Customer Reviews

Philips 15gb Personal Audio Jukebox

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Pros: Size, Weight, Cost, Display, Battery Life, Records from Line/Opt/Mic, File xfer recorded mp3 to PC

Cons: (Very) low level electronic warble on mic recodings; Track Title doesn't scroll.

I upgraded the firmware immediately (v6.6 now) and downloaded the latest PC software (27mb download Philips Digital Music Manager v2.0), and have downloaded about 2gb of 96kbs mp3 files to the unit. The unit has not frozen up as reported by some folks. Once or twice a day, the unit may be "pausing" playback for 2-3 seconds, not sure.

I did experience "missing and out of order" tracks early on when I was comparing various formats and believe that an album of MP3Pro files caused the problem. I deleted all the files on the HDD100, re-ripped that CD at 96kbp standard mp3 (using MusicMatch Jukebox Plus 8.2) and re-updated to the HDD100. No problems since.

I compared 64kbps WMA, 128kbs MP3, and 96kbs MP3 for audio quality and believe that the 64kbs WMA lacked a little presence, and possibly had just a little less bass punch. The 128kbs had slightly better presence than the 96kbps MP3 (with good headphones and no ambient noise). The 128k format averaged 45mb for an album versus 30mb for the 96kbs MP3. I chose to start ripping my CD collection at 96kbps MP3 and am pleased with the tradeoff.

As mentioned by others, the Philips earphones were "throw aways". I tried a set of Etymotic ER-4P "audiofile" earphones, but prefer more bass than I could get even with the bass boost. I found my 20 dollar AIWA in-ear phones to give great bass with higher output than the ER-4P phones, but in-ear phones seem to get uncomfortable after a few hours.

(Someone was searching for the fast forward - half press and hold the >> button.)

I recorded singing and flute playing witht the internal mic with acceptable results. At high playback levels, a bothersome electronic warble is audible in the recordings during silences. For grabbing a recording it is fine, for better quality I'll drag my Tascam PocketStudio5, although I haven't tried line in recording (from better mics and a mixer) yet.

Someone complained about syncronization time. I don't feel it is too long. The DMM software seems very robust and works well although it could improve with a "maximize" feature.

It probably will be a keeper, but I have a few more days to decide. The only alternative I would choose is the iPod mini but that only has 4mb...

I just purchased this player the other day...the look caught my eye and I just had to have it. So I bought it and took it home and then everything worked out. The player did freeze up every few songs so I looked in the manual for a while. It turns out that this player doesnt support any secure WMAs, so that addresses the problem that guy had of the player freezing. Other then that, this player has been great! The design is pretty good and the software is easy to use. Just dont load in any secure WMAs.

Btw...there is a reset button...hold the volume up, up, and left buttons for 4 seconds...

In my opinion, the Philips HDD100 is comparable to the I Pod in weight, size, capacity, and options, and it is more affordable. Scrolling is fast and easy, creating playlists is a breeze and the sound quality is amazing. The headphones that come with the unit leave much to be desired. The cord is way too short, making it impossible to place the HDD100 on the table in front of you and be able to listen to it at the same time. The remote control that also comes with it is very handy. It extends the length of the cord and makes navigation a lot easier.
It would be great if the backlight stayed on longer, it stays on for about 30 seconds at the most. It comes in black, which is nice, but the high gloss magnesium sides get all smudged from fingerprints. Overall, though, it is a great machine, capable of holding approximately 3,000 songs. I have about 575 songs on mine right now, and it only takes up about 3% of the hard drive. If you want the I Pod, but can't afford it, the Philips HD100 is the more affordable option and does the same thing.

I would really agree with most of the reviews written here, while it is a great sleek looking MP3 player, if I were to buy another one today I wouldn't buy this again. Generally it works fine, I have no problem with the sound quality, and the 20GB version, which I own, is more than big enough to store all my music. There are however several minor problems with it.

Firstly it is prone to freezing up every now and then, there is a reset mode by pressing two buttons, but it is annoying and often the battery ends up much lower than it was previously. The battery life itself is also an issue, if your running it constantly it does actually last for many hours, however if you turn it off and back on again repeatedly it loses power quickly. Sometimes it also drops from 4 bars on the battery to 1 or 2 for no apparent reason.

Though I have had no major problems with it, there are too many minor glitches to recommend this over other players on the market.

I honestly think this system looks visually better then the iPod. As a matter of fact, this system uses a 2 color LCD screen. It is exactly like a game gear system screen or a small portable hand held TV screen except the actual Philip's hardware on this unit only permits 2 colors. However the iPod is only a regular Dot Matrix screen with the regular green back light screen (kinda like your watch.)
With that aside what irritates me the most is the freakin' software provided. You can't drag and drop files on to you unit. You have to use this slow program provided and ONLY this program. Perhaps most of your mp3 selection you cant use because philips created a thing that prevents you from downloading certain audio files that have been encrypted on the unit (something to do with Digital Rights Managament). Of course, this should not be much of Philip's concern if they want to stay in the audio business unless hassled by the government.
Also one would think if you have a 20gig HD on your jukebox with a nice quality screen, that I'm sure they could reserve a couple MB for games and programs. Think about it, perhaps a calculator, calender, about 2 dozen games (ya know, tetris, solitaire, frogger)and perhaps a screen saver - several of them - for viewing pleasure while sitting on that chair of yours. OK, now I'm just pushing it, since a lot of companies leave out just the simple essentials - the simple CHEAP essentials - that could give them better leverages over the competition.
Any who, the unit's own software is uncomfortably slow. It was a cool design to add animated menus and so forth, but if they move 2 frames per second, then what is the use. The fast forward doesn't fast forward really, it merely seems to distort the audio while it is moving 1/2 a second faster. But perhaps I'm picky, but, It would have been nice to separate the Play/Pause button from the Power button. How do you pause without powering off, or at least stop taking off certain needed buttons for aesthetic reasons.
But other then that, this is a fine piece of machinery.
O yeah, why do they always package the rather expensive audio players with cheap crappy headphones?

I have to admit, the DMM software it came with is clumsy and slow, but it never froze on me. I am also using the Sveta Portable software which you can dowload from here: http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?t= 4628

This program allows you to do drag and drop in both directions and organize the player's playlists and songs.

The sound is great, (remember, junk in - junk out, so bad rips will sound bad as in any other player), it's small, light, great looking and sooo easy to use. I am impressed and really surprised about what other people wrote here.

After much thought between getting the Philips or the IPOD, I went with the Philips and have been very impressed. Once the new firmware is upgraded, the player is virtually problem free. The only fault of this product is Philips obviously does not know how to market this product very well. It is unheard of by many and not in many stores. It would have been new to have come with a belt-case like that of the IPOD instead of a bag. I would have also liked to have some type of song rating built into the player. The menu animation affects are unneeded. If I wanted just a player, the IPOD would have been slightly better (I want the wheel), but if you want to record also, this is the way to go. Up to 192 kbps MP3 line in/optical in/ mic recording, can't go wrong. The only major problem I had, was I can not figure out how to quickly fastforward into a song yet, if its possible.

I Have the HD100 and please to not listen to the reviewer who states there is no reset button. If they had taken the time to read the instructions they would know which keys need to be pressed to reset. Also the buttons are not at all hard to press i have no idea what this reviewer is talking about.

its only fault is that it should have had an AM/FM radio.

Hmmm... beautiful player, very Philips... but one big problem.

Misguided digital rights managment means you can only play tracks uploaded through the supplied DMM software. It is appalling. Slow, prone to glitches and clumsy, the software makes uploading files tiresome and time consuming. You wait, you hope and sometimes it works. To add insult to injury, the software stops you freely moving tracks from your player to another computer and fiddles with track orders if you don't have ID tagging; a big problem with audio books which I have yet to resolve. Downloading firmware/PC software updates is not very intuitive and can improve the function or crash the system. One particular download locked the player and corrupted the music files on the PC. Very exciting and an opportunity to try out my extensive vocablary of swearwords.

The player itself is a quality product once the music is downloaded. Occasional lock-ups can be cured with a soft reset and the rest of the time it is a joy. I particularly like the in-line recording straight to mp3 and the sleep timer. Output volume is too low, but after market earphones help this and the sound quality.
Overall perhaps one star is a bit harsh. But the painful truth is that Philips have created a beautiful ipod competitor with more features and real quality of construction ... and then flushed it all down the toilet with misguided DRM and amateurish software. Oh yes, don't bother asking Philips for help either. After my aforementioned software disaster they didn't reply to my detailed questions by email; except to send me later a customer service questionnaire asking about the quality of their reply. Oops.

Bought it about 6 months ago. Conclusion? fabulous device ruined by appalling software and support. Particularly like the line-in recording to MP3. But the PC software is a disgrace and digital rights protection means you can't drag and drop MP3's to your player. So using the Philips software is not optional (there's no other way to load mp3's) and it crashes... often. I tried updating the firmware; and now windows closes down the software every try to upload music. I have emailed Philips customer support (in detail) and despite the promise of a 24 hour response I have had only an automated acknowledgement and no solution 3 days later. Such a pity! Incidentally changing the headphones dramatically enhances sound quality.