Samsung YP-T8X 512 MB Music & Movie Player

• Lightweight, portable multimedia audio and video player with 512 MB flash memory
• Plays music (MP3, WMA, Ogg Vorbis), videos (MPEG-4), and still photos (JPEG)
• FM tuner with recording capability and voice recorder; line-in recording to MP3
• 1.8-inch LCD screen; customizable EQ with 3D virtual surround sound settings
• Rechargeable battery; measures 1.7 x 3.3 x 0.6 inches (W x H x D); 1-year warranty

Samsung really put together an impressive package here. Plenty of features make this device an extremely attractive alternative to the pricey iPods.

There are only three negatives I'll give this little wonder:

1. Confusing navigation. One would think the NAVI button on the front bottom center of the device would control the main menu. Alas, it's the obscure little button on the right side. Until you had the device long enough to memorize which button to press, and when... and for how long, you'll find yourself accidentally navigating out of, rewinding, or advancing past various features. It's also notoriously easy to unwittingly wipe all your radio presets.

2. The FM tuner isn't the greatest. OK, but not great. It does, however, allow you to record and even create scheduled timed FM recordings.

3. This dang device says "DIGITAL AUDIO PLAYER" right across the front of it. Had I not done extensive online shopping before I went to the store to buy this sucker, I'd never have known about its fantastic multimedia capabilities (not even the know-it-all sales clerk at the department store knew it could even play video).

That being said, I think this device is fantastic and my post-purchase impression is nothing short of excellent. No buyer's remorse here, folks.

Although somewhat time-consuming, ripping one of my DVDs and converting it to the Samsung proprietary format necessary for viewing on the YP-T8X is relatively easy using free tools available on the web (you have to rip the DVD, convert to mpg, then to an svi file). A two-hour plus movie can easily fit in its 512Meg memory. The 4:3 TFT screen provides great viewing resolution, and battery life is way more than sufficient to watch a full-length film more than a match for poor video iPod.

The sound is excellent with a wide variety of preset and customizable equalizer and 3D options.

Start with a great mp3 player. Add full-length movie capabilities, an FM tuner, text viewer, voice/radio recorder, motion-sensing games (you tilt the unit and it follows the motion way cool), and image viewer and you have one heckuva little powerhouse. Only the frustrating navigation system kept me from giving this 5 stars.

Buy Samsung YP-T8X 512 MB Music & Movie Player Now

I currently own a 2GB Ipod Nano and just recently purchased the Samsung YP-T8X (to play videos). In my opinion, the Samsung is a superior product. The 1.8" screen is fantastic. The colors are rich and vibrant and the sound quality blows my Nano away. I chose to purchase the 512MB player instead of the 1GB, because I haven't even used half of the Nano's storage space yet.

However, I haven't looked twice at my Nano since purchasing this player. My only regret is not purchasing the 1GB player and that Samsung's 2GB (YP-T8A) version isn't available yet in the US. What a pity!

This player is an excellent choice for those with smaller media collections. If Samsung makes the 2GB version available in the US, I'm ditching the Nano altogether.

To those who ask the question, Is 512MB really enough space for anything? The answer is yes. I've been able to get music, photos, text and video (converted to smaller format) on the player and still have more than half of the storage left.

However, if you have a huge multimedia library (which you wish to carry around with you all the time) 512MB or 1GB is not going to be suitable for your needs.

Read Best Reviews of Samsung YP-T8X 512 MB Music & Movie Player Here

I was looking for an MP3 player with the ability to do timed digital recording of FM broadcasts. It's amazing how this feature pretty much clears the table of possibilities I wouldn't have thought it would be so hard to do: lots of MP3 players have clocks, and lots of MP3 players have FM tuners, but very few have the ability to set up the player like a radio version of a VCR to record broadcasts. After a lot of searching, I concluded that there were not a lot of choices, and of those, I liked the YP-8X the best.

My first impression was that the box came with a nice set of accessories: all of the cords, a neoprene cover, a set of ok earbuds, and a lanyard for wearing it around ones neck. The MP3 player itself looks like a small cell phone that's missing it's keypad. Powering it on, there's a intro splash screen that takes longer to complete than it should and then you get the MP3 player function playing one of the two songs included by Samsung.

The controls aren't bad, but they aren't great either. Nothing comes close to an iPod for navigation in my opinion, and Samsung, like the others, has a fair bit of catching up to do. The menus are a bit confusing at first, the controls not immediately intuitive. Hold down the menu button for a while to get the main menu, a short while to get to a sub menu. I often don't hold down long enough and end up in the sub-menu. I am often hitting the volume adjustment when I mean to be flipping songs. It's not a bad interface, but it takes getting used to.

The sound is very good. The maximum volume level can best be described as extremely loud. The volume goes from 1 to 40, and most of the time I find myself with it set to 12-15 and it being comfortably loud. I can't imagine what 35 must sound like. The quality of the sound is good. It comes with an audio enhancement feature called DNSe and I found this added too much of a reverb effect, while no enhancement at all made it sound a bit washed out. I played with the equilizer for a while and came up with something that sounds good with my headphones and I'm more than content with the quality of the sound.

I haven't tried the video yet, but the photo quality is good. It's fun to have pictures in the MP3 player and it's a fairly easy task to take them out of our digital photo album and put them into the player with the included software.

As far as the FM quality and the FM recording capability that I so desperately wanted, it's good. I'm content. The FM tuner does a better job than several others that I own (like the one in my cell phone) at pulling in stations while inside of buildings. It has a tendency to change volume levels randomly a bit, but I'll take volume adjustments over white noise and the tuner does a good job overall. I recorded a couple of radio shows tonight and the quality from those is excellent. I can record daily, weekly or on one off occassions.

The games are a bit silly the motion detector/accelerometer is an interesting gimmmick, but the games are a bit slow paced. Lastly, 512MB feels small nowadays. I grabbed a couple of albums, a handful of digital photos and a small video and before I knew it I was cutting back to save room for FM recordings. I wish they made this in at least 1GB, but preferably 2GB.

Overall it's a bit big for what it is, the navigation takes some getting used to and 512MB seems like not enough, but the actual operaiton of the device works well and it does it's job competently. I would recommend this to anyone who really wants to be able to record FM, but for anyone who just wants an FM MP3 player, or just a plain MP3 player, there are better ones out there in my opinion. Comparing this to an iPod Nano especially in terms of storage, interface and price it comes out poorly, but if you want FM and can't live without it (like me), then this is a good alternative.

Want Samsung YP-T8X 512 MB Music & Movie Player Discount?

I bought the Samsung YP-T8X a week ago at Best Buy and it is amazing! I think they should call it something like an Entertainment Player or something instead of Digital Audio Player because it can do so much more than play audio. The videos actually come out really good on the screen. I just added a few music videos and recorded tv shows and they work great. It may seem like 512MB is not enough for videos, but once you convert them to the format required to play, the file size shrinks because the video isn't as big anymore. The photos and music and games are also great. I love how the games use motion instead of just pushing buttons. The battery also lasts a long time, 20 hours. The only time it runs out fast is when you use the USB host feature to connect another device to it, because the player is powering both itself and the device, which the manual clearly explains. Overall, I am very satisfied with my new player!

I got the 1gb version, and my friend also got one. It's only about $20 more. This mp3 is soooo much better than the Ipod in my opinion. It has games, can be plugged to cameras or thumb drives to transfer files, and mainly it can play movies. If you have hundreds upon hundreds of songs, than yes, you wanna get an ipod. But if you want all of the features I stated above, than go with the YP-T8z. It cheaper than the ipod and has a lot more features.