Reason to Buy Minidisc?

I can think of one item. My kid has one and gets over 40 hours on a single charge. Many of the hard disk models can't go 8 hours.

YMMV,

Bob

I would buy one of the new sony Hi-MD Walkmans. My reasons: (1)You can replace the 'hard drive'(Hi-MD) at will; so to speak. (2)The discs are rewritable (3)Compared to regular mp3 players that are literally finished when the hard drive crashes, you can simply buy a new Hi-MD for 7 bucks. Yes, 7 bucks. Sony says it on their website. (4)Hi-MD has all the benefits of regular Mp3 players, it stores files just like a hard drive. Sony says your Windows Xp computer should recognize a Hi-MD player?recorder as an external removable hard drive. You just simply drag and drop. (5) Battery life: The Sony MZ-NH900 is expected to play your Hi-MD discs for a mouth-gaping 37hrs and record continuously for 17hrs while running on the internal rechargeable battery and the external AAx1 battery together (In the SP/LP2/LP4 mode). This model also has a jog wheel with a select/ok/enter key on the center. Ok that isn't as good as the iPOD wheel, but for an MD player, that's real good. Besides all these features, sony minidisc players are stylish, you should see the remote; plus it's a sony and so you're guaranteed quality sound. The MZ-NH800 has an FM tuner remote, but be clear that this model does not have a line out port. This means you'll have to find a way of plugging your speaker system into the headphone port on the remote. On their website, sony says the NH900 will come with a tuner remote too though.
Other kickass features include a bundled charging cradle (Operating power provided over USB bus when connected to a PC), editing functions on the included LCD tuner remote (my guess-FM), and the capability to hold a whopping 45hrs of jams on a single Hi-MD, or 1GB worth of data on one Hi-MD. All of this efficiently crammed into a portable and light US$300 package, this is the ultimate portable jukebox-so far.
My recommendation is get the NH900 cos it's the point where all the features on the other sony models reasonably converge. Plus the other low-end models lack some of the must-have features i.e. no line out on the NH800, no LCD on the remote supplied with the NH700, and no remote at all for the NH600. For a 100 bucks more you could buy either the Sony NH3D or NH1 if you want more style/good looks; they're identical in features to the NH900 but look better, have the date-time stamp feature, but lack the external AA battery case that gives the NH900 it's extra-long battery life.
They should be hitting the shelves very soon, and by God's grace I'm getting one as soon as they do.

Check these sites for more details:
http://news.sel.sony.com/pressrelease/4270
http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MZ-NH900.html
http://www.minidisct.com/index.html