MP3 players group test review - page 9
portable digital audio player
Review date: 27 November, 2000. Review by: Simon Williams
The vast majority of portable digital audio players use either Flash memory or a hard drive to store the MP3 or WMA files that you transfer from your PC. There are also a few players that use removable media such as SD, but then we come to a fourth - more obscure - type of player.
Generally when you burn an audio CD from MP3 using your CD writer, your PC decodes the MP3 files and converts them back to regular CD format so you can play the CD in your car, on your hi-fi or in a portable CD player. A CD MP3 player (they don't seem to have a specific name) can read a CD that has MP3 or WMA files on it and can then decode them as it plays the music.
That means you can get about ten albums onto a single CD, and you can also take out one CD and replace it with another as the media isn't fixed. Of course that means that the player has to be large enough to accommodate a CD, but the Panasonic SL-CT810 is almost exactly the same size as a CD jewel case.
As CD players go it is quite expensive because it supports HighMat (High-performance Media Access Technology) which is a technology that was developed by Panasonic and Microsoft to help you manage your media files using metadata tags.
The Microsoft involvement means that HighMat favours Windows Media Player 9 and Windows XP over other software, but that is no surprise. The in-line remote control includes a small display, and if you use HighMat the track data will scroll across it.
This is a stunning CD player but it is necessarily quite big compared to the other players in this group. However, it offers very fair value for money.
Company: Creative
Contact: 01189 344322
Company: Archos
Contact: 01264 366022
Company: Philips
Contact: 0870 900 9070
Company: Iomega
Contact: 020 73659527
Company: BenQ
Contact: 01442 301 000
Company: Philips
Contact: 0870 900 9070
Company: Creative
Contact: 01189 344322
Company: Creative
Contact: 01189 344322
Company: Nike
Contact: 0118 944 4400
Company: Rio
Contact: 0118 944 4400
Company: Panasonic
Contact: 08705 357357
Company: LG
Contact: 0870 6075544
