Customer Reviews

Philips SA61 4 GB Flash Video MP3 Player with 3.5-Inch Color Screen (Black)

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

 

 

Wonderful design! Very easy to use, and has a reset button, which I used within a few weeks of purchase to reset it because it froze. The other mp3 players I've owned didn't have this feature, and once they froze, I had to return them. My main gripe with this product is that the shuffle function SUCKS. It repeats many many songs during a shuffle and leaves others out of the mix entirely. It hasn't been very friendly to my wma files, either. Some will play, some won't. It has a long battery life. It also fits in the Ipod nano "socks" which you need to protect the silver mirror-like backing on the player, or it will scratch.

I recently purchased this player from an online retailer and have owned it for over three months, and I can safely say that I know it backwards and forwards. Overall, it's a pretty great player, but there's just some things about it that can really drive you up a wall. Before we list the pros and cons of the SA6145/97, here some specs straight from me:

1. 3.5" screen.
2. 2 external speakers.
3. Plays WMV9 (WMV) videos.
4. Plays MP3 and WMA music via Windows Media Player 11 (and 10, though functionality is limited).
5. FM tuner.
6. BlueTooth available, but not on this model.

Now on to the +s and -s of this player.
PROS:
1. The 3.5" screen is big and bright.
2. The speakers, although small, can go LOUD. And yes, they are good for playing music, but are practically made for playing movies for a large party.
3. The radio has wonderful reception, and even scans for the best received stations in your area and saves up to 20 in it's preset.

NEUTRALS:
1.BlueTooth is available, but only on specified models (SA6145BT/97). This model can't have BlueTooth put in, so it's pretty much a negative as all models can't have it.

CONS:
1. Converting is a tedious process. It takes FOREVER for videos to convert, and isn't much faster when transferring them to your player.
2. You cannot even drag and drop your WMV files to your player via your computer. It must be done by the converter.
3. You cannot unplug the play when it is converting. If you do, the player will continue to convert, but won't transfer the file to player if you plug it back in. Not good if you have waited 3 hours for a 2 hour movie to convert.
4. Rewinding and forwarding videos are a HUGE pain. It continues for a second then stops for two; over and over and OVER.
5. Music files must be transferred via Windows Media Player. If not, no additional info will be included in the player's menu.
6. And bigger, EVERY file in your library is automatically transferred to your player as soon as it is plugged in. Luckily, I was able to disable this "feature".
7. You need Windows XP to access all features on Windows Media Player. If you use Windows 2000, you are forced to use Windows Media Player 10, which, according to the manual, has limited functionality.
8. BIGGEST ONE OF ALL: The video quality is far from perfect. This player, for some reason, loves bright rather than dark. Let me explain: when watching a live-action episode/film to this player, the darks/low-tones are muddy and have a somewhat green appearance, but the lights are displayed perfectly. Plus, in animation videos, the outer lines of a moving object appear muddy. Is this because of poor converting or low pixel count? I'm guessing poor conversion, as the pictures I've added are STUNNING. The again, they are all bright...

Although there are more cons than pros and neutrals combined, I have been quite hard on this player. It's okay, but all these problems have forced me to look at the Cowon Q5W and an Archos 7, even an iPod Touch and iPod Classic.

I purchased this philips SA61 4GB MP3 player a month ago and at first i had a bit problem but i got replaced and now it works well. It's nice, stylish and the picture and sound quality is amazing. All the problem i had is with the earphone so i bought another phillips earphone, coz i felt the bass was less heard in the previous purchased one. All in all it's good and has proved worth buying to me.

I recently received the SA6145, and I absolutely love it. I used WMP to transfer my music library - simple drag and drop. I copied my pictures from my folder and dropped them in as well, too. I haven't added any video, but the sample looks great - especially for something that fits in your coat pocket. I am using it right now and tried out the Equalizer...it totally made a difference. Play a song and change it in the middle of a song...

My pictures look awesome, and it is really fun to take out the GoGear and share pictures with people when I'm out and about.

I had some problems with songs not playing, but that had nothing to do with the player, but rather because the songs are copyright protected. There are ways around this I guess on the internet.

All in all, I am very pleased with this item.

The concept is a good one, but the execution is not quite up to par.
The Phillips SA61 portable media player is one of those "jack of all trades, master of none" players.

It's music function is okay, if lacking.
It's video function is okay, if lacking.
It's picture viewer is okay, if lacking.
It's radio function is okay, if lacking.
I never made use of the voice recording program.

In fact, it's biggest issues are the features it lacks.

For example, with video play, your movies have to be converted over with the Phillips Media Converter, or 3/4 of the time it won't play. There are also no skip functions for in movie viewing, just fast forward and rewind, so if you're watching a long movie and want to move ahead a chapter or two, you can move at 4x or 8x fast forward.

The music function is alright, but lacks real controls as well. For example, playing a song is fine, but there is no stop button. You can only pause or play, and if you're not on the music menu function, you can't stop a song at all or skip ahead. You have to go back to the music menu, find the album, find the song, and then pause it or skip to the next song.

The picture viewer is just that, a picture viewer. You can turn the image sideways, which is nice if you need to do so, but there is no zoom, no other options. Just next and turning your image to the side on the screen.

The radio function works okay, there's not much to it but I guess there doesn't have to be. You can scan up and down the radio dial and save presets.

As for the voice recording option, I didn't make use of it. Your mileage may vary on that one.

Finally, the settings. It's the most bareboned settings menu I've seen in any kind of electronic interface of it's type. I mean, there are a list of options, but there's very little that you can really change. You can change the "screensaver" time, you can change your video and music playing settings, but even those are very limited. In fact, I would describe the whole setup as limited.

It's about as basic as it gets. iPod, Zune, even the first edition PSPs, these media players are well ahead of the Philips GoGear. If you're looking for absolute bare bone essentials, with just enough to barely get the job done, then I guess you could get this player, although I'm certain you can find something more feature equipped and just better able to handle slightly more complex functions other than "Play/Pause/Next".

Overall, 3 out of 5 stars, and I'm being a bit generous with the 3.

This is a great product but needs more memory, I loaded about 300 songs and didn't have enough space to download a movie. "Phillips" it shouldn't take much to add a port for a memory stick or other type of memory card. Overall the software is easy to manage and the system is friendly user. Just remember you can have both music and movies, not enough memory. So you will have to do one or the other.

I received this player as a Christmas gift in 2007. I have used it almost everyday since then and this player is still working. The volume control is starting to need a bit more than one push but considering most electronic equipment fails after a year or so I don't consider this a big problem at the moment. I have bought a couple more as gifts and they too are still running. I had to return one twice as the one i got off e-bay didn't work and i had to send it back to Philips. When the replacement was returned the screen was scratched, I returned that one and it was also replaced. It is working fine according to the person I gave it to. The customer service was easy to work with. The Mp3 player is very user friendly. The only con I can think of is that I listen to e-books and there is no bookmarking on this player. Maybe the newer ones have that now. I definitely recommend this player.

For $60-70, this is a good player. Nice, large screen. The video conversion software is clunky, but works. The finish is very slick, so a case would help tremendously with not dropping this player and protecting the nice screen, but none is currently available. I-nique used to make one, but doesn't offer it anymore. Tried a different case for GoGear SA3300, but it's just too small. You will need USB adapters if you want to charge this on a wall socket or car charger.

This is just an mp3 player. It does not work with ANY video I try to put on it, and i've tried all types of video lengths and formats like wma. mp3. mp4. avi. and more. It does however have a pretty good battery life, much longer than what the specs say on the packaging. Lastly, like most philips players, the sound quality is very good.

Save your money and get a better one that actually works for videos.

have had couple months and it freaked out. I wrote philips told me to reset will not even do that. Always liked philips till this point know I will get ride of all philips crap I have started with this up to dvd system and tv's. will never recomened philips agian!