Apex Digital EZ-Go Personal Media Player MP2000

by Apex

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4.7 x 3 x 0.8 inches ; 7.8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0002XZMPS
• Item model number: MP2000
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #156,645 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

Amazon Product Description

Portable music is so ten minutes ago! Nowadays, the well-healed traveler isn't satisfied with mere audio when he can also have photos, voice recordings and full motion video. Enter Apex Digital's E2go MP2000 Portable Media Player. At 4.7 by 3 by .8 inches, the MP2000 is somewhat bulkier than today's micro miniature MP3 players, but it does so much more.

If movies are your thing, you'll love the way they look on the unit's stunning 3.5-inch TFT full-color screen. Merely record non-copyright protected content from your DVD, VCR or camcorder or transfer existing video files from your PC using the high-speed USB 2.0 connection and voila, you can watch your favorite scenes no matter where you are. The MP2000's 20 GB hard drive will store lots of material and the system will handle a variety of video formats, including MPEG4, DivX 3/4/5, Motion JPEG and WMV9. And if you'd rather experience your videos on a big screen, you can do that too by sending them to the nearest monitor or TV via the unit's AV In/Out jack.

The MP2000 is a wonderful addition to your next vacation or business trip. You can use it to audition photos you've taken with your digital camera or movies you've shot with your digital video camera. You can record spoken word at meetings or get-togethers via the integrated microphone, or you can simply play your music files (MP3, WMA, ADPCM, LPCM) as you would with any portable music player, listening through your favorite earphones. And if you think the system's batteries aren't up to the task, thing again -- they'll deliver up to eight hours of MP3 play between charges. Of course, you can always plug the MP2000 into any wall socket with the included AC adapter.

It should be noted that because the unit stores information on a real hard drive rather than flash memory, it is somewhat more susceptible to vibration and bumps. The tradeoff is storage space. The MP2000 can store much more data than a flash memory player, and is quite capable of handling up to 80 hours of video, over 5000 songs and more than 200,000 still photos.

Product Description

Take your "Entertainment To Go"! APEX E2go MP2000 allows you to take your music, photos, movie files and voice recordings with you wherever you go. Record non-copyright protected content from your DVD, VCR and camcorder or transfer your existing audio and video files from your PC using the USB 2.0 connection. View your media files on the stunning 3.5" TFT color screen or view them with others on a TV. With the freedom to take all of this with you, the E2go MP2000's battery life (up to 8 hours playing MP3's) will keep you entertained for hours on end. With a large 20GB hard drive on board, you can store thousands upon thousands of media files, even record your voice with the built in microphone! Built-in Speaker/Microphone Storage for up to 80 hours of video, over 5,000 songs, over 200,000 digital still photos Voice recording capability with integrated microphone Simple USB 2.0 Connectivity Long-lasting, built-in rechargeable battery Size - 4.69(W) x 2.99(H) x 0.83(D) / Weight - 8 ounces Supports Windows98SE/Me/NT/2000/XP Apex Digital Warranty 1 Year Parts and 90 Days Labor

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars E2go MP-2000 first impressions by Carson Friday, May 18, 2005

By 

Victor Healey (Marietta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Apex Digital EZ-Go Personal Media Player MP2000 (Electronics)

Here is an excellent review I found on the MP200. I wish those with mental problems would not be allowed to post false statements about Amazon products like those two earlier ones about Apex. I have a couple of Apex players and for a fact they can be hacked to add interesting features that would upset the recording industry. ;>)

review follows...


Apex Digital E2go MP-2000 Portable Media Player and DVR
Posted April 4, 2005 by Carson Friday

The MP-2000 is Apex Digital's first foray into the portable media player market. Apex Digital is best known for its line of budget priced DVD players and televisions. Apex Digital was founded in 1999 and is a relatively new consumer electronics company, but their extremely aggressive pricing on DVD players, not to mention "hackability", helped them penetrate the market at a rapid rate and has made them a well known name. The MP-2000 is priced competitively and has a full array of multimedia functions, including not only video and audio playback, but real time recording of audio and video as well. The MP-2000 uses a 20GB hard drive for storage which is capable of storing a reasonable sized library of photos as well as audio and video files.

First Impressions
The packaging for the MP-2000 is attractive and well designed. The unit had a small triangle shaped sticker affixed to the lower right corner of the screen, heralding the device's features. Unfortunately, while trying to [very gently] remove the sticker, the glue portion tore off and left a sticky mess on the screen. A little bit of alcohol and a cotton swab cleaned it right up.
The user interface looks slightly antiquated, but is straightforward and easy to navigate. First impressions of the 3.5" 320 x 240 pixel TFT screen were not so favorable, as the thin black lines that surround each pixel were quite visible when held closely. This is often known as the "screen door" effect. Once the MP-2000 is held at a reasonable distance, the effect disappears, and with motion on the screen, it becomes barely noticeable. It seems that the device is not meant to be viewed up close, such as a distance of only 6 inches away. It is best viewed at about half an arm length away.



In the Box
The MP-2000 ships with a rechargeable Lithium Ion battery as well as a generous collection of connectors and accessories. Included are A/V cables for input and output, AC power adapter, leatherette case, USB cable, headphones, lanyard, recovery image/driver CD, and printed user manual.

Supported Formats
Audio: MP3, WMA(no DRM), LPCM, ADPCM
Photo: JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIF
Video: MP4, DIVX(3,4,5), Motion JPEG, Windows Media 9 (only certain WM9 encodings supported though)

Design and Ergonomics
The MP-2000 is very compact and has a very solid feel. The rechargeable battery slides into the bottom right side of the unit, which is rounded in order to make the device easy to grasp. The primary controls are located on the front of the unit, and navigation is very straightforward. There is a small joystick for navigation as well as a play/enter and stop/exit button. The joystick clicks when it is depressed, although it does not appear to serve any function.

Connectivity
The left side of the MP-2000 sports several connectors: AV in, AV out, Headphones, Mini USB 2.0 high speed, and Power. The supplied AV input cable allows you to record from any AV source with the proper connections. Note that the E2go can't record copy protected movies such as commercial DVDs and you'll see an on-screen message warning you of this if you attempt to record copy protected media.

USB connectivity is a snap, as Windows 2000/XP will automatically detect and configure the MP-2000 as a USB mass storage device that can be accessed via windows explorer. File transfer speeds using a Windows XP desktop with USB 2.0 ports were very fast and the Apex beat several of its USB 2.0 competitors. Transferring files to the device is also quite easy; all that is necessary is to transfer the file type to its respective folder. Video files go in the "video" folder, music files go into the "audio" folder, and photos go into the "photos" folder. These folders are pre-populated on the MP-2000 at the factory and there are even some included demo files for each category.

Video Playback
The MP-2000 supports a variety of video formats:
-MP4 Video
-WMV9 Standard Definition files only (using the SP@ML coding standard)
-DIVX 3, 4, and 5. More specifically, the formats that the MP-2000 supports are:
DivX 4.x, 5.x Video: D1 (720 x 480) up to 30fps
DivX 3.11 Video: CIF (352 x 288) up to 30fps
Audio: up to 32/44.1KHz, up to 128Kbps
As long as the video files conform

To test the manufacturer's claims, several different files were tested, with the following results:
File Encoding Supported? Test Result
DIVX5 720x480 56kb/s audio YES Excellent playback quality
DIVX5 640x464 128 kb/s audio YES Excellent playback quality
DIVX5 640x360 128kb/s audio YES Excellent playback quality
DIVX3 320x240 47kb/s audio YES Excellent playback quality
DIVX3 320x240 64kb/s audio YES Excellent playback quality
DIVX3 512x384 128kb/s audio NO Played, but extreme artifacting made it unwatchable
WMV2 720x300 128kb/s audio NO Would not play
MWV2 240x92 16kb/s audio YES Would not play
XVID 320x240 64kb/s audio NO Would not play
XVID 624x352 157kb/s audio NO Excellent playback quality

Overall, as long as the file formats are within the range of accepted resolutions and video codecs, playback was flawless. Having a good DIVX encoder will definitely come in handy with the MP-2000, as it does not support MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 files, which will need to be re-coded to DIVX in order to play on the MP-2000.

With the included AV cable, the audio and video can be output to an external source such as a television and/or audio receiver. The MP-2000 cannot playback on both the internal and external displays at once and it doesn't automatically sense the external connection, so you must change the settings on the Apex to enable the external display. Image quality on a larger display (42" plasma TV) during playback of a high quality divx file is very good, considering the output type is composite video. Ultimately, the playback quality will depend on the type of file and the quality at which it was encoded as well as the quality of the external display.

Audio Playback
Music playback sounded good and the MP-2000 was able to handle both high and variable bit rate audio files with ease. The built-in speaker has decent tone and volume. The included headphones are basic and sound fine, but most folks will likely want to use their own headphones anyway. The interface for playing music includes standard functions like shuffle and repeat, as well as an equalizer with several built in presets.

Photo Viewing
Photo playback works well and the MP-2000 will automatically resize photos to fit the 320x240 LCD screen. It has no problem displaying 3 megapixel images, and the navigation stick allows for easy navigation through photos in a folder. Pressing up or down on the navigation stick moves through pictures in the directory and pressing right will rotate the image 90 degrees. One feature that the photo viewer lacks is a zoom facility, so there is no way to zoom and pan while viewing photos.
Recording Audio and Video: Pocket Digital Video Recorder in your Pocket

The MP-2000 not only supports audio and video playback, but recording as well. The unit is equipped with a microphone for taking voice memos, and it also has a dedicated AV/in jack. The included AV cable allows for hookup to a composite video and stereo audio source. There is a dedicated "Record" button atop the unit that is used to start recording while in AV and voice record mode. Files are encoded using MPEG4 and can be played back on a computer with the proper codec installed. As noted, you can't record copy protected media such as commercial DVDs.

Battery Life
Apex claims that the MP-2000 will play video for up to 3.5 hours, audio (with the LCD off) for 7.5 hours, and photo viewing for 3.5 hours. While playing DIVX video files, playback ran for 3.8 straight hours. It's always nice to see devices outperform the manufacturer's claims during real-world tests! It would be safe to assume that the MP-2000 could get through two average length movies before the battery goes dead. The device should last over 8 hours when used as an MP3 player. That said, some of its competitors last much longer on a charge for video and music playback.
Although not configured by default, the MP-2000 can be configured to turn off the screen after a preset amount of time. This timeout value affects all functions including the menus, but is disabled during photo and video playback, so that the screen doesn't go blank while watching a movie or viewing photos. Setting the timeout value can help increase battery life on the MP-2000.

Conclusion
The MP-2000 is a good low cost portable media player. The unit feels solid and well built, and supports video and audio playback as well as recording. I really enjoyed putting the MP-2000 through a wide battery of tests, and it fared quite well. The 3.5" screen was comfortable for watching movies for extended periods of time, and the photo slideshow feature is a great way to show off the device to family and friends. Its compact size makes it easy to transport . Road warriors and frequent fliers will find a portable media player such as the MP-2000 a valuable addition to their travel bag. While not the winner of... Read more ›

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars good for a low end media player, December 14, 2006

By 

Adam B. Gunn "adam" (Marin County, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Apex Digital EZ-Go Personal Media Player MP2000 (Electronics)

This is a decent player which plays a lot of different file formats (mp3. mp4, divx, xvid, etc...) but is hampered with (sometimes) choppy video play-back and the screen has a bit of a "screen door" affect when you watch too closely. I /think/ when the video file does not fit the screen perfectly the play-back gets choppy as I have some movies which do work perfect on it.. so YMMV! video recording capability is also decent, and is a nice feature, but the unit lacks a remote to pause and unpause recordings, making it somewhat tough to use it for "pausing" commercials out of TV recording.

The audio playback quality is pretty ok.. I ended up using it to play mp3s mostly.. it's very basic and just "works". You can't make play lists, you have to just search for the file to play.. you can set "random" play or straight-through play... very much no frills. The menuing system is very rudimentary.. there are no updates for it and there will not ever be any. Apex support doesn't know much about this unit, so don't expect much if you contact them for help.

That's about all I can say.. it's a 20gb storage device with audio and video playback capability.. but don't expect to be "wowed" by any of it's ability.. it just works.

Three stars.

5.0 out of 5 stars budget freindly, July 10, 2007

By 

gary ward "billythree6" (ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Apex Digital EZ-Go Personal Media Player MP2000 (Electronics)

the only drawback is that the music player doesnt have random play for your whole collection it only works by album also you cant make playlists
but for the money its worth it even if you just use it as a flash drive your still saving