Customer Reviews

Philips HDD6330 30 GB MP3 Player

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

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!

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.

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.

I'll start by saying that I've owned this Mp3 player for a little over a year. Because of some of the scarier doom and gloom reviews I have been reluctant to post a review... I didn't want to jinx my good luck, and I also wanted to make sure I had enough time to find all the little quirks and/or issues that could arise... but now I'm ready...

after all this time I still find myself occasionally in awe of what a sleek, and sexy machine this is... the blue glow of the touch screen contrasted with the smooth black surfaces makes it by far the best looking mp3 player on the market. At first I was afraid it might not be durable but it has taken its fare share of bumps, bruises, and even several drops with no adverse effects... The surface does smudge with finger prints, but as many people have pointed out, a quick wipe off with your shirt sleeve can make it disappear. I actually placed a clear plastic adhesive protector on top and have had no smudge issues since.

The sound quality with the provided headphones is average at best, but why anyone would buy a 30 gig mp3 player and then use stock headphones is beyond me. A small investment of a decent pair of headphones upgrades the sound quality from average to excellent.

Transferring music files via WMP has never been an issue for me. I've got maybe 2500-3000 songs. No complaints.

Pictures and playlists were a little bit more complicated. I had to do a little research on the Philips website to figure out some the file name issue, but my problem was actually so simple I felt dumb afterwards. I've since added a couple hundred pictures and a handful of playlists with ease.

The battery life seems to be okay, I usually only use it for a max of maybe 4-5 hours in day so I couldn't really give an accurate estimate on that... Some reviews have expressed a fear that they'll have to one day replace the battery, but I haven't had that issue. But I will agree with several reviewers who have said the battery indicator is suspect. It's usually okay, but I've had a couple of instances where after maybe an hour or two of listening the indicator started to blink like the battery was about to give out, but then it played for several more hours with no problem.

The only other issue I can think of is that my player would occasionally (once or twice a month) freeze up and I'd have to do the manual reset (power off and hit the volume up button) but everything would always load back up with no problem. The 30 seconds without music being the only consequence... but since the last firmware update I haven't had a single freeze.

I'd like to see some more accessories available as well... but aside from that, I've had no issues. Best Buy seems to no long carry the item, so maybe there is something to some of the negative reviews... but all I can attest to is the fact that I've had a great experience with my Philips player.

I have no reservations what so ever in recommending this player, especially at the current price of $160.00. That's a steal.

For my first mp3 player, I wanted to avoid the iPod, because I wanted to avoid using iTunes. I got this player for Christmas 2005.

I liked it because:
(1) it worked with Windows Media Player
(2) the large 30GB capacity
(3) the slick look.
(4) it displays pics
(5) it supports album art
(6) it has a radio and voice recorder
(7) the handsome up/down scrolling method
(8) support for protected .wma files
(9) upload songs from any PC

But here is what I DON'T like about this player:
(1) It installs some questionable services that cause Windows probelms and don't seem required to run: i.e. LimeAlive.exe. If you don't install their software, the device won't recognize the songs you've uploaded.
(2) It is SLOW to respond. If music is playing, and you click << or >>, it might take up to FOUR SECONDS for the device to respond to a button press. By this time, you've already clicked another button, thinking you missed it the first time. This is my biggest complaint about this item and seriously hinders any user-friendliness.
(3) Scrolling through your track list takes FOREVER, especially if there is music currently playing. I had 7GB out of 30GB filled, and you must scroll and scroll and scroll to get through the song list.
(4) My system has locked up several times. The instructions say something like, "don't panic, just do a soft reset by..." etc. If you don't know how to do a soft reset, your player may just play until the battery runs out.
(5) One day, the player just stopped seeing any files on the drive, even though the files still existed. Philips support said there was a corrupt database, and I would have to re-image the hard drive back to factory spec, and then upload all of my songs again. TERRIBLE! There was no work-around for this, and hours were wasted re-compiling and uploading tracks.
(6) Philips says up to 18 hours of battery life. Yeah, Right. Maybe if you have the radio set to an AM station on volume 1 with the display turned off. I'd say more like 8 or 9 hours of real-time use.
(7) The headphones were lousy. I replaced them within days. And still, the volume is so weak, you'll never listen to anything under half-volume. Mine is maxed out pretty much all the time.
(8) I bought a dock from Philips' website so that I could plug in at work or at home. It was $40. And it included: a dock. No cables. Cables were an extra $25 or so.
(9) Ever seen an iPod scroll through hundreds of pictures with lightning-quick speed? You won't see that on this model. Expecially if it's playing music.
(10) Philips never bothered to email me back about these concerns. There has been no firmware update from Christmas 05-June 06.

I would not buy this item again. I would not recommend this player to anyone.

I think many of the negative reviews of this product are exaggerated. Here is what I've experienced with my Philips 30GB player: 1)Customer service is friendly and they go out of their way to help you with your questions. However, some people don't bother reading directions and they end up damaging the player or doing things incorrectly. 2) The battery life will only give you the max if you know how to charge a battery. If you don't do it right then you will not get the max time out of your battery. Again, read the directions! 3) The product has as much, or more "cool appeal" than the IPOD, and why pay $200 for a 6GB Ipod when you can spend $230 and get 30GB? 4)The music transfers a lot faster than I thought and it's so easy to do, however, some people don't read directions and they don't understand how to transfer playlists or individual songs. 5) The headphones are OK to start, and the max volume is good for me although if you like your music very loud then it might be an issue. 6) Occasionally the system freezes, but it's so easy to re-set it. 7) No mp3 player is without its flaws. 8) It's great to have the built-in radio, something the Ipod dosn't offer. 9) It comes with a nice case which saves you from buying one for $30 with the Ipod. 10) You can transfer data from your mp3 player to your computer, unlike the Ipod. 11) Overall, I am so glad I went with this over other players. This one doesn't have video, but all I care about is music, so if you really want video than go for another player.

I haven't had any problems with things disappearing or anything like that. It has frozen probably 3 times in the 4 months I've had it. I set it down for a few hours, let the battery run out, and charged it back up. Everything was still there--no problems (it's possible I have a bad mp3 on there). The only issue I'm having with it isn't the mp3 player--it's me being a Linux-noob (trying to figure out how to mount it so it can copy and paste like an external hard drive). The slide is really easy to use, and I like the fast scroll feature on it. I also really like how I can change the volume while it's on hold. It is a bit quiet at max, but it's loud enough to drown out the noise my brother and sister listen to. At max it's a bit too loud to be good for your ears anyway. I'm pretty happy with it.

For those having problems with syncing STOP USING AUTOMATIC SYNC! Just set it for manual sync. Then it just adds the new songs, and it's very very fast.

EDIT:
Linux: libmtp didn't exist at the time. Does now. Rhythmbox and Banshee can handle it fine.
Quality: On 2 Sept 2006, it turned off and never turned on again. I assume the built-in non-replaceable battery was dead.

I received mine for Christmas last weekend. I was impressed by the units look and feel itself but I did have some issues that others have seen as well, according to my searches. For one, mine came from Best Buy without the FM Tuner functionality. Although purchased at a retail store in Pennsylvania, evidently it must be the european model since it didn't come with the FM Tuner. The box said it had the FM Tuner but it didn't. There should be an icon for it on the main screen but it just wasn't there. After being on the phone with support for 1/2 hr they verified that I had to return it, and they are all sold out around here. Another problem was that I couldn't get much bass without a lot of distortion. The "Hip-Hop" equalizer setting appeared to be the best I could get as far as realistic sound but then I had to listen to it at 7/8 volume, which sounds really loud but it wasn't as the amplifier just isn't very powerful. I also had some slowness moving from screen to screen. Delays long enough for me to hit the arrow another time and then all of the sudden it would catch up and you are two levels farther than you wanted to be. I wouldn't call it a freeze or hang, just a long hesitation. The software that came on the second of two CD's installed something called Lime which I couldn't find much references to. Anyway, that consumed the PC searching for files. I consistently found lime.exe and limelive.exe in the top 10 processes and the hard disk was taking a beating. And lastly, the touchpad - while looking extremely cool - gathered fingerprints REAL quick. I don't care about the look but when dirty the arrows on the touch pad didn't work at all. So I would clean it and then it worked fine fo 5 mins. Then the fingerprints - oils I guess - would again cause it to not recognize presses. And if you tried to keep your fingers super dry and clean (wiping on my pants before pressing arrows) that didn't work either because the touch pad didn't recognize presses. Wetting your finger works but then you re-enter the viscious cycle of cleaning the screen again. I don't know how it works but it almost seemed like it needed moist heat from a finger tip, but with no residue oils left behind. Too hard to do. I ended up ordering a different unit today (Cowon/iAudio X5L).

I got this unit a few months ago and was very pleased at the outset. Though it took me a while to get the songs and my pictures in properly, the ability to have a large part of my music collection with me at all times outweighed the negatives. However, I'm not so pleased anymore. Its happened at least twice now that I power on my unit only to find that all my songs are gone. The unit won't recognize them. Its happened at the most inopportune times, too, right when I'm about to work out and need loud music to take my mind off the pain! The instruction manual was no help, the web site was no help, but more astoundingly, Philips customer service was no help! Like others have said, they seem to have no more knowledge about the products than their customers. This has proven incredibly frustrating. Philips should not be in this market and I, for one, will not buy anything else from them.

Don't know what is wrong with the other users, but I have Yahoo unlimited and this works fine with my subscription music. As other reviews on the net show, it transfers fast, and using WMP as the engine, it tracks what is on the device already so it makes it easy for me to drag tracks to it and load it up.

Then, I create playlists in WMP10 and just transfer the playlists thru it since Yahoo does not have the ability to transfer playlist to this device yet.

I also loaded the plugin which does work for pictures and playlists with WMP10 and the popup comes up just like the FAQ on the Philips site says and alerts you when the transfer is complete. Then, the playlists and pics show up after my device is unhooked and reboots.

If you have trouble after trying to load, you can also reboot and for me, it has brought the stuff I just loaded up.

So far, no problems with my subscription music and I am up to about 8GB's.

The only thing I wish they could add on this device is a selection in the settings to change the fast forward or fast rewind by a larger factor as trying to fast foward thru an hour long Podcast can take some time on the default setting. So a 4x option would be great.

The sound quality is great and the included earbuds are perfect fit, lightweight, and very dynamic. Not super loud, but considering the worries of ear damage from earbuds, this is ok for protection. The device will default to a preset/safe volume every time you turn it on and I think Philips does this for ear protection.

Other reviews said they had issue with the sound dropping out at high bass or high volumes, but what they should realize is this is likely a digital amp in this device, so if you overpower a digital amp, it cuts out intermittently rather than just getting distorted, like the older analog amps.

Update, I now have almost 600 photos on the device and about 9GB of music, both MP3 and WMA-subscription.

I purchased the accessory dock so I could play/display media thru my home theater systems as well as on our dining room TV. The photos are great on the TV, you set the slideshow settings, pick a playlist you want to play in the background, and then start the slide show.

It takes a little while for the music to kick in once the slideshow starts, but once it is going, it is awesome to have my pics and whatever mood music I like.

You have to have the Philips plug-in installed to get both playlists and photo's onto the device, both via the instructions provided thru Windows MPlayer.

Also, album art should be named Album Art.jpg and you can use windows explorer to drag and drop these to the right album folder. From there, the ablum art shows up on the next menu refresh. Notice the space between Album and Art, this is important or else it will not work on the Philips device.

Now it only we could define the settings in WMP10 so that it calls our Album Art names we define, or vice versa, if Philips could look for other variants of album art names, this would make it really simple.