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Hey folks. I'm about to purchase a 6 gig microdrive to add too my HX4700. Just wanted too poke my head around, see if anyone has any major horror stories or warnings. I know its a bit of a battery hog, but it's too tempting to have iPod Mini levels of portable storage for tunes and movies
Bru...
I have the Hitachi 4G microdrive, and have had no issues with it in my e800. My only warning would be to look at it closely when you open the package. The first one I bought was really "chewed" up along the slots on the side that allow insertion into a device or card reader. It still read/wrote fine, but I was worried about the rough plastic, and the fact that if it developed into an issue (ie, not being able to insert) later that anyone would believe that it was not an operator issue vs. a manufacturing issue, so I had it exchanged immediately, and have had no issue with 2 subsequent microdrives.
The battery drain is really no big deal for me, as I keep an charger near me at most times. (Home, work and car with a 4AA battery charger as well for times away from an outlet) It seems to drain the main battery about 5% faster than normal when it is in the device, but not in use, and as much as 20% faster when you are running a program or file from the card. This makes it great for longer term storage of files, since the battery drain is minimal when it is not in use.
Have fun with it!
Hey folks. I'm about to purchase a 6 gig microdrive to add too my HX4700. Just wanted too poke my head around, see if anyone has any major horror stories or warnings. I know its a bit of a battery hog, but it's too tempting to have iPod Mini levels of portable storage for tunes and movies
Bru...
Bru...
I don't want to change your mind if it's made up already, but have you test driven an iPOD yet? I just bought one of the 20GB models as a gift for myself for working so hard on A.I. 2 Where, before, I was struggling along with the PPC and a 1GB card for tunes. Really there is no comparison in sound quality and ease of use for music. If music quality is a consideration, I recommend you at least give one a try.
I let an audiophile buddy of mine listen and he too was amazed by the sound. He said the DAC techonolgy in the iPOD was built by a company that produces $4,000 stand alone DACs. Not that that means anything to me. Just thought I'd relay the message.
Not to mention, yesterday, I was at work and didn't have my iPOD so I fired up the old reliable Axim when out of the blue Pocket Player reported a missing component. Without a sync cradle in site I was left music-less.
I guess it depends on which PPC you have... I have an e800 along with a new Ipod mini... This may sound wierd but the sound quality from the e800 is actually better! There it seems that the sound to noise ratio is better and I can hear all kinds of details which I cannot hear on the Ipod mini with the same headphone ( Bose Triport headphones are soooo goood 8-) )
Maybe I have had the only negative ipod experience in the world, but about 18 months ago I was looking for a HD mp3 player, and bought an ipod, because I wanted to get an Audible.com compatible player. I took it home, and hooked it up to my computer, and got a wierd triangle thingie saying that I could not proceed. I called Apple tech support, who said that the triangle was equivalent to the "blue screen of death" on a pc, except that no one except Apple could recover from it, and I would need to send the unit in for service. Since I had had it for less than 3 hours, I promptly returned to Best Buy and got a different one. I took it home, and danged if the exact same time didn't happen. I thought that perhaps there was a bad batch that had somehow made it to that store, so I went the next day to another BB that was in a different region, and exchanged AGAIN. I got it home, and the exact thing happened again. By this time, I am thinking that somehow I have an ipod curse upon me, or that there was some incompatibility between my hardware and the device or I had some wierd electrical field around me that caused sudden and immediate death of an ipod. I returned it to BB and headed to Gateway, and bough their 20gig HD player, which I have had since, with no compatibility issues.
I did call to Apple exec services, and explain the problem, since the customer service people just treated me like I was stupid or something not to be able to use an ipod and have it work out of the box. I spoke with a very nice lady who confirmed that that triangle is very BAD, and means the unit needs to come for service, and she was shocked that I had 3 in a row like that. She offered me a bunch of accessories and to complete a discounted purchase for me online, but there was no way I was going to buy something online that I had no way to just walk in and replace if necessary, having had so much difficulty already. (I really belive that there was some compatibility issue with my laptop and the ipod which was causing the problem, but I may never know for sure!)
That having been said, I do understand that ipods are great, and that the vast majority of people have no trouble whatsoever with them.
If I was a huge music fan (which I admit, I am not) it would be great. I mostly listen to audiobooks, and the microdrive and my PDA work just dandy for that. You can't play a movie on an ipod (yet) and until I can play movies and/or TV on an ipod with a large HD and large screen, I guess I'll just wait and see what the next ipod generation brings, since there always seems to be a new one in the wings.
Right now, I'm waiting to get a USB host cable for my e800, and then I can have the best of both worlds...I can store whatever I want on a large HD device, and play the files either from the HD player, or store files to play on my PDA. Hopefully then I can use my Gateway player to store my moves and such, and just "load up" and play them back on the e800.
In any case, if you are a true audiophile, then an ipod may definitely be the way to go if you are looking only to store tunes, but if you are looking to store movies, TV and audio and want to watch/listen to them on a PDA, then a microdrive is the way to go!
Maybe I have had the only negative ipod experience in the world...
No, you just reminded me of the night I brought my iPOD home. I plugged it in to charge for awhile and then finally after several hours, I plugged it into the USB port of my computer. Everything installed just fine. iTUNES recognized it an all...I went to sync and not one song would move over! I tried automatic sync, I tried manual. I could not get the songs to move.
I must have stayed up till 2am trying to get the thing to work with no luck.
The following morning it still wouldn't work. I started looking at forums and found some advice that if you put it in a front usb port, try a back one or vice versa. I did that and BAMM..it synced, no problem. Seems a bit strange that the front usb ports don't work for that, but work for everything else, but the back ports do work.
I have actually looked at the iPod's.... but then I'm stuck carting around yet another device, sync cables, chargers etc.... I'd rather have 1 do-it-all device. Plus I like to have a movie or tv episode on hand. I don't doubt that the iPod could have superiour sound quality, but I find my Hx4700 is damn nice... especially with a decent set of headphones, I have 0 complaints.
Not to mention I've been know to knock down bit rates to stash more tunes
Bru...
Personally, what I've noticed for me is that since the mp3 movement came along, I really don't enjoy music as much as I used to. I did what a lot of people did and that's convert my whole cd collection to 128 kbps and put the CDs in a closet.
Recently, I pulled those cds back out and re-ripped them at 192kbps wma and started listening on my Axim. I started hearing more, the highs were more vibrant and the lows were more "heart thumping". My enjoyment went up. Now with the ipod, having re-ripped much of my collection AGAIN to 192kbps I am hearing even more detail and clarity. Thus, I am enjoying music again. Last night I popped in the earphones and listened a bit before bed. If I didn't force myself to remove the headphones, I would have been up all night - just listening.
The axim may not be the best comparison device to use, because like many axim owners, mine was plagued with a constant hiss.
One thing I've noticed a lot on many forums is people complainin about the hissing you hear on headphones when they are plugged into various ppc's. My experience has been that while there is no music playing, then you can hear a hiss, if the volume is up.. but the second I start playnig music, it disappears... or at the very least, becomes unnoticiable.
Its not like there is an overtone on every song.. hte only hiss I've noticed is when theres nothing playing... anyone else?
Bru...
For me, the hiss was there all the time unless I used some sennheiser headphones that had an inline volume control. I would have to adjust it to volume midpoint on the headphones and have the volume set at 1/2 or below on the Axim not to hear it. I've had bluetooth setups that were easier to configure than that. It shouldn't be that way.
Sounds like one of your volume settings is too high and another too low. Any one parameter too high and you get amplified hiss in any device with that much control. I have the X50v and Emulators hardware EQ. I set master volume at about 2/3 and headphone volume at a comfortable level. If I am using Betaplayer, it has a third volume control. All must be considered for possible causes. The ipod has the same chip but less control over volume and EQ. That means less chance for wrong settings but less control over improved settings as well. I just got a Dell DJ30 and it too sounds decent but little control. It is nice, though, with the DJ30, to have 12+ hours of battery, FM tuner with 12 presets, FM recording, voice recording, and 185 CD's of music and only be 1/3 full.
To squirm my way back on topic, a 6 gig drive would be nice but I agree it should not be rough or damaged looking out of the box. I would think it would be best used when you have an extra battery or a way to plug it in.
Well....this morning, my 4gig microdrive worked fine. A few hours later, while waiting for my clothes to come out of the dryer, my e800 was showing n/c (indicating no card present) for the CF slot. Preturbed, but not dismayed, I restored from last nights backup, thinking that somehow the soft reset I had done earlier in the day may have annoyed some program or other.
Unfortunately, the same result. I took it home, and slipped it into my card reader, and...NOTHING. No response at all. Not even that the card was empty, it just would not read. Then I tried an external card reader, and nada.
I tried a different CF card in the PDA, and it read just fine, and so did the other card readers.
So, off to search the Hitachi website for contact info, and called Customer Service. The asked for the serial number on the drive, and came back to tell me that the serial number I had was for an OEM drive. When I said, WHAT??? They tried to explain what OEM meant. I in turn explained that I bought the drive from CompUSA. They wanted me to fax not only the proof of purchase from the store, but also to photocopy the drive itself, and fax that. (First time I've ever heard of that!)
I asked if we could try any troubleshooting, since the dang thing worked a few hours ago, and he said that if it could not be read in multiple readers/devices, then it was dead, and nothing would do except to replace the drive. I asked why it might just decide to die for no apparent reason...I had not dropped, immersed or microwaved the thing after all.
He just said it had moving parts, and that "these things happen."
Then, they that after receiving my faxes, the RMA department would get back to me in a few days, and if approved, they would send me shipping instructions (Not in the same packaging I bought it mind you...that apparently is not good enough, I would have to find a plastic foam envelope that would fit the device snugly for shipping. Then, after they received the drive, they would check their US stock, and if they had it in the US, I should receive a replacement within 14 business days. If they did not have it in US stock, it would have to come from overseas, which would take longer.
I decided to call CompUSA. I was about 3 weeks past their 21 day return policy, but heck, anything was better than, maybe you'ss get a new drive in a month or so, depending on stock. Well, I spoke with the manager, and he asked if I had the original packaging and receipt, which I did. (Because of experiences like this, I have a tendancy to keep the packaging for most products tucked away.) He said it would be no problem to exchange it. I drove over, and I had a new drive in about an hour.
This is again, why I advocate purchasing some products at brick and mortar stores. I do shop online as well, but usually for items that are less likely to have mechanical issues, or that have a physical location to make a return if necessary.
I'll have to see how it goes with this drive...I have no clue what happened to it. The only thing I can think of, is that I fell asleep with beta player running an audiobook (but I had the PDA on AC power, so that should not have been an issue. I never did turn the device off tho, until I woke up this morning, and realized that I had left it on. The screen froze up on my when I tried to close beta player, and I soft reset, but that has happened before. Everything was fine after that, and I was getting the correct reading from the memory status indicator for the drive as well.
Let's hope this one lasts longer than 6 weeks!
For those who are interested, my 6gig drive arrived late yesterday and is now home too 1200 songs and a few episodes of a certain soon-to-be-cancelled sci-fi show I have missed. God its sweet to be able to carry that much media.
Slipped in like a charm, no marks on the device as JDTagish had mentioned in a previous post.. mind you, seems like it would be a bitch to try to get out
So far so good... I'm quite happy!
Bru...
Without a sync cradle in site I was left music-less.
It shouldn't be that way.
Linear Mode
