Customer Reviews

Philips SA101 Rush 32MB MP3 Player

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I bought this for my self thinking that I was gonna have an amazing mp3 player since it was made by philips which is amazing in technology. I lean to them as my favorite company any ways to the mp3 player. I got the mp3 player and i put a song on it and decided to listen to it seeing how clear the sound was it was kind of clear but not totally. So i thought ok not bad but then i decided to take a run with it and i could barely hear anything except for the on coming traffic it wasnt loud enough and sometimes it would skip not very much but some times. I could only store about 8 songs cause most of my songs were 5 mega bytes so i was mad about that.

This mp3 player has good music quality, organization, and a nice heavy duty case. It suits my needs perfectly, not something that you will put all your music on, just your favorite songs. The bookmark function also is quite nice, especially since i like some parts of songs better then others. My ONLY complaint about this mp3 player is the lack of bass, and no bass boost. Overal this is an excellent product and I highly recommend it like all other philips products.

So, most of the people complain about it not being compatible with Win2000? Rest assures that this no longer is valid! I upgraded to Real Jukebox 2 since the one supplied with the CD didn't work under Win ME and Win2000. Although strongly advised not to upgrade, I went ahead and upgraded to JukeBox2. I downloaded a couple of songs onto the player and test listened to them, and it worked! Win2000 doesn't recognize the USB device (the Rush), but if you supply the CD that came with the Philips Rush it will take the driver found on the CD. The Philips rush is a pretty neat MP3 player, small enough to put it into your coat pocket (the advantage over MP3CDPlayers) and has enough storage for 1 hour of near CD quality music (enough for the trip to work and back home). However it does support the RealAudio formats, hence possessing longer playback times when listening to news and similar. I agree that the power consumption of the Rush is horrible! If you decide you want this device, then BUY RECHARGABLES (best Li-Ion). Those should keep the power expenses at their minimum (my previous RIO300 had a similar problem). NOTE: The Rush doesn't recharge the batteries although an adapter is included in the package! You will have to use external recharging devices! The supplied carrying bag looks nice, but shouldn't be used (it easily opens when jumping around). Otherwise I am happy with the RUSH, it's running smoothly and happily under Windows2000, Windows ME and Windows98 (I tested it under all three operating environments).

This player looks more impressive on the box than in my hands. It's bigger than I had thought, and feels kind of cheap.

The LCD is not backlit, the maximum volume level is pitifully low, the interface is confusing (explain what "Yes" and "No" buttons mean), and the software that ships with it (the freely-downloadable version of Real Jukebox) is minimal.

NOT compatible with Windows NT or 2000.

NOT compatible with standard SmartMedia File Systems (so you can't swap cards with someone or download using diskette or pcmcia adapter for SmartMedia).

NOT compatible with newest version of RealAudio and the old one provided has some big bugs. Like dropping laboriously typed titles for home-made mixes. Like not being able to print play lists. Like hanging on attempts to delete songs from Rush.

NOT compatible with internal rechargeable batteries - and it chews its 2 AAA up in 1.5 hours or less!

NOT compatible with jogging since the "case" is a keyring and it bruises your body parts if you let it bounce in a lower pocket - or flies out of a shirt pocket - it needs a good sports case.

NOT compatible with usefulness. No ability to restart from beginning. No retainer on USB data port cap. Can't read mode status due to 1 mm characters. Must always use "hold" slider as buttons are sensitive and you burn out your AAA even faster while it plays on the shelf.

(Philips user support site does NOT reply to requests for help or info such as "when can we expect windows 2000 drivers?". This review is of the new 64MB Rush.)

I was really happy with my Philips Rush MP3 player. It came with a lot of cool accessories (car adapter, belt clip, power adapter) and was small enough to fit in my pocket during trips to the gym. It also came with great software (Real Jukebox 7). However, after a couple days of use, the Previous and Next buttons on the Philips Rush did not want to work all the time. I had to press the buttons very hard to move to the next or previous song. After about a week, my Philips Rush decided it didn't want to turn on at all! I even tried different powersources, but to no avail, it stayed off. I took it back to the store for a full refund and am now on the hunt for a new MP3 player.

Philips SA101 64Mb is an attractive and lightweight MP3 player. It comes with a neat carrying case which can be clipped over your trouser belt. A triumpth of style over substance. Never buy this; here are the reasons. 1) Has download problems even with win 95. 2) Is not future proofed ie cannot run in windows 2000 3) The smartmedia card is propriety formatted. i.e cannot be used in another none philips device or swapped between MP3 players unlike other players. 4) Download rate is abysmally low. 5) High battery consumption .Lasts no longer than 4 hours. Uses battery energy even when downloading. Does not have built in battery charger. Current consumption is 300ma - very high for a Solid state portable device. 6) The sound level is not high enough. 7) No protection for the glass fronted LCD display- could easily be smashed. 8) Costly. Expensive compared to other MP3 players. Should at least have built-in recharge circuitry for this money. 9) Sound quality only average.Not compatable with Windows media player 10) Philips do not respond to tech support enquiries.Your on tour own if you have problems.

Summary

The Philips SA 101 is a poorly engineered MP3 Player with software and hardware compatibity issues. The sound quality is only average.

Guess what, I bought a Phillips Rush 64MB MP3 player, double the price of the above one and absolutely no use at all!!!! I am in situation where I can't use it or throw it.

That's really a cute little piece which attracted me, but I can't transfer files from my hard disk to the device. Called up the customer service, they never ever got such an error...!!! Now what???

And more over it doesn't work in Windows NT or 2000, only with 98. So give a second thought on this item.

RealONE player is the new version from Real, replacing older versions of Real-Jukebox and Real-Player. It is much, much better than the older versions. However if you install it using the method documented, your Rush player will not work (you may or may not be warned, depending if you are upgrading from Real Jukebox 1 (warning given - not supported), or from Real Jukebox-plus 2 (no warning).

The solution is to copy the previously working file pdphilip.dll from C:\Program Files\Real\RealJukebox\plugins to C:\Program Files\Real\RealPlayer\plugins. Then open RealONE, and click Tools -> Preferences -> Devices -> Philips Rush (Disabled) -> Enable Device?

Note that:
a. above file locations are for Windows 2000 using default locations - other OS may differ slightly.
b. If you have not upgraded yet, save a copy of pdphilip.dll from C:\Program Files\Real\RealJukebox\plugins before upgrading - the upgrade may delete it!
c. If you have upgraded, and pdphilip.dll was deleted, re-install RealJukebox1 from your Rush CD, then remember to install the "Windows 98" Plug-in patch (as others above point out, it is needed for all OS if you use USB!), make a copy of pdphilip.dll, then install RealONE, copy pdphilip.dll as above ....

You may get away with just installing the "Windows 98" Plug-in patch - I did above before thinking of trying that?

I actually have a RUSH SA126 but expect the same applies to SA101 SA107 SA125 and SA126 - they appear to only differ in memory card size, or type of mains adaptor &/or documentation delivered with them in the box.

Does anyone know why Philips don't put a definitive statement on their site (I've emailed them several times, but never got other than an auto acknowledge email back), and work with Real to get the RUSH driver indexed from the Real "Devices" support pages.

The Philips RUSH rates:
5 stars for hardware,
5 stars for performance,
4 stars for Software BUT
ZERO for software installation instructions and
ZERO for manufacturers software support
Overall 5 stars only for those who are willing to work it out for themselves.

I bought a Philips RUSH SA107, and I was worried because of the reviews on how terrible the software was. Here's my experience.
* Software does not work under Windows 2000?: It works perfectly. After installing Real Jukebox 1, just remember to install the patch for Windows 98 (also comes with the CD, works with Windows 2000 as well). Then Real Jukebox 1 can recognize RUSH. I did it on both Windows 2000 Server and Professional. The only reason I upgrade to Real Jukebox 2 (even though they recommend against it) is that it allows me to modify song details (title, artist ...)
* Can load 96kbps songs and lower only?: It's true that you can't encode MP3 more than 96kbps with Real Jukebox, unless you get their free add-in. However, even though I don't have that add-in (Real update server ...[stinks]!!), I can load 128kbps songs and higher to RUSH smoothly. The solution: encode your songs with other softwares (plenty of them) and use Real to load them to RUSH. With 128kbs, the sound is perfectly clear to my experience.
So, the software problems can be solved if you try.