Customer Reviews

SmartDisk Rover 128 MB MP3 Player & USB Flash Drive

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a real bargain ... It plugs directly into your pc using the usb port and behaves like another hard dive. No need to mess with software or wires. It's a real snap to drag and drop files from your pc to the Rover. It holds a lot of music files at 128 mb, especially if you rip 'em using mp3pro or wma. All this in a device the size of a cigarette lighter.
Downside: its design is too simple. Volume control and reverse/forward are on the same dial. The dial is hard to turn. When you want to skip a song you might just end up turning it up to earsplitting volumes or turning it off. This is something the manufacturer has to fix. Otherwise, a nifty little gadget.

Thisunit is excellent for use while jogging or working out. Finally--no skipping, and no static or commercials! The unit is the size of my wife's lipstick case, and clips easily onto a pair of jogging shorts.

Sound quality is great--better than I was getting on my CD walkman. The included earbud headphones work fine for me, although others may prefer over-the-head phones.

Using Windows XP, copying songs to the unit is a simple drag-and-drop operation. The Rover doesn't come with CD-ripping software, but the free version of MusicMatch Jukebox (available on the Web) works just fine for this purpose.

One thing to be aware of--there is only one control, a multi-function switch that looks like a volume control. You use it to skip forward or backward a tune, and to raise or lower volume. But that's all the unit does. Since I bought it for use while jogging, the limited functions are no problem. But if you like more controls, you might be unhappy.

Overall, I strongly recommend this unit as a workout player. I don't think I would recommend it for a general purpose MP3 player, though. A unit like Apple's iPod would probably be better.

The SmartDisk Rover works great with RedHat Linux. It comes formatted as a vfat filesystem, so all you have to do in Linux is, as root, plug it in to the USB port, create a directory called /mnt/rover or something, find out what your system recognizes is as (mine is sda1), then enter: mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/rover and there it is. You can drag files into it, or just use the command line cp command. When you are done, just umount /mnt/rover then unplug it. You can also add a line to /etc/fstab and then any user can mount and umount it.

Some things that for some strange reason neither the vendor or the specs tell you are that: 1) When you turn it off, it remembers where you are so when you turn it back on it starts right where you left off; 2) I don't like the ear-bud type headset, so I just plugged my favorite Sennheiser headset into it, and it works great - I presume that about any headset will work; and 3) When you change the battery, the memory does NOT erase, it keeps all the files intact.

I have no problems with the single control knob, it works fine for on/off, volume, and skip ahead/back.

An excellent product, highly recommended, and I understand it works with Windows as well.

The product is extremely small and the incorporated belt clip makes it great for jogging or other sport activities. The operation of the dial is simple and easy to get used to.
The best thing is the interface. I connected it through Windows XP and I can transfer music just by dragging and dropping. I also own a Rio S35S and I prefer much more using the Rover interface instead of the awful Rio "music manager". Battery life is decent at aroud 16 hours, since there is no display to drain power.

This unit is great! It is extremely easy to use, and delivers exactly what was promised and expected.

As others have said, the single control for play/pause, next/previous track, and volume is a little strange, but okay. The only reason I gave it four stars instead of five is due to the combined control and lack of FF/REW.

Sure, a display would be great, but I'm sure it would cost more, be bigger, and eat batteries. The ultimate feature is that it can be used as a USB drive as well. No cables, no drivers, no nothing -- it worked like magic for me on 2000 and XP (and it supports other OSes too).

I guess it doesn't support WMA (I haven't tried, but it's not mentioned anywhere), but that's okay too since most music is in the MP3 format and there are also programs to convert WMAs to MP3s. I've tried several different bitrates and it's handled every one of them; it can even play MP3s that my PocketPC won't play.

The construction seems fine. It's plastic, but light. I thought the headphones sounded fine. I'm confident that I made the right choice buying this unit.

I bought the Rover because I needed a USB drive for work, and thought the MP3 player would be fun to have. I'm so glad I did! It's easy to use, and lots of fun. Having all the controls on one dial took about 2 minutes to get used to. The drive is a bit bigger than other USB drives out there, so it doesn't fit into really tight spaces as well, but that hasn't been a problem for me so far. The only problem I had--WinME could not find the drivers it needed (XP has no problems). I had the exact same problem with other USB drives, though. Contacting HP tech support solved the problem in minutes and I've been happy since!

My unit's sound quality was terrible. No bass, just sounded like an old transistor radio.

Also, where you plug in the headphone did not make a solid connection. Don't know if it was just my unit but it's going back.

This player is awsome!! It is light and easy to use. Plus, there are no cables or anything, so you can just plug in and download on any computer. All the controls are put in one easy to use wheel. The only problem with it is it has no fast forward. If you stop a song in mid-song, you have to start over again. No big deal, though. Plus it supports MP3PRO, which is half the size and sounds better. I have some Motzart and I cant hear any flaws with the encoding. A great player. And it is cheap!! Have fun with it.

hi i had the 64MB version of the Rover....
it was good, had a good price, but now, its TERRIBLE...
i dropped it at waist-height, it wasnt the type of thing you'd expect to do anything to it...but it just stopped playing MP3s....i contacted tech support...and they said that it wasnt covered in the warranty...
it acts as though it has no mp3s on it...displaying the red light... and Smartdisk won't even repair it for a fee or of no charge...
I've had that thing for less than 5 months- it should last a LOT longer than that...
there was also nothing in the warranty about physical damage of any kind...

if you do get this product, also note the terrible way of switching songs, or raising the volume

I really like the rover - but the design is a bit too simple. You can not see the song that it is playing. You can not place your songs in a desired order. It is hard to control.