Customer Reviews

Samsung YP-910GS USB 2.0 20 GB Hard Drive and Digital Audio Player

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(28)

 

 

I am an early adopter of gadgets. I own an Ipod and now the Samsung player. For starters they are the same price for the 20GB model.
The major difference is the Samsung player integrates with the more feature laden Napster service. The Samsung player also has an FM tuner.
Both gagets play well but you might want to purchase the Sony sport headphones if you are taking the player jogging. I find that ear buds are uncomfortable and often fall out.
The Samsung player integrates nicely into what I think is a superior Napster service.
You can't go wrong with either player, yet if you want to use the more comprehensive Napster service (one that has the larger catalog, allows unlimited streaming and downloading and the ability to plan entire songs without first having to buy them-on iTUnes you can only hear 30 sec clips if you don't buy), Napster is it and the Samsung player would be your choice.

Got my Napster player today at Best Buy (sorry Amazon!)
Been playing around with it and its great-I am still learning all the features and spending time on the Napster site. I am transfering my entire collection of MP3 files and getting some new ones from Napster which are not mp3 but handled nicely by the player.
I am going to take my car out for a spin soon and see how the player perform in the auto environment.
So far this is by far the best player I have owned.

I bought this a month ago from Amazon and I enjoy it so far.
My general rating of 4 stars out of 5 is based on the following:

Reliability in use: 5/5 -so far... (absolutely no glitches)

Feel and look: 4/5 (I don't like the white carrying case and wish it came with an armband. The aluminum/plastic hardcase of the player is a good protection against "accidents".)

Battery life: 5/5 -I get at least 10 hrs. (never waited to drain it completely-maybe you get more)

Built-in controls: 4/5 -solid feel, they do their job, but not a perfect layout

Sound: 5/5 but after using a set of good earphones. The ones that come with it are average quality.

"Remote" control: 3/5. I wish it had more features and I'm afraid the plastic might break in time. I haven't used it much, though.

Charger and USB cable: no problems here. A charging cradle would have been nice....

Audio formats: MP3 and WMA. Two formats are better than one....

Napster interface for music transfer: 4/5 - Registration required, but free; interface similar to Windows Explorer. I use it to download to the player either music from my CDs (ripped to WMA or MP3 first) or the tracks I buy from Napster. When you download music to the player, the interface tends to "freeze" a bit and then comes back when it's done. The download speed is about 2 sec/track or so with the old USB 1.1 I have. The player is recognized as a hard disc drive in Internet Explorer and you can also transfer files directly to it in IE and use it as a portable HDD. Note: ALWAYS click "disconnect USB device" before unplugging it from the PC....I suspect many users forget that and then they blame somebody else.

FM radio receiver: 3/5 - but depends how close you are to the FM stations and RFI sources

FM transmission: 1/5 -you have to be within 10 in. radius from the receiving radio antenna...I am not using this feature in my car, but instead I plug the car audio jack in the player and the music played is flawless. I wish they had also a holder for use in the car and a car adapter kit for those who don't have one. Would have been much more useful than the FM transmitter...

MP3 encoder: 4/5 -works well with the line-in cable supplied to record from a CD player (I suspect it works with an external mike, too, if it has the right jack size - that would make it a voice recorder)

MP3 recording from built-in FM radio: 5/5 --good for its purpose, but I don't find it useful at all when the radio reception is far from crystal clear

Equalizer: 3/5 - only five settings...

Overall: 4/5 --many features, price under $300 for 20GB, everything works as expected (except for radio transmitter), robust and 100% reliable if you use it properly, could use some design tweaks here and there and some extra accesories. Good value for the price.

The ability to transfer songs directly from Napster to the player via the USB is great and a massive time saver for me.
The Napster service which as an owner of the Samsung player I am getting an early peek is grand.
The player is light and holds more music than I need but I am exploring Napster for more and more tunes. The Fm recorder works well and is good if you have knowledge that a program you want to save is coming up. Works great in my car. With this player and my PC I've got my music covered.

Unlike most other reviewers that wrote negative reviews for the Samsung Y-910, I do not own an iPod, never will either... I tried the iPod, and sound wise; it's really not that great.

I decided to give the Samsung/Napster a try because of its many features and Napster's vast music library.

At first the sound was rather mediocre, very hollow, and none of the equalizer settings could remedy that. It turns out that a pair Sony Fontopia earbuds makes all the difference, sound quality after spending another $49 was actually pretty good.

Unlike a lot of other reviewers I did like the player's controls and solid feel. The remote however is indeed not very user-friendly; and yes it feels cheap and flimsy..

I decided to dump my entire CD collection onto the player. At my first attempt I uploaded some 1000 songs to the player, which went pretty smooth, but slower than expected.

So what's wrong with it? It turns out that the Napster/Samsung combo doesn't handle bulk deletes very well; I decided I wanted to remove all songs since I didn't like the way they were showing on the players display. Removing the songs took many, many hours. Somehow it left 15 `ghost tracks' behind in the players track list. Samsung support blames Napster, Napster support blames Samsung.. I managed to remove them after I uploaded the same files and re-removed them.

Since I don't plan on deleting my tunes very often I decided I could live with that. (I really tried very hard to like the player.) Next I uploaded all my 3500 songs. Looks like it doesn't like bulk uploads either; it took all night to upload! Given that it's a USB2 connection that is plain crazy. The Napster Client seemed the culprit; it was eating up my system's entire CPU capacity, and way to much of my memory.

It gets worse: After the upload finally completed my player refused to boot. All I got was the Napster cat staring at me. Resets didn't help, so again I called Samsung support; Same story.. It's a Napster problem... Called Napster: It's a Samsung problem..

End of story, I returned my player.

I love my New Samsung player. The negative reviews are humorous. You can tell they were written by IPod owners "defending" their choice.I'm new to all this and could care less about Apple, Steve Jobs or anyone else. I just want a good player and legal service so I don't get nailed for stealing music.
I tried iTunes, Rhapsody and Napster. They are all fine. Anyone who says this player is no good or an iPod is a piece of garbage are just plain wrong.
My preference is for the Napster player that I bought because I like the Napster service the best. Its all about taste and I can't see all the fuss over priasing the iPod and trashing this perfectly fine music player/

The Apple Fanatics are out in full force. Any challenge to thier Ipod is met with denials. The Napster Samsung player is great and better than the Ipod.

THe Napster player has all the features one could want. The recording facility is the best as I can make mp3 files from ANY source with the line in line out.

I can record mp3 files from fm,streaming music, my voice, lps, old cassetes and cds.

The set up is easy and the transfer of music from Napster and from prior mp3 files on your computer is fast.

I was up and running in less than an hour after transfering some 500 cds and a few hundred Napster files to the player.

The player plays both the mp3 (from my cd collection) and wma (from napster and music match)and you can't tell the difference.

The napster client however IDs them for you seperating your files into mp3, and wma that you paid for, wma that you downloaded as part of the premium service and those that are available to you to stream because you selected them to be listed on your computer as part of a play list (or downloaded on another one of your computers but chose when you synched the service not to download them on to the current computer).

Cons
The fm transmitter is a nice feature but you;ll want to get a more powerful one, ditto for the ear pods that come with the player. The remote is of little use too.

All in all you get for $299 you get 20gb, recording, fm, and Napster, musicmatch, dell, buymusic compatibility.

A great choice.

It's not an iPOD and it isn't trying to be. It's much more.

I've read the glowing Associated Press, Time, Newsweek and other reviews of this player prior to purchasing it. I also read the reviews here which are mostly good except for those written by paranoid Apple Ipod owners.

This player has every feature that the iPod has-I know because I own one- and more.
The price is the same but the difference is that the Samsung player ties in to the superior Napster service which has just launched.

The USB works fast, the player works well in the car. Sounds great A++++