The industry finally won. Sony finally acknowledged (indirectly) the big mistake they did by not supporting MP3. Right after the new firmware for the older HD players (NW-HD1 and VGF-AP1L - Vaio Pocket), that enabled native MP3 support, the transition was almost complete. Sony has deveopped Hi-MD recorders with native MP3 support. Also with the new Sonicstage v3.2 it is possible to upload MP3 files to the favorite Sony player.

When Sony came out with the NW-HD1, it was a smaller and better looking player than any iPod of the moment. I though this 20GB little device was going to become the iPod killer but I was wrong. The NW-HD1 had a couple of essential flaws: No native support of MP3 and extremely cumbersome Sonicstage (Sony's copyright-protecting audio transfer software) audio file management tool. The 40GB Vaio Pocket had similar limitations.

Because of the lack native MP3 support, moving large collections of files to the device took for ever as every file had to be converted to proprietary ATRAC3 format first. This is one of the reasons why the Net MD and Hi-MD recorders were not successful in the portable audio market.

I also think that the biggest problem of this device was not the ATRAC3 codec. I been using MD to record live presentation for years and the format is good enough for audio applications. The biggest annoyance was using Sony SonicStage music transfer utility, as this application limited the NetMD with a 3-download limit of your own live recordings. In top of DMR limitations, it was very difficult to create personal play list.

The upgrade period of the NW-HD1 already ended:
http://www.sonydigital-link.com/DNA/Hotnews/NWHD1_Upgrd.asp?l=en
http://www.sony.ca/sonyca/view/english/warranty/consumer_support_NWHD1.shtml

But for owners of the Vaio Pocket we just need to download and upgrade the firmware:
http://www.vaio-link.com/vaiopocket/firmware/firmware.asp?l=en

Sonicstage v3.2 could be downloaded in here:
http://www.sonydigital-link.com/DNA/SonicStage/SS32.asp?l=en

Note: It you want to try ATRAC3 in Windows you could download and install this file: ATRAC3.zip file

It is compatible with Virtualdub, Sound Recorder, Windows Media Player, Winamp, Goldwave, etc.

*** This file is located at Minidisc FAQ: MDLP (``Long-Play'') Mode Topics ***