well, having played with it for awhile, I'm not very happy with this player. I'm trying to keep an open mind about it but there are a lot of things I don't like about its operation and controls. I'll make notes and post them later tonight.
For instance
- while browsing through the file tree, there is no way to adjust volume, and no way to directly go the Settings or Now Playing screen. To get back the now playing screen, you have to hit Left 4 or 5 times to exit out through all the directories until you get the Root directory.
- while browsing the file tree, the play/pause button does not play or pause, nor does the stop button stop the music... instead they act like "go to previous directory" and "select", except that.. uh. the joystick does the same thing with left and right movements.
- Since there is no dedicated volume buttons, you need to be on the Now Playing screen to adjust volume. other screens use the joystick for navigation. also, to use the play/pause and stop buttons to control surrent song you must be in the Now Playing screen only.
- the joystick controller is dissapointing. It makes a loud CLICK when you press it in, and its a little difficult to use it in the 4 directions because its is so small and smooth-tipped and rather stiff. A rubber coating would have greatly improved how the thumb can grip it.
- the ID3 tag scanner won't work with the tunes I loaded because my filenames are generally long ("Artist - Album - Track# - Title.mp3") and it will only scan files of 52 characters or less. Now, I know away around this, but still... it will take extra effort. The program ID3/Tag Studio can scan the ID3 tag data and rebuild the filenames to a different format I specify like "Track# - Title.mp3".
Hard Drive spin
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- Curiously, the hard drive spins nearly all the time. Constantly, while I am browsing for music or in the settings menu. When I start playing an album, it buffers a few tracks like normal and then spins down. However, after it needs to buffer more songs, it does so and then the disc keeps spinning. It's not accessing anything, and the LED isn't lit, but it is certainly spinning. Even if I press Stop, the disc still spins while its not playing music. If I go back to the file tree, and load another album, it will buffer again and then the disc spins down like before. However, if I pause the player and it shuts down from inactivity, when I turn it back, the disc starts spinning again.
This is unlike all the other players I've used, for it to keep the disc running even after its buffered music (and the rest of the time). I don't hear the head accessing the disc, but I can feel it and hear it spin. I bring this up because obviously this is mechanical movement where there shouldn't need to be. I would be worried about it getting damaged during travel, as opposed to other players that spin down after they buffer up music. And while spinning it emits a low-pitch whine that is certainly audible in a quiet room. I would guess that it was a miniature fan inside the case, except that I've seen pictures of it disassembled.
