marketplace), it got a lot of hype, but never really took off in the US (although there is a rabid fanbase, and it saw decent success in Europe and Japan). Originally MD only held 74 minutes of compressed audio. HiMD allows ~90 minutes of uncompressed (CD-quality) audio, or much more using one of the compressed modes. (~8 hours of HiSP and ~34 hours HiLP) HiMD also allows for digital transfers of your recorded tracks back to your PC, a welcome improvement from earlier models.

The RH910 has a fairly sturdy feel to it, although there is quite a bit of plastic around which may make it feel cheap at times. The reflective portion of the front adds a nice touch, but scratches much too easily. I take very good care of my electronics and my original RH910 (my first one came with a defective battery) developed scratches after a couple of days of barely any transport. First accessory purchase should be a PDA display protector you can cut to fit the RH910!

The jog wheel on the front has made navigation much easier than past minidisc models. Navigation can be a bit clunky but the 5 line display makes it fairly painless.

One issue is how the unit attaches to your PC: you must use Sony's SonicStage or Connect Player software. Some love it, some hate it. It has greatly improved over the last year to the point it is fairly stable but in no means is any competition to Apple's iTunes software. You must use SonicStage to transfer tracks from your PC onto a HiMD disc. While you can use the RH910 as an external drive (and store 1GB of data, just like a USB flash drive!) the RH910 will NOT play ANY music simply copied to a disc. You must transfer with SonicStage.

Of course, since it is a recorder, you can also record music from just about any source (given the right connections) -- CD player, microphone, computer, etc. It has both analog and digital (optical) inputs. One problem is it does not remember your manual recording settings after it is powered down, so if you do a lot of recording, remember to reset your levels, Mic settings, etc, before starting!

Sound quality is spectacular for a unit of this size. Since HiMD can store 90 minutes of uncompressed audio, you can get absolutely perfect CD-quality sound from it. If you are sensitive to sound artifacts introduced in compressed audio (i.e., if you think MP3s sound bad!) this is a huge advantage. Similarly, recording sounds very good.

Keep in mind, a HiMD unit is much more than "just a music player". If all you want is an MP3 player, you may be better served looking elsewhere. You must use Sony's proprietaty software to load it, and each disc stores only 1GB which may or may not be enough. However, you can have as many HiMD discs as you want (unlimited expansion! Try to make that 2GB iPod into a 4GB or 20GB!) and if your unit (or HiMD discs) are ever lost, broken, or stolen-- the rest of your HiMD collection may be OK.

Basically, the RH910 is a solid HiMD recorder/player. However, HiMD is not a format for everyone. I would highly suggest you do some research into the format before buying blindly, especially if this is a gift for someone. If they don't need recording, or don't need Minidisc capabilities, you might want to look elsewhere. But if you want a portable music player with great sound and a big display, or need to record out "in the field" (many reporters use minidisc units), you can't beat it. There is no digital recording device with this much flexibility in this price range.

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Sony High Speed Hi-MD Walkman Digital Music Player MZ-RH910

Strengths: Lots of recording time on inexpensive removable media. Comes with accessories, including 1 GB Mini-disk and charger/power adaptor and rechargeable battery. You can record from a mic.

Weaknesses: Will download and upload only to PCs, not Macs using supplied software.

Summary: This model is great for recording live from a microphone as well as playing hours of music downloaded (including MP3 files) from your computer (PC only). I put 32 hours of live recording on one. The power adaptor came in very handy for long (I did 4 hour sessions) recordings--no worry about battery running out. The sound quality is great. You can get additional 1 GB mini-disks for around $7 and pack in the music (up to 675 songs), data files or live recordings. The battery life seems very good and the one supplied is rechargeable. Especially if you want to record live and also get some accessories, this is the model to get.

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Excellent device for true audiophile

Strengths: Independence from PC (expandable to any capacity with extra 1GB MDs), ability to record from legacy formats (e.g., cassette), software that is very easy/intuitive to use, 1GB MD included

Weaknesses: No backlight, inability to transfer freely from MD to PC under certain circumstances, a little bigger than the previous Sony models of a few years ago

Summary: I have music in a number of different formats (MP3, CD, and cassette) and I believe that the Hi-MD device is the easiest way of consolidating these formats into one place. One can record directly (and digitally of course) from CD to MD with a computer and recording from other audio sources, like cassette or microphone, is just as simple (and these recordings can be uploaded to your PC and then saved on CD, if you wish). The SonicStage software is very easy to use; after double clicking on the icon, a box with two windows appears (one for the library on your PC and the other displaying the contents of the MD) and recording and transferring music is as simple as dragging and dropping from one window to another. The 1GB MD holds about 45 hours of music under the 48 kbps format; one can also record in Hi-MD mode on old regular MDs (something like 10 hours of music in this 48 kbps format).

The true virtue of the MD - and the one that makes it far superior to the Ipod - is its ability to be completely independent from the PC. While the PC is useful for saving music and burning onto CD, with the Hi-MD one can continue to record music with extra 1 GB discs. This is by far the most cost effective way to expand memory capacity; with the price of a 1 GB disc at about $7, you can easily have 5 GB of capacity for under $200 (probably less as the cost of the device drops from the current $160). The ability to have music on different removable discs can be handy - you can swap discs with friends or you can build separate collections; if you want to have all of your important stuff on 1 GB, that too should be possible. Also, it's not inconceivable that Sony will come out with discs that have more than 1 GB of capacity some day; when that happens, the ability to expand memory capacity through additional discs will be even more of an asset.

The only complaint that I would have with the MZ-RH910 is the lack of a backlight; in the dark, you're really navigating through the disc on your memory alone, which can be a bit of a pain. The slightly more expensive version of the RH910 (the RH90 is it?) solves this problem and also has included a remote (which this model also lacks). Also, battery life is very good, but not the 30+ hours that is stated on the outside of the box (you only get this if you have a separate AA battery attached, which makes the device much more bulky). On the topic of size, I thought that the device itself would be a little smaller. It looks like the people at Sony have made the edges a little more round, etc. - the overall device is slightly thicker than the recorders of old.

Overall, very few complaints here. This is a terrific device at a very reasonable price. It gives you a lot of flexibility that is deficient in the Ipod (which is intrinsically tied to a PC). And if you're looking to stand apart and not look like the white Ipod-toting masses, here you would find yet another plus.

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Sony MZ-RH910

Strengths: Hi-MD format allows you to fit a lot of music on a disc

Weaknesses: NA

Summary: 2005-08-13 16:03:20 I bought the Sony mz-rh910 to replace my 5-year-old Sony mz-r900, which had begun to experience problems playing discs. It was definitely worth it to buy a Hi-MD recorder. My old recorder was a MDLP recorder which could record up to 2 hr. 20 min on a 80-min disc in LP2 mode, which was great, but the Hi-MD recorder can record up to 7 hr. 55 min. on a 1 GB Hi-MD disc in SP2 mode, which is even better. I record piano playing and other live music through an external microphone and transfer it to my computer to burn onto CD-Rs. The included SonicStage software has worked very well to quickly transfer my recordings to the computer. Instead of having to wait while the recorder plays and transfers the recording in "real time" through a stereo mini-plug cable, it is done in less than a quarter of that time...plus the transfer is digital. The only problem is that you're only allowed to transfer a recording once from a disc to the computer...and if you try again, your recording will be deleted from your disc! This really isn't an issue for me, since I transfer recordings, burn them onto CDs, and then erase the minidisc to record again.

The recording quality has been very nice...and my only criticism of the recorder is I wish that recording only required hitting 1 button instead of hitting 2 buttons simultaneously. I liked the little slider recorder button on my old recorder better. On this recorder, I always feel like I have to double check to make sure I did turn it on to record.

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