MPIO HD300 (20GB) User reviews

By Ben Patterson, CNET.com on 09/03/2005

More Altech Computers reviews , RRP: AU$399.00

The good:

  • Excellent sound and recording quality
  • Sleek stainless-steel casing
  • FM, voice, and line-in recordings
  • OGG support

The bad:

  • Touch-sensitive slider makes for tedious scrolling
  • Auto FM presets misses too many strong signals
  • Doesn't support DRM-protected WMA files

The bottomline:

The stylish HD300 does a solid job of music playback and recording, but it can't beat the iPod's ease of use.

Buying choices:

Users' rating:

8.1/10

Tags:

20gb | audio | disk | drive | hard | hd300 | mp3 | mpio | music | player | portable

ladida
25/03/2007, 04:36 AM

rating
9/10

I've bought this unit in Korea for about 160 US dollars new. lucky me. this thing definitely took some time getting use to...firmware upgrade...what a hassle. did it though. AWESOME afterwards. dropped it from my couch to the floor, what!? 15 inch drop?? it DIED!!!(frozed forever) now, don't try this at home if you're not the type that used to unscrew electronics when you were 10 years old. well, i unscrewed those two little screws, slide the unit open, and saw the actual HD...stared at it for a while...read the technical specs...looked at the inner guts of the thing...then, UNPLUGGED the HD. THEN, i waited 10 seconds. AND then, I plugged the HD back. put the unit back together.....and ......then.....drumroll.....VIOLA! it worked PERFECTLY. now, this dropping of the player happened all together 3 times. each time, i had to do this, and it worked all three times. now, i really really try not to drop it... THE reason why I type this lengthy personal story is because i really like this player....i hope others, who are capable human beings, find the charm this thing has...

Pros: huge storage
SOUND!!!
plays oggs and many more
moron repellent/irritator
radio, Voice recording, SRS, WOW

Cons: Overall shuffle. there's only directory shufflle. i have over 19g of music. I need/want shuffle for all the directories. when they come up with a new firmware that deals with this, this player will be perfect.

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kulet
14/11/2006, 08:11 PM

rating
2/10

slow as a snail. hangs a LOT--ASIANIC Service Center of Manila takes more than 3 weeks to service it. I had it serviced 2 times in the warranty period -more than 1.5 month it was in the "REPAIR SHOP". Avoid like gamma radiation!

Pros: None. Its cheap--so you get what you pay for.

Cons: Slow response time. Manual is useless, firmware is useless. Don't upgrade it or you'll regret it! Forget about fast forwarding audiobooks and podcasts --its unbearably SLOW.

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20/10/2006, 09:51 PM

rating
8/10

A very good buy in general

Pros: huge capacity,
cheap,
extremely easy to transfer files,
good sound,
good recording,
good looks ^^
plays OGG

Cons: size,
F*c*i*g loose screws,
to sensitive touch slider,
the headphones suck,

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Remond
10/10/2006, 06:33 PM

rating
4/10

The present truth

THE BAD... mine has broken lcd and laps my warranty period. i try to talk to the supplier for repair but no parts available. according to them production has been stoped co'z the prefer flash memory over hard disk. if you are planning to buy think again...

Pros: good sound, easy to transfer songs

Cons: not charging when connecting to pc

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AlphA
17/08/2006, 11:20 PM

rating
8/10

Great Product

Flashed player to firmware 1.30.06 as soon as I got it. It has not crashed and I think the software interface is great! Overall, its a great player and I can't think of anything in its price range thats better. Sound quality is awesome.....I have not heard a portable MP3 player as good as this one.

Pros: Good looking
Cheap
Awesome sound
Huge capacity
Works on linux
Many EQ settings
Small and light for Hard drive based unit

Cons: Face can scratch easilly
Carry case sucks
Scrolling ID3 tags are a bit difficult to read

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28/03/2006, 03:48 AM

It crashed all time

It crashed all time

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Diego
28/03/2006, 03:42 AM

HD300 hangs up in eternum

Éste reproductor tiene un defecto de fábrica que se generalmente se manifiesta dentro de la primera semana de uso: SE CUELGA. En principio, puede presionarse el botón de Reset para apagarlo y volver a encenderlo, ya que al colgarse dejan de responder todos los botones. Antes del final del primer mes de uso (en mi caso) el dispositivo entró en un estado de cuelgue permanente, luego de encenderlo y mostrar el logo de MPIO queda colgado ahí. Siempre. Y no hay reset que valga. Lo peor de todo, es que en este estado el aparato no termina de iniciar la interfase USB, por lo tanto, al conectarlo a la PC, el sistema operativo reconoce que hay un dispositivo conectado, pero "NO LO PUEDE INICIAR" y no permite extraer los datos. Aparentemente, el disco rígido interno que posee no es nada standard, y el servicio técnico se limita a cambiarte el aparato por otro nuevo, así que todo lo que está dentro del MPIO HD300 "SE PIERDE". El servicio técnico no te hace back up de lo que hubiera dentro. NO LO RECOMIENDO PARA NADA. EL HD300 SE CUELGA Y NO HAY POSIBILIDAD DE RECUPERAR LA INFO GUARDADA. NO LO COMPREN. No conozco los demás modelos de MPIO, pero el HD300 NO SIRVE.-

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Sturgaad
01/03/2006, 02:25 AM

Think before jumping...

My wife and I each own an HD300 and we like them. I had a hardware problem with mine which was VERY quickly and satisfactorily resolved by MPIO. If you're not going to read the directions, if you persist in punching away at buttons without knowing what you're doing, then buy a Victrola. The HD300 is a cleverly designed, very competent unit. Take a moment to look before you leap - and you'll be very pleased with it.

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petr
02/01/2006, 10:49 PM

Linux playlist album/artist

I am able prepare playlist m3u, but I dont know how to prepare album/artist without MSWindows utility software.

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Choib
06/12/2005, 09:02 AM

tempramental

Long transition times between menus and HD access, fiddly irksome menu, useless software with NO support from manufacturer to upgrade, has about 8 hours play at most - Never use that supplied clip, it popped off my belt and made the sound of a "$360 crunch" if you drop it, it will die.

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