Sony's minidisc format became a portable digital music standard before the age of MP3s. Sadly, though, minidisc lost its favor as MP3 players became ubiquitous. Sony aims to flare back up with their NetMD line, minidisc players that can also connect to your PC for transferring downloaded music.

As we ran the NetMD MZ-N1 through its paces, we were often pleasantly surprised, and sometimes downright annoyed, but mostly impressed with this pricey but versatile digital music player.

First off, you can use the optical connection cable to transfer songs directly from your stereo (CD player, DVD player, Xbox, etc.) to the NetMD. Like traditional minidiscs, the transfer takes place in real time, so a three-minute song takes three minutes to move.

With Sony's OpenMG software you can also move songs from your PC to the NetMD. But your music files must be converted to the OpenMG standard before being moved over, which slows down the transfer rate. We were able to move music at the rate of about one minute per three-minute song (although songs transferred more quickly on subsequent transfers since the conversion process had already been completed).

Ironically, Sony's NetMD Simple Burner, which allows you to transfer songs directly from your PC's CD-ROM drive to the NetMD, proved more efficient. It took us only 10 minutes to move an entire 45-minute album to the NetMD.

Unfortunately, you can officially only move tracks from minidisc to the PC that made the reverse trip: you can't load up the NetMD with songs from a CD in your stereo and then transfer them to your PC. We say "officially" because there's a workaround: connect the NetMD's headphone output to your sound card's input and then catch the music with a software mixer. Users with an advanced audio setup such as Creative Labs' Extigy can easily handle the process.

Transfer caveats aside, the NetMD is a well-designed digital music player with excellent sound output. Its mid-cord remote control, complete with backlight LCD display, clips onto your shirt and puts tools for manipulating the sound menus close at hand. And the inexpensive minidisc format means that you can load up lots of your favorite albums (at the highest compression level of LP4, a minidisc can hold almost 300 minutes of music). In addition to the rechargeable battery, you can connect a single AA battery to the NetMD to increase your play time to up to 110 hours.

It's not an inexpensive player, but its increased versatility, expansive removable media, and long battery life make it worth the extra dough. --J. Curtis

Pros:

• Compact and versatile
• Long life when combining batteries
• Excellent sound

Cons:

• Slow transfer speeds
• Some transfers are one-way