One of the first indash MP3CD players... and it shows
Written: Jun 09 '03
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Pros: Plays CDs, MP3CDs
Cons: Questionable MP3 playback, skips easily, not enough features
The Bottom Line: Not recommended because of flawed MP3CD playback and no features or customization available.
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| outofline's Full Review: Panasonic CQ-DP171U Car CD/ MP3 Player |
I've had this unit for over a year now and wish I had spent a little more and gotten something different. I bought it because it was one of the cheaper in-dash CD/MP3CD players on the market at the time. Prior to buying this, I was using a rio volt with my tape deck. So a lot of my comparisons will come from that.
The AM/FM tuner works fine, as they should. The standard CD playback is very good too. But the MP3CD playback falls short. Panasonic makes no mention on the best way to burn your mp3s, or what type of media to use. I usually burned around 120 mp3s to one cd and put it on random. This usually works pretty well. Unfortunately when this player has trouble reading an mp3 is doesn't always skip over it, it "chirps". A very loud and very annoying sound that happens too frequently for my liking. I still am not sure what causes it, though I've tried everything from burning in multiple directories, burning at 1X speed, and more, and that sound still happens every now and then.
Also, the lack of features drives me nuts! I have a few long mp3s, mostly audiotapes and long mixes. If I, for any reason, need to get back to a certain point in those songs, I have to hold the Fast Forward button in as it crawls through the mp3. Also there is no search feature, and no browse feature. The Rio Volt lets you scan your mp3s while playing one, so you can ready the next song. I felt like this in-dash unit was a step back from the Rio Volt because of this.
One last thing, it only shows something like 13 characters from an MP3's filename on the display as it scrolls by unless you burn it a special way, but then all spaces turn to underscores, etc...
Anyway, I have had this unit for quite a while now, and will probably keep it until I sell my car. But I would not buy one again, nor would I recommend it because of the "chirps" and the lack of features.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 175
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Epinions.com ID:
outofline
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Reviews written: 4
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