DMC Flash Player

Gadgeteer Hands On Review by Julie

March 16, 2005

 

In the past year, I've reviewed two hard drive based audio players from Digital Mind Corporation: The DMC-500 and DMC-800. Known for plug and play ease of use, their players continue to be a favorite of mine. Like iPods, having gigs of hard drive space is great for hauling around your entire MP3 collection. But when you want to go to the gym or out running, you might not want to take along a bulky or expensive player. DMC has the solution in their new Flash Player.
 

Hardware Specs

256mb of memory
Player supports 32kbps - 320kbps MP3 file playback
32kbps high quality voice recording
Backlight dot matrix big LCD screen (128 x 64)
Powered by AAA Alkaline or rechargeable Ni-MH battery
SD/MMC card reader expansion slot
Built-in FM radio tuner
USB host interface: USB 1.1 standard high speed files transfer, Upload 950 kbps, Download 520 kbps
Dimension: ( L x W x H ) 92mm x 37mm x 21mm
Weight: 43g
 

Package Contents

Flash Player
USB 32" extension cable
Ni-MH rechargeable battery
Ear buds
User manual
Installation CD (for Win98 and ME)

The Flash Player is pretty compact even though it has quite a few extra features packed in. It's also rugged enough to withstand a moderate amount of tossing around. The casing is made of thick plastic with the bottom having a rubber coating.

The face of the device has a large backlight LCD display that shows the current song title, battery level, and bit rate. In addition to those details, while a song is playing, you will be entertained by 3 animated stick figures dancing on the screen. No, you can't turn this off (at least I don't think you can...).

Control of the player is accomplished from 2 buttons and a joystick. The top button doubles as the Power toggle and Stop feature, while the bottom button is Play and Pause. The spring loaded joystick adjusts volume when you press it left or right, and moves to prev, and next tracks when you press it up or down. Is it just me, or should those features be switched? You would think the up/down action would be assigned to volume control... Oh well. Pressing the joystick in will launch the menu.

The back of the player has an SD slot. Which is a very nice touch! It's easy to upgrade this player to well over 1gb of space. SD cards are pretty cheap these days.

One end of the Flash Player pulls of to reveal a standard sized USB plug. When plug the player into your computer, 2 separate removable drives will show up in your drives listing. One for the player's internal memory, and one for the SD card. Like their previous players, you just drag and drop your .MP3 files from your computer to the player. Easy. I should note that the player does not have USB 2.0, so file transfers may seem a little bit pokey.

Unfortunately, this player is pretty simplistic, so you can't have folders of songs or playlists. You must copy the music to the root of either the player itself, or the SD card. That said, you can use the Flash Player as a USB storage device. You can copy any types of files/folders there that you want to. It will just see the .MP3 files in the root when you go to play music.

Audio quality is very good. There is even a 6 mode equalizer with  Normal, Classic, Rock, Jazz, Pop and Mega-Bass presets. Volume level is also good.

In addition to being an decent audio player, the Flash Player also has a built-in FM radio with 8 user defined presets, and a voice recorder.

Battery life is great. With the included Ni-MH rechargeable battery, roughly 6 hours of play per charge can be expected. Pop in a standard AAA alkaline battery, and you're talking about 15 hours. How do you charge the Ni-MH battery? Through the USB port. No extra adapters required.

While I would not be content to make this device my main audio player, I have found that the Flash Player from Digital Mind Corporation has a nice collection of features that help to make it a great little spare or starter player. The price point isn't too shabby either.

 

Price: $99.00

Pros:
SD expansion slot
Easy to use
Built-in FM radio and voice recorder

Cons:
Not USB 2.0
Can't put music in folders
No playlists