Customer Reviews

Samsung YH-925GS 20 GB Digital Audio Player

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Hardware look and feel is very polished, cooler than ipod, nice form factor and audio recording features not found on ipod. But software is quirky. Out of the box had to do a firmware upgrade over the net, and I mistakenly unplugged USB at the wrong time and hosed the drive and had to start over again, though had a similar experience with ipod too. One major annoyance is though it looks like a drive to Windows when you plug it in to the USB port, if you drag and drop MP3 folders over to it, they are stored but will not be recognized by the player, and wont play. Only files transferred with the sync from WMP or Napster will play. This is very annoying if you already have a large collection of MP3 folders and arent too interested in purchasing online right away. Another annoyance is it will only sync to one PC, if you sync it on a different PC, it may delete all the files!! This kind of fascist copy protection scheme is going too far, imho. Another major annoyance is the Napster signup, the default is to bill you 9.95 a month! It wasnt clear to me I had signed up for automatic billing till I got the bill. Sneaky! Napster has an 'all-you-can-eat' option for downloading given a fixed monthly subscription, but the fine print says if you ever stop subscribing then all the files you downloaded become unplayable!! What an amazing 'innovation' that is!! Is this progress? I think not. As far as the WMP interface, it works pretty good, though if I edit track genre info on WMP doesnt get updated to device, have to format hard drive and reload all songs apparently, to update new WMP genre changes. Overall the quirkiness is marginally acceptable, a little more than what I would expect for the third generation or so of this technology, e.g. it still reminds me of the early generation PDA quirks.

Alright, it's the 21st century now. It's getting to the point where portable CD players are nice...but are so 20th century. I decided I needed a less-bulky and nicer portable audio device. Searching around Best Buy, I came across this. Let me tell you, the iPod is probably the most overrated portable electronics device ever.

Okay, first off by reading the 1-star or 2-star amazon.com reviews, many of them are either unfair or haven't given it a chance/didn't read directions.

Okay, I've heard A LOT about Napster software. For starters, which is a dissappointment, If you don't have Windows XP, go back to the search engine, because it's only compatable with XP. Macs don't count. Maybe, not guarrantee this, but maybe it will work on Windows ME. Not 100% sure, but all stores have a money-back guarantee...right? Also, it's not JUST compatable with Napster. Just because it says Napster on the box and player, does that mean ONLY Napster? No. It's also compatable with Windows Media Player 10, and I've also heard some people got it to work well with RealPlayer. Napster isn't the ONLY software compatable with this player.

For features, it has way more features than the standard, or even photo iPod. First off, yes, it has a built-in digital camera. The pictures aren't crystal clear, but I have a digital camera to do this for me. The pictures are fair to good, but don't get this just for the camera.

What you should get this for is for the wondeful MP3 player/organizer, radio, and MP3 recorder (both line-out and microphone). First off, the menus and organizing is unbelieveable. The menu has a few options, then those options have options, and so on. Example, if you click Music, you have artist, album, genre, song. Then, one you get into the organizer, if you click on a song, it will show up in "Now Playing". It would be better if it had a button to go back to the main menu, but it's only a minor problem. The FM tuner was better than expected and actually better than most portable radios out there. The microphone was also a great feature, and recorded voice very clearly. There is also a line-out to hook up the player to a set of speakers. If you need a car adapter, a lot of electronics stores sell cassette adapters for only about $10. The line-out also lets you record to another audio device. (Example: You can connect the TV to the MP3 player and the player will record the TV.)

The MP3 player holds around 5,000 songs on the MP3 format at around 192 kb/s. Personally, I use 128, so I have about a hundred extra. It depends on how much quality you want out of your tunes. If you want so-so sounding, you'll get more than 5,000, and if you want high quality, it will likely be less. And, it also supports WMA files, so then you'll have far more than 5,000 songs.

The sound quality is excellent. The player features presets for the equalizer, similar to the one in WMP, without the distortation. It also features a 3D equalizer, which many companys (Samsung, Panasonic, RCA) have been doing with their audio products as well. The MP3 player will power most, and about all headphones.

The LCD is in fact proven to be colored, and it is very sharp. It is 1.8 inches, which is equivalent or bigger to the size of an iPod screen. Some players like the Rio Karma have gigantic screens; though, the look is very unappealing. The player also allows you to view your own photos, or the album art. Or, you can look at the headphones, which to me gets hilarious after a few looks.

The biggest dissappointment is battery life. Ten ohurs may seem long, but in reality, not really. Most MP3 players have around 15-20 hours of battery. Though, this isn't much of a gripe for the non-travelers.

Also, the USB 2.0 was nice of Samsung; giving us the best cable link from the MP3 player to the computer.

Overall, unless you don't have Windows XP, and aren't a serious traveler, the YH925GS kicks the iPod in the trash. Well, you would throw away an iPod, right?

I ended up with my Samsung as a replacement for my Rio Karma through a major retailer's service plan. It was either the YH-925 or the ipod, and even though the Samsung was brand new and basically unreviewed, I still preferred it to an ipod for a variety of reasons, which really don't matter for this review. What I can say, though, is that I liked my Rio a lot except for the fact that I had to occasionally beat it against a desk to "un-stick" its famously horrible hard drive; not something you want to do to a small, somewhat advanced piece of technology.

I was getting nervous about my new Samsung for two reasons. First, there are basically no professional reviews that I could find anywhere. And second, the few amateur reviews I did find (i.e., Amazon), basically blasted the YH-925 for its poor software. Let me say that the software isn't near as bad as the two reviews here make it out to be. The only thing I don't like about it, and the main reason why I docked a star from the rating, is the software tie-in with Napster. I don't need Napster, don't want to subscribe to Napster, and I really don't care to have such a far-reaching program just to transfer music to my player. That said, the ability to format ID3 tags and organize your music library is as good as any other software I've used. The other reason why I couldn't give it five stars is the long boot-up time and the lack of a "stop" button, which isn't a big deal, but not having a stop button definitely throws one for a loop at first.

I use my MP3 player for listening to music and not much else, so I haven't played around with the picture display or recording capability of the YH-925 yet, although I will soon. As far as sound quality goes, I'd have to say that this Samsung sounds quite a bit better than my Karma, and that had a 5-band customizable EQ (my earphones are Etymotic ER-6's). There are plenty of pre-set options in the Samsung, and each has a limited number of adjustments.

Overall, I'm pleased so far with the YH-925. It looks good, has a bunch of options and features, and most importantly sounds terrific. If you're looking for a 20gb player you can't go wrong here.

******Response to C. Waters*******

Now I'm no apologist for the YH-925, but I think in your frustration you overlooked something with the Napster software. After you create a username and password to sign-up, they give you the OPTION to enter credit card info and start paying, but you do not have to and can use Napster Lite. This still allows you to edit ID3 tags, import your library, and rip cd's to either WMA or MP3 (MP3 with a plug-in download). So true, you do have to sign-up, but all it consists of is creating a user/pass and opting out of all their promo email. Nothing more.

As far as the pix transfer, there is a list in the box of compatible cameras, so I don't think you can just plug in any old device and transfer data. I'll admit this limitation wasn't clear until you open the box and see the list.

I've read all the reviews about how inconvenient it is to load music to this player using WMP and Napster. You don't have to go this route though.

This player will function as a drag and drop if you do two simple things.

1: Change the windows settings to show hidden files. Then click on the device and open the music folder in the device. You'll see all the songs you have loaded in there. From there just drag and drop all your new songs right in the folder.

2: After this is done use the utility suite that came with the player to 'rebuild your library'. In doing so, the software will have your device recognize all the music you just dragged and dropped into the player. It's a little easier than syncing.

As for the 4 stars rather than 5, well....as far as I can tell the napster program is the only way to create playlists for the player. This coupled with the lack of accessories and all the searchability issues when you begin to compile quite a bit of music on the player are far from ideal. However, I've owned one since about 3 weeks after it was released and I am very satisfied with it. Never had any problems at all.

Hopefully when they release a general firmware update to it they take some of these issues into consideration.

Also, apparently (though I've never checked it out myself) the Samsung Music Studio program works wonders with this player as well. If anyone has access to this software, I'd love to hear your take on it.

Bought the player about a month ago, and am satisfied so far.

Some of my main points are:

- Works fine with WMP10. You DO NOT have to use Napster to use this player, although the documentation that comes with it makes it appear that you do. I have had no issues, other than playlists, using media player to manage my music.

- Only music db issue are tags with my music. It will display track name, artist and album fine, but for some reason, genre is a mess. No matter what I try, I can't get a clean genre list.

- Sounds is fantastic, buttons well laid out, and have a clean slick look to it.

- Searching through your music is easy, and shuffle seems fine so far. My only complaint there is that is will not remember what has already been played if you shut the player off and come back later, but that is a fairly minor complaint.

- It is sturdy. Have already dropped it six feet onto concrete, and other than a nasty ding on a corner, it functions perfectly.

- Interfaces flawlessly with my Nikon D70, but you can only download one picture at a time - which sucks if I need to empty my 1gig card, but nobody else does it better from what i have read.

- Battery life is definitely not the advertised 10 hours. I would guess more like 6.

My bottom line: Needing Windows XP, the lack of drag and drop and the mess with id tags are the reasons I give it a 4 instead of 5. But, for $100 less than a comparable mp3 player, I can live with that.

I am a bit baffles by some of the negative reviews (Especially the one that said the digital camera in the device sucked. It doesn't have one!). The only negative that I can say about this device is that it is slow to boot up when you turn it on, and slow to shut down. The display is vibrant, intensely colorful, and clear. Volume is easy to adjust and the menu system couldn't be much simpler. I had figured out all the operations and menu system 5 minutes after it came out of the box (without using the manual). Sound quality is sharp and clear, and volume leels are excellent. Transferring songs and photos is a breeze. The unit is sleek and feels good in the hand. The satin aluminum case surrounds a solidly-built device. Overall, I am very pleased with the player.

I recently purchase one of these Samsung digital audio players for use on frequent airplane trips. It has both strong and weak points, the greatest strength being excellent sound, the weakest being the questionable relationship with Napster. I would concur the those reviewers which made the following observations:

- USB adapter connexion to the cord is a bit tricky, make certain the cord end has been pushed in firmly.

- Napster software is quite annoying, and there is no need if you have WMP 10, just synchronize "all music" and you are done.

- Napster software requires a continuous internet connexion while in use, which I view as a distasteful personal intrusion.

- Playlists are quite a disappointment given none of the WMP playlists may be transferred, thereby leaving only the "mobile playlist" as the sole list.

- The sound is superb when used in conjunction with reasonable headphones (I happen to be fortunate enough to have Bose ANR units)

Having researched any number of digital audio players, I would say the Samsung YH-925GS is an excellent one and does not require a PhD to use (once you figure out to avoid Napster and go directly to Windows Media Player). It DOES have its bothersome quirks, but don't they all.

I run Fujitsu notebook running XP Pro and Cannon S50 Camera with my new samsung yh-925gs. I installed just the Driver from the site and use media player 10 to sync audio. Photos I just drop in the upload box in the HD. No problems here. Driver and WM10 thats all I need. No samsung software needed!

Cheers.

Mookie

Like many others, when my Rio Karma died and replacements were not available, I ended up shopping around and getting this player. Overall, I am very pleased with the device. It looks great, is easy to use overall, sounds great, and the pictures add to the cool factor. My only two complaints about the device itself would be that you cannot delete tracks directly from the player (you have to use software through your PC) and that scrolling through music only displays title information (not artist/album, like on the Karma). Neither of those are deal killers, but I do miss the features.

My main gripes are with the software support and documentation. The documentation is weak to start with, and not translated well into English. Some of it is indecipherable. Read it through once to get necessary tidbits, then put it aside and play with the device to figure the rest out. As for the software support, I don't like the fact that they bundled it with Napster Lite rather than either something proprietary (that worked better) or better integration with Windows Media Player 10 (WMP10). It is fairly well supported through WMP10, but it's not comprehensive. For example, it synchronizes the software well but doesn't copy or synchronize playlists -- you'll need the Napster software for that (argh!).

I did have one little problem. When I first loaded my library to the device (about 1200 songs), many of them (about 25%?) didn't load with the right genre. That is, the genre in the ID3 tag might be "Reggae" but the device would display it as "(16)." Some would load fine, others wouldn't. This was a problem with both Napster and WMP10, so I don't think it was the player directly. I tried re-entering the genre through WMP10, but it still didn't work. When I used Moosic Organizer to re-write the tags, it worked! I simply re-synced the player with WMP10 after re-entering the tag info and they all loaded just fine.

The photo album is cute, but not terribly useful. The display is large, by mobile device standards, but still small compared to your monitor, or paper pictures. Still, it's fun to have some pictures on the device to share and the display is very good, despite the size.

The device works great as an external hard drive to your PC. You need a special cable to connect the device to a PC (it's not a normal USB cable on the device end), but it functions very well and allows you to use that storage for something other than pictures and music.

Finally, the USB host feature should be very handy for people who have compatible cameras. I haven't gotten my favorite digital camera (a Sony) to work yet, but others seem just fine. I'm sure more support with come down the road.

Overall, a great little device with some nice features. Use WMP10 instead of Napster and you'll be happier. I just hope it holds up better than my Rio Karma did!

I got my YH-925 as a replacement for a YH-920 that stopped recognizing the hard drive. I haven't loaded all of my music back onto it, but so far so good. The sound is everything that I expected and playback is working well. I haven't tried loading pictures yet.

Pros

Not an iPod (if that matters to you)

Low Price for color and 20 Gig

Sound is good

Battery life is good

Looks nice

Cons

Not an iPod (if that matters to you)

Cannot produce playlists from the device

Importing playlists isn't easy

Screen turns off after about 30 seconds, can't see it again unless you press a button

Slow loading songs when hard drive is getting full

Cannot delete songs from the device (need computer access to do that)

Device doesn't recognize all MP3 tags (some tracks have weird genres and artist names)

Shuffle can result in the same song played twice within a few tracks

Scrolling seems to be slower than on the YH-920

Though there are more cons on that list than pros it is a good player that I would recommend. I was spoiled by the Rio Karma which was great except for the annoying issue of the hard drive dying, so there are a lot of good things about the device that I just take for granted.

Some complaints that I have read about the device seem to be user errors. For example, you do NOT need to use Napster to load music onto the player, Windows Media Player 10 works perfectly though you can't seem to create playlists from it, still working on that. Also you CAN listen to an album in the correct song order. On the 920 you had to access the album through the artist section in order to do that, but the 925 seems to play the songs in correct order whether accessed through the artist or directly from the album. The files for my songs are named with the song number at the beginning so that may be helping the songs play in the right order. I don't know what would happen if the files are named with just the song names.

Altogether it feels like a good step forward by Samsung at a reasonable price.