Pros: Sleek, portable, nice controls and external design
Cons: Software does not recognize the player, making it unusable.
The Bottom Line: I cannot recommend the BM at all because its software failed to recognize the player. Other Epinions users also report the same problem with Memorex products.
sixthmichcav's Full Review: Memorex MMP8500 (128 MB) MP3 Player
I'll try to be as positive as possible about this little number, but eventually you'll get the idea that I don't recommend it.
The BM was inexpensive at $89 on sale, certainly cheaper than most of the other MP3 players on the rack. Having had good experiences with Memorex products in the past, I thought I would give it a try as my first MP3 player.
Having had my fair share of "stereo instructions" disasters, I kept the receipt and packaging.
The BM is a sleek little player. The outside buttons are intuitive, and it is compact and well presented. The screen appeared to be easy to read. Battery installation was a snap, and I couldn't wait to install the software and start downloading a few CD's. It included an armband for portability and/or exercise, which appeared to be the standard nylon & velcro version. I tried the radio reception feature first and found it to have good, digital tracking and reception, and decent earbuds. Some have mentioned that the earbuds are painful, but for the amount of time I used them they were not a problem. The radio tuner is a bit slow to move from station to station, but it also avoids the "accelerating overrun" that whips you past the station you really wanted, too. So, I could deal with that. It included 10 FM presets, which was plenty for me. I was pretty excited about downloading something other than FM after checking out features for 15 minutes.
MP3 use:
None. Zilch. Nada. Although having 15 years experience with IBM computers and generally helping others in the office with download/save/troubleshooting problems before they call a real technician, my BM's software would not recognize the player for programming. No, there is nothing wrong with my PC (I'll write my review on my current RCA Lyra shortly). The software simply wouldn't recognize the player, even after rebooting, re-checking the instructions multiple times, checking Memorex's painfully inadequate "Help" website, and calling a family friend, the "real technician." I actually spent four hours patiently trying to make it work, and got no results.
I should point out that the Memorex instructions with the player were minimal--if I remember correctly, under 15 pages in English. The illustrations and language were clear enough, but like the buttons on the player, it appeared that Memorex expects you to "just know" how to do certain things. There is no real troubleshooting section, and the website and FAQ's didn't get the software to work, either. The bare fact is, Memorex's software didn't recognize the player, and I never got to load or play MP3's on it. My friend the "real technician" said that he had heard of a lot of problems with Memorex's software and said, in effect, "don't bother."
Well, I'm not much to take one person's opinion if I could get it to work, so I logged on to Epinions and checked out Memorex's other players. Heavens, what venom! It appears that Memorex has a problem with their software recognizing their players. So, back to the store with the BM.
Now, before you trash this review as a "but you never tried it" review, think about this--if the product is never useful for the intended purpose, can I honestly rate it highly? Would you buy a car to be used as a big paperweight?
Regretfully, but a little irritated, I returned the Memorex for a refund, and purchased an RCA Lyra instead. While the Lyra has less inherent memory than the Memorex (128k vs 1 MB), it ran, operated, and performed without a hitch. I'll save the details for that review.
In short, I cannot recommend the BM because it didn't work except as a radio tuner--an expensive radio tuner at that!
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