MP3 Reviews

This particular Apple iPod was one of the first models to come out. Like most techo-gadgets, once you buy them - something better is going to come along within a few months. That is just the way of the world. The nice thing about this gadget is - it still does the job very well for me 1 1/2 years after I purchased it. This is the 5GB iPod. They have discontinued this model in favor of some iPods that hold larger capacity (i.e. 10 GB, 15 GB, 20 GB, and 40 GB) as well as the smaller sized iPod mini (a 4 GB device). I'm hear to say that the 5 GB still does the job and if this is how Apple is going to produce an mp3 device, this is going to set the gold standard.

I run my iPod on a Windows XP based PC. At the time, I had to buy a IEEE 1394 FireWard card for my machine. I was more than glad to add this functionality to my PC because now I can hook up other FireWire devices. At this time the Software used to organize music on the iPod is Musicmatch and not iTunes. Again Musicmatch does a great job for me and I continue to use it. There is no synchronization device with this iPod. Just connect it to your Firewire Cable and the PC and Musicmatch software will recognize it. If your Firewire Card supplies power, you will be able to recharge the iPod as it is connected to your PC.

This thing is as Apple advertises. Apple Advertised getting about 1000 songs on it. I have ripped most of my CDs in 128 kbps format and have about 600+ songs on it so far. With still about 2GB of free space, I should just reach the 1000 song plateau. If I went to 160 kbps format for all of my songs, I would probably see a substantial reduction in the amount of songs I would be able to store. The 128 kbps format should be just fine. This device never skips. I take it in my car and to the gym and it never skips. I advise buying a car adapter for about $20 that goes into your cassette deck (the one that portable CD players use works just fine) and then you can have your iPOd in the car.

The device itself is a nice looking one. There is a jog dial used to navigate the menus. There are plenty of organizations by playlist, album, song, genre, and artist (much of this is configured on the Musicmatch software automatically when you rip your CDs to mp3). It also contains 'extras' for Calandar, Contact, Clock, and a game. The game is actually a version of the old 'Breakout' game. The menus are in standard LCD gray and there is a backlight that can be turned on to see the menu better if needed. A great set of headphones comes with the iPod. It is the type of headphones you right on the outside of the ear and what is nice is they don't fall out of your ear - plus they sound great. You also get a portable charger that only requires the firewire cable. As for the firewire cable, it comes with one as well as an adapter for 4 pin and 6 pin ports.

There are three drawbacks I must point out. The first is the back of the player - it scratches very easily. The back is made of shiny metal and you are going to need to get a a case for it otherwise you will get tons of scratches on that surface. This leads into the second drawback - accessories. No case is going to come with it and of course, like with any accessory - you're going to overpay for them. Be careful when shopping for a case, some of them are cheap leather slipcases and you may overpay. Recently I tried to get a car charger and found one at an Apple Retail Store for $13.00, but remember seeing them in CompUSA for $40. The newer iPods are architected very differently and as a result those accessories won't fit this model of the iPod. I still also advise spending the money for a car adapter (mentioned above) that plugs into your cassette deck.

The third drawback is the battery. The battery will give you 10 hours continuous play when you first get it. Slowly but surely, you will see that erode over time. I'd say I'm down to 5 hours right now. Although I said the iPod does the job well, this is the one major drawback I've seen over the life of the device. To replace the battery - it is $99.00 from Apple and this is a job you are going to need them to do. With some of the newer iPod models, I know by next year I am going to face a tough decision on whether or not to replace the battery or upgrade my iPod. Another note on the battery is that if your iPod is idle and uncharged for a few days, the battery will lose some of its charge.

The plusses clearly outweigh the minuses here. I would give this 5 stars, but the drawbacks make this more of a 4 1/2 star effort. Don't let the drawbacks deter you, but be aware of them - especially the battery issue if you are buying a used one. If you do get this device, you'll be very happy with it.

My Husband gave me a christmas gift, I love it, its stores around 1000 songs but for me 100 songs are more than enough. Sound quality and overall features are excellent, the only bad part is I still didn't found a good case for IPOD I looked everywhere from Apple store to EBAY but they were not good, but other than that I had no problems till now.I hope this review is helpful.

The wife got me one of these for Christmas and you can't go wrong. Great interface, simple intuitive controls. If you have a huge music collection or plan on using it as an external hard drive go for the 10 or 20 GB model but I am not even close to filling this 5 GB up. Address Book and iCal updates work great with iSync. It even has a breakout game.

This product is truly amazing.I put in a lot of thought before actually bying it but it is worth every penny. Its best feature is that it doesn't require any type of software whatsoever.Just plug it in and XP recognises it as an external drive so just drag-and-drop files (at super-fast speeds).The sound quality is is great although i would recommend bying a pair of decent headphones instead of using the earphones it comes with.FM reception is also perfect and recording couldn't be any easier with the internal mic and the Line/Optical In/Out ports.Battery life is also a great asset of this player. I load music to it almost every day and listen for about 1.5 hrs and the player can last for 5 days.That's crazy considering that loading music consumes a lot of battery since the player is connected to the pc.Therefore, in terms of pure listening, i think it can last for about 12-13 hrs.The only drawback i found is the way it categorizes songs.Currently the player can only categorize (artist,album,song,genre) mp3 files and since the vast majority of my files are WMA finding a song could potentially be hard at times if u have a very big collection(the songs are, however, categorized alphabetically in each folder regardless of their type). iRiver can probably fix that with a firmware upgrade in the future. Other than that the player is a top gadget!
P-S:It might be worth considering bying the 20G version if u can find it at a reasonably higher price

The iHP 100 is more expensive as compared to other Gb jukebox players but that's because you get a little more for your money. A backlit remote, built-in FM tuner, multiple platform support (MP3, Ogg Vorbis, and unprotected WMA), and a recorder. It also doesn't restrict you to a certain bitrate (e.g., the Archos Studio series require 128kbps to avoid skips during playback). While other players offer some of these features, most don't offer them all. But the kicker for me was the Digital Optical input. With this, I can plug the iHP into my home theater system and record tunes and soundtracks digitally directly from my DirecTivo, DVD, or CD player.

If you want to do PDA functions on your MP3 player then buy an iPod (or better yet, a Sony Clie). But if you want a compact harddrive player, with the drag-and-drop functionality of an Archos, the IHP 100 is well worth the money.

greatest x-mas present that i ever got! love it for traveling and taking (as another reviewer put it) nearly my whole music collection with me. love the long battery life and the earphone adapter, i don't really like those that you have to put in your ear, so i use my better ones that i already owned but didn't work, now they do!

I bought it for workouts, and hated it. Then they fixed the software. It is too cool for words. Use it in the car, truck, at work. Its my best friend. Uses the same cards and batteries as my digital camera (Kodak DC-280 cool too!). Was worthless with original software, and the web site is not I2Go.com unless you want to invest in the company, which with their gufaws, I wouldn't. It is MyAudio2Go.com so be careful. Sounds great, works great, makes any car stereo jam, it is top quality but the company needs marketing school. I live in Va where radar detectors are illegal, can't wait til a policeman pulls me to check out my MP3 player!

I bought the Ego for car, workouts & work. My digital camera also uses CF cards so I can use them for both. My Ego uses 2 64 MB cards but I can use any combination of CF or IBM Microdrives. Loading music is simple drag and drop with the USB connection. With a total of 128 MB I can load about 2 CD's worth of quality MP3's and vary the playlist with ease. I found that with the company's message board that I could get answers to questions within 24 hrs or less on weekdays. The company has just recently switched from MP3agent software to Media Manager which seems to have solved some problems previous users had suffered. The firmware is flashable so they are regularly updating. I did not like the earbuds that came with the unit. I added a pair of Koss KSC35 clipons that stay on while I workout and sound immensely better.

It might be pricey but it's totally worth it! It doesn't skip a beat whatever you do and the little speaker on it is great fun too! My friends could not have been more jealous!

We bought this as a secondary player for our bedroom TV. It's light and easy to use, and has a good picture and sound which is all we care about. We've been using it for about 6 months and have had no problems at all (we've watched at least 30 movies on it). For a simple "pop in and play" DVD player, this unit has easily been worth what we paid for it. It looks like this model has been discontinued and replaced by the MDV411, which I can't speak for.

The Magnavox MP3 DVD Player is just plain wonderful! The picture and sound quality this DVD player has to offer are excellent! This DVD player also has very good durability. It comes with a good DVD remote that has everything you want on it, and it is very easy to use. You can buy good surround sound speakers to go with this product and hook them up to the Magnavox MP3 DVD Player, which is great for any one who wants a good home theater system. The Magnavox MP3 DVD player, unlike other expensive DVD players, is very easy to hook up into any TV that is capable of having a DVD player hooked up on them. It plays all types of DVD Videos, CDs, and even MP3s. The price for the Magnavox MP3 DVD Player is outstanding! For A spectacular DVD player, with wonderful sound and picture quality, the easy to use Magnavox MP3 DVD player was at a very low price..... I recommend this product to anyone who is looking for a great DVD player that is at a very good, and low, price.

I bought this player and it is easy to use with a great picture and easy setup. Didn't realize how lucky I was until I bought OnDVD to make photo CD-Rs of family digital photos and none of our relatives DVD players would play them. We are buying another MDV410SL as a gift for the grandparents!

I've had this mp3 player for a few months now, and I am extremely happy with it.

Pros:
- Very small and lightweight
- No cables or software necessary
- Easy to load; you just drag and drop
- Easy menu navigation with intuitive GUI
- Has all the necessary features (random, repeat, set it to skip certain folders, etc)
- Doubles as a flash drive
- Arm strap and/or belt clip are great when you're on the move

Cons:
- Wide design is hard to get into the USB port on my HP at work (fits perfectly fine in my Dell at home)

Overall it is a wonderful product and I am very happy with my purchase.

I'm using this product since a month, and it works really fine. It comes with a belt clip and earbuds. The battery life for the TX models are pretty good (>10hrs), and the output quality is also good. I'm using it to record the lectures, but if you want to get a good quality go for a voice recorder only device, still it performs well. You can add files, mp3's WMA's and record sound on the same device and it will work without any problem, The screen is so small but still readable, and the blue backlit LCD is really good. you can resume the song that you are listening after power off and on again, and have several options for shuffle play(folder, all, repeat folder, repeat all).
Pros: Reversible LCD Menus, Blue Backlit LCD, USB Stick(no need for extra cable), Voice recording capability, Jog Dial button for easy skip, and navigation in menus.
Cons: Not expandable, Voice recoring quality might be better.

This is a brilliant worck of machinary, and anyone who could afford to buy this peice of equipment is very lucky, and should use ot to its highest extent.
Also, don't pollute the earth, recycle and you may save our planet.

I already own 1 hp jornada 548 and I gotta say, i love this pda! MUCH better. This thing stands up to horrendus abuse. I'm a delivery driver, and this thing lives in my car. Stands up to heavy weights put on it, baking in the sun for days on end, and I love the flash rom disk! The only bad side I see to it, is the single SDIO slot. I would have preferred a CF slot as well, but for $300, it's still a great value.

For those who wish to get a quick review; This is the best pocket pc in the $200 dollar price range. I bought mine in April and I absolutely love it, my best friend bought one two weeks ago and he loves his as well. I am completely satisfied.

Pros:

After trying several PDA's I've finally found one I really like, at the right price and with the combination of features I will use.

1. (...)this one clearly stands heads and shoulders above the rest in this price range.

2. The e405 is very fast and effective while using media player and running basic games and the like. I'm not what you would call a "power user" but I've compared this to several models in the HP line and it is every bit as fast and functional (or better) in the case of the 1945. This is also the first PDA I've not had to reset once in the first month of use.

3. The form factor (size/shape) of this unit is GREAT, it is the thinnest I've seen and fits well in a pocket. The attractive metal housing is another big plus for me, the buttons are well placed and functional, the screeen is very bright and clear also.

4. I was truly surprised by just how much I like this Toshiba PDA once I started using it, very nice.

Cons:

1. I haven't had to contact Toshiba support as of yet, so it's hard to rate them although I'd suspect it is lacking like most companies in this market today.

2. Battery is not replaceable, but I can live with that for the price range I'm in. Battery life is about the same as the HP models I've tried, I can go 2-3 days between recharging with moderate use.

Just beware. I own an e335 model and am very happy with it. This time I bought the e405 for my wife and "surprise!" it comes without a cradle and a (vinyl) leather case. They are labled as "optional". The e305 vinyl leather case protected mine from an 7ft drop. You will have to spend another $25 for the case and $39 for the cradle.

My gift was incomplete and Amazon doesn't sell these accesories as of today (4/29/2004).

All in all this is a great player. The worst thing about it is the headphones. I guess I have small ears because they don't even fit inside. My husband said he wore them for one hour and they hurt his ears so bad he threw them out. We had to run out and purchase a better headset. Also...the FM tuner is a separate entity that attaches by a cord to the player. Don't be fooled by the size because now you have to have 2 things clipped to your belt. That was a big disappointment. It never said that anywhere!

This mp3 player has it all.....for a low price. But it has a few flaws.
1)The max. volume is too low. (This is helped with buying a better pair of headphones.)
2)The door for the expansion card opens all the time. If I clip the player to my shorts to workout, the door opens five or six times. 3)There is no auto-turn off after all the mp3 files play. So If I fall asleep while using it.....I wake up to find the batteries dead. 4)The buttons are in strange places.
5)The batteries die all the time, so buy a recharger.
Nothing else wrong with it yet. But overall I love to use it all the time. It can hold 20 songs and with the 32mb expansion card I get another 10. For the money it is the best buy I have seen.

Buy this one! After months of procrastination, I ended up with this player for one reason. It was on sale at a local electronics store. After months of use, I am appreciating the features, ease of use and reliability of this player. Sound quality is excellent, the included software is complete; with out hiccups, it can hold over thirty tracks on the 64 Megs of flash memory. What else do you want or need? The USB data transfer is fast and clean, and you have sound modes that actually work without the need for complicated (and time consuming) equalizer settings.

Pros:
plays mp3, wave, midi, kar and other format files; has composer mode; records (selectable resolution) via mic input

Cons:
No external power supply connector, eats batteries. PC software has a few bugs, don't know about the Mac s/w. Needs more generic styles than just the x-hop, mod stuff; i.e. rock, jazz, blues, pop, etc. Needs a better GUI for the "hiway/dj" mode. Fine for non-musicians, but lame if you want real control. A midi/grid type editor would be real cool. Also the headset-mic is junk, but it demos the possibilities. Last, I can't get the unit to use more than 32MB of a 128MB SmartMedia card. Tech support is good so far, but we're still working on it. As usual, most companies will or can not come out and tell you what the bugs are.

Still a way cool product, despite my cons list. I have a hunch they'll fix most of these issues.

THIS HAS GOT TO BE THE BEST PRODUCT I HAVE EVER BOUGHT. I LAY OUT LOTS OF LYRICS BUT HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO USE ANY OF THE PC MUSIC CREATION TOOLS VERY WELL. WITH THE MADPLAYER I CREATE MY OWN BEATS, BASS LINES, AND LEADS INSTANTLY AND THEN LAY MY VOICE RIGHT IN... I AM SO AMAZED BY THIS PRODUCT. INITIALLY I DID NOT KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT AND WAS VERY SKEPTICAL OF WHAT IT WAS AND WHAT THE QUALITY OF THE MUSIC WOULD BE. AFTER GETTING IT AND PALYING AROUND FOR A FEW DAYS I AM JUST BLOWN AWAY BY ITS POWER. I BROUGHT IT TO A FRIEND WHO IS A MUSICIAN AND PRODUCER OF SOME LOCAL UNDERGROUND HIP HOP, HE PLUGGED IT INTO HIS SOUND SYSTEM IN THE STUDIO AND COULD NOT BELIEVE THE SOUND QUALITY AND EASY OF USE. IN A MATTER OF MINUTES WE LAYED OUT A NICE SERIES OF TRACKS TO USE ON A CD WE RIPPED.
I HAVE HAD THIS PRODUCT FOR TWO WEEKS NOW AND KEEP GETTING MORE AND MORE HOOKED ON IT. I FIND THAT I BRING IT EVERYWHERE I GO AND JUST PLAY AROUND ALL THE TIME CREATING LOTS OF GREAT MUSIC. ON THING THAT WORKS GREAT IS TO USE JUNGLE OR DRUMnBASS STYLES AND SLOW THEM DOWN AND USE THEM TO LAY RAP VOCALS OVER. I ALSO FIND THAT I USE THE FM RADIO A LOT TO SAMPLE OFF OF... THE SAMPLES ARE THEN MIXED WITH THE MUSIC IN REAL TIME. QUALITY AND FEEL OF THE MADPLAYER ARE GREAT, I ESPECIALLY LIKE THE SILKY FEEL. MY ONLY COMPLAINT INITIALLY WAS THAT I WANTED TO SAVE SAMPLES IN REALTIME IN THE SONG AS I CREATED A SONG... I FOUND OUT YESTERDAY AFTER VISITING THE MADPLAYER WEBSITE THAT THE COMPANY IS RELEASING A FREE UPGRADE NEXT WEEK THAT WILL LET ME DO THAT... I ALSO DO QUITE A LOT OF VIDEO EDITING AND HAVE BEEN USING THE MADPLAYER TO GENERATE BACKING TRACKS FOR THE VIDEOS... SINCE WHAT COMES OUT OF THE MADPLAYER IS COPYWRITE FREE "ACCORDING TO THE COMPANY" I AM FREELY USING THE MUSIC AND MAKING SOME GREAT VIDEOS AND DVD'S FOR MY FRIENDS.
IN SUMMARY, THIS HAS GOT TO BE THE MOST PERSONALLY EMPOWERING I HAVE EVER SEEN. ITS HAS GIVEN ME CONFIDENCE TO CREAT MUSIC, SOMETHING THAT I DID NOT HAVE MUCH OF A FEW WEEKS AGO.....

I saw the MadPlayer on fresh gear (TechTV) and said: well this looks cool, I am going to give it a shot. I also looked for a vendor which allowed me to return (thanks amazon.com) if I don't like it...
There is no thinking about returning the player. This little wonder is amazing... Create music and interact with it... I have to resist the temptation to play with it instead of doing my work :-)
I already created a couple of songs, tweaked, retweaked etc... Adding samples, Microphone voice with effect etc. is a lot of fun... I didn't even try the radio or mp3 player functions yet... Too much fun creating music....

It is surely a rare day when I buy a product that does exactly what I want and lives up to what the company says it can do.

Batteries fully charged in three hours, THE ABSOLUTE Winner hands down for staying power, my Toshiba digital would eat any other rechargeable, but with the Monster it lasts thru frame after frame, even with flash.(out performs projected #of frames). These people have made a friend for life!

Just a solid battery pack for your digital camera. My brother-in-law used this product a ton but then he forgot it at my house over X-mas and I've been using it ever since. Batteries seem to last longer than other times and it does charge a little faster although I don't know if that is such an issue. Monster stuff tends to be a little expensive so I'm glad he forgot it at my place.

i purchased this item and have been impressed! the power cells hold a charge for a long time!! i have not lost power when using my digital camera with these batteries. i would recommend an extra set of power cells, so that you can always have back up...just in case! but, even after a trip to disney (with lots of pictures), i am still satisfied.

This time at least I also received function along with the style. I love this litte DVD player. It travels great, hooks up easily and tne only problem I had with setup involved an antiquated (early 90's) receiver. The small footprint makes it perfect for a bedroom or kitchen set up with a nice CRT tuner.

Why buy a plain silver box when you can have this little item? Just get used to the phrase: "*That's* your DVD player?!"
The functionality is just right for someone who isn't planning their living room around a gigantic home theatre. It plays DVDs and it plays them well. The CD player function is also good for people like me who don't necessarily have the space for a stereo as well as an AV setup. The slideshow feature for photo CDs has come in handy, too.
I have yet to run into the problem some people have had with SVCDs, but then again, this is not really an advanced machine. It does what it does, and it does it well. I rate it high because for someone like me, limited on space and with no need for supertechnology from my DVD player, it's perfect.

Easily the best simple DVD player I've ever had, and no problems with any type of disc I put in it.

One earlier review complains that it's "sold as a portable, but it really isn't" etc. This seems to be the main complaint there. But it's NOT sold as a portable, it's advertised as being "transportable." No, you can't watch a thing sitting in the car or the bus or the train. But if you want to bring it with you on a trip and watch something in a hotel or a friend's house (assuming they don't have a player themselves), then it's pretty good. Small, compact, no muss, no fuss. (Clearly, some people need to read more carefully...or look at the picture...)