Customer Reviews

Nintendo DS Media Player with 4 GB Hard Drive

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

 

 

I have the version that comes with a 1Gb Compact Flash drive. I have updated the firmware to the latest version (1.22) and I am happy with the Max Media Dock, but it could be much more.

The built-in software plays videos prepared with special software. The format can not be played by any other player. It works well, and stores about 30 minutes of video per 100 Megabytes. Unfortunately, it does not loop videos, and you can not fast forward or use the position slider to move through a video. If you break a 30 minute show into 5 minute sections, the player exits after each section and you have to start the next by hand. If you store a 30 minute show as one file you have to watch from the beginning with no way to fast forward if you already watched the first 10 minutes.

The built-in software plays MP3s fairly well. It automatically loops all of the MP3 files in a directory, with options to repeat a single song and repeat all songs in the directory. Shuffle play is also available. There are controls to fast forward, rewind, and switch to the next or previous track. You can also use the position slider to move through the song. (If the video player had the same controls, I would love it!) Unfortunately, it is not aware of the MP3 header. I have not been able to figure out exactly why it uses the order it does for songs. MP3 playback is scratchy for high recording levels.

For added functionality, it comes with a freeware application called MoonShell that plays MPG movies and MP3 music. The MP3 player in MoonShell avoids the scratchiness of the built in player, and includes a software volume control. MoonShell also displays text files and a rather broad selection of image files.

Homebrew applications are spotty on the Max Media Dock. The Media Dock is fairly new, and many applications simply can not deal with it.

Conclusion

I am happy with my Media Dock, but the built-in applications are pretty rough and homebrew support is spotty.

I'm going to name drop here, Nintendo DS R4 Revolution!!!

A long, long...long time ago I bought this (before I heard about the R4), and it disappointed me so much I took it back the next day. For one, it's bulky. The DS lite is heavy enough. Second, the interface is awful, and it's not user friendly. Say you wanted to add an avi file, but there's no converter tool to make it smaller. The playback to the video is jerky and off beat. The only good thing about this is the four gigs. I do have to give it to them for that. The four gigs can't amount to anything if it's slow as Christmas, though. I'm done ranting, just don't buy this. You'll thank me and everyone else who rated later. I got one word for you - "R4"

If i had to describe this device in 1 word it would be: amazing. i have all my music stored on it, and i have like 20 tv shows on it which i downloaded from utorrent and google video (ill get back to google video in a second... ill give you a useful tip). you might be wondering how you can fit 10 movies onto a 4G hard drive. its because they convert it to d3v. this device is so much fun, i take it everywhere i go. the ONLY downside is that watching video drains the battery quickly (listening to music doesnt, it has a 'sleep mode'. however, i still think this is well worth the money. oh yeah, the google video tip. on google video, your allowed to download the movies (it should be somewhere around the info bar at the right.) however, youll notice that when you download, its a .gvp. just download this converter at [...] and your good to go!

When I opened this today I put games in it and booted up Moonshell. When I tapped on a game I get an error saying "not support adapter?" I have no clue what this means only that I can play my games now. Thanks Datel,thanks.

The product required several download updates to get the promised functions and I still cannot play many homebrew games from the storage card. price was fair and after updates to moonshell and finding the video converter I now enjoy videos music and picture viewing also the memory is upgradeable with a compact flash

fast ship and a great product so much you can do with beyond great movies and music

It's a generally ok, the format of the whole thing needs to be changed, it's no user friendly at all...sort of has an old pc kind of feel to it...honestly would recommend waiting for this type of product for something better to come along. The seller is awesome, very speedy delivery.

I bought it a long time ago.. but here is some advice take out the HDD and replace it with a Compact Flash. when you do that.. install moonshell.. and you will have an ok experience.

This product swayed me in getting a Nintendo DS instead of a PSP. To me the DS seemed to have more games that I would want to play, but the PSP had more multimedia capabilities that could me entertained on a 13 hour plane trip. When I saw this product it made DS an easier product for me to purchase because it expanded the DS multimedia capabilities.

I was very interested in the video playback capabilities so I probably spent 5 hours trying to figure what the best settings are for the DS video encoder. The video sometimes was very graining, skip frames, or froze and there wasn't much I could do to fix it. This disappointed me because I picked South Park for my tests for its very simple colors and animation. It was still watchable once I accepted the quirks. However, it was more difficult to ignore the quirks that occurred during live-action, because there was a lot of ghosting along with the dropped and froze video.

The MP3 player software is pretty good, but there were some pops during playback. The latest update to the Media Player turns the DS display off, which is a nice feature to save on batter life.

None of the games I downloaded for it seemed to work properly. I read online articles saying that many games have a hard time with the slower transfer rate of the included hard drive.

The hard drive also shortens battery life. I believe the battery life is reduced to around 2 hours. On my fully charged DS, the battery light would start flashing red after an hour of use.

I unscrewed the hard drive from the Media Player station and swapped it with a compact flash disk. This enabled me to increase the sampling rate of encoded video. My South Park video is no longer grainy, skips frames or freezes. Life-action movies video quality also greatly improved. I also noticed that pops during MP3 playback had been reduced, but unfortunately they still occur. The battery life appears to have greatly improved, probably since the DS no longer has to provide power to spin a hard drive.

I recommend buying the Max Media Player version without the hard drive (around $40) and buying a compact flash disk for it. The video playback between the hard drive and compact flash is like night and day, and games seem to play better. I hate losing the storage space, but the improvements using compact flash is too much to pass up.

For moths now I've been searching for a Personal Digital Multimedia Player. I couldn't make up my mind about purchasing a regular PMP device or this MAX Media 4GB PMP. Let me tell you, this is NOT worth the $130 nor the $50 and I wouldn't give more than $30 if you still plan on getting one. Luckily while browsing other online stores I found a really nice, rather tiny, slim and sexy PMP for the Nintendo DS lite! and it goes for about $50. Do yourself a favor, and if you're a BIG Nintendo DS fan just like me, don't waste more than what's needed on this bad piece of software. It's still a good option if you have extended knowledge on homebrewed software and media formating and have an extra media flash drive to spare. Theres better options out there!