6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
Great device for the price
Date of Review: Apr 22, 2007
The Bottom Line: Great unit for the price, with multi-platform compatibility, video, and Ogg Vorbis support. It even looks ice - like a cross between an iPod and an LG Chocolate.
I purchased the MPC951 to replace a two-year old Rio Karma. .ogg format support was a primary consideration because of my large existing collection. Linux compatibility was also a major plus. The .ogg requirement ruled out iPod, Zen, Zune, and the Archos units straight away. The Coby appeared to be the best option for ogg support, plus it added video and a number of other features at a very reasonable price - under $180 on-line.
My machines see it as an external hard drive.
The package included the AC adaptor, a set of headphones (Ok sound, but too large to be comfortable) USB and a USB-Host cable (female end, as seen on a computer chassis), a line-in cable, a neoprene carrying case, a satin cloth for wiping the screen, and a Mini-CD with drivers for Win98, the Lame encoder, XviD drivers, and an open source package for transcoding AVI files down to a format suitable for the 2" display.
Sound playback is good. Video playback is ok considering the small screen and QCIF resolution. Battery life for video playback is -terrible-. Barely 90 minutes for a full charge. FM reception is decent. Haven't fully tested it's built-in encoding or voice recording functions. E-Book functionality only tested with simple text files.
The manual is marginal. No information on supported ebook formats or playlists, other than saying it can use m3u files.
Battery life appears to be the downside. It uses a Lithium/Polymer battery rather than Lithium/Ion so the energy density is lower. Other reviews have claimed 12 hours, which I think may be high. It will charge from your computer's USB port, though charging is slow. It also takes quite a while to boot up, or to reinitialize after having files uploaded to it. Response from the touch panels is good.
Overall, I consider it a great deal for the price. It's nice to look at. It's Compatible with Linux and BSD as well as the more common PC's and Macs. It speaks Ogg Vorbis, plays video, and can receive FM radio.
