Who Needs an iPod?
Written: Sep 12 '04 (Updated Oct 19 '04)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Sound: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Durability: |
|
|
| Portability: |
|
|
| Battery Life: |
|
|
|
Pros: Best looking 20 GB MP3 Player. Excellent build quality. Great sound and easy to use.
Cons: Software inadequate out of the box but can be remedied.
The Bottom Line: Great hardware. Software is not bad but needs 3rd party software to make everything work. It stands out from other iPod users.
|
|
|
| eddiey18's Full Review: Philips HDD120 (20 GB) MP3 Player |
This is my third MP3 device. I brought a Philips KEY005 128 MB MP3 Player http://www.epinions.com/content_146169433732 and a Philips KEY006 128 MB MP3 Player http://www.epinions.com/content_149216333444. I like the little Philips Key series MP3 Players very much. They are the perfect companion for outdoor exercise or the gym. I started converting my CD collections into MP3 format. As my MP3 collection grows, I realized that I need a MP3 player with more capacity. I started to look for a 20 GB device. I looked at the iRiver, Rio and Apple iPod besides this Philips. It appears that iPod has a lot of loyal users but I really do not like the style. Of all the devices I look at, I like the Philips best.
For Specification, see Product Brochure below.
http://www.p4c.philips.com/files/h/hdd120_17/hdd120_17_pss_aen.pdf
Style
This Philips is very sharp looking. It is in glossy back with two chrome end caps at both sides. The body is slightly curved much like a Cartier Tank Watch. The iPod looks like a toy for the kids with its rounded edges. The glossy back is really beautiful with one drawback. It shows finger prints. I need to find a fitted case for this unit. It does come with a nice and cushy carrying case but you need to remove the player to access the controls unless you use the remote.
Quality
The build quality is excellent. Just like the Key series Player, the body is made of magnesium casting. It feels solid. There are 5 buttons on the front and the 4 buttons on the right, all give good feed back when pressed.
Display
The display is very easy to read. It is back lighted much like a mono cell phone display. It displays 7 lines of text and it is in black and white.
Operation
The volume up and down button is on the right, with menu/hold and library below. The power on button is on the right front which also acts as play, pause button. The other 4 buttons is right below the display that navigate the on screen function right/left and up/down. There is really not necessary to read the manual to figure out how to operate this MP3 player. There is a remote control pad with 5 buttons. This includes the up and down volume and next and previous buttons. The on/off button also functions as the play and pause. This control pad is identical to the control pad for the Key005 but the plug for the Key005 is smaller than the plug for the standard 3.5mm plug for the HDD120.
Manual
The manual is thick because it is written in 6 languages as this MP3 player supports 6 languages. The print is small and not easy to read. I really did not read it other than flipping through the pages. This Player is so easy to use; I am just putting the manual away for future reference.
Sound
I have read that some people compliant about not able to hear this MP3 player at high volume. I found the volume is perfectly fine and I am usually about 75% -80% of the Volume setting. The THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) is rated at 0.01%-0.1% for those HiFi geeks who want to know the numbers. I cannot detect any degrading or any distortion with my collection of MP3 music running at 128 kilo bits per second (kbps) even at max setting. With Dynamic Bass Boast (DBB) selected the music sounds alive with good bass boast. The ear buds that come with this HDD120 are identical to my other 2 Key series players. The sound is amazing and in fact there is a 5 band equalizer which can be programmed to suit the types of music you are listening to. I also try my Sony MDR-NC11 ear phones on this Player and it connected to the Player without the remote control pad. The sound coming out is just as good. It would be great to use this combination on an airplane when the noise canceling Sony will be able to filter out unwanted noises.
Recording
This MP3 player has a mono mic on the right side that would record voice. It also has an optical line in that can be used to record also. The recording format is in MP3 which can be uploaded.
Battery Power
Philips rates this unit to last 10 hours of play. Cnet rated the HDD100 (same Player with 15 GB) 8 hours. It really does not matter to me, as I doubt I would have the time to listen for any duration approaching the battery limit.
Software
This HDD120 uses software called Digital Media Management (DMM) to transfer music. I do not recall what software version on the HDD120 was shipped with. I updated it to version 6.6 using the DMM. The installation of DMM and update of software on the player was uneventful but trying to make it work was. I was able to load my MP3 tracks on to the player with no problem with the DMM program. However, I could not find the tracks on my player. When I connected the player to my computer, I could see the tracks in the music folder on the player. I could even click on the tracks and played them on my computer. I just could not access them on the player. Unlike the Key series players, music tracks cannot be dragged to the player using windows explorer. I uninstalled the program and re-updated the software but the problem still existed. I was about to give up and ready to either return this unit or call Philips for service. After the third time I reinstalled the software, everything worked. I did not know what happened as there were no indication of any difference the previous 2 times. After successfully transferred my tracks once, the program never gives me any problem again. It is easy to use and it is no different than dragging files between 2 directories.
The DMM does a decent job of organizing the music tracks. It only transfers music one way from the computer to the player; it does not transfer music from the player to computer. I guess Philips does not want you to share your music between your friends. This can still be done if you drag your music into your player using the player as an external disk. This player when connected to your computer would appear as a J drive. This is stupid as you would have wasted half of your storage. This would have been a negative against buying this Philips MP3 player. However, some enterprising person wrote a program to enable transfer of music from the player to the computer. It is a nice program that only transfers the music from the player to the computer which is the opposite of what the DMM does. You need to install Microsoft .NET Framework in order for this program to run.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=262D25E3-F589-4842-8157-034D1E7CF3A3&displaylang=en
Get this nifty program here. http://dawuss.student.utwente.nl/~public1/
Ripping CD into MP3 or WMA format.
Forget using other programs; just use the Window Media Player Vision 10. It out performs the Musicmatch Jukebox program that I was using. It rips a song in about 15 seconds. It is very easy to use and it is also FREE.
Here is one last tip.
Use 128 kbps for MP3 is good enough for most music listening. Using a higher bit rate would only increase the size of your files. Use 64 kbps on MP3 if you are using it for ring tone on your phone. Most phones are mono still and their speakers are not great for playing HiFi music. Using a lower bit rate would reduce your file size as most likely the memory storage on your cell phone is much less than your MP3 player.
Update (09/15/2004)
Battery.
Just to see how long this battery would last. I took this MP3 player to work and connected it to my Computer speakers. This Philips lasted about 8 hours and 20 minutes non stop. My desk top speakers has a sub and the sound coming out is quite good.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 180
Recommended for: Music Lovers - High Capacity Storage for an Entire Album Collection
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
eddiey18
|
|
Member: Edward Yee
Location: Southern California
Reviews written: 20
Trusted by: 1 member
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.