Wolverine ESP 80 GB Portable Multimedia Storage Player

by Wolverine

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 2.8 x 0.9 inches ; 10.2 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000I1GPRS
• Item model number: ESP/5080
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Designed specifically for busy professional and amateur digital photographers, the Wolverine ESP portable multimedia storage device lets you store and view thousands of photos, songs, and video files in a single convenient device. Digital photographers typically have to purchase multiple memory cards if they want to take a ton of photos while traveling. With the ESP, however, you need only a single card, as the unit's 80 GB hard drive stores the rest. When your camera's memory card is full, simply pop it in the Wolverine ESP's built-in 7-in-1 card reader. With the press of a button, the device transfers all of your photos and digital camera video data into a portable, self-powered mass storage unit. Once the contents of your card are safely stored in the ESP's memory, you can re-fill your memory card with brand-new photos--all without going anywhere near a computer. And because the device is battery powered, you can literally save your data anywhere in the world. It's perfect for traveling, sharing data during meetings, and just about any other on-the-go situation.

The ESP also includes a razor-sharp 3.6-inch LCD screen, letting you view stored photos and videos without plugging them back into your camera. Among the compatible photo formats are JPEG, Bitmap, Tiff, Text, and RAW images, while compatible video formats include MPEG-1, MPEG-4, WMV 9, and XviD. And as with many digital cameras, the ESP prints directly to a printer to save time and energy. The device is no slouch from an audio perspective, either, with support for MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV, ACC (MP4 audio), and CDA formats. In addition, the unit's drag-and-drop functionality makes it easy to transfer music files from your computer and play them instantly. As a final bonus, the ESP includes a built-in FM radio with 18 presets that lets you listen to and record your favorite FM programs.

Other details include zoom, rotate, and slide show functions; an included A/V cable for connecting the ESP directly to any TV, projector, or stereo system; and compatibility with a separately sold cradle system that lets you record directly from a TV, DVD, VCR, camcorder, or other video source. The ESP measures 5.3 by 2.8 by 0.9 inches (W x H x D), weighs 10.2 ounces with the lithium-ion battery, and is backed by a one-year warranty.

What's in the Box
Wolverine ESP (with battery), AC charger, USB cable, A/V cable, earphone, carrying case, software CD, user's manual.

Product Description

The Wolverine ESP was created for you to enjoy the freedom of multimedia portability anywhere, anytime. Featuring a 3.6 razor sharp LCD, built-in memory card readers and enormous storage capacity to carry and play all your digital photos, music and videos converged in the palm of your hand. Download images directly from any digital camera without a computer, store and play thousands of songs, record and watch hundreds of hours of video (DVR) or just listen and record music from any FM station.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 85 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wolverine does it all for less and is expandable!, November 2, 2006

By 

HMMWV "God, Country, Corps" (santa clara, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wolverine ESP 80 GB Portable Multimedia Storage Player (Electronics)

UPDATE (9-2-2010) price has really dropped since I bought mine and I still have it / use it / upgraded its drive and firmware / and take it with me on trips. It now works with both my digital cam and my 32GB sdhc cards from my HD DV cam. I thought it was nice that they did not void the warantee if you opened the case to put in a larger disk later on, as I did. My only con after so long is that the DVR ability is limited with digital TV but I think that was a feature they crammed in at the last minute. My unit is still going strong. Original 2+ year old review below -->

MP3 players. I've resisted buying one until they made it close to perfect. Wolverine exceeded my expectations. Here's some features I like - you might think about how you could use it, i.e. empty your digital cam's memory onto the disk inside, zoom way in to check focus, if your cam doesnt support zoom, and have an empty card ready to keep shooting.

My favorite features:

Removable, drop out $30 li-ion battery - keep a spare after 14 hours of songs!
CF/SD/MMC/and more slots for reading memory cards AND saving photos on the hard disk
80 GB hard disk is user upgradable (instructions in the manual) when big ones get cheaper (which they will - you know it!)
Big, BIG screen. 320x240 but wow - it's a display in and of itself. I use it to review photos on the spot from my 8MP digicam with the tiny viewfinder
Video - well they all have video now, so that's an expectation. it's compatible with itunes, so I'm fine - but it does WMA and PC video too!
Microphone built in - record conversations on the spot
separate video/audio outputs for watching video or playing photos - even with a soundtrack!
Separate configuration for screen setup, hard disk timeout, and system power down times.
Easy to zoom in/out on photos for focus checking - wonderful feature by itself to know your shot came out.
Empties both high and low speed CF cards. My 4GB sandisk extreme III dumps to this fast, letting me keep shooting those big photos.
Automatic, well organized file structure. Your last photo will be on the last folder, at the end easy to find.
small built in speaker - not much but enough to verify audio transfers too.
And the features go on and on - too many to list here but I may find the manual to upload.

Basically - you are looking at a video MP3 player on steriods - supports universal formats, has an upgrade path, records audio on the spot, even has a video recording dock and can be setup as a TIVO. USB, 5VDC, dock ports on the bottom, ear buds included or use standard 1/8" stereo headphones with it. Uses common li-ion battery securely tucked in the handle. And with all those fetures, it's easy to use, not too big, and comes with a beltloop case. When the 200 gb disks come out, there's a button to setup one on it. No need to buy the expensive 120GB disk today.

The screen color is wonderful and performance is just flawless. For example - I shoot in Olympus Raw format so I can fix things later without compression loss. This thing understands most SLR raw formats on the market today! And it's firmware is upgradable as more arrive (the factory encourages you to check for the latest version).

I haven't drained the battery yet - but I've moved alot of data to it. You can use it as a USB disk as well. It also charges off the USB connector via a special cable with 2 usb plugs to snag enough power from your pc to juice it up off the USB bus.

It's a winner - Comparing it to my parent's IPOD the size is close, but the functionality is far more impressive. My dad's camera uses SD cards and it cleared his card out just like my CF card - so we both can use it on trips. It even works with my micro-SD cards for my motorola phone (1GB).

At 399 [2008 price] - Amazon's price is great. No shipping - prime members get it in 2 days or less (mine arrived next day for 2 day price - free) and no tax. I'm impressed - I think you will be too.

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, Verstile, January 20, 2007

By 

j. salk "linus" (bay area, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wolverine ESP 80 GB Portable Multimedia Storage Player (Electronics)

I spent a while trying to find a multimedia device that could read multiple types of flash memory cards (Compact flash cards, SD cards), read the raw files from my Canon EOS 5D camera and have at least 80 GB storage.

This device met all those requirements and also has a big vivid screen. In addition to the above, it is an mp3 player, video player and has an FM radio.

I have the 100 GB version that I purchased from costco for $ 350. I took this along on a long trip (3 weeks), along with a couple of spare batteries.

It performed wonderfully. I downloaded the pictures from my 2 GB compact flash cards at least 15 times. It stored all my RAW files without a hitch. It could also read the raw files generated from my camera and display it. The download speed was very fast.

The Canon EOS 5D generates large files at it highest resolution and fills up my 2 GB compact flash cards quickly. It is too impractical and expensive to carry too many compact flash cards. This device really helps to bridge this gap.

It also has a tetris game, music and video capability in it, to keep my kids happy during long drives.

Highly recommended for digital photographers and also for people looking for a verstile multi media device that can do more than the ipod.

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Wolverine ESP on location, August 12, 2007

By 

Barney Leonard "pro photographer" (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wolverine ESP 80 GB Portable Multimedia Storage Player (Electronics)

The concept of the product is good. Functionally, it works as advertised. I recently purchased the 80GB version and used it on location where electricity was scarce. I uploaded as many as 10,000 photos daily while camping. I was able to review my photos with ease. However, upon my return to my studio, the hard drive within the unit failed completely, unable to recognize the primary partition. My 63,000 plus photos which I could not re shoot were gone. Thank goodness for third party data recovery companies. Wolverine tech support was sympathetic and helpful, saying that I should have taken two units with me on location. They quickly replaced my new unit with a refurbished one. Many hundreds of dollars later, I was able to recover my data, but my confidence in this product was shaken. How can a new unit, less than a week old, always hand carried, fail so completely?