MP3 Reviews

It has some compatibility problems with the SanDisc MMC that came with the MiniJam. I formated the disc and then I couldn't use it again! I kept getting fatal errors, even with the patch! Also, the 64MB on the MMC is only for music downloads. You cannot move files from your PDA to the MMC with the program provided. You can only use the 2MB of flash on the MiniJam module for PDA storage, which goes down to 1MB with the preloaded software. The MMC are also expensive. Better off with a MiniDisc player with cheap minidiscs than expensive MMC that store only about 10-15 songs per 68MB MMC. Not a value!!!!

I chose this MP3 player over the Sounds Good because it offers the Peanut Press Reader. I also found it at a better price. My only recommendation for this MP3 is that they should look into making something similar to the SoundsGood energy clip so that you can use it as a stand-alone unit, and you don't need to take your Visor with you. I think it is great and I love the different 'skins' it offers! However, as far as I can tell, you can only use the provided memory for music, not the peanut press books.

I would like to start off this review by letting everyone know that I was on Amazon.com when I was lokking for an mp3 player, tons of them were [...] priced and they didn't have the options I wanted! I happened to look over to the right of my screen and saw a recently reviewed item, WOW it was an mp3 player, so I checked it out, even though the price was out of my range. I printed out the information to compare it with the other I had chosen, and read the review for the Minijam...a five star review...and the only one on the page. Well I was dissapointed with the price of the MP3 player, but not all of the wonderfull features. At the point I was reading the technical data, I had no idea you needed a Visor to use the MINIJAM, I found this out later after I bought the thing on [...], but that did not bring my hopes down, it was a great product and I even found a brand new visor on Ebay. So I get the visor and the minjam in the mail and hook them up together and put all of my Mp3's I can onto it, then plug in the headphones they come with, those headphones are not good headphones, but I had some nice [$] Sony ones that worked great. But the design of the Minijam is nice and goes perfect with the visor the picture viewer and Peanut reader are very nice as well. The ability to turn off the visor while listing to mp3's is great when in school, or riding a bike, or working. But even better I was riding my bike at about 15mph and the visor slipped out of it's case (because of my own dumb fault) I was on a gravel road and taking a sharp turn, well the player and visor hit the ground at I only had a couple scratches and the minijam was still playing to perfection. The different settings on the minijam are very nice as well along with going from song to song. But the player looks very cool and the best thing is no one knows what they are! The memory cards are nice and it only takes about 10 minutes to Hotsync the mp3's onto the minijams 32mb cards that are very compact. Additional memory is a key to mp3's and the extra 2mb that the minijam provides for the visor will kepp you out of trouble with memory problems. Handspring did a great thing teaming up with Innogear. This product is nice, I got mine for [$], and the visor afterwords for [$]. Buy one you will not be let down. The sound quality is great and the ability to put new skins on the player always will let you expand onto better things.

The idea is great. The execution is not.

My JumpGear MP3 worked with one JumpDrive Sport (512MB) but not with another (256MB). Both JumpDrives work with my PC (although only through a USB hub, neither was recognized by the primary USB ports, but that's another story).

So, three Lexar products, two "good" JumpDrives but one doesn't work with the JumpGear. For a product that invites you to swap multiple JumpDrives in and out, this is a real problem. Prime suspect would be either the JumpGear USB connector or the JumpDrive 256 USB connector -- but unless both connectors are good for the long haul, this product will not live up to its promise.

Lexar Customer Support did call back, as promised, spent most of their time attempting to replicate the problem on their end, and offering to replace the JumpGear if it did't work with their JumpDrive (a 50/50 proposition, based on my experience). They are only authorized to handle RMAs. They are not equipped (or interested) to figure out what was wrong.

Picked this up and a 256MB jumpdrive for my wife. She had NO issues with getting MP3's from her MAC to the drive. Pretty much figured out how to use it and is happy with it. There are 2 small issues with this though.
1. It is difficult to access the menu (to change backlighting, etc). Anyone else have this issue?
2. When using the play music randomly, it's not very random. My wife was real disappointed in that.

But for $40 for the player and $25 for the swappable USB memory pretty good deal.

Sometimes the most useful things are the simplest ones, and this little guy fits that category. The controls are simple and straightforward, the buttons are rugged rubber, and the battery life is exceptional if you turn off the backlight. The earbud headphones that are included are sturdy but may lack a little in reproducing bass sound; I plugged in a larger pair of Sony headphones that I use on my computer and the sound quality from this guy was equal to listening to MP3s on my PC. I could fit about 50 songs on a 256MB card, which is enough to last me a week before I want to change them. And reloading songs from a PC is *so* easy with the USB technology. Make no mistake, this isn't an iPod, but it's very small, easy to use, and very practical.

I want to love this gadget, but I can not. It tries to do too much, and ends up doing too little.

PROS:
- Super Small
- Large LCD
- Excellent Prodcut Design
- Many "Features"

CONS:
- You're finger easily gets in the way of the lens(1 in 3 shots are finger shots)
- The digital photos are VERY grainy in ALL light conditions (I would not even post the photos to my web site)
- No "Red Eye Reduction"
- The video quality is medium, definitel not a camcorder replacement
- Audio files need to be translated to some "native" format, using included software... no drag and drop here!

I will most likely return it, despite my desire to like all that it offers and how cool it looks. It just not deliver quality on the images and video.

This is a very cool gadget, but it has a very specific target audience - people who need a camera and a Dictaphone with them at all times. If that's not you, consider a Palm Zire 71, or maybe a camera phone.

Unlike many other combination devices, the D-Snap 50 doesn't try to do too much, just a few things fairly well. The MP3 player is as good as any other card-based unit, the voice recorder is on par with the most expensive Sony stand-alones, and the digital camera is good enough for small jobs and web work... but until you get used to using it, you'll think you need to cut off your index finger to take a decent picture. Also, I haven't yet decided whether including an 8 MB memory card with the unit was meant as an insult or a joke.

Most of the negatives associated with the D-Snap 50 can be cured with three things: patience, practice, and an extraordinarily large SD memory card. After you've taught yourself how to hold it, and jacked up all the settings to acceptable quality, you will wonder how you ever did without it. As for durability, we'll have to wait and see, but I trust the brand. Three and one-half stars.

I travel frequently and write as a hobby, and I have often wished I had camera or camcorder with me to capture an interesting scene to use in my writing. I normally carry a digital voice recorder, but usually do not have the ability to photograph because cameras are generally too bulky for everyday use. I therefore purchased this gadget in an effort to give me an 'all in one' recorder I could use to capture voice notes, still images and short movies. Here's what I found:

The Good:

- Small! Yet it has a good, solid weight to it.
- Easy-to-learn controls. I was using the gadget's full functionality within minutes, and didn't have to slog through the manual to learn each mode. Once I learned how to use one mode, the others were fairly intuitive.
- Versatility - I was able to hook the camcorder up to my DVD player and record a movie in MPEG-4 format for later watching. I then reversed the cables and played the same movie, outputting to my television. I took a few pictures, then made some voice memos, and the quality of the memos was better than on my old digital recorder. Very cool!

The Bad:

- The camcorder works well only when under strong light conditions. It lowers the shutter speed when it has insufficient light (and 'insufficient' here includes any indoor shooting), which means dropped frames and dark colors. There is a mode to compensate somewhat for low light, but this only brightens the images without speeding frame rate.
- I knew this going in, so I don't really think of this as a 'bad', but you may not know: MPEG-4 is NOT movie-quality! The best you can do on this device is 320x240 - half the normal resolution of your TV screen, which means half as good as your normal camcorder. Plus, it's compressed, which means some quality is lost. The movies this device makes are for posting on Websites, not sending copies to Grandma.
- The camera also does not work well indoors. It has an automatic flash, but the flash is somewhat underpowered and does not illuminate objects more than a few feet in front of the camera.
- Only 2.5 digital zoom on the camera. No optical zoom. This is, effectively, a simple point and click camera.
- Listening to the most recently recorded voice memo requires scrolling with the track ball, unlike normal voice recorders which allow you to listen to your most recent memo with ease - this is important, as you will often want to ensure you actually captured what you were saying.
- Short battery life - about an hour of recording. The battery is quite slim, so this is to be expected. However, an hour is significantly less than most one-use objects.
- No protective case! A leather holder is a must for this device. Instead, all you get is a neck strap (good, though it's almost too heavy for wearing around the neck) and a grey felt bag which could protect from scratches, but not dropping. Who the heck is going to carry this in a felt bag? It needs to be worn on the waist, like a cell phone.

The Ugly:

- It's very easy to place your finger over the lens when taking pictures. Panasonic tried to compensate for this by placing several small nubs on the front of the device so you could, by feel, know where to hold the camera. However, they're not enough, and Panasonic's 'fix' is a hard plastic bubble you're supposed to peel and stick to the front of the camera to prevent your finger from sliding up. Yes, that's right - instead of building a bump into the camera's case, you the consumer have to gum a piece of hard plastic to it. In the software industry, we call this a 'hack.'
- The 'Menu' button, which you will be using frequently, is difficult to push. It's tiny, and because of the camera's shape is difficult to push without grasping the camera with both hands. This is a device that wants to be used only with one hand.
- I'm concerned about durability. While most of the parts feel solid and durable, two spots feel like they are asking to break. One is a small roller ball that you use to traverse the menus; it's tiny and light, and if it goes, there's no way the gadget will work without professional service. The second is the plastic catch that keeps the LED screen in place when the camera is open. Since it's possible to force the camera to close without pushing in the latch, I can see this part wearing out quickly and preventing the LED from locking open.

Summary: Despite my grips, the SV-AV50 is definitely a keeper. It an excellent emergency memory preserver/party toy. It is well-engineered with a few minor flaws. It is NOT a camcorder replacement and NOT a digital camera replacement; if you buy expecting either of these you'll be mightily disappointed. 4/5 stars, but know what you are getting!

This product is horrible. The amount of storage for songs is good, but you have to be able to use the player first. After installing the player it would cut off before the download was finished never getting all the songs. Also the computer would never recoginze the player and I would have to reinstall the data every time I wanted to use the player. Overall, you will spend more time trying to get the player working and loading music than you will listening to the player. If I could give it 0 stars I would.

Sound quality is very good. Juke box software package could be better but over all excellent product and very good on batteries.

I got the Lyra this morning as an "impulse buy," and I love it! I had it working in only a few minutes, and I am only of average intelligence. I also bought a 256MB multimedia card, and I have hours of music -- cheap! Your average primate would have no problem getting this thing running.

Not only is my LCD screen upside down, it's broken. What it's telling me upside down is gibberish. Even wih normal CDs. And I've tried using both versions of ID3 tags, it won't recognize either.

The sound quality is crap at it's very best (320kb/s Mp3s and $40 headphones), and it takes a good 10 seconds to switch tracks with the skip button. When you have 150 songs on a CD, and can't navigate by folder due to the LCD screen being broken, that's a big problem. It's also annoying to have a song end and wait 10 seconds before the next one starts.

The lid just unlocks and locks, you have to pull it up and push it down. When pushing it up, you have to push until it finds it's little groove, when it feels like it's going to break. It just feels cheap like it's going to break, makes you scared to operate it.

Also, the headpone jack is trash (for my headphones and the crappy ones that came with it). It doesn't fit the entire little prong in, it sticks out about 1/5th an inch if you push it in as much as you can, and if you do that, you'll only have left-channel audio. So you have to pull it out to the point where only about half the headphone prong is in the player, but really, the sound this player gives you isn't worth the trouble of just that.

It came with a card that says "Don't return this product to the store. Contact the helpful and friendly staff at SONICblue Custom Care". I suppose I'll be doing that, but I can't imagine them fixing the sound and lid problem, even if they can fix the LCD screen. I've bought many things online in the past years, and I've never been so dissatisfied with a product as I am with this player, even at this low price. Maybe the non-Coke SP50 is a better product, but I doubt it, they appear identical aside from lid design.

I have a RioVolt CD/MP3 player, but it's not this one exactly. I just think the design is different. I have had my player for over a year and so far it has been perfect. I have not had it skip on me even while driving. So on that note, I am very satisfied with this product.

This is by far the best Discman known to MAN and I kid you not. Never has my darling failed me. There's nothing left desirable. Period.

True,recently I blasted this unit out of sheer frustration. Today Julie Holadird of TDK let me know the servers were back up, and the unit is now working beautifully! I also got help from Jon, Dean, and Victor @ the TDK On-line site. The only thing Regretably, the update service is free, so it doesn't seem to be anyones' priority. I only update info every 6 mo.
I am glad, however to have this unit. I have 85 cd's recorded @ 320k, and have 9gb's left! GREAT JOB!!! Sound quality is GREAT!

I researched the various component models available for burning cds since I always thought that it was a hassle to sit up in my office and burn cds from my computer when I could do it from the comfort of my living room. After careful consideration I found the TDK da-9000 to be the best model for what I wanted to do. The hard drive is plenty big enough since it is dedicated to music only. The database works just fine and if you have a laptop it is a cinch to hook it up to the unit and download the newest version of the gracenote software or simply download the album info for the titles that the unit does not recognize. I find it very cool to have my whole cd collection in one spot without the pile of scratched cds that I had to deal with before.

The only problem with the player/burner takes a while to compress a full cd to mp3 format. The sound quality is fine with my Yamaha receiver and JBL speakers. Here is the sticking point. Once you download a cd into the hardrive it converts into mp3 format. In order to burn a cd from the hardrive it must decompress each song, burn it to the cd and then recompress it back to the mp3 format. To be honest it takes FOREVER. Fortunately I found a way around the problem. If the cd is in the hardrive, simply delete it and then use the rapid archive function. It will temporarily save the cd uncompressed until you turn the unit off (it will then compress it while the unit is in standby mode.) Because it has not compressed the cd yet it only takes minutes to temporarily save the cd and a few minutes more to burn it. Sounds much more complicated then it is, believe me.

Good luck, I think that overall it is a great product and doubt that you will be disappointed.

I've had my TDK DA9000 Audio Jukebox for about 2 months now, and I'm enjoying every minute of it. For me, this was the perfect addition to my stereo system. For years I've made cassette compilations of my favorite tunes to play in the car. Now that cassettes have become 'old' technology, I've wished for a way to store individual songs on a hard drive, and to then be able to burn a CD copy for my car. That is exactly what this machine allows you to do.

Now even though I'm completely happy with this machine, and would not sell it back, there are several idiosyncrasies that I need to rant about. First, the jukebox is a computer, with all the faults and drawbacks of a computer. It does not come on instantaneously, nor shut off instantaneously; it first has to boot-up. When you turn it off, it has to boot-down.

The display screen is cheesy: a small green background with thin black readouts. You can't read the screen from more than three feet away. If you are sitting across the room with the remote in your hand, you can't read the screen. Not a big deal, but an annoyance.

The jukebox does not burn on normal blank CDs. You need to purchase special blank CDs designed for music. The usual computer CDs don't work, and I had a little trouble finding CDs designated for music. Sales clerks kept telling me that computer CDs will also work for music.

There is no button for random play. So you cannot play the songs on the hard drive in random order. There is a mode button on the remote, that cycles through 'normal play,' 'continuous play' and 'random play' but it's an annoyance to use. When you turn off the machine, it defaults back to 'normal play.' I would have preferred a random off/on switch.

TDK advertises that the machine has a 20GB hard drive. It does, but 2GB are used for operating software and a list of 450,000 CD titles and contents. The list is great for copying your CDs into the machine, as you don't need to type-in the name of the album, the name of the artist, or the names of the songs. Unfortunately, the list is only as up-to-date as the date of manufacture. Any pre-recorded CD manufactured after the manufacture of the jukebox, will not be in the database, and you will have to key in the information. It is possible to up-date the list, but you have to have the jukebox connected to your computer and your computer connected to the Internet, all at the same time. In my case, that's not easy to do. I found I had two new CDs and one old CD that were not in the database.

Any CDs you have that were burned on computers can be played on the jukebox, but they will not have any song or artist information available for display.

You can enter song information by using the remote, but it's a real pain. I've found the best way to enter information and create playlists is to hookup my laptop to the jukebox. The DA9000 comes with software that you can load into your PC that makes manipulating the database easy. You are also provided with a USB cable to connect your computer to the jukebox. Your computer needs to be close to the jukebox.

I don't believe the buttons on the jukebox are laid out intuitively, and after 2 months, I still have to hunt around the face of the machine. Many of the jukebox functions do not have buttons on the face, but require the remote control.

I have 500 MP3 songs now in the hard-drive, and I'm only using 1/18th of the available storage space, so 20GB seems a good size.

Bottom line is I'm very happy with the jukebox, and recommend it. It arrived in a short time, and has been trouble free.

I bought this Jukebox with the idea of replace my other Jukebox 6000, my digital camera and my camcorder and to have everything in one unit. The MP3 is excelent, Video files converted to the required format are acceptable, but the quality of photos taken and recorded video is very, very poor.
Then if you are thinking to buy this Jukebox like a video, photo and MP3 solution, don't sale your old digital camera and your camcorder, because you will need it!!!

This is probably the coolest gadget that I own. Let me get my complaints out of the way before I extol the virtues of this fine piece of hardware. 1. FAT32. Why not NTFS? 2. The camera is typical of any camera that attaches to a handheld device. Without proper lighting, your pictures will be awful. Best if used in sunlight. Not for use indoors.
Now on to the good stuff.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to use this. My wife can do it and she knows virtually nothing about computers. Turn it on, plug it in and copy files over. It is that simple. Converting video is easy with the included software. You just pick the video to convert and type a file name in the destination and hit the start button. It is really not hard at all! This is mildly inconvenient, however, so I do it at night before bedtime. Wake up and Viola! Converted video. Of course the video out to TV is crappy. I don't think that this device was really meant to replace your DVD player. If you want to watch your AVI's on your TV go and buy a Video card with TV out for thirty or so dollars. This device was meant for portability and media on the go. Perfect for those long road trips, your doctor's waiting room, and phonecalls from your mother-in-law. The sound is great provided you have some nicer head phones than the ones that are provided. I must admit that I have used up most of the 20Gig but I have a ton of stuff on there. It's good for HOURS AND HOURS of entertainment. Don't hate it because you have buyers remorse due to price. Besides, IPod is twice the price for just an MP3 player. Love it because at least you have a protable HD, MP3 player, video player, camera, camcorder, and card reader in on small package. Trust me, buying all of this stuff separate can cost a fortune!

This is a very small, simple and useful system. It is a snap to install and has just enough features to replace my portable CD player. However, it has a major flaw...it is very very very slow to load new songs. It takes me as long to add 8 new songs to my Neo as it would to just burn a new CD for my Sony portable CD. (Yes really). It also has the expected, and fixable (though not for free...) problem that 32 megs. just isn't enough memory for Mp3 playing. A 64 meg player would be much more fun (though I dread the idea of loading 64 megs into my InnoGear!)

The MiniJam By Inno Gear is one of the best Springboard Modules out there, despite all of the setbacks and other problems that affected the dilivery of our modules, I must say that the MiniJam is the best because it combines 2 of the most usefull functions (memory storage MP3 playback) avilable to Visor Users, this is what the Springboard slot is about. My only gripe is that you can't store PALM OS files on the MMC cards only on the 2 megs of FlashROM, but that is suposted to come later as a software upgrade. Great Module.

This CD player is a piece of junk! It is overpriced and doesn't have AM tuner (only FM)! You can't even use the equalizer or volume control on the radio! It also shuts off by itself! Don't buy it! Big waste of money!

Before you get another CD player, you better get your hands on this. This CD player doen't just play CDs, it also plays MP3s 4 u. It's awesome.

The chrome finish combined with the 32,000-color TFT screen is a nice touch and ahead of it's time. However over owning this product for about 15 or so months I have slowly explored some of the features and made some disappointing discoveries. None of the "defects" with the device make it inoperable, however it just makes the Sony MEX-5DI irritating to own and the unit somewhat fussy.

Here are some of the problems in the sequence which I found them: 1) Two pixels solid blue (will not change). 2) Startup screen that used to display "Sony" simply turns on to a white grayish screen and seconds later goes from grey to bright white to the normal screen (repeats every hard and soft restart.) 3) When in CD mode combined with the "image view" of the CD jacket mode (the most complicated of the different available view modes) when switching source the image freezes. 4) Upon exiting the "Sound" menu, the screen freezes up. 5) The XM logo in XM mode disappeared and I can't get it back.

Most of the problems I have described are just irritants. Some problems can be alleviated by simply restarting the unit with a hard restart (holding the off button down.) However if you plan to compete with a $600 piece of equipment, I would probably pick a different brand. I spoke with their Sony customer care rep and they said that because I owned the unit past the initial warrantee I would have to send them $125 flat fee to look at it. Forget that... Talking to the Sony people was just about as irritating. I called them once about a year ago and again yesterday. Their answers apparently are canned off a flowchart. Most of the solutions involved resetting the CD player with the reset switch or turning the unit off which again alleviates the problem until the next time the unit freezes. For $439 I can buy the M9900 model which hopefully they worked the bugs out.

None of the problems I mentioned were enough alone to send the unit back, but for such a large investment, was a disappointment.

Let's start by getting the obvious out of the way. This cd player is gorgeous. From the chrome face and lcd screen, to the amount of features the Mex-5di offers, it's quite an amazing head unit. Cd/mp3 playback quality is great, but keep in mind that the Mex-5di has no built-in amplification, so for good sound quality you'll also need good aftermarket amplifiers.

The motorized cd tray is a nice touch, and coupled with Sony's G-protection, you'll never hear another distracting "chirp" of the cd skipping when you drive through a pothole.

Also nice is the ability to personalize your cd player with pictures and short movie clips. Sizing the movie clips for playback takes some work however, as the image cannot be over 64x64 bytes and cannot be more than 10 frames long. The Mex-5di is more flexible with still pictures, and will automatically size pictures to fit the display.

Most important to keep in mind is the fact that the short movie clips and slideshows will play back WHILE DRIVING, and it is completely legal for it to do so.

I do however have one complaint about this cd player, and that is the lack of a detachable face. For one, anyone who sees you drive by will most likely see your bright expensive cd player shining back at them. Sony did come up with an alternative method to deter theft, but without giving away what it is... let's just say it won't work, and without an alarm system on your car you'll spend a lot of time worrying about the safety of your cd player.

Also, I live in New England and in the winter the temperature in the car will often times drop below freezing. Without a detachable faceplate, the liquid crystal display is subject to the elements and it will freeze. This won't be a problem unless you turn the unit on while the temperature in the car is below freezing. When the Mex-5di's display turns on while the crystals are frozen, the rapid heating will cause the crystals to expand and crack, ruining the display. So remember to keep the unit off for a good 10 minutes while the car is warming up.

All in all, the Mex-5di is a top-notch cd player. If Sony came out with this same model tomorrow with a detach face, I would sell my Mex-5di and buy the new model. But as of right now, this cd player is hands-down the best on the market.

Very functional with excellent sound, clarify, and esthetics. Very clean look out front but lots of solid gear under the chrome hood here.
Use of MP3, CD and including the memory stick is a nice touch. Lot's of flexibility here.
Fun to take photos and download them for display. Doesn't record like Sony's most expensive model but why would you want to? For the additional $500 I would rather see see this unit include a LCD display for a in-dash roll out monitor for a GPS system. Also the ability to change the LED lighting from blue to green or red and an optional black to the chrome plated cover would be welcome additions. That said, this unit is top notch or it would not be residing in my Lexus SC400's $6K system. I hooked this Sony MEX-5DI up with Boston Acoustics' top-of-the-speakers front and rear with 2 ea. additional 10" BA sub woofers in the trunk. I used 2 ea. Extant X-series amps to finish off and power the entire system. Many people tell me it's the finest system they have ever heard. That pretty much speaks for itself in my view.