Customer Reviews

Philips HDD070 2 GB Digital Audio Jukebox

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

This device is acually pretty cool (not i-pod cool, but close enough). Someone mentioned that they couldn't skip ahead in a song without skipping to the next one; well it's just a matter of pressing the button halfway, which is easy. After tinkering with the software, I could get it to work just perfect. Do NOT use, or even download the Philips software that comes prepackaged. Just use the musicmatch software on the CD. Please save yourself the agony of that terrible program. I am a GUI software engineer, and I know a bad one. This is the worst I have ever seen. Why they made their own program, and included MusicMatch is anyone's guess.

Pros:
- 2GB size
- Small
- Belt buckle clip that can hold it very easily (I used it for jogging, and very little movement)
- Comfortable earphones
- Built in radio
- MusicMatch compatibility

Cons:
- Transfer is slow. It took about an hour to transfer 1GB (and I was using a new computer with USB 2).
- Philips software was terrible (see above)
- Lots of cords (power, USB, headphones, and a neck strap)
- Slow interface when browsing through music

I got as a gift, and am pretty happy with it, now that I figured out all the tricks. Hope you find this helpful.

I bought this item thinking that being a computer savy person, I wouldn't struggle with some of the issues some people said they had. WRONG. Sometimes it doesn't turn off. Sometimes it doesn't know it's connected to computer. I've been able to load only one song onto it - and it's one I already had. How many times do I want to hear one song. I used the musicmatch software that was "highly recommended." Then the helpline person at PHilips told me he wouldn't advise using it! None of the music would load onto my player, never has and apparently never will. Wasted $10 to find out the software that came with it doesn't actually work with it, and so far I can't find download music software that will work with it. I try to email company - no response until I got nasty. They email me to call helpline again - not good - I only use a prepaid cell phone. Getting more expensive. Planning to buy iPod. Save your money and frustration, buy anything else.

After having this MP3 player for over 4 months, I have become thoroughly frustrated with it. Problems I have had:
-When transferring using MusicMatch (supplied software), it hangs and never recovers, have to restart and try to figure out which songs it transferred.
-Has frozen when disconnecting from computer, stayed on but frozen until the battery went dead, there is no physical switch to turn it off.
-USB 2.0 doesn't work, I just bought a USB 2.0 card to get it to transfer faster (its very slow), but it still transferred at USB 1.1 speeds.
-Support web site isn't very helpful.

Interface is simple but could use some more options. The navigation buttons aren't very intuitive (you press the Down arrow to go to the next song, not the Right arrow).

The only good thing I've found is that it works well as a way to transfer files from one computer to another, although like I said I can't get it to go at USB 2.0 speeds, only at the 1.1 speeds.

In general I've been very disappointed with the unreliability of it and the time it takes to transfer music. It was given to me as a gift but I'm thinking of getting a different MP3 player.

i got one 2 weeks ago & inspite of being moderately technologically challenged, found it to be a snap to get up & running. it also came with a case that holds it securely. i go through (& recycle) a lot of alkaline batteries, so i'm glad they use a rechargable Li battery. the Li batts are also superior in cold weather. i run ultra marathons & the thing can go all day on a charge. the sound is incredible & it costs about 1/2 or 1/3 of an ipod- so what's not to like? keep it real folks & (go out & play!)

I purchased this MP3 Player and was excited when I received it. My excitement almost immediately turned to frustration when it recognized only about 33% of my MP3s (I have about 12 GB). The software that comes with the player will only reasonably recognize your MP3s if they have ID tags (ie Title, Artist, Genre, Track). I found (based on another review) the dbPoweramp to be very useful to place the appropriate tags on all the albums in my library. This takes a tremendous amount of time to appropriately title songs to get recognized, however, once you get past that the player is great. The only drawback, definitely, is the software. Its a cool little player otherwise. I hope this helps.

When I first recieved this player I was frustrated with it. It kept freezing and not playing songs. After a few days I realized that it was the format of the files that was the problem. Musicmatch did a crappy job of putting the songs on it. I switched to Windows Media Player 10 and it worked perfectly. After that I haven't had a problem since.

Main advice, don't use Musicmatch, use Windows Media Player. You might have to install Musicmatch and the Utility program first though, I'm not sure. Just don't use them.

I know I seem repetative with all this, I just want to emphesise. Alright...

I got the 2 GB player a couple of months ago and it has worked wonderfully save one expirience when it hit the turn on screen and totall froze. I tried everything and couldn't get it to unfrezze, so I just had to let the battery drain and try it the next morning, not much of a problem. The thing about this player is you gotta realize that 2GB, even though it seems like a lot, really isn't the biggest size you want if you're heavy into music. However the price is really good. But the players are getting pretty high in storage really quickly. I would advise you to wait a little for a better player. However, if you don't listen to a lot of music, this is fine for you.

Okay, heres the things that I am really bothered about with the product.
1. The bass could be better. Even with the digital bass on there still isn't much a difference than with it off. Right now I got one of those car adapter things to where you can plug it into the Tape deck and listen to it. Cars usually have a good bass, and it works realy nice that way....
2. As you fill up the memory battery life with deteriorate rapidly. I mean it says 16 hours on the labels and all, but that is probably if there are no songs or anything really on its memory. I have 30% free on mine and I will usually just get 5 hours out of a 4 hour charge. I mean just remember to plug it in at night and unplug it in the morning and it should work for a good portion of the day...
3. The Program with the music allows you to put music on the player, but you can't put it from the MP3 player to another cpu. I mean I thought since it was a mass storage device they would take that into consideration. See I will put music on my MP3 player and then delete it from my Hard Drive inorder to save space. And thus far it has saved me 1.1 gigs. But when I do that and I want to upload a song to the CPU from my MP3 to do stuff with I have to the drive, go through the folders, wait for it to load (I have a usb 1.1 port so it takes a while), and then all the names of the file are put into numbers instead of actual names so I'll have to try two or three songs before I find the one I want and the move it to my CPU and change the name.

I mean there are ways all around these problems if you don't mind spending a little extra time and in the case of #1 about 12 dollars. I don't know about other products because I don't try a lot of things out, I can't afford to. But this has worked really well for most perposes. When I need to just sit down and little to music, and walk around without skipping, or get angry and run this thing gets the Job done nicely. So unless you are holding out for something higher storage, I would recommend this product.

I bought this product on Feb. 28 first they gave me a corrupt disc that wouldnt load on my computer, so i had to download the online version of the installation cd which took about 4 drooling hours. IT doesnt have good battery life at all in the morning its full at night its low. And the bad news is i set it down and tried to turn it on and it would not power on. SO now i think this is broken. And i will never spend 170.00 on this piece of crap again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Suggestions:

Get an Ipod

or something else its worth your money

I bought this product off of eby for 130 but it was brand new. This easily stores all of my music and it is very small. i have only used about half of the space so far of about 2 months of owning it.
the software i found was very easy to use but sometimes the software will make the computer freeze. my only complaint is that it has tripled 2 artist so it lists them 3 times but when you open them there is nothing in it. just makes it look unorganized i guess but i dont like it. the sound qaulity is great and it has perfect amount of storage for me wich is going to the gym and like 2 to 10 hr car rides or when i feel like listening to music. im listening to it right now in fact. unfornuatley, i broke the supplied head phones (completly my fualt) and i am dissapointed now becuase i though they were a very good and high out put set of headphones. i had some non-erbud style ones around and they arent even as loud as the stock ones but all in all a great little player

This item had broken 3 times and it is not dependable. It was repaired twice and still broke again, downloading is an issue, the item is just a poorly made product.