Audio Reviews

This player performed very well for the first 100 days. We were very pleased with the picture and digital sound. Without the failure I would have rated it 4-stars.

However, after 3-months of operation playing about four DVD/week the unit started stalling on scenes. Shortly thereafter, it would load a dvd or CD (even new ones) then give the message "insert disk".

Apparently the player is unable to detect that the disk is already loaded. The unit appears to be fully operational except that it will not recgonize the disk just loaded.

Initially, we managed to get the disk playing after opening and closing the tray repeatly four or five times. About 5-days later it refused to recgonize any DVD or CD that had been loaded into the tray and no amount of cycling the tray door helped. The message "insert disk" was all we could get out of the unit.

At this time, I haven't seen anyone else who has encountered this problem. (Perhaps this is a case where the extended warrany might be justified?)

I purchased the SD-4700 mainly for its progressive scan feature and I must say that it does make a big difference. I'm using this player with a Philips digital widescreen HDTV (32" tube) and, finally, I'm starting to see the full potential of the DVD format. Some people may argue that since a lot of new TVs (especially HDTVs) are equipped with high quality line doublers, you get all the benefits of progressive scanning directly from your TV, but at least in my case, the SD-4700 does a much better job than Philips' own "Natural Motion" technology in presenting progressive output while still maintaining that "film quality" of the... err... film :)

The remote control is a lot easier to use than previous Toshiba models and provides very easy access to all the features you may need during playback (e.g. subtitles, audio and angle selection). It also contains a rather large joystick that makes it very easy to navigate menus. Also worth mentioning is the fact that all the controls are also available on the player itself. Very useful for these times when you accidentally "misplace" the remote.

As for the supported formats, I had no problems playing DVDs, VCDs, music CDs & CDRs and MP3 CDRs. The MP3 support is very basic and has some quirks. For example, I still can't really understand how the player determines the order of tracks. Seems a bit random to me but there must be a logical explanation here :). Anyway, the feature actually does work, the overall sound quality is good and that's what counts. I haven't tested the player with DVD Audio discs yet so I can neither confirm nor deny the problems reported in other reviews.

Now for the kinks, which are minor but still prevent this player from getting 5 stars:

1. Some widescreen HDTVs (my Philips among them) do not allow the user to manually set the aspect ratio for progressive signals. This means that you may get just a little bit frustrated when you play widescreen, NON-anamorphic DVDs ("letterboxed" -- where the "black bars" are coded into the frame to make it display correctly on 4:3 TVs). Your options with these DVDs are to either watch them letterboxed in a rather small 4:3 viewing area (annoying!), have the SD-4700 stretch them to 16:9 (annoying because it will mess up the aspect ratio) or use the zoom feature of the player to try and get the optimal picture (frustrating but doable). What this player really needs is a smart zoom feature that removes the black bars and scales the picture to fit the screen (like most widescreen TVs have) but I guess you just can't get it all. That said, since most new DVDs are anamorphic (contain no black bars and therefore always displayed in the correct aspect ratio), this can be considered a minor inconvenience.

2. The player has some problems displaying menu items in 4:3 progressive mode: highlighted menu items sometimes get totally messed up. This doesn't happen with native 16:9 DVDs or when you set the player to stretch everything to 16:9, so it's not really that big of a deal.

3. Pixel cropping - I think this player crops almost half an inch off the bottom of your picture (I made sure this was not a problem with my TV not being properly aligned). According to the AVIA test signals I used, over 25 pixels were cropped out and that's considered a little too much. Still, I guess many people wouldn't notice this glitch because their TVs are probably cropping so much more... :).

All in all, I am very pleased with this player. You really do get a lot for your money here! Sure, there are a few kinks but they are not horrible (unless you are a non-compromising videophile). If you have an HDTV, you really owe it to yourself to get a progressive scan DVD player, and this is probably one of the better (and cheaper) ones out there.

In response to the reviewer who felt this product is only fair: a little maintenance can go a long way. A $10-$20 lens cleaner might get your player to read discs again. But if yours is defective, it doesn't mean the model is not a very good performer, with excellent features. As another reviewer mentioned, Alon, I too have an HDTV that does not allow for aspect ratio control when viewing thru the progressive inputs. But the SD-4700 has a "full/4:3" setting in the menu to adjust for standard or widescreen DVDs, without distortion. It does have a problem with alignment of icons on the menu pages, but it's trivial and I'm used to it. The letterboxing on a 2.35:1 DVD (like Gladiator), can be easily eliminated by the easy-to-use zoom feature, if you don't mind losing a little side content and picture resolution. But if you want to watch a "super widescreen" release on a widescreen TV, what else can you do? Nothing's perfect, at least not at these prices. I wasn't aware of the cropping of pixels (thanks Alon), but overall, most DVD movies look fairly amazing when played on my Toshiba (CW34x92) 34". They seem to be a perfect match. The colors seem to be true without tweaking, and the definition is very impressive. That's what a progressive scanning DVD player can do when hooked up to a good HDTV 16x9 monitor.

Apple iPod is a total waist of money. No way is it worth more than 200 dollars. If you want a good mp3 player you can get one for less than 200. The Arthos 10gb studio jukebox holds 2x the standard capacity of the ipod 5 and costs 1/2 as much. Also the firewire is a pain in the behind its just more money you have to throw away. Get another brand that is designed for windows. The only thing i liked about it before i replaced it was the LCD with 6 lines that was hot. But that doesnt add up. Dont buy it save your money for something better.

I bought my ipod new 1 year and 1 month ago and it has simply stopped working. After days of trying everything in the knowledge base and being blown off by the 'applecare' staff I went to an authorized apple repair service who told me to just forget about it and buy a new one and save the repair expense. He also said to be sure to get a case for it and handle it very carefully because if you happen to drop it or even lay it down on a hard surface with too much gusto, kiss it goodbye. It was swell while it lasted but I can spend a lot less on a disposable product.

I knew my boyfriend loved me when he got me one of these for my birthday... it sure beats using a mini radio or CD player when I go to the gym because even though it is only 5 gigs, i have over 1200 songs to choose from to help get me pumped up and stay energized during my workout. Of course, the newest models are even flossier, but 40 gigs... that blows my mind! It's like over kill! This model suits me quite well. As my boyfriend, an Apple user for years describes the iPod in one word: "FLOSS."

Pros: Half a gig of memory, FM tuner, FM and voice recording, small size and light weight. It uses a single AA battery and will run for about twice as long as any hard drive player. I'm getting an estimated 12 hours of real world use per battery. Compared to hard drive based units this can't be beat. Since it uses a single AA, you won't have any down time waiting for the unit to charge. The software that comes with this unit is stable, intuitive to use and works as advertised. I use this mostly for audio books recorded at low but adequate bit rates. Usually 24-48 mbps mp3's. Half a gig will hold about 30 hours of audio books. More than enough to take on vacation. Sound quality is as good as my iPod. The controls are not as intuitive as the iPod or Rio500 but if you spend 20 minutes or so with the manual everything will make sense. Navigating through content is a breeze. It's firmware upgradeable to support other formats and add or change features. Battery life is outstanding. Cons: Pricey. Subjectively cheap materials. Metal endcaps and a lanyard ring would have been a nice touch in a product that costs as much as this. I'd guess they used plastic to keep the weight down but I'd gladly sacrifice a quarter ounce for something that has a more 'quality' feel. If you're close to the end of a long audio book and stop the player, it seems to think you're done. It loses the marker and requires you to search for where you left off. Frustrating. A dedicated bookmarking button would have been nice.

Conclusion: this is probably the first go anywhere mp3 player with enough memory and battery life to be truly useful. Battery life far exceeds any hard drive player and doesn't require an electrical outlet. Simply pop in an AA battery and you're good for at least an honest 10-12 hours. Feature packed and mature in design. Hard drive players like the iPod, Karma and Zen are in a different catagory and shouldn't be compared directly with solid state players. If you need gigabytes of storage you'll have to go with a hard drive player. If you're ok with about four hours of high quality music or ~30 hours of high quality audio books, the iFP-195T is probably the best choice at the moment.

This is a very nice player. It's the first one that I've owned so I have nothing to compare to. However, I have used flash memory drives. In retrospect, I should have waited until they came out with USB 2.0 and the ability to PnP without having to install custom drivers (Like flash drive, digital camera etc.) Why they haven't adopted these technologies yet is beyond me.
Good: Usability, Sound, Battery life, Capacity.
Bad: USB 1.1. Packaged software did not work. Had to download latest version from vendor web site. Does not come up as PnP logical drive letter like a flash drive.

I've had this for about 6 months and its still working great. I'm definately happy with my purchase.

Pros:
Very small: not much bigger than the AA battery it houses.
Decent memory: about 4 CDs fit on it at a time
Good sound quality: the headphones that come with it are good and the device puts out good quality base and high end
Power: Uses 1 AA and it lasts a long time
Features: FM, record voice or FM, lots of settings for equalizer and play modes (repeat, shuffle, repeat folder, shuffle all etc), power saving featuers and more...

Cons:
Cant upgrade the memory
No AM radio
Its difficult to put the tracks in order (to mimic an album)

I saw some reviews saying that the parts were low quality, and while it does feel a little flimsy, mine has not broken or shown any signs of problems. I've dropped it plenty of times and it works good as new. Pay $15 for an extended warrenty if you're worried about it.

I have had my player for ~6 weeks now. When choosing an MP3 player, I narrowed the field down to this player and a couple made by iRiver. My primary reason for choosing this one was its expandability and the belt clip (as opposed to the Rio Sport, which is the same player but with a slightly different look and a velcro arm band).
Pluses: size, weight and shape are nice - easy to hold in your hand while running; memory is excellent and easily expandable with an SD card; great display; software is simple and useful; radio reception is very good; controls and settings are easy to manipulate; good battery life compared to most comparable MP3 players; solid construction.
Minuses: the belt clip carrier looks a little bit cheap, but is secure and sturdy; the earphone jack is in the bottom of the player, which is slightly awkward but not a big deal.
Overall, I would buy this MP3 player again if I were shopping today. I'm very satisfied with it.

i used to have the rio s35s which was a nice little sporty player, so when i upgraded i tried another rio since i had a good experience. don't regret it at all.

pros: black, key lock feature (to prevent hitting buttons accidentally), small versatile structure, plastic container and belt clip

possible negative: no armband, cheap earphones
(i bought my own earphones that go around the head - work really well for running)

otherwise, i have no real complaints. it does the job its expected to do - holds plenty of songs for a 2 hour workout at least, software is very usable (if you can't understand it, you must be very computer illiterate), and i never had problem with the construction - i always keep the case on. and if you complain about how cheap the rubber is, come on, what do you expect? gold-plated and diamond-encrusted players? i prefer this to the ipod (which supposedly skips) per se, because i've dropped it countless times, crammed it into small lockers, and stepped on it, and it still goes strong.

a good buy for a small relatively decent priced mp3 player. esp for running or the gym.

I just got my Rio and I must say, it's easy to use and sounds good. I took it out running and I live in a busy area. I only had the volume up to ~20 and had no problems--I thought it was plenty loud and had no desire to take it up to the max of 30. My only complaint is that the ear pieces are very uncomfortable to me and I had a hard time getting them to stay in place, on top of it. I ended up walking the rest of the way. Once I get new ear buds, I'll be happy. I was a little worried when I ordered it that the belt clip wouldn't be adequate to run--I'm no longer concerned. It didn't budge--felt very secure. And I LOVE the FM radio feature!!! It came in perfectly clear and, being that I haven't transferred many songs to it yet, let me test it out without boredom.

I have had my player for ~6 weeks now. When choosing an MP3 player, I narrowed the field down to this player and a couple made by iRiver. My primary reason for choosing this one was its expandability and the belt clip (as opposed to the Rio Sport, which is the same player but with a slightly different look and a velcro arm band).
Pluses: size, weight and shape are nice - easy to hold in your hand while running; memory is excellent and easily expandable with an SD card; great display; software is simple and useful; radio reception is very good; controls and settings are easy to manipulate; good battery life compared to most comparable MP3 players; solid construction.
Minuses: the belt clip carrier looks a little bit cheap, but is secure and sturdy; the earphone jack is in the bottom of the player, which is slightly awkward but not a big deal.
Overall, I would buy this MP3 player again if I were shopping today. I'm very satisfied with it.

i used to have the rio s35s which was a nice little sporty player, so when i upgraded i tried another rio since i had a good experience. don't regret it at all.

pros: black, key lock feature (to prevent hitting buttons accidentally), small versatile structure, plastic container and belt clip

possible negative: no armband, cheap earphones
(i bought my own earphones that go around the head - work really well for running)

otherwise, i have no real complaints. it does the job its expected to do - holds plenty of songs for a 2 hour workout at least, software is very usable (if you can't understand it, you must be very computer illiterate), and i never had problem with the construction - i always keep the case on. and if you complain about how cheap the rubber is, come on, what do you expect? gold-plated and diamond-encrusted players? i prefer this to the ipod (which supposedly skips) per se, because i've dropped it countless times, crammed it into small lockers, and stepped on it, and it still goes strong.

a good buy for a small relatively decent priced mp3 player. esp for running or the gym.

I just got my Rio and I must say, it's easy to use and sounds good. I took it out running and I live in a busy area. I only had the volume up to ~20 and had no problems--I thought it was plenty loud and had no desire to take it up to the max of 30. My only complaint is that the ear pieces are very uncomfortable to me and I had a hard time getting them to stay in place, on top of it. I ended up walking the rest of the way. Once I get new ear buds, I'll be happy. I was a little worried when I ordered it that the belt clip wouldn't be adequate to run--I'm no longer concerned. It didn't budge--felt very secure. And I LOVE the FM radio feature!!! It came in perfectly clear and, being that I haven't transferred many songs to it yet, let me test it out without boredom.

It's the perfect size, but the lack of a zoom lense kills it. Also,the indoor photos have a redish tint and the quality of the photos fell far short of the Canon Elph 300. The only zoom on the camera is digital zoom -- just like cropping a photo on your computer.

The MP3 player software forces you to convert via a special process, but if you can get the music on to the camera then it's a great plus.

The instructions...very poorly written. English as taught in Seoul. I immediately bought extra batteries and a speed charger at Radio Shack. Have not regretted it. I've had it about two weeks. I love it. Never was big on cameras but being able to erase bad shots, edit good ones, email, print, take close ups from 6-8 inches. It is fun. Fits in my shirt pocket, sometimes I forget I have it with me. I am tempted to upgrade the memory but I have not reached its capacity yet. The picture quality is excellent. The video capability is a lot of fun too. It seems too tiny to do so much. Everyone who has seen it is impressed with it. I would buy it again.

were not included in package received as specified on web site ?

I bought this three days ago and have had nothing but problems. It is going back tomorrow and I will never buy another iPAQ. I had an older model iPAQ (3800 series) that I had gotten used in December. I had started having major problems with it crashing on me about two months ago. I debated over getting a new iPAQ after those problems and the bad reviews on Amazon for HP's in general. I had decided to go with Dell but my husband took me shopping for our anniversary and all we could find was this HP. It was so pretty and cool that I forgot my plans and bought it because I just had to have it NOW! What a mistake.

The machine itself works great, it was when I started trying to install the software that the problems started. Active Sync would not install properly and ended up crashing the first computer I tried installing it on. (Putting the computer in permanent Safe mode.)I thought at first that it was a problem with my computer so I tried loading it on my other, newer one. Same problems with Active Sync only this time I was getting a message saying that the software was not compatable with Windows XP and might mess up my computer if I continued to try syncing it. This was strange since on the box it says it IS compatable.

I contacted HP today and yes, their customer service IS as bad as I've heard. They of course denied that it could possibly be a problem with their machine or software - BOTH of my computers must have messed up at the same time, coincidentally when I got the PPC! They were basically no help at all.

My husband spent 5-6 hours after work getting the first computer fixed, quite a job since he's not a computer expert. He finally got it done and I started over. Well, guess what - I got the software loaded, well only Active Sync - Outlook wouldn't load so I stuck with the version I already have on there. But of course when I tried to sync the computer could not detect the PDA, just like yesterday before my PC crashed. I tried it over and over, even using a cord from my old PDA. Then tried it all on the other computer. NO, it does not work at all and yes, I did get a message AGAIN about incompatible device drivers for XP like I got yesterday. (And the HP support people swore this is impossible.) There is supposed to be a Logo on the product box that says XP compatible, which there is not.

So I have this very expensive calendar/phone book/calculator/To DO list and that's about it. I can't download e-mails or add programs or anything if I can't connect to my computer. It basically useless. I'm so didgusted I want to throw it as hard as I can. Now I have to drive one hour each way and waste all that gas money and time to return this stupid thing. I have six children - I don't have time for this garbage! I just want to cry and HP could care less. I told them all of this and they just said, "See your vendor." Who's going to repay my husband and me for our wasted time and money dealing with the problems this machine has created???

I am taking this back. I might get a Dell but honestly I'm so disgusted that I may just forget PDA's entirely and stick with old-fashioned pen and paper. It's not fancy and may not be as easy to carry around but at least it's reliable and if it does get lost or messed up it's not that expensive to replace.

This is a pretty cool PDA. I got it for my third year of medical school and I haven't been disappointed. It's lightning fast, and the OS seems pretty stable. The only thing I'd do differently is not place as much importance on having a physical keyboard. I initially thought that the keyboard would be a great plus, but I rarely use it. For the times I do use it (typing passwords on web forms when I don't trust my scribbling), I could easily use the pop-up screen keyboard.

Another issue, which has been raised here before, is its wireless capabilities. The thing only supports the older WEP authentication, and not the newer WPA (which is more secure). I had set up my home network with WPA, but I had to downgrade it to WEP to use the iPAQ. This is annoying, not to mention puzzling. I mean, it's 2004 and they still haven't implemented 802.11g?

I guess this is partly the fault of the OS, which superficially resembles Windows XP. A problem I've had with the OS is that when you hit the 'x' in the upper right of the window (x=close, one would think), it only minimizes the program (it seems to stay on in memory and you have to shut it down in memory). This is retarded. A minus sign would be a more accurate representation.

A word about HP support. Their online knowledgebase is almost useless (I was searching to see if the iPAQ had 802.11g support), and no matter what you do, don't use their online chat support. The chat tech support guy I had was completely clueless, took 5 minutes to answer each message I sent, and didn't even bother acknowledging his ignorance. He just sent me a word document and told me to read it. The only thing he was good for was giving me the HP supprt phone number (which was wrong, but they automatically transferred me). Get their phone number (it's supposedly hidden deep somewhere) and call them. The phone tech support guy I talked to (after a long wait) was professional, helpful, polite, and knowledgeable.

Finally, if anyone else is using this for medical school, note that your friends will probably have Palms. They'll be beaming their cool programs to each other (for free), while you stand idly by with your incompatible iPAQ. On the other hand, our school has moved their records electronic, and they've chosen iPAQs. Take a look at what your colleagues and schools are using before you spend the big bucks.

I have had my 4355 for approximately a month now, and I am blown away by it's set of features.It literally has everything one could want from a handheld. The built in WiFi effortlessly recognized our home network, I bought a BT GPS receiver on ebay, which gives me wireless GPS navigation, while leaving the SD slot free for my memory cards.
I, personally love the keyboard. I have never been a fan of handwriting recognition, and I have larger than average hands, so the size is actually perfect for me. While it's a bit longer because of the keyboard (1 inch longer than the 4150), the device itself is very thin. My girlfriend bought the 4150, which aside from the keyboard, and a slightly smaller battery has the same features.
Battery life is better than average, although like every other device, heavy WiFi use drains it pretty quickly. Simply buying an additional battery for emergencies would suffice for just about anyone's usage.
The keyboard is a good size, making thumb typing very easy. If it has a drawback, it's that there aren't stand alone number keys, so typing alot of numbers is a bit of a hassle at times. But that's really nitpicking. Overall, I can't really find anything not to like about this handheld. Except the terrible case that HP gives you with it. I'm still waiting for others to hit the stores so I can replace it.

I got one of these as a gift along with tha rest of my team at a former job. I can say with certainty that I'm glad I did not [PAY] for this piece of junk. Every so often I figure I'll dig it out and see if I can make some use of it again, and soon find out just how much of a waste of time that is.

These days it's evem worse that it had been when it was new. Sure, you can [IN THEORY] upgrade the firmware, but that's only if you have [precisely] the sort of system configuration the developers thought you were allowed to have. Since this is from Thompson/RCA, who own the Frauenhoffer patent the MP3 format uses for encoding, and therefore have a vested interest in proprietary formats, they will likely [never] support the competing OGG Vorbis format. Tough luck if that's what you've been encoding all your vinyl recordings in.

Also, since it's so anal about how you upload your music to it, it seems you can't even use a newer card without some weird formatting utility for ity. (...)

this things sound is awesome it has by far the widest range of volume. i own this item but before i bought it i researched mp3 players and trust me the diomomd rio is not the way to go. if you want a lot of sound, a lot of rock, and a lot of boom, for your buck lyra is the way to go. i bought a 96 mb memory card and i am using it for this item it stores tons of songs off napster, cds, or anything. and about batteries... trust me it lasts plenty long. just pop in a couple duracel ultras and this bad boy will run for 10 hours or more nonstop. so what i am saying is i strongly earge you to buy this if you are in the market for a mp3 player.one more thing... comparing this to the rio as far as sound is concerned is like comparing a tape player to a dvd player.

I received this MP3 player with 32MB of memory from my sister as a gift around a year ago and for the first six months never used it since I had a MiniDisc player, a portable CD player, and a high speed CD burner.

The initial reluctancy to use it was the low amount of memory. However, with the significant drop in compactflash card prices, I bought a 128MB card for under $100USD and another 64MB card for around $40USD recently. With this expanded memory, the Lyra is awesome. It's sound is almost CD quality, and I now use Microsoft MediaPlayer software to play and to download songs. Very fast and high compatible. I agree with some of the other reviews as to this player eats up batteries.

Using Duracell Ultra's seems the best, I find that I can use the device longer with them. With a 128MB card, I can fit over 20 songs in the highest quality format. Also, what I found out that if you were willing to sacrific sound quality, you can opt for lower data quality files (96K) to have more songs on the same size memory card. However, I do not recommend this.

Now that there are 512MB+ cards available on the market, this MP3 is the best. It has great sound quality, the volume is very loud, uses upgradable reasonably price compactflash memory, has quick download speeds unlike MD's, uses regard AA batteries, is relatively small compared to a CD player, does not skip like CD's, and runs upgradable software right from the compactflash card.

The only drawbacks are that it could a a bit smaller, the light shuts off two quick, and it could us less power.

Nonetheless, all in all an amazing MP3 player even after a year.

HT

I got a 0MB refurb from Creative when they were clearing them out. I recommend the standard II (non C) model with a 128MB SM card and a docking station. While 128MB is good you'll tire of the music quickly and, at that point, you can listen to the radio (C has no FM tuner.) The docking station makes charging the batteries and dumping new music easy. Changing MP3's is enough of a hassle that you won't want to do it all that much. I really like the wired remote and headphones supplied, throw the player in your pocket and you have complete control with the mini remote in your hand. Some complain of lack of volume, but you REALLY shouldn't listen that loud anyways (loud headphones are very bad for your hearing!) My unit does very occasionally lock up and I don't know if this is a result of the beta firmware(required if you want it to recognize 128MB.) Overall this is a good value for a compact, skip-proof MP3 player (ideal for phyiscal exercise.) I only with it came from a better company.

I bought the Nomad II C from Amazon at Christmas and got a great deal on it, and I only paid $.... The 32MB built-in memory isn't really enough, so I recommend that you add at least another 64MB of memory (Amazon has some great deals on SmartMedia cards too). The sounds quality is brilliant but some don't come with headphones, and the ones that come free aren't that good, so I suggest you get a new set of those too. Only other complaints are that you need to take the battery out to the remove the SmartMedia card (if you need to, say, clean it), and that the instructions on how to use the voice recorder are minimal, if not non-existant. I still haven't figured it.

The best things include the quality of the sound, immense battery life, compact size, easy navigation of the menu and the fact that the headphone jack is tight enough to hold onto the MP3 player if you drop it - almost like a safety cord.

I won't lie - this thing isn't stratchproof, and the lack of a leather case is a bit galling, but the silver finish is great and really makes this MP3 player one of the best going for this kind of price.

I had bought my Nomad II (32MB onboard) sometime in 2001 for $69. I cannot beleive that I got it for that price and still it stays at that price two years later. It has great sound and with a 128MB card you have plenty of music to last you. It is a great piece and everytime I look to get a new one or a better one, I can't find anything that is much better for the price. I am keeping my mine until the price of MP3s drop drastically.

Bought this for my wife to use at work; was impressed by the resume ability and 2-minute ESD. The resume ability was for her to listen to long audiobooks; as the resume ability does not work (see review by "An electronics fan"), that idea is down the drain. Secondly, also mentioned in "An electronics fan"'s review, the machine turns off if you take a particularly hard step while walking with it in your hand. Pitiful. Will be giving this away and buying a better one.

This is an overall great product. I have no qualms about its sound quality and features. And a 50 cent Pocket CD, which holds (for me) about 3-4 standard CDs in MP3 format, is a lot cheaper than more memory for other MP3 players, so throwing 10 Pocket CDs (equals about 30-40 regular CDs!) into my briefcase is very livable.

HOWEVER... This unit absolutely DESTROYS batteries. It uses one battery per day EASILY, and more if you listen to music all day. So having to plug into the wall with the AC adapter (included, thankfully) removes some of it's portablity, which is presumably one of the reasons one would want a unit like this. That's one strike.

Also, it's a bit thicker than I would have suspected from the online advertising. It's almost an inch thick (about 3/4"), which again, for a "portable" unit, is a bit less than desirable. And one other minor irritation: the DBB (bass boost/enhance) doesn't stay "on" between uses. You have to explicitly turn it on each time you start the player. This could be a power saving feature (as with the ESP skip protection), but it's a minor irritant since I always want it on.

Otherwise, this is a great product by Philips and would easily warrant a 4-4.5 star rating outside of its carnivorous battery usage, its thickness, and the DBB issue. The sound and other features on the unit are more than satisfactory.

I've been waiting for a good MP3-CD player for a while now, and after having tested the Philips EXP4011 ($...) against the Compaq IPaq PM-1 ($...), I like the Philips much better:

1) You can't complain about the compact size. The Philips is just the perfect size to fit in a Lowe digital camera bag (LPD10, $12.99).

2) I don't mind the 3-hour battery life (1 AA battery), because I always carry 3 extra batteries in the camera case anyway. (The IPaq has better battery life, but using 2 AAA batteries.) You can boost the battery life to 5-6 hours by turning off ESP. If you're using the Philips for a 45-minute subway commute or for a marathon 5-hour library studying session, you don't need ESP anyway.

3) I don't mind having to purchase 8cm media, because the Philips supports UDF -- and you can playback CDRWs created using DirectCD. A five-pack of 8cm CDRW sold for $..., and these are good for hundreds of erase-and-rewrites.

4) The Philips also supports AAC. Using PsyTel 1.5, you need to encode WAV-to-AAC using the -lc and -adif command line options; the downside is that you cannot seek within the song when playing the AACs using WinAmp (e.g., with the out_aac.dll plugin). 64K-encoded AAC files sound just as good as 128K-encoded MP3 files. Since the AAC files take up half the filespace, you can fit twice as much AAC-encoded music on your CDRs or CDRWs.

5) ...