Customer Reviews

COBY PMP7040 7" TFT Portable Media Player w/40 GB HDD & Video Recording

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

 

 

I don't care much a bout a bad menue... (but this is the first piece of electronics that ever gave me instructions in pidgeon English.)

I don't care much a bout the slow start. So, it takes a few moments to boot. So does a PC. So what?

What I DO care about is wether it can do the job or not, and it is sadly lacking it it's ABILITY to play back video. Come on! The screen jerks twice per second no matter what you play back and that just gives me a headache, and I normally don't get headaches. I can't take 5 minues, and with a recoding time of 150 hours, I really don't want ot go there. Video output to a larger screen is the same.

Many are used to jerky video from the internet, but that is more or less ramdom jerks. This does it at 2hz, yes, twice per second and it won't stop. I loaded the video files onto my PC and they play back fine. I suspect the unit just does not have the necessary horsepower to decode the MP4 files (AVI extension) AND render video smoothly at the same time. The video I am talking about was recorded BY THE UNIT, so it should at least be able to play back smoothly. Alas, no. I wasted $300 on the thing, please don't make the same mistake.

Don't get me wrong, if you want to view pictures or listen to music, it can do what they say it does, but overall you're better off with a stack of discs and a portable DVD player, or even a laptop Pc with an optical drive.

My advice is to not buy any PMP unless you can see it working. In the end, it's how it works that you should care about.

I read so many reviews before buying and NOBODY mentioned the choppy video. I hope that this helps even one person out there to avoid this piece of dung.

One thing I wanted to know that nobody said anything specific about was could I use a flash drive to play video off of? The answer is "no". What it does is load the files from the flash drive (or other USB storage device) and let you play it from the built-in HD. Othersie, it works well as a 40 gig USB drive for a PC, and that is what I'll be using it for, if at all. Now I need to find a GOOD video player. Let me know if you find one!

Have had the Coby for about a month, including travel with it. No other unit on the market compares. Yes, it can be slow to start but no biggie. Have 130+ episodes of our favorite TV series and picture is outstanding. Indexing can be a bit flaky. Battery life is totally outstanding... no comparison to the other PMP's that quit before some movies and finished. AC adapter is a bit bulky... hey Coby how about a small switching supply?? Only gripe is that there appears to be no spare battery available anywhere. Coby is mute on this after two different emails. Am trying their tech support to see if they respond. Expect them to issue a firmware update to fix the few bugs.
Look for great prices here on Amazon...

Good product in general. Could be better if it would recognize more video formats and would have a way for continuous file playing.

I have had my coby for 3 months. It does take about 30 seconds 2 boot, which is not a big deal 2 me. It plays the movies that show up on it very well, that's if they show up in the players list. And this is my biggest beef i have with it. It will play some mpeg2 and not others, even tho they were recorded with the same source. I have no clue what it likes about some of them and not the other. So i convert them to mpeg1 and they all will play, strange hmmm. Picture quality is excellent. The screen is bright and color rich. Once u get use to the controls it is pretty easy to get a round. I do wish it had a remote. Battery life is excellent. I can watch 2 movies without recharging. The music player seems to work well. But i only have about 200 songs on mine. I use it 4 movies more than music. Over all i am pleased because i got it at a steal of a price. But it definitely needs a firmware upgrade to work out the corks.

This PMP is slow to start, but then it seems to work well. It does tend to lose track of the mp3 files though. Sometimes they are there and sometimes not. We use it for movies on the go and it works great for that. I do think it's a bit overpriced for the quality.

I have had this product over a year probably. Overall it is pretty nice, I have looked at pictures and played music but not much. Mainly I use this for my young child in the car through the built in dvd player through the aux out or on airplane. I have never used it to record.

I can hold a ton of videos on this thing, probably have 40+ full movies, which I download from the web at about 700mb (.avi). I have also ripped my own movies to a 1.5gb VOB file and it plays them ok. Sometimes I have issues with the VOB playing... sometimes it will play for 30 minutes then freeze. So I have replaced most of my VOB ripped with clonedvd to the .avi's I have downloaded from the web. All of them play great.

Complaints:
1 - when using aux output the audio still plays out the player. Could save some battery life if it disabled the audio on board, and it is also a little annoying balancing the devices
2 - Can not resume a video at it's current location unless you pause the movie. Stopping it starts all over.
3 - It has a great option for turning of the screen to save battery when using aux output, but that option does not lock the buttons (locking the controls is an option on the same slide switch, but then you need to have the LCD on).

Overall I am very happy with this product.

In the slowly dying realm of audio and video digital recording, I wanted something that recorded video simply and easily without a dock and a million wires-this one does the trick very well!!!

This was a purchased cautiously because I didnt know COBY well, except as a DVD player... I am not disappointed so far, although I have only had it for a few months and have seen the other reviews. Ive already digitized some of my VHS tapes-one of the main reasons I bought it, you can change the aspect raio which is great. You cannot change any audio recording settings (in the video), so if you are recording a vhs or audio that sounds bad, it will sound bad on the digital file.

Im going to use this as a DVR, record some of my favorite TV shows and movies from cable and enjoy them on trips or during boring breaks at school. The screen is quite large, bright, and the pictures and video are great.

Cons: A bit big and bulky, heavy. But as a little DVR and a 40gb hard drive, I expected a little weight... (this wont replace your IPOD, but its great for those tired of looking at 2-4" screens while watching a movie!!!)

BY THE WAY, by all indications, all of these little audio and video (straight from the source) recording devices are becoming extinct-maybe because of copyright issues, get em while you can!!!

Great picture, but I puchased this unit because it claimed to play mp4's! It doesn't play mp4's!!! It plays avi's beautiful, but does not know the mp4 file type. If you don't mind converting your movies to avi, or that is the file type that you have... than this is the player for you.

I bought this player a week back, only reason being was tempted by the price and features. Thought I knew the reviews were bad but thought of trying it out..............Turned out to be a big mistake !!!
This piece of junk, didnt start at all !! I mean how bad a PMP can be !! Putting in and taking out the Battery from this giant seems a next to impossible task. Thanks to JR Electronics, they took it back. Over all, what a waste of time and this is a total piece of Junk !!

The file manager doesn't allow me to delete directories, only individual files. It doesn't allow me to copy individual files from an external source, only the entire contents of a flash drive, so if I have a hundred photos on a thumb drive and one movie, then it copies everything, but only allows me to delete files one at a time in the most cumbersome way possible. It has an interface cable that I've never seen before and is unique to this product and this produce only. A standard USB cable would have been clever and sensible. Oh, no. Don't use that. Make a whole new cable that will render the unit useless if lost. It gets quite hot. It can't play very many formats. It takes several minutes to initialize. It's slow. The user interface is about as user friendly as an Army supply sergeant. The quality of construction is about the same as the knock-off electronics you buy in Mexico. This thing is a massive piece of junk. If you're considering buying the Coby PMP7040, do yourself a favor, buy $170.00 worth of books instead. You'll be able to finish one or two in the time it takes this worthless pile of garbage to initialize.