Customer Reviews

Creative Muvo Sport C100 256 MB MP3 Player

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My needs (well 'wants') in a portable MP3 player were pretty specific.

Small, flash based, regular battery powered, MP3/WMA, durable, expandable, drag 'n drop, inexpensive.

The C100 in most respects covers all these and even includes some bonus stuff. First off, I'm replacing a Rio Chiba 256MB with this one. While the Rio was nice and suited my needs the lack of Drag 'n Drop was the reason it went up on eBay. Since I travel a lot, having to deal with installing and uninstalling the proprietary software was just too big of a pain. I tried both Rave-MP 256 and the Lexar L600 512MB, both of which were returned for various reasons. As it stands now, I'll be keeping the C100.

*Pros

Expandability. Even though the package says it will only take a 512MB SD card I gambled and put in a 1GB PQI card and, drum roll please, IT WORKED! I now have 1.2GB (395 WMA songs) loaded up and ready to play!

Sound quality is excellent (as are most Creative products) with plenty of volume (goes up to 25).

The supplied headphones (yes, you read correctly!) are great! First thing I do with any MP3 player is trash the enclosed headphones and plug in my Sonys. The supplied headphones are not only comfortable and durable but they sound fantastic with a thumping bass I could never get from my Sonys!

The case (while a little larger than I'd like it) is very durable and splashproof.

The rubberized outer casing and armband are comfortable and solid.

Battery life is good, not great, but good at about 14-15 hours.

FM radio. It sounds good and picks up local stations strong.

*Cons

The joystick/button pad, while easy to figure out, is a bit too stiff and plasticky feeling. It works it just doesn't feel like great quality.

Memory usage. The C100 doesn't pool all the memory together. You have to manually tell it you want to play songs from internal or external memory.

Random play. As far as I can tell the random play only works within folders. It won't randomly play a song from the pool of
395 songs.

Folder/Song viewing. You can select any folder you want for playing but you can't look inside the folder and see the individual songs. Kinda weird - maybe I just missed some setting somewhere as other Creative products have this ability.

Price. I got it considerably cheaper that the current Amazon price. Just gotta do a little on-line price comparisons but it seems well worth $70.00 I paid.

Overall I'm pleased with it and wouldn't hesitate to recommend to anyone with needs similar to mine. The firmware is upgradeable and I'm hoping future releases will fix the memory/random and folder viewing issues.

If you are looking for a sport Flash based Mp3 player This is by far the best flash Sport Mp3 player in it's class.
I have been researching Mp3 players to replace my Rio sport player. I decided to replace my RIO with a more sturdy dependable player
The Creative MUvo Sport fit my needs, I was looking for an EXPANDABLE Sport player (to use while running, or working out.) That can take some punishment and resist moisture, I also wanted a built in FM tuner that actually works.(unlike the RIO)

The Muvo sport has it all with extra bonuses such as a stop watch and adjustable EQ.and for the best price in its class.
It is sturdy, expandable up to 1 GB which is more than enough music, no need to have 20,000 songs for what I use it for.
The AAA battery last beyond 17 hours, the sound is crisp and excellent.
And after spending time working the buttons I found it to be very intuitive and easy to learn, Very easy User interface, dont waste time loading software, simply use Windows Explorer and drag and Drop nothing could be simpler.
The buttons are Not too sensitive and will not activate while you are exercising.(unlike the Rio) Another great feature I couldn't be happier with. It is well built durable rubberized case.
And it was reasonably priced! it only cost me 89.00.
Although package says Expandable up to 512mg It works with 1GB SD card and holds more than 400 songs, and if you learn the unit you can find that the player DOES pool or loop internal and external memory together.

PROS:Sturdy, Durable and compact for its class
Easy user interface , fast Drag & Drop upload.
FM Tuner That WORKS!
Excellent crisp sound
Expandable unlike most sport players on the market
Very Secure stable arm Strap ( unlike the sloppy arm band by RIO)

Cons: *The arm band although very secure (similiar to Phillips Nikes arm band) it is a bit on the bulky side,
I would like to have the option of a belt clip,
*The instruction manual could be written more clearly, this would address mnay of the issues or CONS in previous reviews.
IE : "how to connect the neck strap to the unit:
The Neck strap unit connects right below the Earphone plug you have to remove the cover and loop the neck strap through the grooves which are held in by the cover, the neck strap has a release clip so you can remove it easily.

If you are looking for a Flash based Mp3 player that truly is portable,drag & drop,sturdy, expandable and very user friendly, don't spend 140.00 on a RIO when you get so much more with the Creative MUVO Sport. you won't be disappointed.

If you do by this product spend some time playing with the buttons and learning your player before you go out and use it.

I have tried many MP3 players and the CREATIVE is least expensive and better features & quality than any in its class.

*Nike phillips PSA 128 MAX <---------name says it all 128 MAX!!
*RIO Sport s35s & RIO FORGE <-----poorly constructed,and RIO s customer support is HORRIBLE, FM tuner never works
*MPIO fL100<--great sound! but too small and not meant to withstand an active user.Not a good Mp3 player for athlete or active user.

Worth the money and best quality & sound for its price.

Before making any decision on a digital music player you need to determine which jukebox/on-line music store you want to use. This device is fully supported by Windows Media Player and integrates very nicely with it.

This digital music player is a price competitor. The device comes with a reasonable amount of memory and all of the necessary accessories to earn it a bargain rating.

There are some weaknesses with the player:

1. While the device accepts an expansion SD memory card, it does not pool it or join it with the internal card. You need to select which card you want to play music from and cannot automatically change from one to the other while playing music.
2. The device's controls are packed together, very small and flimsy. This presents a consistent irritant.
3. The devices original firmware is very problematic. New firmware is available to rectify a host of issues.

When I decided to buy sports MP3 player I started my research, finally I decided on this lovely product.
It has everything I want from Sports MP3 player.
One of the thing I love in the package are the great headphones, I read some complaints about them in reviews, I find them pretty good.
The expandable memory slot is a great option.
I am very happy with my decision, the C100 looks good, acts good & sutable for : working in the Jim, Running, Practicing BasketBall & any outdoor sport you think of.
While it's not as small as the stick Mp3 players (Roundish') it has better controllers & more comftable to use.
Tip Sections
1) It takes a while to understand that in order to use the nec strap you need to open that back cover...
2) Alwayes update the FW from creative website, there are not major issues but always good to be updated.

When I bought this unit, the label said it accepts 512M card. Then I saw some customers' comments that it accepts 1G card. I just bought a 2G SD card (...) and put it in--it works like a charm. So now I have a total memory of 2.25G, good for 40 hours of music!

How many times you see things work better than they are supposed to?!

After reading the experiences of other reviewers here i was persuaded that my Kingston Elite Pro 1Gb SD card would work with this player, and it does! Decent sound quality and replaceable AAA battery makes this a good buy.

Like most people, I really think the player is very good for the money and has a lot of nice features. One nice thing is that the player will resume at the exact spot in the "song" that it was turned off at. This is handy for listening to MP3 versions of "books on CD". Perhaps the buttons could have been spaced apart more to make it a little easier for people with big fingers to control (esp. without looking), but this is a minor issue to me.

I found LampDev's Feb. 28, 2005 very helpful. He mentioned a problem recognizing SD memory cards and he had found that if he inserted the card while the unit was on this would sometimes allow the unit to see the card (normally you are supposed to insert or remove the card with the unit off, but this does work if the card is not being recognized). I assume that he had already installed the 2-3-05 firmware (version 1.01.01), as I had, and was still having this problem. I used 4 different cheap SD cards and had no problems. I found out that if I left the unit paused, while playing a song from either the built-in memory or the SD card, until the player auto-powered-down (to save battery life), then the SD card would not be recognized when I powered the unit up again and I would have to use his trick to get it recognized again. Other than this scenario, I have had no problems having the SD cards recognized (TIP: set the auto power off to the max. - 30 min, and only pause if you will be restarting playback before the unit powers down, otherwise turn off the player instead of pausing). I reported this problem to Creative support and I hope they will fix this in a new firmware release.

I've done a ton of research for expandable and rugged sport mp3 players out there. I looked at the Motorola DAP025, the Rio Cali Sport, and even the non-functional RCA Lyra. I stopped at the C100 because I believe it to the be best in it's class.

I've jogged, shot hoops, did lawnwork, laid down pavestone, and washed my car with this thing strapped on. I've given it more than a few bumps and it continues ticking. The rubberized exterior really makes it feel like it will take some abuse. On the flipside, the rubber is starting to be scuffed up and not because of my abuse. It is starting to become worn because of rubbing by taking it in and out of the armband.

POOLING SONGS TOGETHER IS POSSIBLE. They way you do this is to navigate to the root which is above the internal and external memory and press play. It combines all of your files together in one large playlist. That's it. Good luck navigating through it though.

Do yourself a favor and buy a good card reader to transfer files. It is considerably slower to transfer files via the player. I assume they didn't include a highspeed writing device on the device. It makes me wonder what's the point of having a USB 2.0 device when it can't take advantage of the available speed.

There is one major thing to keep in mind about this device which is to watch out about SD compatibility. This player is VERY picky about SD cards. I have a Kingmax 60X SD card that will not work properly and others have had problems with Transend 60x card as well.
The only way to get the card to work with my card is to have the card out of the player, turn the device on, then after boot-up, insert the card to have it read. Just don't expect it to work after you restart the player. It will display "no music" after a 30sec-2min pause. I went out and bought myself a cheap and ugly IMPACT card (wal-mart brand) and it worked perfectly. At first I thought it was the card, but others have experienced the same issue.
It took me 2 weeks of emailing creative tech support before they would even acknowledge the problem. I have been told they would look into it, but I'm not holding my breath at this point. I personally think it has something to do with high-speed cards. I recommend you get an SD from a local store with a good return policy in case it doesn't work.

The Good: Feels very rugged; Easy-to-use controls; Large and bright backlight; Decent settings; Sounds great; Better than expected earphones; Truly Plug n' Play and Drag n' Drop = No software needed;

The Bad: Picky about the SD cards it will accept; Can't create a play by genre, artist, or anything else an ID3 tag might provide; Only 256MB onboard memory; Transferring files seems slow; Can't navigate to other songs when the stopwatch is on;

CONCLUSION: Despite some minor points, it is still far better than everything else out there. This would truly be the ultimate player if Creative updates the C100's firmware to fix it's SD compatibility issue and provide ID3 support.

surprised the bejeezus out of me...i got it because the price was right (under $99)and it was expandable with sd cards... the ads say 512mb only but my 1 gig works right off the hop and works both with FAT32 and FAT formats unlike Mpio fl-100 players... the sound is excellent and loud enough compared to any of the rios i've tried (chiba 256 and forge 512 w/ 1.30 fw)..downloads are fast and loads as 2 hard drives and it does pool the songs together unlike what some reviews have said... playlists are available via folder mode...
...fm stereo is decent for a player of this size..picks up all local stations and transmitted ones in the gym.... armband is much better than rio's yet i wish it came with a belt clip instead..the built is durable compared to others that size..the rios felt cheap and felt the baterry cover was gonna break off... the usb cover is attached and better than rios...sound is better than the mpio fl-100 and doesn't crash with the larger 1 gig sd cards... just wish the backlight was bright like the forges are and the volume buttons were separate from the cntrol pad like the forges are. Other than simple aesthetics this player rocks! A 512 version would have been dandy but i can't complain as the 1 gig card was a surprise and works great!

Use SD cards only. The newer SD HC cards did not seem to work for me. Also, make sure your SD card is formatted using FAT and not FAT32. I just bought a 4 GB Transcend card and it came as FAT32. The player can only read from the FAT file system so I had to format the card before using it.

I love this player! Best money I ever spent. I'll update this review if I ever figure out a way to get it to work with SD HC cards.