Product Description

Coby MP300-4GBLK MP3 player 4 GB flash memory and USB drive with LCD, high-contrast LCD display with 7-color backlight, plays MP3 and WMA digital music files, ID3 tag support for song information display, mobile data storage function, convenient integrated USB plug( no cables required), USB 2.0 hi-speed for fast file transfers, black

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3395 in Consumer Electronics
• Color: black
• Brand: Coby
• Model: MP300-4GBLK
• Platforms: Mac, Windows
• Format: CD
• Dimensions: 1.10" h x 3.58" w x .75" l, .88 pounds

Features

• MP3 player with LCD 4 GB flash memory and USB drive
• high-contrast LCD display with 7-color backlight
• plays MP3 and WMA digital music files, ID3 tag support for song information display, mobile data storage function
• convenient integrated USB plug( no cables required)
• USB 2.0 hi-speed for fast file transfers

Customer Reviews

Works well for what I want
I had one just like this with only(!) 2GB only it was a Rixxo Mambo brand. The functionality was identical though the buttons are differently placed. My son broke his (he's not real gentle with stuff) so I gave him mine and bought this. It plays MP3s and WMAs very well. I use it through my car radio (external input on the front) and it sounds beautifully clear and clean. It also plays podcasts very nicely so that when you turn it off then on in the middle of one it picks up exactly where it left off - almost to the syllable. Doubles as a USB drive if you mistreat it as my son did and break a button.

It also claims the ability to delete songs without going to iTunes or WMP on your computer and the ability to jump to different folders according to the well written instructions though I don't use those features since I just want to hear whatever I put on in any old order. Since it is about 1/4-th the cost of the 4GB iPod or Zune I am quite happy with it.

The output connector is at one of the ends so the headphone jack goes in straight with the body. This makes it easy to fit in my pocket when I'm at the gym listening through my big Sennheiser headphones. Next to the headphone jack is a small ring for some thin thread or wire or something so you can attach some holder.

4GB is about 1,000 MP3 tunes for me at 160-192 Kbps, tunes being 2 to 12 minutes long, mostly 3 minutes. That is a lot, and I'm finally getting to hear my 3 star selections instead of the same 500 5-star selections.

I had some trouble with WMP at first not seeing some of the tunes I had loaded from my other computer so I reformatted it as if it were an external drive (which it is) and reloaded everything and then it was fine. Likely a WMP issue.

The connection to the computer is USB 2.0 and it connects like a USB drive - take off one end protector and stick the whole thing in. It also has a USB cable if the angles are wrong for sticking it directly in.

Easy to Use
The MP3 player is easy to use. Although it's a MP3 player, it's still a memory stick so to think of it as only a MP3 player will make it difficult to figure out how to use.

When putting songs into the player, the order the songs are put in is the order they will appear. If Track 2 is put before Track 1, Track 2 will be played before 1. If you want to play songs according to the album or artist, you have to make a folder first. After putting the songs in their respecitive folders, it's simple to have them played. Let's say you want to play the folder where the artist is XYZ. First, play a song in that folder. Second, go to the menu, then settings, then select Dir normal, in which Dir stands for Directory. The player will then ONLY play songs in that folder. If you picked, dir repeat or dir shuffle, ONLY songs in that folder will be repeated or shuffled, depending on which option you picked.

If you think of it as only a MP3 player, you will never be able to figure out out to get it to work. You need to think of it as a memory stick first and MP3 player second.

zero navigation
According to the manufacturer, this player "supports" ID3. What that means in practice is that it will display some of the ID3 information when it plays a track.

As far as i can tell (and i've scoured the Coby web site and searched the web for info), there is no way to use the ID3 information for *navigation*. (Compare the Sansa machines, for example, with menus that list albums by Artist, or by Title. And that *order the tracks within an album* correctly.)

So i now have a player that is loaded with several hundred tracks, in essentially random order. (I have a folder structure--by artist, then by album--in place, but the machine doesn't list the tracks in order within a folder, nor does it seem to provide "play this folder" capability.)

The manufacturer's website is useless. If i don't soon find out how to access my content in a rational way--and i've already wasted 2 hours too many of my life on this--i'm going to throw this machine into the garbage.