Am I turning techy or what?? *updated 12/4*
Written: Oct 11 '00 (Updated Dec 04 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: inexpensive, voice recorder, 32mb memory
Cons: no power connector for the cigarette lighter
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| jghanisco's Full Review: D-link DMP-100 (32 MB) MP3 Player |
**12/4 UPDATE** 1) Rcvd my rebate w/in 6 weeks. 2) Added negative: it has no power jack to attach the player to my cigarette lighter. BIG negative, as I seem to go through all the battery life in the car. 3) Smart media is down to as little as $54 for 32mb. 4) I'll estimate the battery life at 8 hours. **done update**
Like the other reviewer, the price of this model was the determining factor of buying this player. I picked it up for under $50 from Staples, and have been quite pleased with it so far. I have not tried any other mp3 players, so I'll try to judge this one on what I have read about other players.
First off, it comes with 32mb of built in memory, and can be upgraded to 64 megs. The D-Link manual states that you can buy d-link memory for this, but I haven't been able to find it anywhere, even on their web site. But you can get the Smart Media cards (which they warn get formatted and are not able to be used with anything else afterwards) to fill this bill. I have noticed that they are generally over $2 per meg of memory, so 32 megs extra will cost more than I paid for the unit.
Depending on what quality your mp3 recordings are, you can get quite a few songs on the player. I have tried to keep all recordings I download under 64 kbps, and have been able to get well over an hour of songs on it. Of course, if you want higher quality, this is going to go down drastically.
The other benefit of this recorder over others is that it has the ability to voice record. A simple click of the button and it is started. I was VERY impressed with the recording quality, especially when you compare it to those older tape style recorders. You can save up to 2 hours and 15 minutes of voice, and up to 100 individual recordings. You can then upload these recordings to your computer and e-mail them if you want! (Of course you can always use a microphone hooked directly up to your computer!)
The player shuts off automatically after not being used for 30 seconds or so, and I've been playing with this thing for 3 days and still have not run the batteries out (2xAAA). The box does come with the batteries, which is a nice (and cheap) offering.
I thought the set up was quite easy, although you do have to make sure your printer port is set to ECP. Mine was already set to that, but I know how to change BIOS settings anyway, so it still wouldn't be a big deal. I may try to change my settings to see if it will work from any other setting. The software package is easy to use, basically a click and drag technique. The only thing you have to remember is that the player will shut off automatically, so if you are transferring a song and it says that it can't communicate with the player, just turn it on!
The player also has some equalizer settings, so that you can add some bass or play in pop mode or others, but you can't set the bass and treble individually. The size is TINY when you are used to carrying around a CD player, and the sound quality has been nice also.
Anyway, I'm very pleased with this player. It may not have the memory of the newer models, but it doesn't have the multi-hundred dollar price tag either. I'll give it 4 stars based on the price and the quality of the piece.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
jghanisco
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Member: Joseph Hanisco
Location: Houston, TX
Reviews written: 32
Trusted by: 7 members
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