Customer Reviews

Lexar Media LDP-200 SD Digital Audio Player with 1 GB SD Card

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

 

 

(...)I been playing with it for a few hours and I'm ready to share my thoughts. First, the pros and cons:

PROS
-can access sd cards up to 2 gb in size(a 4 gb sd card is available but i'm not willing to spend a fortune for it just to test it out on this player)
-ability to organize music by folders
-ability to access a specific folder full of music
-decent build quality(doesn't look or feel flimsly like the sandisk sensa counterpart which has a very thin and cheap plastic case construction)
-nice and stylish burgandy, deep red color with silver trim
-small and lightweight, fits well in the palm of your hand
-uses a single, replaceable AAA battery, so battery life is not an issue because you could always pop in new battery in just a few seconds
-relatively inexpensive if you buy the one without the sd card
-ability to browse and select a different song while another is playing
-auto shut off feature if player is paused and not used for less than a minute
-blue back light stays on for a few seconds when ever you access any button and then turns off
-not necessary to use the player's mini-usb connection to load music, you could load up the sd card on a seperate card reader/writer if you want to(this is probably the best method because not all card readers/writers operate at the same speed-i use a sandisk "USB 2.0 CERTIFIED with ESP technology" 12 in 1 memory card reader/writer, also not all memory cards have the same transfer speeds-takes roughly 6-9 minutes to load up a 2 gb sandisk Ultra II sd card)
-shock resistant, i tested it by dropping the player about two feet above my wooden desk and it still works-i can't imagine what kind of damage that would do to microdrive player such as an apple ipod, creative zen, rio pearl, or sony network walkman
-sd card slot makes this player extremely expandable(i have two sd cards that are 2 gb in size and several 512 mb cards)
-decent display which scrolls through song names and folder names

CONS
-sound quality is average to good(it all depends on the type of headphones you use)
-like the ipod it has preset equalizer settings and no user defined or adjustable equalizer setting
-center joystick tough to operate but you get used to it
-doesn't include a pouch
-takes a while to boot up depending on sd card size(takes about 20 seconds to index a 2 gb sd card, a 512 mb card takes only a few seconds depending on how much music is loaded on it)
-can't shuffle through a specific folder, it can only shuffle every song in the card if you select that play mode
-can't sort or browse by album title, artist, song name, genre, playlist unless you set up your folders by album title name, artist name, genre name or playlist name. if you don't use folders at all then you can browse by song name alphabetically
-will only be able to access a third or half of the music stored on the card if you use subfolders - for instance, if you organize you music by artist as a folder, album title as a subfolder, and actual songs within this subfolder then the player will go schitzoid trying to index your music on boot up and will show sub folders that it could not index as "NO FILE" --- (My best suggestion is to label all your folders with the artist name followed by the album title and don't use subfolders at all - the downside is that with the small screen it takes a while for the album title to scroll by)
-plays songs randomly within a folder, i suggest renaming your mp3 files with the track number first followed by the song name.
-displays current song number and total song number on card without a third digit - for instance a 2 gb sd card with mp3's encoded at 192 kbps can hold about 366 songs - so if you are playing the last song in the last alphabetically organized folder it will show it as 66/66 instead of 366/366. if you use 256 mb or 128 mb cards this shouldn't be a problem because you'll probably have less than a hundred songs, however if you plan to use larger size cards i would advice you ignore that part of the display

Conclusion
-Even with all its problems, I still highly recommend this player. For 40 dollars you get an extremely inexpensive workout/jogging player due to its small size and light weight; you get a extremely expandable mp3 player due to the use of a sd card slot and it's ability to handle the latest high capacity sd cards(keep in mind the price of sd cards are falling like crazy as newer and higher capacity cards become available); you get an extremely durable, shock resistant player which will survive minor falls and drops due to its solid state design; and you will also get an extremely long lasting player because if you always keep spare, rechargeable AAA batteries around then this player can run for as long as you want(i own an ipod mini and don't use it anymore because of battery drain problems even when the unit is in sleep mode-i'd rather recharge my spare NiMH AAA batteries once a week than worry about charging my ipod mini every single day).

PROS:
Best 2GB MP3 player for under $100 ($20 for LDP-200, $70 for 2GB SD card)
My NiMH 1000mAh AAA battery lasts 9 to 10 hours.
Nice sound quality if you have good headphones.
Tiny and lightweight.

CONS:
As noted by others, there is a maximum limit of 128 files per folder, and maximum limit of 40 folders+subfolders. That's not too bad considering 40 folders x 128 files = 5,120 songs. If each song is 4 MB in size, that's 20 GB which will not fit in your SD card anyway. With a 2GB card, you only have room for 500 four-megabyte songs. Therefore the file system is more than adequate for the purposes of this small inexpensive device.

CONCLUSION:
Basic functionality at rock-bottom price, so don't expect iPod performance.

This player could be great if it was not for the following flow that another reviewer pointed out:
"will only be able to access a third or half of the music stored on the card if you use subfolders - for instance, if you organize you music by artist as a folder, album title as a subfolder, and actual songs within this subfolder then the player will go schitzoid trying to index your music on boot up and will show sub folders that it could not index as NO FILE".
This basically means that you have to spend a lot of time reorganizing songs on this player so that the player will recognize them.
Even if I can browse to a particular nested folder, the player does not want to play songs from that folder in random mode.
This problem has become particularly annoying as my music collection is growing. It is even more frustrating since it would probably only take Lexar to issue a firmware upgrade to resolve this issue. I have tried to contact them to suggest just that but with no success.
If you can live with the limitation above, this can be a great player, otherwise look elsewhere.

I now have two of the Lexar LDP-200 players. They are simple to use and the sound is terrific. One AAA battery will last about 15 hours. With SD cards getting cheaper the storage is unlimited. Simple to add music if you have a decent desktop or laptop computer. I use Windows Media Player and just drag and drop the songs (or albums) onto the storage card.
The usb connector (comes with the player) makes it even easier.
I bought my players for $20 a few months back. They are more expensive now, but may be worth it if you want a reliable and simple player. Being able to use a storage card is a huge advantage. Being able to replace the battery is also a great feature.

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