ATMT V-PLAY MP4 PLAYER - 2GB EXPANDABLE with RADIO and DRM10 - BLACK

I couldn't find anything on ATMT's website or elsewhere about this MP3 player - only what was on Amazon. My main question - could I use it as an external storage device for ALL types of file? At only £30 I decided to risk it... and the answer is, YES! The manual says it can be used to hold/transfer any type of file (but obviously it can only play/show certain filetypes). The manual is very brief - tells you all the operations but not why or what effect they have.

Some essential stuff you might want to know:

The ATMT V-PLAY measures 77mm x 39mm x 12mm - smaller than I expected, but not so skinny that it feels like it will break. Hold 'play' down to switch it on/off.

Plugged it into my XP p/c which recognised it immediately - BUT you need to switch the ATMT to "MSC" USB mode before transferring music to it, else the folders etc that you set up don't work properly. See "Set up" section of manual: basically, while it is charging first time, press the 'M' button and it will toggle between "MSC" and "MTP" modes. In MSC mode, it is as simple as pi to drag-and-drop folders/files to the device, using your 'Explorer' (or "My Computer") window; your p/c will show TWO drives when the ATMT is plugged in, as it can take a micro SD card. The manual says to use the "Safely remove hardware" tool on your p/c to disconnect the ATMT (though this doesn't seem to be an option in MTP mode).

Takes me only a couple of mins to rip a CD with Windows Media Player, creating about 50Mb of music that transfers to the ATMT in another couple of mins. I've loaded 208 files (WMA, 160 kbps) which have taken up 1170Mb of the 1989Mb internal storage.
[If this game is as new to you as it is to me: I discovered tonight that you can choose bit rate (ie. kbps) when ripping files from a CD - the higher the rate, the better the quality but the bigger the file - and WMA is better than MP3; all this affects how many tracks you'll fit on the ATMT].

Hold 'M' down for the main Menu, press it briefly for the current mode submenu (modes include Music, File, Voice, Photo, FM, Setup, Video, Ebook, Game). On the Music submenu, 'Browse files' lets you navigate around your folders and choose your music - the ATMT can handle up to 5 levels of folder.
[Technophobes: select the 'folder' icon at the top of the list to move up to the parent folder - the sort of detail not given in the manual.]

The diddy screen is very clear and cleverly shows you just about everything you could want to know - repeat mode, volume, battery level, track info, timer bar, equaliser setting, file count and filetype/kbps.

Took about 2½ hours to charge initially and, like most rechargeable batteries, charged for another hour or two after being disconnected and reconnected.

The earphones are a bit rubbish but most people would want to use their favourite phones anyway - using my comfy Aiwa phones, the sound quality is SUPERB (and there are 6 preset graphic equalizer settings + 1 custom). If you have sensitive ears, learn how to turn the volume down BEFORE plugging in your phones! - try level 5 (out of 32) for starters.

If it doesn't stick, break or otherwise go wonky, I'll be extremely chuffed with it. DEFINITELY a good buy!

Having accidentally exposed my previous £130 MP3 player to the rain for a whole night by leaving it outside whilst slightly drunk, I felt it necessary to purchase a new one that wouldnt make me cry if I did something similar in the future.

Having spent a couple of hours looking at cheap MP3 player's on the net, I decided to purchase this one. At first I was pretty skeptical, due to the number of negative reviews it has, especially those relating to its persistent "crashing".

A week down the line, my player is working great and is yet to have given me any problems. Ok, so for £30 you cant expect something amazing, and its important that people understand this. This player is very small, and I mean VERY small (about two match boxes laid end to end and slighty wider). It looks pretty cool, however the menus and displays are pretty tacky. The sound quality is decent enough, and can reach (what I feel) is a resonably good volume.

I was only really concerned with getting a player that could play MP3's, the fact that this one can play MP4's is simply an added bonus.

Its very easy to get to grips with and the "drag and drop" folder process couldnt be much simpler.

Bare in mind that it is only 2GB (although you can expand it to double this) and so we are only talking about 400 or so songs max. However, for me this is perfectly adequate, as I tend to spend more time flicking through the rubbish tunes to find the good ones if there are too many!!

My advice - if you are strapped for cash and in need of a reliable mp3 player, purchase this one.

So far It's proven to be quite a good player; it has good sound quality which reaches a decent volume. The number of songs it can hold is more than enough for what I need, so that's more or less the reason why I bought it.

However, after first charging the battery, it ran out after about 10 minutes, and every time I try to charge it, it will only do so for about 5 minutes at the most before it says it's full. It may be that it needs to be charged a few more times before it will reach it's full potential, but from my experience that rarely ever happens.

I also find the controls very confusing. Fine, I can handle playing the songs and can just about navigate around my folders which I've put them into, but I have yet to discover how I'm supposed to get to the main menu (apparently you have to hold the menu button but it only ever produces the sub-menu, or failing that does nothing at all).

The buttons are another issue for me. I find that usually I have to press them quite hard to get the player to respond. They seem quite clunky and inefficient.

Aside from all this, I think it has the potential to be good. I'm looking forward to putting some movies onto it to watch. I can't help but wonder whether the screen's a bit too small though.