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DAPreview reviews the 1GB Napster To Go Player (DMPJ-250C)
comment: 28 | Friday, August 11 (2006) 09:13PM | Posted by Michael
Latest reports have shown subscriptions to Napster's service have been decreasing. One way to combat that, is to offer incentives to sign up. One such incentive is a 1GB player, that has a color screen, plays video and has 35 hours of battery life. The player costs just $50 when you sign up for a year of Napster To Go.

I've tested this player extensively, and have provided my full review of it: HERE




The battery life lasted over 36 hours for audio, and over 8 hours for video. Some other noteworthy features include it's dual MTP/MSC support. Overall, I was pleased with this player, but it is far from perfect. Among other things, controls needs to be worked on. Although most here won't sign up for a year of Napster just to get this player, it's good for those who needed that little bit of motivation to do so.
Comments

kgrim024

Comments: 6
Aug 11 (2006) 10:02PM  

Good job... You can also get it from Napster’s website for $119.95: [Linky]




pata2001

Comments: 141
Aug 11 (2006) 10:21PM  

Nice review to include boot up time. This is 1 thing that most manufactures have ignored, especially sandisk. I can understand if it's a hard-drive needing time to load the OS and spin up, but this is a flash player. I think even the iAudio A2 boots up faster than this. Another reason why I'm stuck with my Sony E99 for its instant on and playback, plus gapless.

A funny thing is, DAPs have now included so many unrelated and arguably useless features like video playback, that even in this review of 10 pages, there is only 1 paragraph discussing Audio playback.




Lacene
Location: Standing Here, Confused By Your
Comments: 827
Aug 11 (2006) 11:45PM  

with some converters, you can adjust the brightness setting for the video (like with Pocket DivX Encoder, for example)...I wonder if that would improve the video's brightness on the Napster.....it may lower the file size a bit, as well....

as for the bland wallpaper, apparently there are people over at misticriver that has been working with a H3MOD program for creating skins for iriver players, such as the H10. Apparently, it was determined that the Sansa uses similar .mi4 firmware files as the H10. Some e2** series owners have already been able to install custom wallpapers onto their Sansa's...I wonder if the same could be done with the Napster DAP.....




Michael
Location: New York City
Comments: 2786
Aug 11 (2006) 11:45PM  

On some levels I agree with you pata, but there's only so much we can discuss about Audio playback. Just about every review you will see has only 1-2 paragraphs, and those extra paragraphs discuss things like EQ and volume which I discussed in the GUI and other sections.

I really don't know how much you'd expect us to write about audio playback though. We don't have any professional machines or anything to test soundwaves. Even sites that do use those type of things (like PCMag) provide a few sentences on playback.




pata2001

Comments: 141
Aug 12 (2006) 12:38AM  

I know, which is why I find it funny.




zip22

Comments: 1809
Aug 12 (2006) 01:05AM  

pata, does the A2 browse by id3 tag or is it filetree? the reason the sandisk players (among others) take so long to boot up is because they are checking the database. filetree players and players that read exclusively from a pre-written database (ipod) don't have to do this.


i didn't like the battery life graph. zooming in on the top doesn't show much. if you wanted to see the 3 numbers, you can just look them. a graph that went all the way to 0 would have been better for the glance because in reality, the lives aren't that much different. as it is, wma looks absolutely horrible until you look at the scale.
[ edited Aug 12 (2006) 01:22AM ]




Michael
Location: New York City
Comments: 2786
Aug 12 (2006) 02:33AM  

Yeah, it was one of the last things I added. I don't know why excel cut it like that. I'll be re-doing the graph as I feel the as you about the way WMA looks.




Steve

Comments: 1197
Aug 12 (2006) 02:38AM  

Nice review. On the subject of audio coverage, often it would be helpful to have an opinion on how loud the player goes, even though that would be somewhat subjective. Sometimes the power output isn't mentioned in the specs or it might not always be accurate.

Also I couldn't help notice that only this player and the Z5 got so high a battery life. We know the Z5 uses the Sigmatel 3600...any chance we might find out what this one uses (hint hint)??




Michael
Location: New York City
Comments: 2786
Aug 12 (2006) 02:54AM  

Okay, I'll mention the loudness from now on. I won't be able to tell you whether it's the Sigmatel chip for two reasons 1.) It was a review sample 2.) I already sent it back

Also zip, I re-did the graph. Better? I chose the wrong type of graph the first time (clustered instead of stacked), which is why it didn't start at 0.




Sunny Jintro

Comments: 15
Aug 12 (2006) 04:31AM  

i ve asked this before, but: Europe?

we've got napster, but can't find the offer (yet)
any word on that?

also: nice interview, with lots of pictures which is good for the unattentive reader i am...




Michael
Location: New York City
Comments: 2786
Aug 12 (2006) 04:44AM  

As far as I know it's only available to the US. I'll look into that further for you though.




Steve

Comments: 1197
Aug 12 (2006) 11:18AM  

Okay, I'll mention the loudness from now on. I won't be able to tell you whether it's the Sigmatel chip for two reasons 1.) It was a review sample 2.) I already sent it back


OK thanks. I sent an email to Napster asking them about the chipset. They probably won't be able to answer but i'll let you know what they say.




Lone

Comments: 973
Aug 12 (2006) 02:24PM  

Good review Michael. That really is incredible battery life.




dap_pad

Comments: 519
Aug 12 (2006) 02:44PM  

great review... the GUI reminds me of the Insignia Amigo's. Actually not a bad deal for the features and battery life that you get.




Utew
Location: Oregon USA
Comments: 351
Aug 12 (2006) 05:07PM  

Not much interested in a Napster subscription, but nice review Michael... and it does look awfully similar to the Insignia player, which makes me wonder if they are the same internally whether video could be added via firmware to the Amigo...




Michael
Location: New York City
Comments: 2786
Aug 12 (2006) 05:40PM  

Yeah it's what I thought when I first saw that amigo player.




Utew
Location: Oregon USA
Comments: 351
Aug 12 (2006) 05:52PM  

It would be nice to have a copy of the Napster firmware.. and see if the Amigo would recognize it.. of course if it worked, you'd have mono-chrome video at best, but it would be an interesting test..

I tried to find the Napster firmware on their site.. but unfortunately had no luck.. would of gone to BB to pick up an Amigo if I had lucked onto a firmware package, just for the jollies of trying it out...


[ edited Aug 12 (2006) 05:55PM ]




Will

Comments: 75
Aug 12 (2006) 05:56PM  

No Vorbis support and no removable battery -> CRAP no matter how it may perform otherwise

scnr




Dave Schlaefer
Location: Madison, WI, USA
Comments: 5
Aug 12 (2006) 06:11PM  

Wow, yeah, the GUI is EXACTLY the same as my Insignia's, aside from the color background and more options.




dap_pad

Comments: 519
Aug 12 (2006) 11:05PM  

that's what i said...




Steve

Comments: 1197
Aug 13 (2006) 12:04AM  

I got a 'response' from Napster. It's a bot response saying esentially, 'sorry, no further information'. About what I expected.




Utew
Location: Oregon USA
Comments: 351
Aug 13 (2006) 01:46PM  

I doubt Insignia would be any more forth-coming in the information dept. either...




Steve

Comments: 1197
Aug 13 (2006) 07:49PM  

Probably but the insignia doesn't have the Naps battery life. That was what made me think maybe it was using the Sigmatel chipset.




Utew
Location: Oregon USA
Comments: 351
Aug 13 (2006) 09:36PM  

Good point Steve and an interesting question.. if so, it would be the first to use the new afore-announced Sigmatel chip AFAIK...




Michael
Location: New York City
Comments: 2786
Aug 13 (2006) 09:48PM  

The Samsung YP-Z5 is currently using it

I can't wait to see what Creative can do with the chip. Hopefully they actually put some good use to it, as it's capable of great things.


[ edited Aug 13 (2006) 09:52PM ]




Steve

Comments: 1197
Aug 13 (2006) 10:29PM  

Whoa, did Creative say they'll be using it??




Michael
Location: New York City
Comments: 2786
Aug 13 (2006) 10:54PM  

Yep, Sigmatel did. Here's our newspost about it: [Linky]




Steve

Comments: 1197
Aug 13 (2006) 11:34PM  

Cool! C'mon Creative, Sigmatel loaded the bases for you, now you just gotta hit one out' the park.




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