i-Station PMP1000 ?

[smiryan]

I have heard several people recommending this player and have found it for sale on several UK websites. But does anyone have one of them and can comment on it ?

There is a website with review over at www.istationhq.com but wondered if anyone else has heard of it and used it.

[sunystory@hotmail.com]

smiryan i own this gadget. It's a vey cool one. If you play divx quality alot with your computer, this one can replace it easily when you move around. I used to watch movies while i take trains and stuff. The quality is very good and quite impressive. you can also plug into TV and play nearly a DVD quality (IMO).

[ilprincipe]

sunystory@hotmail.com,
where did you get it from? US or S.K./Japan? And how much did you pay,if I may ask? :)

[sunystory@hotmail.com]

ilprincipe, i got it from S/K.:) The price was quite high at that time. Now it's around 300$ in korea. by then, I bought it like 500$. I think the price went down to compete with PSP.

[nycionx]

^^^^hey do you know where i can buy the thing for $300 you said? what site? country?
thx! :)

[RADicalSatDude]

I've been looking for an Audio player like the iRiver H340 with looks like the H10, sadly no go.... btw H340s can play videos too, but not this well. Too bad there's nothing this great on the audio player scene...

Offical product page
http://digital-cube.co.kr/eng/bbs/product_pmp1000.php

i-Station PMP1000 Review By iStationHQ
iStationHQ is dedicated to Digital Cube MP3 and PMP media players such as the PMP1000, DAP80 and DAP100.

http://www.istationhq.com/viewtopic.php?t=33&sid=497991fa5c2aa409f0655f6e18557bb4

Introduction
Digital Cube are a fairly new Korean company who have started producing mp3 and PMP players. Their 20Gb PMP player went through many name changes until they finally settled on the i-Station PMP1000.


In The Box
On opening the box, you will find the player itself, leather pouch, hand strap, earphones, usb cable, audio cables, tv-out cables, software CD, AC adaptor, infra-red remote control, and even a cleaning cloth for the LCD screen. Just about the only thing missing is a screen protector like those you can buy for PDAs and other such devices. However, the leather case provides very good protection anyway.


Design And Features
First thing you will notice about this player is it's metal body unlike what seems to be the normal construction these days of plastic. At least many manufacturers are tending to be taking the plastic body route rather than sticking with metal. Personally I prefer metal as it just gives a better feeling of durability. The device is well built and very solid.

The next point to make is the size of this device. It is the smallest PMP device that I have seen with a 3.5 inch screen. In fact the LCD screen takes up a very large proportion of the front of this player.

There are not too many buttons on this device which may at first seem strange but all will become clearer as to why this is in minute. Button wise, there is a 5 way joystick a "tab" button, an "enter" button, volume control button and an on/off/hold switch. The tab and enter buttons have slightly different uses depending on what part of the interface you have entered but generally the tab button switches between the on-screen buttons and the enter button executes the highlighted on-screen button.

Where the PMP1000 really differentiates itself from the competition is with a touch screen and stylus. This is probably the main way of interacting with the device and makes navigation so much simpler than some other PMP devices that I have tried out. I don't think it will be long before other manufacturers consider this approach but digital Cube have already got a head start on them. Using the touch screen is one area where this device really excels.

While on the subject of the touch screen, it is worth mention the LCD screen quality and this is where the device really excels even further. As soon as you turn on the device you realise that you are holding a device with a very high quality display.

As well as the buttons, you will find TV-out sockets (both composite and s-video), USB port, line in and headphone sockets, and the stylus. The stylus also doubles as the stand for the player so that it can sit on a table without you having to hold it. The stylus is also extendible so that you can produce the required angle. This works well, but one downside is that you won't then be able to interact with the player while having it in this position. I don't really see this as much of a problem though as you are more likely to pick up the player to change anything on it anyway.

The remote control that comes with the unit is a fairly large and flat infra-red remote. While completely functional, I have seen little need to use it as I am rarely further than arms length when using the player. Still it may be handy for some, especially for those who intend to use the TV-out feature.

There is a built in speaker on the front of the player.

The leather case fits the device perfectly and provides good protection to the body and screen. There are holes in the leather so that all required functionality can be accessed with the case on.

Other features of the player include a photo viewer, dictionary, text viewer, FM radio and a calculator.


Performance
Of course the first thing you will want to do with the player is charge it and this will take about 4 hours. The first charge didn't take this long as the battery came half charged but subsequent charges took around 4 hours.

Connecting the player to the PC is via USB 2.0 and is detected as an external hard drive. This is my preference for portable media players as I don't want to have to install drivers to connect my device.

On turning on the device, you are greeted with a simple boot up screen and boot up time is good at just around 8 seconds.

Video playback on this device is exceptional. The pictures below really do not do justice to the real quality playback. It can handle high bit rates and high resolution videos without a problem. I have yet to play anything on it as yet which didn't play but I have heard of very rare occurrences of files that won't playback. I have tried Divx, XVid, and VOB files without problems. VOB files look stunning on the player but the same can be said for Divx and XVid too.

Audio quality, especially through headphones, is where I had expected the player to fall a little short but I was soon to find myself mistaken. The player exceeded my expectations and by some distance. The headphones that come with the player are good but most people will already have a set they intend to use anyway. For me, I used my trusty Sharp MD33s and the sound during video playback was simply fantastic.

But this device isn't all about video playback; far from it. Playback of music was equally as good even though I found some of the pre-set equalizer settings a little disappointing. However, I chose the "user" pre-set and adjusted the bands to my liking. This is somewhere else that the player excels. On some mp3 players I have used, setting the user equalizer isn't as easy as it could be, but with the PMP-1000 and the stylus it couldn't be any easier.

Those requiring gapless playback of their music though will be disappointed. There is a good 1 second gap between songs. I don't tend to listen to a lot of music that requires gapless so for me this isn't an issue but it may be for some.

Battery life is impressive too and beats the other PMP devices that I have been able to try out. Digital Cube rate the battery life of video playback at 6 hours and I have certainly been managing over 5 hours with high bit rate files. For music I have managed about 9 hours whereas the official figure states 10. Also it is worth noting that the battery is easily removable and spares are available if you require them.

Viewing photos on this device is a pleasurable experience. Some mp3 players now support viewing photos, but with their small screens it is not really a useful feature in my opinion. The 3.5 inch screen on the PMP-1000 makes it a worthwhile additional to the player.

Upgrading the firmware is fairly simple but not as simple as it could have been. For example, there seems to be different methods of upgrading the firmware depending on what version is being upgraded. Also, version 1.10 of the firmware cannot be installed until version 1.09 has been installed first. It would have been nicer if each firmware could be installed regardless of the existing firmware on the player. However, this is a very minor issue and certainly not one that would cause any real grief.

The FM Radio seems to depend what headphones you connect to the device. With the ones supplied with the player the reception was ok but not fantastic. But once I replaced them with my own headphones, the reception improved considerably and also tuned into more stations. The radio can be recorded onto the player as 128kbps mp3 and the quality is very good.

The player can also be used for voice recording and the files are saved as 128kbps mp3. The recordings are of a pretty good quality but the microphone does pick up the slight whining noise of the hard drive in the background which is a little annoying. However, this is fairly common of these devices. It should also be noted that the microphone is covered by the leather case.


Conclusion
The PMP1000 is the best PMP device that I have witnessed. I have tried out several and been disappointed with them but the PMP-1000 resurrected my interest in such players. It's small footprint, excellent video playback and sound quality, simple interface make this player stand out from the crowd. I heard many people say who had been to exhibitions where this player was being shown that this player stood out. And now I understand why.


Specifications
3.5 inch TFT LCD supporting 262,144 colours (18bit)
Video files support : DivX, Xvid, MPEG1/4 without transcoding ASF, WMV via transcoding
SMI subtitles in all languages (Unicode)
Download and play. Easy to use
Audio files support : MP3, WMA, AAC, AC3, OGG
Displays JPEG photo files
FM radio covering world wide with recording function
Direct MP3 encoding from line-in input
Digital voice recording with MP3 format
Electronic dictionary (currently only English-English available)
Touch screen interface similar to MS windows applications
Detachable lithium - polymer rechargeable battery
Built-in speaker with loud output
Supports TV-out with NTSC and PAL format
Supports CVBS and S-Video for high quality video output
Big capacity removable HDD storage (20/30GB)
Super fast USB 2.0 High speed downloading
IR remote controller for using with TV
Dimensions 123.0mm X 76.8mm X 21.5mm
Weight 246g

[gighen78]

does someone know where to download firmware for pmp1000 and softwares?is it possible to download games?reviews about this pmp?i will buy the black version(30 giga) and i want to know how it acts..Alessandro from Italy

[gighen78]

does scart go with pmp1000?or like in korea you have to use another tv connection?Do firmware go well with this pmp or there is the possibility to break thte corean software?

[sunystory@hotmail.com]

gighen78, go to the istation webpage. You can upgrade it so that you can play games as well

[eyesofatiger]

Hello to everybody! Can someone tell me somthing very important?! When you buy "i-Station PMP1000 20GB" do you get battery charger for i-Station PMP1000?!?!?!?!?!?!? This is very important for me!!! Please someone answer me! Thanks.:2jump: :insane: :super:

[dc2000]

Hello to everybody! Can someone tell me somthing very important?! When you buy "i-Station PMP1000 20GB" do you get battery charger for i-Station PMP1000?!?!?!?!?!?!? This is very important for me!!! Please someone answer me! Thanks.:2jump: :insane: :super:

Okay first of all, to your question: eyesofatiger, you dont need it - you can charge it while its plugged into the wall outlet and turned off!

Secondly, dont get this mp3 player. I've owned it since March of 05 and it just broke - after 9 months?! The hard-drive failed, I had the whole 20GB stacked with my mp3 albums, seriously im pissed off.. The unit boots up without the HD, but once the HD is inserted, it doesn't recognize it. and DC (DigitalCube) wont do shit cuz it was imported, so im officially going for a iRiver H340, a iRiver H10 20GB or the Archos 100GB(yeah $1000, but still worth every penny)

Im trying to find a iRiver H340

PS: I'm selling my crap unit for $175 CANADIAN (like $125 US), so if anyone wants to buy a new HD for it then u can.. I prefer iRiver all the way!

Fuck this unit!

[gopi6681]

thanks
will i be able to make my mobile look like a comp.