Perception Digital Minutemen PD-1000 (1.5 GB) MP3 Player

Pros: Good battery life - about 10 hours per charge. Good user manual. Warranty card.
Cons: Menu navigation confusing at first, but not a problem once you get used to it.

This item comes in one of those impossible to open plastic shell things that most electronics seem to come in now. After some effort and a sharp pair of scissors I was able to open the package. The contents are: the unit, ear buds, USB 2.0 cable, mini ...

Pros: Very cheap. Long battery life. Usable as an external drive.
Cons: Line-in recording doesn't work. Long track skip delay.

I've owned a PD-1000 for several months now, bought for only $99, and I must say, especially for the price, it is very adequate. That's a good thing. I really couldn't expect more given the price. The battery life is an impressive ten hours, and is an ...

Pros: Small, light-weight, good (claimed) battery life, relatively straight-forward (though, in my case, truncated) menus.
Cons: No useful record capability, MP3 or other format usable for music.

I purchased a Perception Digital PD1000 for use as a backup recorder for multitrack location recording gigs. The choice was based on experience with a previous P/D mp3 recorder, plus their web site. See http://www.perceptiondigital.com/products/audio/1000/features.html for the claim that it performs "MP3 encoding from Line- in/ Mic."

Well, I got it and it doesn't. I wrote Perception Digital and got this reply:

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Hi John,

Thanks for your inquiry on the PD-1000. For the MP3 recording, it is an
optional feature for the product and it is not available for the current
PD-1000 in U.S. market due to the requirement of the distributor.

Best regards,

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SURPRISE!!!! So, the PD1000 is absolutely useless for the purpose for which I bought it.

It should be noted that no online ads mention this, and most, in fact, make note of the line-in record capability. It might be a very nice player, but the only recording supported is 8kbps, voice-mode.