Customer Reviews

Perception Digital PD-1000 1.5 GB Portable MP3 Jukebox

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I bought this item because a) I do not have an MP3 player and b) it is very cheap for the storage size. I can say that it is worth the price (about $100).


Here is my list of cons for this item:
1) Does not integrate with Windows Media Player... you can play files off of the drive, but the Sync tab does not work with this player.

2) Unit does not use file-based playlists. You cannot use your M3U or WPL playlists with this unit. To create a custom playlist you have to manually type in a name and select the files. Then there is no way to rearrange the playlist once it has been created. You can still play all the songs that are on a particular album as long as the ID3 tag is correct without creating a playlist.

3) The unit does not sort the tracks correctly. I believe it sorts the tracks "1 10 11 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9" alphabetically when playing in "Album" mode, but not numerically. Sometimes the order is totally random. Not a big deal for me as I usually like to play the tracks in random mode. In "Artist" mode it sorts the tracks alphabetically by song title.

4) Controls are a bit confusing. Some buttons have dual functions, but those functions are not obvious or are not labeled. For instance, the MENU button takes you back to the menu, but also acts as a STOP button if you hold it down for 2 seconds. REC button doubles as A-B section repeat.

5) Controls are not consistant in the menus. For instance, the LEFT direction on the joystick can be used as a "back" button... except when you are in the options menu where you have to select from a list of values. In the Contrast menu the slider is a left/right bar but you have to press UP or DOWN to change it.

6) Menu does not let you see the whole artist's name. While navigating to the file you want to hear you are presented with a list of artist's names. Only about 12 characters are shown. Likewise when you view by Album, only 12 characters. Songnames use a different screen layout and the songs scroll to the left to show you the whole name.

7) HOLD switch is smooth and hard to move with finger. You really have to use your fingernail.

8) Joystick control is hard to use without using your nail as well. It's also easy to accidentally press the joystick down when you don't want to.

9) Unit has to compile the library database everytime you disconnect the USB. This takes a minute or 2 and you can't use the unit until it's done.


Here is my list of pros. These are just the ones I feel stand out:
1) Good selection of playmodes. You can shuffle, repeat, suffle-repeat, etc.

2) Adjustable EQ. Has 4 presets and 1 custom EQ with 5 bands.

3) The lithium battery is charged via the USB cable (slow) when plugged in or by the A/C adaptor (fast). Very cool.

4) Screen layout is good. Shows progress of current song with current song number and total songs in list. Battery indicator, volume, and playmodes.

5) Line-in and built-in Mic for recording. Recording options are very limited, but nice to have as a personal voice recorder.


I hope this helps people decide if this unit is right for you.

J. Smith

I bought this unit about 3 months ago. Unfortunately, 1 star is the lowest I can give it. I would've gone lower if at all possible.

As far as the player itself, I found the flap that covers the USB port to be difficult to get fold back to get the plug into, and equally as difficult to get back into place without flopping open again. The control buttons are too small and difficult to manipulate unless you're looking at them, and the "joystick" in the middle is stiff and not easy to manipulate. The headphone jack is on the side of the unit, rather than the top, which makes it bulkier to put in your pants pockets. Overall, I wasn't impressed with the controls at all, they weren't designed to be easy to use without fumbling a lot. The display isn't bad, and the backlighting is nice and bright. That's about the best thing that can be said about the unit.

I have one of the original 32 MB Diamond Rio players. It has been through hell and high water, and still works great. However, I was wanting more memory and I started looking around for a reasonably priced player. Against my better judgement, I ordered this unit, despite not being able to find any user reviews on the company or product. Once I received it, I charged it fully, then loaded it with songs. Used it that day at work and it worked well. After the battery died, I took it home and put it on the charger. After that, it wouldn't power on, it wouldn't charge, nothing. Not even the reset button did anything. After 3 days of attempting to contact the company's "help line" (to this day, no one has ever answered the phone), I called the main office number and got a hold of an employee. After giving me useless instructions, I was finally told to send the unit back to the company. After a few weeks, I received the unit back. Now the power comes on, but the hard drive is fried and I can't store any new songs. So I contacted customer support again, still no answer on the (no)help line. So I emailed the original employee back that I could not load more songs on the unit. His reply was to tell me to check if my USB was working. Had he paid attention to my email, he would've seen the screenshot I included of my computer's device manager screen, showing that XP recognized the harddrive in the unit, but that the harddrive was offline and not working.

To make a long story short, I now have to send the dang thing back yet again. With all of my numerous tech gadget geek purchases, I have never EVER had such a difficult time with a product or with customer service. It's unreliable, the controls are at the very least an annoyance, the company's "customer service" is a total joke and if you do consider buying this product, do so at your own risk. I really do not recommend it.

It often gets stuck and i have to use a pin to reset this thing.
Now I can not turn it on even though I charged it full.

The rebate system that this company employs never works. I bought two of this but never got the $30 rebate for any of them eventhough I mailed everything.

I like this unit a lot; $99 (minus $30 rebate pending) is a GREAT price for a 1.5GB storage unit, much less an MP3 player.

For the bad news first, cons (with explanation):
- the buttons/switches are definitely something to get used to, and a valid issue. It's not quite intuitive, but then I'm coming from a Rio Cali that wasn't very intuitive when I'd first started using it, either.
- having to do playlists on the device rather than more conveniently, on the desktop (although if you just shuffle, then it really doesn't matter much). It doesn't seem there's much in terms of firmware upgrades or support on PD's site, either.
- no clock of any kind (except a track counter during play) -- makes it a little more difficult to use as a runner, which is my primary use. My Rio has a day time set and a stopwatch.
- no FM tuner, which is not much of a negative, considering how BAD the FM tuners are on most devices.
- no easy belt clip/armband spots, meaning that you'd need a holster of some kind. Many other devices come with sleeves or clips.

Now the good stuff, pros:
- price is out of this world for a 1.5 GB storage device
- easy drag-and-drop interface because device shows up as a hard drive (Rio's software wasn't bad, but this is MUCH better)
- good sound (which depends much more on earbuds than device)
- record feature, which is a nice one for miscellaneous use.
- small, light design. It fits easily in the palm of your hand, and it's SO light.

Overall, I'd absolutely recommend this device wholeheartedly.

This review is just a random unorganized tangent about this MP3 player, so don't look for a professionally organized review. I'm a busy man, here.

I wasn't going to be buying into the Ipod craze but I wanted something cheap that held a fair amount of space being that I loves my music...$118 later along came this at my door step. If you're a bells and whistles whore and want an mp3 player that puts on a fireworks display while simultaneously making you a pie and performing liposuction, spend your money elsewhere or just carry around your hard drive and a pair of headphones with you. This does all the basic stuff with a few double functioned buttons with a purtty backlit screen. It's about the size of a standard Cell Phone, too. Just in case you were wondering.

The joystick is somewhat annoying to use at times, such as when I'm upping the volume and end up skipping ahead a track by mistake. But that's only happened one or 2 times now, so it's not a dealbreaker.

You can't see the entire songs or artists name as you're menu cruising? Oh no! If you need more than 12 characters to identify what band or song it is you put on your own appliance, seek help. 'Golly...who could this band called 'Stone Temple...' or 'Rage Against...' be? If only I had THE FULL NAME!' Granted, it's a nice thing to see the entire name while you're showing this off to friends, but come on people.

Yes, the player does update the complete library when you're done uploading music and can take in excess of 30 or 45 seconds when it's packed , boo hoo. God forbid some people exhibit the lost art of patience.

All in all, this is just peachy keen with what I use it for: A) Listening to music while galavanting around campus from class to class. B) Listening to music while I'm putting in late nights at the computer or math labs. Buy it immediately if this is all you require. The only true con that I can really think of is that while it's in my pocket, it detracts from my natural buldge.

11 Thumbs up. Or by Amazon's system...5 stars.

I've had this player for about two months now. Its a great little with some aggravating elements to it that might be too much for some people.

Pros: sounds great to me (I replaced the ear buds with a better pair), easy to transport songs into it, decent equalizer, plays WMA files, pretty small and compact but feels like a decent quality, screen is clear and bright.

Cons: the "shuffle" mode does not randomize every single time and there is no "resume" mode. This means that when you're in shuffle mode and you choose the same song to start with as you chose last time (since its just easiest that way), it will play a similar (if not exactly the same) group of songs. To get a totally random song order, you need to start with a new song, which is a bit of a hassle. Mine has skipped some if I had it in my pocket while running, but in my hand it has worked fine.

Mine has pretty much worked as advertised and I am satisfied with it. That said, I'm pretty sure flash player prices will be plummeting so its not a bad idea to wait either.

I understand some of the complaints I've read from others, and I think they are mostly from bad individual units. I've had mine for a couple of weeks with no crashes or major problems.

It does skip if you put it in your pocket or another loose area and move around. I hold it in my hand when running, or put it on a solid surface when exercising and have no problems. It's small, light and fits perfectly in my hand. It also works perfectly with my computer speakers.

The buttons are fairly self-explanatory. My hold button doesn't stick, but there is only a tiny symbol on the screen for when you do lock it. It can be easy to forget you locked it, so don't automatically assume it froze like I did the first time I used it.

You can create numerous playlists but each are limited to 40 songs. While you can't change the order without deleting and readding later, the shuffle feature is nice. But, if you only want to play a playlist, you need to make certain that the playmode is set for folders and not the entire collection.

It's true that if your songs aren't properly IDed, you get them plopped into the unknown folder. Not a big deal for me since I always update my info.

It is good for the money. I have 245 songs on it now and plan to fill it. While it may not have the reputation the new iPods will earn, it has a screen so you are not blindly navigating through your collection.

For those reviewers who said it skips and crashes excessively and the buttons don't work, obviously something is wrong with your unit. You have a warranty against defects, so use it! Mine is perfect.

For the price, its a great deal! 100$ for a 1.5GB HD! Actually, you really only get 1.31gb but still. It accepts ID3 tags from your music and automatically organizes it for you. Just make sure your ID3tags are v2.4 or they wont be recognized. It has no internal speaker so the only playback for the music/voice rec is through headphones or something. Its pretty light, not too big, fits nicely in your hand, and it looks slick. Overall, great product!

I just purchased the perception digital's 1.5GB mp3 player. I had done a lot of research before buying it as they were offering 1.5GB for $98. I was pretty reluctant in the start. but i must say this player surpassed my expectations.

Pros: low priced, mp3 decoding is good, SNR > 90db which means a clean and clear sound, 5 band equalizer, voice recording, supports drag and drop mechanism which means we dont have to install any alien software to download files. can be used as a external HDD to store files. comes with a external power supply to charge the player quickly (it can also be charged through the USB port), it has a line-in function which i havent seen in many players, it shows the current equalizer mode, shuffle mode, battery and volume on the screen.

cons: very ordinary looking, the joystick is clumsy and it makes navigation really difficult. the head phones which come along are worthless so i had to buy new one. and its Made In China so i dont think its very durable. but other than that no serious cons.

overall i think this player does the job and is surely worth the money. I would recommend this player to anyone interested in buying a good mp3 player for a less price.

I bought this MP3 player about 2 weeks ago. (...) I use it at the gym and it does not skip, which I was concerned about. I have 15 cd's on it now and it is about half full. I haven't found a down side yet.