COBY PMP7040 7" TFT Portable Media Player w/40 GB HDD & Video Recording

• 40 GB Built in hard disk drive/7" TFT LCD
• Built in stereo speakers/Digital voice recording
• Video Payer:MPEG 4/Audio Player: MP3 and WMA/Photo Viewer: Jpg and BMP
• Digital preset EQ's (normal, rock, jazz, classic, & pop)
• Video recording function

I don't care much a bout a bad menue... (but this is the first piece of electronics that ever gave me instructions in pidgeon English.)

I don't care much a bout the slow start. So, it takes a few moments to boot. So does a PC. So what?

What I DO care about is wether it can do the job or not, and it is sadly lacking it it's ABILITY to play back video. Come on! The screen jerks twice per second no matter what you play back and that just gives me a headache, and I normally don't get headaches. I can't take 5 minues, and with a recoding time of 150 hours, I really don't want ot go there. Video output to a larger screen is the same.

Many are used to jerky video from the internet, but that is more or less ramdom jerks. This does it at 2hz, yes, twice per second and it won't stop. I loaded the video files onto my PC and they play back fine. I suspect the unit just does not have the necessary horsepower to decode the MP4 files (AVI extension) AND render video smoothly at the same time. The video I am talking about was recorded BY THE UNIT, so it should at least be able to play back smoothly. Alas, no. I wasted $300 on the thing, please don't make the same mistake.

Don't get me wrong, if you want to view pictures or listen to music, it can do what they say it does, but overall you're better off with a stack of discs and a portable DVD player, or even a laptop Pc with an optical drive.

My advice is to not buy any PMP unless you can see it working. In the end, it's how it works that you should care about.

I read so many reviews before buying and NOBODY mentioned the choppy video. I hope that this helps even one person out there to avoid this piece of dung.

One thing I wanted to know that nobody said anything specific about was could I use a flash drive to play video off of? The answer is "no". What it does is load the files from the flash drive (or other USB storage device) and let you play it from the built-in HD. Othersie, it works well as a 40 gig USB drive for a PC, and that is what I'll be using it for, if at all. Now I need to find a GOOD video player. Let me know if you find one!

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Have had the Coby for about a month, including travel with it. No other unit on the market compares. Yes, it can be slow to start but no biggie. Have 130+ episodes of our favorite TV series and picture is outstanding. Indexing can be a bit flaky. Battery life is totally outstanding... no comparison to the other PMP's that quit before some movies and finished. AC adapter is a bit bulky... hey Coby how about a small switching supply?? Only gripe is that there appears to be no spare battery available anywhere. Coby is mute on this after two different emails. Am trying their tech support to see if they respond. Expect them to issue a firmware update to fix the few bugs.

Look for great prices here on Amazon...

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Good product in general. Could be better if it would recognize more video formats and would have a way for continuous file playing.

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I have had my coby for 3 months. It does take about 30 seconds 2 boot, which is not a big deal 2 me. It plays the movies that show up on it very well, that's if they show up in the players list. And this is my biggest beef i have with it. It will play some mpeg2 and not others, even tho they were recorded with the same source. I have no clue what it likes about some of them and not the other. So i convert them to mpeg1 and they all will play, strange hmmm. Picture quality is excellent. The screen is bright and color rich. Once u get use to the controls it is pretty easy to get a round. I do wish it had a remote. Battery life is excellent. I can watch 2 movies without recharging. The music player seems to work well. But i only have about 200 songs on mine. I use it 4 movies more than music. Over all i am pleased because i got it at a steal of a price. But it definitely needs a firmware upgrade to work out the corks.

This PMP is slow to start, but then it seems to work well. It does tend to lose track of the mp3 files though. Sometimes they are there and sometimes not. We use it for movies on the go and it works great for that. I do think it's a bit overpriced for the quality.