Philips HDD6330 30 GB MP3 Player

by Philips

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 3.4 x 2.2 x 0.7 inches ; 5.3 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000BN9UHU
• Item model number: HDD6330/17
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #85,578 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Take a large chunk of your music library with you wherever you go with the nicely compact and incredibly stylish Philips HDD1630 GoGear digital audio player, which has an integrated 30 GB hard drive that can store up to 15,000 MP3 and WMA files (including DRM protected Plays For Sure WMA files from online stores and subscriber services). You can also show off your favorite photos to family and friends on the 2-inch backlit color LCD (220 x 220 pixels, 65 thousand colors, 8 lines of text) with the built-in photo viewer (compatible with JPEG image files). You can choose to see your pictures in thumbnail, full screen or slideshow mode and you can listen to music while browsing through your pictures.

It's easy to find files with Philips' SuperScroll navigation. The double action search keys allow easy speed control when scrolling through large libraries. You can choose to move through your playlist one song at a time or just press and hold down a little harder to scroll more swiftly to your desired track. This GoGear player also features a voice recorder via the mono microphone (files saved in WAV format), an FM tuner (with FM radio recording functionality), 5-band customizable equalizer with numerous presets (including classic, jazz, hip-hop, electronica, lounge, and more), 64 MB buffer memory, and SRS WOW bass enhancement.

It connects to PCs with Windows XP (SP1 and above) via ultra-fast USB 2.0 (not compatible with Mac OS). It's powered by an internal lithium-ion battery that provides up to 17 hours of continuous play when fully charged. It has a 1-hour fast charge time (charging the battery up to a 70 percent capacity), or a 4-hour full charge time.

The PlaysForSure designation ensures compatibility with Windows Media Player 10 and Windows XP. Using the Windows Media player, you can easily manage music on your GoGear digital audio player and auto-synchronize your PC music collection. Also, you'll enjoy the widest online shopping selection by simply looking for the PlaysForSure logo at your choice of online store or subscription service.

What's in the Box
Philips HDD6330 30 GB digital audio player, protective rubber pouch, earphones, AC adapter, USB cable, CD-ROM with software and drivers

Product Description

The Philips HDD6330/17 GoGear 30GB MP3 Player gives you the tools you need to enjoy music and photos on the go. Carry up to 30GB of audio and photo storage -- that's up to 15,000 or 8,400 pictures. Enjoy MP3 or WMA files, or record the latest hits from the radio with the FM tuner and recorder. Use the intuitive Sensory Touchpad SuperScroll to tap, drag or swipe for precise control. Experience music - anytime, anyplace! Touch sensitive keys and SuperScroll navigation Control playback while browsing your music and photo library Slideshow & still picture playback 5-band equalizer with settings for Classic, Jazz, Hip Hop, Spoken word, Rock, Pop, RnB, Dance, Electronica, Lounge Supports PlaysForSure Auto-sync with Windows Media Player 20 FM presets, with FM recording Connections - USB 2.0, 3.5mm (headphones), 5V DC in, Philips dock connector Compatible with Windows XP devices Rechargeable 830 mAh Li-ion battery One-hour fast charge; Full charge in 4 hours Battery life - Up to 17 hours Dimensions(WxDxH) - 2.52 x 4.09 x 0.66 (64 x 104 x 17 mm) Wweight - 1/3 lbs. (150g)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Expires with Battery, December 22, 2005

By 

T. Purvis (Central, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Philips HDD6330 30 GB MP3 Player (Electronics)

The Philips HDD line looks sleek and has some cool features, but all of that is wasted when you find out that the battery was factory installed and must be replaced by the factory at a cost of $143.73. Their customer service is neither apologetic or concerned about the cost or retaining a customer.

My advise is to avoid the Philips HDD line like the plague!

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Stay Away, FAR AWAY!, November 10, 2006

By 

Brian Koch "Aspiring Photographer" (MI United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Philips HDD6330 30 GB MP3 Player (Electronics)

I bought 2 of these (for my wife and I) because they were $100 off at a local store. At first when I was only putting 10-20 albums on them they seemed to work just fine. Then I started ripping all of my albums and trying to add them as well as some pictures that I was trying to put on, and everything broke down.

Where to begin...I spend days trying to fix these things, reading about them, trying to auto sync, manual sync, reset, anything I found posted by anyone to get them working properly, with no success. Half of the time when I plugged it into the PC it thought that it was a brand new device and tried to re-sync everything from scratch, but then ran out of room since it was already all on there. Syncing took hours (20GB of songs) and then when it was done most of the time none of the songs were accessible on the device. And both of them had the same problem. I don't know if it is windows media player, this device, a combination, but after the first week neither one worked well again.

The only good thing about these is that the store let us return them for a full refund after our month of agony. So now we own an 80 GB and 30 GB iPod and have not had any of the problems we did with the Philips devices. As a side note, both my wife and I are computer programmers, so it is not like we are technologically impaired. I spend days trying to debug these things, and am usually very good at finding ways around bugs, but these were riddled with them. I don't know if every windows based mp3 player has similar problems or if it is just this one, but I do know that our iPods work much much better.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The problem's not with the player, February 16, 2007

By 

J. M Heumann (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Philips HDD6330 30 GB MP3 Player (Electronics)

I wish I'd given as much thought to purchasing this mp3 player as I give to professional system evaluations. But the experience has been instructive, since it reflects what often happens with new, complex toys.

I chose the Philips player because (1) it's not an iPod, (2) it's made for use with Windows, and (3) it has lots of storage. Why no iPod? Don't like proprietary systems (as if Windows wasn't proprietary). Why Windows? All my stuff is Windows. Why lots of storage? I have a goodly CD library.

Over the last three months, my thinking has sorted out. First, the machine is handsome and well-made. The only drawback, and it's a serious one, is that eventually I will need to replace the battery. The cost has been mentioned elsewhere. But there's a bigger problem: when I get ready to replace the battery, will Philips be providing support? I worry about this when I see that the store where I bought the toy three months ago has not stocked any more since Christmas.

(Note 1: The earphones come with three sets of foam plugs, for three different sizes of ear canal. All well and good. But what happens if you lose a plug? Can you get a replacement? Philips sells a package of accessories for $40[!] which might have extras in it. But my local vendor does not stock it.)

(Note 2: Another thing in the accessories pak is a carrying case. What you get with the toy out-of-the-box is a nice, tight-fitting sleeve that has no facility for attaching it to anything. After much searching, at a crafts store I found a large, simple pin used by knitters. For $1.29 I made the sleeve into a pin-on pocket that goes great on my sweatshirt.)

(Note 3: The toy uses a standard 30-pin IO port at the bottom and a standard small stereo plug at the top. The advantages of standardization: for $20 I interfaced the toy to my old Kenwood stereo amp through the phono input [which, in case you forget, has a preamp built in]. The disadvantage, so to speak: there's no guarantee that the Philips machine will fit into docking stations designed for the iPod, which also has the standard 30-pin port. The Philips machine's footprint may well be too large. So test first.)

Second, I've spent an ungodly amount of time fighting the toy's integration with Windows Media Player. The toy comes with WMP 10 on CD. But it took a call to Customer Support to learn that that version is customized with plug-ins specific to the Philips machine. That means you can't just use the copy of WMP that came with Windows, and you can't respond to Microsoft's nags to upgrade to WMP 11. Philips has accommodated the WMP 11 beta, but the company provides no information about when WMP 11 (and necessary firmware upgrade) for the HDD6330 will be available. Again, will it ever? (Update: A different Philips Customer Support person denies that the WMP provided with the device has custom plug-ins. I leave it to you, the reader, to decide the implications of that.)

Third, Philips' business partners--Microsoft, All Music Guide, and the mp3 download vendors--do not have their ducks in a row. Microsoft doesn't provide adequate documentation for the WMP database and the problems it can create for Microsoft's filenaming system. You can specify a standard filename for your files, then find that half the files never get registered in the database because the filenames are either too long or use unsupported foreign characters.

As for AMG, that company and sometimes Microsoft too are credited as the source for the album information you download. But transcribing that information has been outsourced to many smaller companies, each of which has its own standards (if any). There are lots of errors, and AMG refuses to take responsibility for their subcontractors' errors.

I can't say much about the download vendors, since I don't buy from them. But I do know that different PC manufacturers have deals with different vendors, and you can't change that in WMP.

In sum, an interesting toy like the Philips HDD6330 does grow on you, but if you're an adult who cares about music, be prepared to spend a lot of time doing what Philips, Microsoft, and others should have done for you.