There has to be a better way to browse MP3s
Written: Oct 22 '02 (Updated Oct 22 '02)
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Pros: Great skip protection; Plays every MP3 I've tried; Bright Display
Cons: Browsing MP3s and folders is slow and tedious; Supports ID3v1 but not ID3v2.
The Bottom Line: As long as you don't mind listening to all of your MP3s in order or randomized it's a great buy. If you want browse through the songs, look elsewhere.
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| davidwoodward's Full Review: Pioneer DEH-P7400 Car CD/ MP3 Player |
I bought my DEH-P740MP about two months ago and for the most part I have been pleased. This is my first MP3 capable car stereo so I didn't really know what to expect from or to look for in the product line.
I did a little research on the various models and brand names and decided to go with Pioneer mostly because the other MP3 players I found either had a face that really wouldn't look right in my car, or were more costly with little more to show for the price difference. I've also owned a few other Pioneer car stereo products and I've never had a moment’s trouble.
The stereo has all the options and features that I’ve found on other head units of equal value and with the new larger display they're easier than ever to find. Graphical screens help a novice understand exactly what you're changing and make the process less mundane for any car stereo enthusiast.
Over all I’m pleased because the MP3 player does everything it claims it will do. And after you learn the units short comings and ways around them, it's a pleasure to own one.
However, now that I know what to expect, I will look more closely at the features available before I buy another MP3 player. Had I known how tedious it was to browse through the MP3s I would have waited for something better. Keep reading and you'll see where I'm coming from.
Of course I have no technical knowledge of what doing any of this would entail, but from a consumer point of view all the missing features I’ve listed below seem like simple modifications.
1) Although the MP3 player does allow you to store MP3’s in folders and subfolders, there is no convenient way to browse them. The folders are listed in the upper right portion of the display as a number and to its immediate right is the track or song number. This makes picking out your favorite song or artist from a list of 150 songs like trying to memorizing the jukebox selections from your favorite lounge.
The unit does have the ability to read the folder name and the song name but before you can see either of them you’ll have to wait 3 – 8 seconds for the player to read the current song’s ID3 information and begin to play. If you’re in the wrong folder or on the wrong song, skip to the next folder or song and wait an addition 3 – 8 seconds. It’s easy to see how this could take a while with the high number of MP3’s you could fit onto a CD.
When you first insert a CD it takes a little bit to read the folder structure. (I assume this is so that it knows how to number the folders etc.) Why couldn’t they go ahead and spend the time to store the folder names into memory so that while you’re browsing through the folders you can see the folder name instantly rather than reading the CD again?
2) ID3 tags – The player will read ID3v1 and ID3v1.1 only…. Why? I finally found a copy of TagScanner to help me change all my MP3’s to ID3v1, but without this tool I would have had to manually go through and change all my tags from ID3v2.
3) And there’s no playlist support…. Why? With playlist support I would be able to copy hundreds of songs varying in type and then make a playlist for the different types so that the player wouldn’t randomly put classic rock in the middle of my hard rock.
As it is, you would have to make a separate folder on the CD and make the player randomly select songs from that folder only. Sounds ok until you realize you might one some of the songs in two different play list and then you’ve got the same songs on the CD three times.
Even worse, for those of us who would like to have a folder titled “Metal” and then sub folders for each artist you’ll find that it will not randomly select tracks in subfolders. When the random or repeat features are used for a folder it is for songs directly in that folder, not it’s subfolders. Hence selecting random while in the “Metal” folder would only play the songs directly in the folder and not the songs in the individual artist folder beneath the “Metal” folder.
4) There are some cool visuals that you can have playing on the screen while you listen to your music but there’s no way to update them. The dolphins and skydiving clips are cool, but they’re only a few seconds long and repeat the same pattern over and over. Why not give us the means to update the visuals by reading updates from the burned CDs as well as the MP3s? Just doesn’t seem like much to ask for considering the player can already read data CDs to an extent.
5) The antenna – There is only one remote power lead for amps and your antenna. If I’m playing CDs or MP3s, why do I need an antenna flapping in the wind? There could be a separate power lead to power the antenna so that the unit was not needlessly raising and lowering the antenna each time you turn on your stereo.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 325
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Epinions.com ID:
davidwoodward
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Reviews written: 1
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