Customer Reviews

Oregon Scientific MP120/BL512C 512 MB Waterproof MP3 Player with FM Tuner - Black

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

i am very dissapointed in this product, it seems to be a sturdy little unit and waterproof, so far, but somebody forgot to tell the manufacturer that this thing is supposed to play music. the supplied headphones are so poor that i cant hear any music or my mpg books when swimming or in the hot tub and there is no way to use your own headphones as the unit will no longer be waterproof. i listen to audio books as mpegs and there is no bookmark featrue also turn it off and it wont remember where you left off so you spend many minutes trying to find your shut off point. and remember the only way to recharge is to connect it to a usb cable on a computer. try to use the oregonscientific website, yea right, its impossible, all Glitzy music and eye candy and not helpful at all. the company is not interested in your problems with the product. the only way possible to use this product is if i can figure out how to re-solder and seal new head phones into this unit so i can actually hear sound and then use them in the hot tub only, unless i can find a pair of water proof ear buds for swimming. actually i'm wondering if this company can be sued under "Rico" for 'bait and switch', bottom line "dont buy this worthless device"

I bought the OSI 512 MB Waterproof Mp3 player about 6 mos ago. The player has been totally waterproof so far. I have taken it in pools, hot tubs, and saunas with no problem. Although I am satisfied with the waterproof capability, I am dissatisfied with many other features. First, the headphones are of very poor quality, the sound is almost tinny and the ear pieces have repetedly shocked me, which has caused me to be wary of actually using the player. Another major downfall is that you have no ability to make playlists - the music is automatically arranged alphabetically, which makes it difficult and time consuming to find specific songs. Also, the player will not save your place when it is turned off, so you can't pick up in the middle of a song, and it is useless to try to listen to audiobooks. When uploading files, the drag and drop navigation is easy, but the limited file capacity is frusterating. Just a few m43 files basically use up all of the memory space. The warranty is a joke and OSI's customer service is horrendous. Navigating through the equalizer modes is complicated and cumbersome. Overall, I am extremely disapointed with this purchase. I doubt I will ever buy another Oregon Scientific product again. Right now, I am only using the MP120 through the FM Transmitter in my car due to the poor sound quality and the earphone-shocking-issues. I am currently waiting for my i-pod 20GB to arrive and wishing that I had purchased that in the first place. If you are thinking of buying this product PLEASE consider it carefully, it is definitely Buyer Beware on this one.

I definitely agree with Larry. The same things happened to me and the customer service keep saying that there is no complaint about the product. When I uploaded some songs, it said that the disk was full and after unplugged it from the computer it was completely dead. I went to the shop and they gave me another one. This one worked properly for a few times and then water leaked inside and it stopped working again. I went to the shop again and then I started having a lot of problem with the customer service. They wanted to charge me half of the price of a new one for the repair (around US$80) and it was still under warranty as I have purchased it only 2 months before that. Beside that, the sound is really, really poor and the earphones, like the rest of the unit, are not waterproof at all and they don't suit your ears. They keep falling. You cannot swim with them, unless you wear something to hold them like a swim cap. The problem with the sound is really from its earphones because I've tried with another ones and the sound was much better but you cannot use your own earphones on the water because the design doesn't allow you. And believe it or not, the only difference between normal earphones and this one is that those ones have rubber covers that keep falling all the time.

Conclusion: Very expensive, very uncomfortable, not waterproof, very poor sound. The customer service is the worse I've ever seen. A rip-off!

I purchased this product at J&R for around $149.00. I got it because I wanted something small and light with a FM tuner that could be used for running. I also had an impression that OS was a good company. It was my first MP3 player purchase.

I hooked up the device and installed the software on Win 2k with no problems. I loaded up a couple of albums pretty easily. The digimusic software provided with it is reasonable good, albeit somewhat slow.

However, my first indication that something was up when I charged it for about 4 hours and it didn't indicate a full charge. I took it out for a run and within 5 minutes the unit shut down and stopped functioning completely. I tried to get it to work by plugging it back in, but to no avail. I ended up returning it to J&R for a full refund.

I didn't get much time to play with all its features, but here's a quick set of pros and cons. Overall, I am glad I did not get stuck with this unit, of course, I haven't found a good one yet to replace it.

Pros
1. light
2. nice design, seemingly sturdy
3. one year warranty (rio is 90 days)
4. supposedly water proof (1 meter), a salesman tried to say it was for 'divers'
5. good strong clip (but tight)
6. rechargable battery

Cons
1. it broke
2. the sound volume is ridiculously low, you couldn't hear it unless you turned it way up. I wonder if at its max whether I would be able to hear well with traffic.
3. it comes basically in two pieces and to plug it in/charge it you have to unscrew the smaller bottom part. The headphones are built into the bottom piece, which you have to leave off if you want to use other head phones.
4. The water proof earplugs don't really work well.
5. It comes with a bizarre pouch, but no arm strap.
6. The screen is really small and hard to read. The radio is hard to manuever around in, in either the preset of freq mode.
7. I played with RIO forge player and found its features much more intuitive and useful than the OS player.
8. charges (slowly: 3 hours) via USB, no external charger and does not charge when your computer is off
9. the buttons are really, really small and hard to press

I bought the 512MB version of this product, plugged it into my computer to charge (it charges from the USB port), it flickered a few times then died completely. I contacted their customer service and have had absolutely no response or action. Apparently all they are interested in is taking your money and sending you a rather expensive plastic paperweight, as it can be used for almost nothing else. Build quality is also very poor (it is made in China). Shame on Oregon Scientific for selling such a piece trash and then not even answering any of the customer queries for return or replacement.

...On the down side, after six months of proper usage, water has seeped in, the display is no longer visible, the unit doesn't work, and the USB plug is rusted.

I was initially pleased with my purchase. I solved the loose earbud problem by adding Jabra EarGels. I paid attention to the Oregon Scientific guidelines for the player-surface swimming only, for half an hour, and was careful about a tight seal after charging. However, after four months, the display had water in it. The player continued to work for another two months before quitting entirely.

It has taken over six weeks for me hear back from Oregon Scientific on how to send the product back-and there is no guarantee they'll fix it.

So I have switched to an iPod Shuffle and an Otterbox waterproof box. It's big and bulky, but I'm betting it's a far better investment than another Oregon Scientific product.

I got this as a Christmas present and I love it. I had tried 2 attempts at waterproof music in the past (a waterproof case for a regular mp3 player, and a waterproof radio made by speedo), and both were miserable failures. It works really well for lap swimming. I have 2 suggestions for improvement- wish the volume went up higher, becuase sometimes the earbuds come slightly out of my ears and it's hard to hear. Also, the cord to the ear buds is too long and drags in the water, I have to tuck it into my suit.

I was very disappointed in this MP3 player since it's the most popular waterproof available. I followed the instructions, but found water in the screen after two uses & rust-colored water coming out of the holes in the ear buds. The third time I tried to use it...it wouldn't even power on.

The player is difficult to use because each button performs multiple functions. Even with the manual in front of me, it's confusing to operate. The buttons are small and VERY difficult to push. The water ear buds are uncomfortable & don't stay in place while aqua-jogging. The screen is hard to read even when it's illuminated. The clip comes off so easily that it's almost impossible to clip the unit to anything b/c it just pops off.

I wouldn't recommend this product to anyone for any reason. Fortunately, I've recieved a full refund from the vendor.

Thanks to the suggestion of another reviewer, I've learned about Otterboxes. I'll be buying an iPod Nano as soon as Otterbox markets the box to fit!

While I was a little hesitant to buy this particular product thanks to the negative reviews posted here, I did it anyway as the price was the most reasonable for an MP3 player that you could swim with (most are WAY more expensive) as well as the fact that both of the bad reviews were from people who had pretty clearly gotten "bad" equipment. Knowing full well that Amazon (as most reputable places do) had a 30 day money-back guarantee, I figured the worst case scenario was I would have to pay for some shipping and Oregon Scientific would get yet another bad review.

Well, I am here to say that not only did my MP3 player work, it worked WELL beyond my expectations. I will admit that there are certainly better sounding MP3 players available out there, but I bought this for one purpose and one purpose only: to swim laps with. For this, it is like a dream come true. Many were the days that I had to swim with no music at all or with music that I could only really hear when I was between laps. Those days are finally at an end. Thank you Oregon Scientific!

Yes, the earbuds are a bit of a pain, but wearing a swim cap can remedy that quite easily I think. I haven't really had any bad experiences myself as I cut and shaped the earbuds per the instructions.

All in all a GREAT product for what it is intended: to alleviate the monotony of lap swimming. It is also lightweight and holds a TON of music. Yeah, the buttons are a bit small and there are some other things, but honestly; to pay a little over a hundred bucks for an MP3 player that holds a half gig of music and NEVER skips and can be used in the rain, there is NO WAY you can do better.

I read the reviews and thought ... not going to happen to me. It did. This player worked a total of 10 times and then nothing. Don't buy it! It was nice to swim with, the head phones did suck, but I wasn't expecting it to be great sound quality under water, apparently OS did not do proper R&D before launching this product.