- Multi-format audio/photo/video viewer with 60 GB hard drive
- 2.5-inch LCD screen, TV-out connection (PAL, NTSC)
- Integrated memory card reader, compatible with SD, CompactFlash, Memory Stick and more
- Plays MP3, WMA, AAC audio, AVI, MOV, MPEG-1, MPEG-4 and DivX-5.x video
- Internal rechargeable battery
While at my local Fry's I see it there. I asked the guys there about it and nobody could tell me about it. So I called my brother to look up some user reviews online and they were all positive.
This was enough for me to buy it and take it home. I wasn't planning on opening it until I researched it myself. After finding nothing but positive reviews, I took a chance and opened the package.
This thing is awesome!
I don't own an Ipod, but can give you some differences between them after researching both.
With this media player you do not need special software like Itunes. It is read like an external hard drive on your system because it is an external hard drive. If you have Windows XP or Mac OS 10.1 you don't even need to install drivers. This was a big plus for me. I don't like idea of having extra software on my computer.
You can drag and drop files straight onto the player. You can even add non-media files like text files, etc.
The device supports 7 media cards as well. Ipod does not. You can take pictures on your digital camera and pop your card right in to either view or download. To get photos on Ipod, you need to add them through Itunes.
The MVP9060 even supports many Windows video formats as well as quicktime .mov files. With an ipod, you'll need to buy quicktime pro to convert videos to a usable format that Ipod can read.
The package was also complete with everything I need to get going. It comes with an ac power adapter. With Ipod, you have to charge through usb or buy an additional ac power charger. It comes with the wiring needed to view videos and photos on your TV. You have to buy those separate for Ipod as well.
The only bad thing I have to say is that the color was not a good choice. On the box it looks like a cheap "made in China" toy. Don't let that fool you, it is a wonderful player.
It's also a little bulky, but I couldn't care less. Good luck to you in finding a perfect media player.
Buy Wolverine MVP-9060 60 GB Portable Storage and Multimedia Viewer Now
The Wolverine MVP is a fascinating piece of technology.... rougher around the edges then the video iPod, the current benchmark for Personal Video Players, but still very useful. It is a USB 2.0 device which functions as 60/100gb hard drive, mp3 player and video player. It has a lot of functions which I won't get into there, but will highlight my personal reaction.PRO: (1) uses a 2.5 drive, which means it is probably upgradable, (2) it uses a user replacable digital camera battery which means that battery life is not a problem (I priced them at $5 for generics on eBay, (3) the built-in flash memory card slots work really well and are the best thing about this product.
CONS: (1) the unit is largish but understandable given the drive and slots, (2) the finish is bright red shiny plastic, a bit garnish, but cool in a retro way, (3) the unit locked up a couple of times apparently because of mp3 file format, but I couldn't quite figure it out, (4) same problem with video file formats, won't show some files, but I didn't have it long enought to figure it out.
CONCLUSION: The interface will scare off those used to the iPod's, but it is quite similar to that on the Archos, gMini personal video players. So if you like the styling and the plastic finish, the screen is decent, although not as good as the video iPod. I didn't keep the unit, because I have an iPod for digital camera files and don't need the video functionality. The video output was quite good when hooked up to a screen, although there were artifacts when the scene had a lot of motion.
TIP FOR iTunes OSX users: I used the program SyncTunes to transfer over my mp3 files from my iTunes collection. The playlist didn't make it but the file structure was preserved.
Read Best Reviews of Wolverine MVP-9060 60 GB Portable Storage and Multimedia Viewer Here
When I decided I wanted an mp3 player, I did quite a bit of research because for as much as they all cost, I wanted it to work exactly the way I wanted. I wanted video support and at least 60 gigs of space. I wanted to be able to easily transfer any kind of file from computer to computer. I wanted to use this as a backup/storage device as much as listening to it; so if the hard drive on my PC crashes I can still have my mp3 collection that I can upload back on to a new HD. According to all the reviews I've read the Wolverine seemed to be more dependable and have fewer annoyances.Reasons why I did NOT go with the following brands: (I did not actually own any of these, just did a lot of reading up)
Ipod:
Have to use iTunes to manage your collection and transfer songs; have to convert all mp3's to m4a's.
Have to BUY QuickTime Pro just to convert movies to watch on the iPod, or buy the videos off iTunes (which you cant share with others)
Everyone says the first time you wipe the screen to clean it you see a million tiny scratches.
Quite a few complaints about the system failing after a few months or a year.
Bad technical support reported.
No AC Power adapter included which you need to recharge it.
Not to mention, this is more expensive than all the other brands already.
Battery can only be recharged so many times and you cannot replace it yourself, you have to send it into Apple, pay shipping costs and labor costs for them doing the work, instead of simply being able to buy your own battery and put it in yourself.
Cowon iAudio X5:
Maximum number of files allowed is 10,000. Why make a hard drive that can hold 15,000 songs and limit the number to 10,000? I don't get it. This was my only complaint about this product and I would have seriously considered buying this if it wasn't for that limit.
Creative Nomad Zen Xtra:
Seems to be Discontinued...
Headphone Jack seems to easily break according to reviews
Unit seems to easily break
No Video
Toshiba Gigabeat MEG F60S: (MES60VK wasn't out yet, but looks pretty decent)
No Video
Mp3's must be converted to ".SAT" format and cannot be put back on the computer or on a different computer. Sorry, next brand...
iRiver:
biggest one is 40gig. What a shame. My music collection is 45 gigs and I want some extra space for videos.
Reasons why I like the WOLVERINE MVP-9060 over other players
Plug-and-play & Drag-and-drop. Plug it into a rear USB Port and drag and drop your files just like moving them from one folder to another on the computer. Done. No converting, no software to install, and they transfer pretty quickly. One thing is, the base folders must be organized like \Data, \Media, \Backup, and \System; and \Media is further divided into \Music, \Photos, \Videos, and \Voice. But it's quite self-explanatory and not really a limitation or annoyance.
AC power adapter included.
Replaceable battery.
Audio and Video Jacks included. I didn't even know this at the time but you can hook it straight up to your stereo system and play it through the speakers, and also hook up the screen to your TV while choosing songs and such. (also to watch videos and view pictures) If I'm not mistaken, if you wanted to do this with an iPod you have to buy an entire stereo system just for the iPod that is another $300. Along with buying Quicktime, and a AC Power adapter, you're getting all these features on a Wolverine for $350 and the same features on an iPod would cost you $750, not to mention all your songs, videos and stereo system is all converted to Apple mode and isn't compatible with anything else. No thanks!
For people like me who have massive music collections and want their ENTIRE music collection on their player, they have great hard drive capacities. This unit is available in 60, 80, 100, and 120 gig hard drives. Twice as big as any other company offers. If I had too much money that I knew what to do with I probably would have got the 120 gig one.
The 7-in-1 data card reader is very nice. I dont need to worry about my usb-camera cable or installing the camera software to get my photo's on a pc.
Cons with the WOLVERINE
Bulky compared to other Mp3 players, but still is a good size I think. I used to put a portable CD player in my pocket and this is slightly more than half the size. I have big pockets.
Filenames only display the first 30 characters. This was the main issue for me but I got around it. My files were originally all in one folder named like this: "Artist Album Track # Song Title," so almost all the titles would be cut off in the middle of the album name, sometimes even on the artist name. However, I organized my collection into separate folders for each artist, and if the album names were long, then separate folders for each album. It's much easier to find stuff on my computer now, and on the wolverine too because I couldn't imagine scrolling through 10-15 thousand songs in the same folder, it would take an hour to find what you wanted.
When you put it on "random" it only plays the current folder. To get around this IcemanJ loads every single song into Winamp, shuffles the playlist, takes only the first 100 or 500 songs and saves the playlist IN THE ROOT \MUSIC FOLDER and then COPIES it to the root music folder of the Wolverine. You CANT save it straight to the wolverine because the m3u file will write full filename paths to the music on your computer and it is _most likely_ not in folders called \Media\Music unless you specifically set it up like that. You can do this many times for a different random playlist every day, and delete the old ones when you get more in your collection. It is very simple.
Temporary playlists are kind of weird. You don't want to have everything in the same folder because it will always "pre-load" everything in the folder when you play one song in it and that is unnecessary and probably wasting the battery. You can go to "play in background" and add songs in order when the current one finishes but it still has to finish the folder for the first song you added. So you have to skip to the newest song you added, but only after the first song. Not that big of a deal. I'm just picky.
(Edit, July 30) Took me a month to figure out how to pause a song (simply press the joystick in while listening)
The FPS for the video is noticeably slower than a TV or Computer screen's FPS. And some of my videos don't take up the whole screen, it looks like they could be proportionally enlarged. Oh well.
It displays ID3 Tags, but only ID3v2 so if your mp3 has ID3v1 it won't display.
So far, what I've read has been pretty accurate, and I think the pros outweigh the cons on this unit compared to other brands. I'm satisfied.
Happy Hunting,
IcemanJ
Want Wolverine MVP-9060 60 GB Portable Storage and Multimedia Viewer Discount?
This unit is a very good buy for the price. It gives you the option to play music, videos, and view pictures. The compatability of the picture viewer is pretty complete. It handles many of the different RAW formats as well as all the standard image formats. When viewing the pictures you can see the EXIF data at the bottom of the image (or turn it off if you wish).The interface is very simplistic. It has 7 options at the main menu, Music, Pictures, Video (these three take you into the respective directories on the Hard Disk), Backup which gives you the options for copying data from a data card, Options, Audio Record (from the built in mic, or input on side), and the Wolverine (which directly browses the Hard Disk). When you put in a storage disk an 8th option shows up that allows you to browse that disk just as you do the Hard Disk.
I found that this unit can also open text files and view them.
Play lists are limited, but do work. It allows you to use WinAmp Play lists (maybe others, but I only tried WinAmp), although I have not found a way to create or edit a playlist on the unit itself.
For playing MP3s your only option is to view them in the same format as you would on the computer, folder by folder. The Random play function only plays THAT folder or playlist random, not ALL available. The filename also is limited to about 30 characters, and does not scroll. If your filename is longer then that you will have to play it to find out what it is. If the CDDB data is stored in the MP3 then the unit appears to show it at the bottom of the play screen (Group, Album, Song name). Across the top it shows an Graphic EQ. There is an EQ with built in presets, but I have found that most of them just sound off, I may be a bit more of a purist.
Power managment is very well done. When playing MP3s the unit will read the MP3 into memory then spin down the hard disk. It also appears to read in the first few seconds of the next song to allow to smooth transition into the next song. The display also turns itself off after X seconds and can be reactivated with any key stroke. You can lock the keys with a MENU, Lock Keys option, and unlock with two key presses. They also use a REMOVABLE battery that is similar to those used in digital cameras. Great for carrying a replacment.
Audio is pretty good, and gives good overall responce to highs and lows. I have not had too many problems with something sounding tinny or bassey.
The carrying case, if you can call it that, is HUGE. It over doubles the size of the unit. The whole top half of the clam shell case is the electronics for the speaker and a small 2in diamater speaker. This speaker is not bad for what you get. It has minimal lows (but what can you expect from a 2in speaker) and sounds ok for carrying around.
The unit is also plug and play compatable with Windows ME, 2000 sp3, and XP. When you plug it in the unit is not usable from the player at all, it is only a storage device at that point. Plugged in you see the Hard Disk and the 4 card slots. No extra software needed, very, very nice.
Photo Viewer JPEG/TIFF/BMP/RAW(Most Brands of camera)
Video formats MPEG/MPEG-4/DivX-5.x
Audio formats MP3/WMA/AAC/WAV, M3U Playlist
The MVP has got to be the most feature-laden MP3 player ever conceived. Indeed, it is a video player, an MP3 player, an external hard drive, a repository for digital pictures, a digital voice recorder, a mini boombox, and an ebook reader (of sorts). Put all of this in a garish red package ("Ferrari" red, I was informed by the product rep.), and you could have a Swiss Army knife for the digital guerilla.
In theory, you can use it to play most popular (compressed) video formats, such as MPEG-4 (but not H-264).
You can also copy over almost all non-protected audio formats (pretty much everything except FLAC, Apple Lossless, and RealOne formats). AAC and WMA together on one player at last!!
You can move pictures right from your digital camera's CompactFlash, SD, MemoryStick or whatever, and view them (with zoom and rotate available). The MVP will even display photos shot in most cameras' RAW format. You can selectively erase photos on the camera medium card; files can be copied in both directions using the MVP.
The unit comes with a remote control that can be used not just for playback but for presentations when the unit is hooked up to an external monitor or projector. Not only can audio, still pictures and videos be diplayed, but so can text files.
No special software is needed to transfer files either from camera cards or your computer. In fact, your computer (Windows, Mac, or Linux) will just see the MVP as an external hard drive.
While bearing some resemblance to the Swiss Army knife in red form and metaphorical function, the MVP lacks one basic element that its red Helvetic cousin possesses (OK, besides a toothpick). That is ease-of-use.
I found the MVP's user interface frustrating. No doubt one could get used to using it, but I could not in a hour and I usually catch on to such things quickly. I was never able to successfully get the song or video I wanted on the thing. The controls consist of three buttons, one dial (the volume dial doubles as a zoom for pictures), and a vexing "joystick" like navigator that is intended to control the scrolling through pictures and files, but which simply makes me think of how elegant the iPod interface is in contrast. In addition, the "menu" and "escape" buttons ("back" would have been a nicer, less engineery name for the latter) are located in such a way that it was difficult to touch them without shifting the unit in my hand. This pretty much means that I ended up using BOTH hands to use the unit often.
Rummaging through file folders or a similar heirarchical filing system is more frustrating when in a hurry than the multiple playlist system on an iPod.
For me, the user interface provided enough frustration that I passed on the MVP, despite a hefty discount that was offered at the time of my hands-on demo.
However, the video and audio playback both seemed quite good, and the ability to use the MVP as a camera storage device without any add-ons certainly makes it unique. The company representative who gave me my demo said that they intended the MVP to be something of a substitute for those who would need to take a computer with them on a weekend getaway or vacation. It does seem ideal for that. While it is a bit bulky for pocket carrying, and certainly is not as inconspicuous as other MP3 players, the MVP seems like a good personal entertainment companion for the person who can get used to the user interface.
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