Customer Reviews

Lexar Media LDP-200 SD Digital Audio Player (No SD Card Included)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Lexar has a great little product with the LDP-200, if you only have less than 50$ to spend and you just want a flash player that's easy to use. I like the player, it's great for travel and in the car, but do realize you get what you pay for.

For less than 50$ [~40$ usually], you get a plastic player that comes in red or blue, that plays up to at least 1GB SD cards, that plays normal/shuffles, and that is easy to use right out of the box. What you don't get is a strongly built product that uses tough material or ergonomic buttons that are easy to push, nor a product that lasts the advertised 10 hours of battery life.

The player fits in the hand well, has a nice blue-glow LCD display with basic information: song title/artist, file type, and kbps/khz. What it doesn't have is the length of time a song is, it only shows how many seconds a song has been playing. I wish it showed a timeline of how long the song is or at least, how much of the song has played on the timeline bar. An annoying factor is when the song title/artist keeps scrolling whenever it is in play, if it didn't scroll, it would probably save alot of battery. There is no way to turn off scrolling.

Also anytime you touch the player to change settings, the blue-glow LCD lights up, using more battery power. Maybe the 10 hour battery life is if you press play and don't change any settings? Ha, I doubt it. The most I can get out of a newly charged AAA battery is probably 4 hours/week. The player also tends to sometimes die/shut down power for no apparent reason. You just have to turn it back on by holding the power button for 3 seconds, and again to turn it off manually.

When traveling with the player, I have noticed that the SD card slides into the slot quite sturdy with a click and will not pop out if say, you put the player in your purse or pocket. However, if you happen to drop the player, the SD card will pop out unexpectedly, and the thin not-so-durable plastic material is likely to get scratched or damaged easily.

There is a small hole for a lanyard [included in packaging], but the hole is made with plastic and thus not at all tough - very easy to break if you tug too hard...so I don't use a lanyard at all. Also, sometimes while changing settings on the player, you will hold it in your hands a bit too tightly and accidently press the SD card slot loose.

The battery cover slides off a bit too easily and maybe get lost if you aren't careful. On the right side of the player is a small USB hole on the player which you can use to attach to your computer, works well. On the left side, is a small hold button you can slide up or down to click in place.

When changing settings with the joystick/button, you sometimes accidently can press up/left and the player cannot tell whether it is up or left direction. It is a tiny joystick so pressing does require small fingertips/manuevering.

The headphones are included in the package are decent, but best to have your own headphones/earbuds for better treble/bass. The player does allow you to adjust song order/lists/random/repeat and use a 5-part equalizer.

The user guide included in the package does not do the player justice, barely lists the functions or a how-to, but once you take the player out it is basic knowledge and common sense.

Overall it is a simple audio player at a very affordable price. Recommended if you just want to listen to music without all the unnecessary hassles of functions you'll never use.

I've been using this for a few days now and here are some impressions:

- Man is this thing small! No, it's not iPod Nano small, but it's pretty tiny. Actually, I think it's smaller than the Nano, just not thinner. Sure that means that the screen is smaller, but it's a trade-off that I'm willing to make. Lexar was able to pack a lot of information about the playing MP3 file into a tiny package. I can easily fit this into my jacket pocket and forget it's there.

- This sounds great. Ok, I'm not playing this through high-end speakers where the player's limitations would be apparent, and I don't have the ears of an audiophile. However, using my plain-old normal ears and listening to it through the included ear-buds or through my car stereo (via a cassette adapter), it sounds very nice. No complaints about the audio quality here.

- Storage. I'm loving the SD card aspect of this. When my wife and I go on long trips, we usually have about 4 CDs of music for my son and a case of about 30 CDs of music for us. Of that, we really only listen to maybe 10 CDs. With this player, we could have a SD card for our son and one for us. Then we just have to switch out cards and cycle through songs instead of attempting to change CDs in mid-drive.

- Price. Add in a 1GB SD card and the price is on par with other 1GB flash memory MP3 players. And it's expandable. With memory cards going on sale all the time, you are sure to be able to could pick up another card pretty inexpensively.

All in all, I really like this player and would recommend it to anyone.

This is the first MP3 player I have ever purchased; I do not believe my expectations were too high.

Here are the pros:

1)It is small

2)It takes whatever SD card size you care to plug in

3)It plays mp3 files

Here are the cons:

1)You can not change the order of the mp3s on the player

2)If you copy several mp3s to it, they may appear in any order.

3)If you pause it, it will turn off in a short period of time

4)It has no memory of where you last were in whatever you were playing once it turns off (especially annoying if you are listening to an audio book with large chapters)

5)The battery life is not what I expected, less than 6 hours of play.

I purchased the LDP-200 so that I could play Windows Media files that I store on the SD card that I usually use in my PDA phone. I don't want to risk damaging the phone while participating in adventure recreation.

The only thing weaker than the LDP-200 firmware is Lexar's customer support. They are uninformed, lazy, unresponsive, and entirely too quick to dismiss problems.

In theory it's a great device. Cheap, small, simple, flexible. For the price you can forgive that it doesn't include features like playlists, and doesn't resume tracks where you left off. What is not forgivable are the MAJOR undisclosed limitations of the file management system programmed into the Version 0.5 firmware (the only known publicly available firmware version).

With no playlist capability it's critical to be able to sort music by folders. The problem is that the LDP-200 is only able to read 40 folders / directories regardless of how they are organized! The count begins with all folders in the root path of the SD card and then continues with the next level of subdirectories in alphabetical order and so on. So let's say I sort my music by artist then album, if I have an average of two albums per artist and I cherry pick my tracks so that I only have an average of 3 songs for each album I can only play 76 songs. Worse yet if I'm storing photos or data in other directories on my SD card as Lexar says you can do, depending on how many folders I have dedicated to them I might not be able to browse/play ANY music at all! Furthermore even if I opted to place all media files in one folder the LDP-200 is limitted to reading only 130 music files per folder. This is especially bothersome for someone who shelled out the extra cash for a high capacity card.

As for Lexar's customer service. Before purchasing the device I inquired with customer support if the device could support SD cards larger than 1GB. I was told no. I reserched reviews and discovered it supports all FAT32 Formatted SD cards. So I bought the device and verified it. (Note: I also performed my file management tests on a 128MB SD card). When I reported to them that directories and media files in certain directories were not visible to the player and that I could make them visible by renaming directories to start with letters earlier in the alphabet they told me to format my card and recreate my files. When I pushed the issue and provided them links to similar customer feedback with examples on how to recreate the problem they told me they used my file structure and there "should not" be a limit to the number of directories. When I provided them with further guidance on how to recreate the problem they simply sent me a form letter response saying they were sorry I was having problems with my device (not acknowledging that there is a problem with their firmware) and they'd get back to me. It's been over a week and I haven't heard anything.

For those of you that already own the device I strongly encourage you to perform the tests yourself and report back here with your results and DEMAND that Lexar resolves the firmware bug to make it function AS ADVERTISED. If you don't already own one don't buy one until they have released a firmware and you have read reports that the problem has been resolved. In the meantime you may be interested in a different MP3 player / SD card reader such as:

SanDisk e100 Series

Grand MP3

MyMusic PD201

Coby MP Series

I can't say that any of these work better but I would certainly reserearch them before purchasing the LDP-200

I've had my LDP-200 mp3 player for a few weeks now, and it's a neat little player. Not quite the iPod I originally wanted, but I'm able to play my music and it didn't come with the hefty iPod price, either.

The battery life is good --- I usually change the battery about once a week, give or take a day. The screen display is good, too -- the song title is clear and simple enough to read. I also like how simple it is to find a favourite song and how I'm able to put stuff into folders. I have a 1GB card that I use and I don't think I've filled it up yet, although I've got quite a bit of music.

Another thing I like about it is that I'm able to use it as a card reader so I can store school projects on it. It's also nice not having drivers to load so I'm able to load a file on it at home on my PC and then hook it up to one of the eMacs at my school. The transfer speed isn't too bad -- I haven't noticed any major slowness issues, unless I'm transferring a lot of songs at once (but that happens when I use a standard card reader with my SD card).

The size is also quite convenient. It may not be as slim as other players, but it's small and cute. It also has a screen, unlike the other player I was thinking of getting. The metallic red colour is nice --- It goes with just about everything I have (I'm one of those slightly fashion-conscious teenagers, so I'm into things like that).

Sound quality is good, as well. I have the equalizer set to "Rock" -- the other ones (aside from the normal one) aren't that good -- and most of my songs sound great.

As far as software goes, I don't bother with Windows Media Player (unless I'm watching some music video from a website). I just load the songs onto the card and if there's a song I want to buy, I just use iTunes and convert it to mp3 after making a CD. It's a little bit more work than if I were to use Media Player, but iTunes is easy to use and much more convenient than WMP.

Overall, the LDP-200 is a great little mp3 player. It's simple to use and I'd recommend it for anyone who just wants something for their music, but doesn't feel like shelling out a couple hundred dollars for it. It's good for those who don't want to learn a new piece of software and even those who are tech savvy, but want something simple (I'm one of those people; I'm constantly reading about fancy electronics and using advanced computer programs).

When I went looking for a digital audio player I didn't want to be limited by built-in batteries or built-in memory -- so this device (and its VERY low price) fit my needs. All I needed was an inexpensive SD card, one AAA battery, and I was on my way.

Using Windows Media Player I quickly ripped 18 audio CDs (in WMA format, although I could have used mp3 as well) and loaded them to a 1G SD card -- and I was off to the airport for several flights and layovers on my way to a winter holiday.

The audio quality is first-rate and the menuing system, once I got used to it, was easy to navigate using the tiny joystick control. The only downside was that, using the included earbuds, I was unable to get enough volume to drown out in-flight noise -- but an inexpensive pair of ear-plug style buds fixed that problem.

Due to flight delays I ended up sitting up all night in Atlanta and I can, indeed, vouch for the fact that one battery will last a full ten hours. The unit is very light-weight and the included neck strap holds it at mid-chest.

I purchased a second unit as a gift for a friend in NYC -- he opened it the day of the recent Transit strike and was delighted by it during his long walk from Brooklyn to his office in Manhattan.

I'm looking forward to a long and happy relationship with this device.

Purchased without any memory card. For the price, less than $50 my expectations were not high. I have been pleasantly suprised by the simplicity and quality of this player.

The screen is limited, of course and the documentation terrible, but it shows you what is playing, and after a little browsing around in the menu, you'll find the shuffle feature.

WMA support for playback has not worked out well, but if you rip your own MP3 files, you shouldn't have any problems.

The miniature joystick takes some getting used to - but once you figure out how to use the tip of your finger to tap it back and forth, and up and down you will find that it works suprisingly well.

The SD card support is nice, I can use the same card in several different devices.

Overall, if you are looking for an inexpensive, simple, reliable player, this is a good choice. Sound quality is reasonable, battery life good and the features are simple enough to use that you will actually carry it with you, and if during a workout, you manage to destroy it, you won't be crying into a pile of Apple branded iPod parts and carrying accessories!

Good luck.

This would be a great little unit if it only worked! I am now on my fourth defective unit. Three of the units would simply shut off if they were shaken even slightly. The other one (number 2) wouldn't read the SD memory card. The exchanged units I have been getting from Lexar are obviously used (scratched and worn) and simply seem to be broken units that other people have exchanged.

Do yourself a favor and spend more money to get a better product or even less money and get a Rosewill R11 MP3 player. At least they work!

Cheaper than an iPod, able to listen to all the songs you down load, able to use the memory for other uses, able to go to the store and buy extra batteries (4 AAA batteries for a buck) so I don't have to wait to recharge the built-in battery.

SD memory at a great price and has many uses. ONE AAA battery for like 10 hours of listening pleasure. And if you bought rechargeable batteries and you forgot to recharge them, NO BIG DEAL, snake one from your TV remote and be happy. Try that Mister iPod!

I didn't expect much from the player, feature-wise, for the money I paid for it. It does sound decent, has a respectable display (which, btw, looks nothing like the online photo), and plays files just fine. However, I did expect it to, at the very least, function reliably. It doesn't. At best, the device will randomly freeze-up in the middle of playing -- even while stationary. While in motion, there's no hope. I've tried with multiple SD cards as well, all with similar results. From other reviews I've read, I'm hardly the only one with this problem.