PANASONIC SV-SD80 e-wear SD Audio Player

by Panasonic

Product Details

Product Manual [1.05mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000067806
• Item model number: SVSD80
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #229,809 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

ThereM-^Rs nothing old fashioned about PanasonicM-^Rs e-wearM-^Y Secure Digital Audio player. The swank and ultra-compact design makes it easy to take your music along, as does the provided strap and armband. ItM-^Rs compatible with AAC, MP3, and WMA music files. And the large, easy-to-read LCD screen shows the song title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Two Years With The Panasonic SV-SD80, March 7, 2004

By 

Phillip M. Dampier (Rochester, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: PANASONIC SV-SD80 e-wear SD Audio Player (Electronics)

This review comes after using the SD80 daily for nearly two years.

Pros

Sound quality is generally excellent
Battery life is fantastic, especially with backup AAA battery
Player is tiny and can be worn on your person or put in your pocket
Protective case offers outstanding protection and is functional
Transferring files to SD card is reasonably simple
DRM protection has never caused an issue for me

Cons

Panasonic support is woefully lacking, to the point of irresponsibility

Product is now dated for what it offers
You must use Real Audio or, when you can find it, Panasonic's SD Jukebox software to transfer files
Limited to USB 1.1; no support for third party card writers, 1.1 or 2.0
Included 64mb SD card would not function in the Panasonic USB Reader/Writer, but was able to bring it to life formatting it on another writer
Panasonic does not maintain an archive of all of the software needed to make the player work should you lose the installation CD.
Maximum volume below average - you may find it too low in noisy environments.

Overall

A great choice if you can find it at a substantial discount. I would have rated it four stars a year ago. The unit has become considerably dated now, with far faster USB 2.0 units for less money and fewer problems. This has always been an obscure player in the MP3 marketplace, and Panasonic has done nothing to change that in North America.

Some tips and observations:

Throw away the included headphones. They're terrible. I recommend the Koss Porta Pro or KTX Pro 1 headphones. They have better bass response and carry a lifetime warranty.

Panasonic in North America has been completely unresponsive to customer support requests for their SD series players. Many customer service reps do not even know the line exists, much less offer support. Panasonic online support for the product is completely unacceptable. They have essentially abandoned updating their website with software and driver updates, and they unacceptably do not provide online access to all of the software necessary to make the product work. If you lose your installation CD, your player is worthless.

Multiple experiences with customer service have never produced a satisfactory result. This is a major negative for the entire Panasonic product line and is an important consideration if you think you will need product support.

Unit must be used with included software (or SD Jukebox, usually found overseas). You also cannot use a third party USB reader/writer, which limits you to their own unit, which operates at USB 1.1 speeds. If their reader is missing/broken, it is not cheap to replace.

Certain MP3 files encoded with lower end "ripping" software do not play correctly. Those songs will abruptly end. The only way to predict this behavior is to compare the reported length of the song as it sits in your library with that reported by the Panasonic unit after transferring songs. There is no fix - you can only re-encode the song in hopes of getting through this. It affects about 3% of songs I've found, but almost always those produced by individuals, not professionally encoded files.

WMA files play at louder volumes than MP3 files.

Transfer times can be laborious. Make sure you have the software set not to re-encode your files or convert them to another format, such as AAC. It will add lots of time to the transfer.

Player controls are not intuitive for changing to random playback, boosting the bass, or other extra functions. But you can usually manage it in five minutes or less. Note the playlist function does not appear to be implemented.

Clearly the Panasonic line is not well known and you can impress your friends with the individuality of their product line. Unfortunately, it turns out there is a reason why a product line is not well known - in this case it's Panasonic's own fault.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars SD - Proprietary Junk..., February 28, 2003

By 

Tom Moore "tmoore" (Cincinnati, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: PANASONIC SV-SD80 e-wear SD Audio Player (Electronics)

I hardly ever write one of these reviews, but this product in particular really got me fired up.

This product is one of a few MP3 players that supports the SD format. I was excited about this since I have several devices that use SD and a few others that use CF. I travel quite a bit, so I carry a small multi-reader to read all my memory formats.

This product requires you to use their proprietary reader. YOU CANNOT USE A STANDARD SD READER!!!! So now I have to carry a separate reader for this SD device. The software is also a bit of a pain. MP3 is a generic format. Why must this software convert the MP3's to a S01 (or whatever) format? I'd like the freedom to choose my media software much like I can choose my MP3 player.

By having to carry a proprietary reader, and use proprietary software (by the way, good luck upgrading to the latest Real Player, you have to apply fixes) this product is utterly useless to me.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Sounding, Lightest, Smallest Player Yet!!, December 5, 2002

By 

"shnukums" (Lindenhurst, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: PANASONIC SV-SD80 e-wear SD Audio Player (Electronics)

This is the smallest 1.75" x 1.688" x 0.688", and lightest at just under an ounce(without battery). Comes with a small, sealed(water resistant), hard plastic carry case (w/belt-clip) which I use almost all the time with single AAA battery; last over 30hrs (tested myself), and is the only way to use a battery. Otherwise you can use alone with the thin Ni-MH Rechargeable Battery, which last about 18-20 hrs (tested myself)recharges in its own base charger. Use both the rechargeable and a AAA with the case, for over 50hrs (also tested).!! WOW !!

Sound quality of the supported AAC (MPEG2) codec surpasses the quality of MP3 (MPEG1). Uses all three, AAC, MP3, WMA. You get noticeably greater clarity using AAC rather than MP3 or WMA. At a bitrate of just 64kbps, AAC sounds clearer and better than 96kbps MP3, and is smaller size too. At 96kbps, AAC sounds CD quality and beats 128kbps MP3 hands down! I fit 26 full 3-5 minute songs (AAC at 64kbps) on the included 64MB SD card. I know it supports 256MB SD , and I think it just might support 512MB card. The player itself has very small buttons : play/pause, forward/next, reverse/back, and volume + and -; very easy to learn and use. The hard case's rubber buttons are slightly hard to push, but it protects your player. Large enough 2 line LCD screen for this size; very leggible. No Backlight, but it only uses next or previous song selection so you really don't need it. Included earphones sound great and clear; cable is very short, long enough for wearing player around your neck or arm, but also includes a long extension cord which is great. Includes a neck strap, and armband that's great for working out or jogging.(ABSOLUTELY NO SKIPPING-no moving parts). The included RealJukebox software sucks(you can upgrade to RealOne)and is the only software that has Panasonic SD support for AAC music. It brings its own Panasonic USB SD card reader/writer which works great. Tranfer rate is ok using the Real software.

Only cons are that it's just a little pricey, [$$$], no backlight, and no Mac support yet, but WORTH EVERY SINGLE PENNY for Size, Quality, Amazing Sound, and Simplicity!