Philips HDD077 (2 GB) MP3 Player - Inexpensive and Good, But Slow
Written: Aug 17 '05 (Updated Aug 26 '05)
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Pros: Good price, features and size, battery lasts 10 hours, tuner, file storage
Cons: Better headphones will help, not very loud, slow menu navigation, no USB charging
The Bottom Line: I recommend the Plilips HD077 as an inexpensive 2 GB hard drive-based MP3/WMA player. For better sound, replace the headphones. And...
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| dkozin's Full Review: Philips HDD077 (2 GB) MP3 Player |
Recently, I have purchased a portable hard drive-based Philips HDD077/17 2-GB MP3/WMA player. Now it is time to report on my findings about it.
About Philips HDD077 (a.k.a. HDD077/17)
The Philips HDD077 is a 2-GB hard drive-based portable audio player that plays MP3 and WMA formats. It can also store files (serve as a USB drive). The player uses a USB 2.0 full-speed (slow, comparable to USB 1.1) connection and features an embedded Li-Ion battery that lasts up to 10 hours on a 4-hour charge.
The player has a monochrome screen. It comes with a multi-voltage wall charger, USB cord to transfer music, CD with software, case with a belt clip, strap and headphones.
Setup
The player comes with a charger/power adaptor that plugs into a wall outlet and into the player. The manual calls for 1-hour partial charge or 4-hour full charge. I charged the player for 4 hours.
The disc that is supplied contains USB drivers and MusicMatch software as well as the Philips software for firmware upgrades. It is recommended to install the software before connecting the player to the computer.
After I installed the software, I was asked to reboot. After that, I connected the player using the supplied USB cable and it was recognized as a USB mass storage device and I could copy files to it to use as a USB storage device.
In Operation
The player does not allow you to copy MP3 or WMA files directly. You have to use the supplied MusicMatch software, which is rather easy to use. I also used Windows Media Player 9 to copy files to the player.
The player supports both MP3 and WMA. The MP3 can be encoded at rates up to 320 kbps and the player supports VBR (variable bit rate), which I tried with success.
The player uses USB 2.0 Full Speed interface, which is the slower version of USB 2.0. It takes minutes to transfer one 50-60 Megabyte album, which indicates the speed in sub-1 MBps range. Some web sites advertise this player as having super-fast USB 2.0 connection. Super-fast it ain't.
The player consumes about 5 times as much power in USB connection mode as it does in playback mode, so it is recommended to keep it connected to the power adaptor while in USB connection mode.
The player cannot be turned off while connected to the power adaptor, which I find strange. The buttons have a slightly delayed response and menu navigation is a bit slow. Especially if you go into the All Songs menu. I currently have 250 songs there and it takes several seconds for the player to go there after I push the button.
The player is rather easy to use, aside from the stupid way it uses the rewind and fast forward. You have to push and hold the same buttons used to skip tracks, but you have to hold them pressed half-way and only the inner part of the button, otherwise it will skip tracks.
The player is lightweight and compact and fits in the shirt pocket easily. The supplied headphones are compact too. The headphones, the cord and the player are white. The player has chrome trimmings and metallic-looking buttons.
Sound Quality
The player provides decent sound quality. The supplied headphones are rather bad, far from good or excellent. The headphones are a compact, in-ear type.
They lack bass and treble as well as some parts of midrange at the same time, sound shallow. Once I connected my larger and better enclosed headphones (Sennheiser HD202), the sound got fuller with more bass and better treble.
In fact, both the Koss SKC75 and Sennheiser HD202 headphones produced sound that was tenfold better than the supplied headphones. With Koss or Sennheiser, the sound was excellent with well-defined trable, midrnage and bass. I suggest that you get rid of the stock headphones and get either Koss SKC75 or larger Sennheiser HD202. Both sell for about $15-20 and make your MP3 player sound much better.
At times, there is a audible click after about 1 second once the song is started. Aside from that, the player produces decent sound. The player has a DSP-based equalizer with several presets: Rock, Pop, Jazz, Classic and has an independent bass boost. The presets and the bass boost proved to create a lot of difference and can be used to make the player sound better than with no equalization with supplied headphones. But the sound will still lack some frequencies, especially treble.
The player also has a radio that features decent reception with auto and manual tuning, but I was unable to use the equalizer or Dynamic Bass Boost in the Radio mode.
User Interface
The menu navigation is quite slow, but usable. The player has a monochrome LCD screen with a backlight, that makes navigation easy. If you use ID3 tags with your MP3 files and the tags are proper (with good spelling), you can navigate your collection of loaded songs by artist, album or genre. You can also use playlists.
Battery
The battery proved to be quite capacious, providing about 10 hours of play time and fully recharging in 4 hours.
Durability
The player seems to be well-built and durable. Of course, the hard drive has questionable durability and flash memory-based players will probably be more reliable and durable on average.
Skip Protection
Philips does not recommend to engage in rigorous exercises while using this player (as it is hard-drive based). I can walk without player skipping and it can play if I shake it a little. I have not tried to jog or run with it on and thus cannot comment on that.
Gripes
I dislike the need to have a separate charger (some players, e.g. iPod Shuffle are charged through the USB) and the slow menu navigation. And I need better headphones.
Recommendation
I recommend the Plilips HD077 as an inexpensive 2 GB hard drive-based MP3/WMA player. For better sound, replace the headphones. And if you don't need the 2-GB capacity or the screen, check out the iPod Shuffle 1 GB or iPod Shuffle 512 MB.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 76/refurb
Recommended for: Beginners - Easy Enough for Tech Newbies
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Epinions.com ID:
dkozin
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 in Electronics |
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Location: California
Reviews written: 845
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About Me:
I love to push buttons on electronic (audio and video) equipment. It makes me happy.
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