Virgin Electronics 5GB MP3 player
posted October 12th 2004 12:05AM
We had the chance to get a first look at Virgin Electronics' new MP3 player (yes, they're called Virgin Electronics
now). Aimed squarely at the iPod mini market, the new Virgin player is of a similar small size, although it packs
a little more storage space at 5GB, and also sports some nice new features that show the people at Virgin are
listening. First off, the FM tuner is, at this point, an obvious thing to include, and those who don't include
them are either stubborn or they're Apple. Another feature - that they didn't even point out to us, no less - is
the inclusion of two headphone out ports for sharing music. To us, that's cool as heck, and makes those intimate
moments when you want to share a groovy song with a loved one so much more accessible. Another nice touch is a
pressure-sensitive interface that allows you to scroll through songs slow or fast; while it's not a jog wheel, it gets
the job done pretty well. We were able to get some shots of it for size comparison, and one thing you might
notice is that the design of the Player makes it look like a close relative to Sony's now-defunct T300 phone.
Expect it to hit stores before Christmas for $249. Click to see some more action shots.
Two headphone out ports on the actual device. That's a brilliant idea.
Kap
Anyone know who actually makes ths player? Mfg of HD? Thanks
virgin's electronics line (previously "pulse") has had two headphone jacks on all of their audio devices since they first came out a year or two ago. nothing new, really. still, a good idea, and something that the big guys should catch up on.
to me, 1gb more of storage, an fm tuner, and 2 headphone jacks are all things i would love to have in my mini. but, i wouldn't get this plastic, tacky looking thing just to get those features- especially when it's at the same price.
I love the Virgin Electronics brand. Their noise cancelling headphones for $40 are great. We need more companies that push the boundaries of features on devices and not just stick with the norm.
gosh that's fugly, it's probably aimed at the kinder-surprise market, no one that has taste would buy that over an iPod Mini
5gb is a faily strange number so this could be the first sight of Seagate's new T1 5gb 1 inch drives. Wonder if they'll work in my digital camera? :)
When one of these small payers has an FM tuner/FM transmitter, mic/line in mic for voice recording, 5gb storage PLUS at least one compact memory reader (or even a micro 5+1 slot) and a color screen with some silly games like SnakeIII on it - then Im buyin'!
Ok, this device has an FM tuner and 2 headphone jacks. First off, how often will I be using 2 headphone jacks? The FM tuner is nice but I don't think it makes up for the ugly appearance of the device. I personally have a 40 gig ipod because 4 or 5 gigs is not enough. But if that 1 extra gig over the mini is important to you then check out the Rio Carbon. It is pretty cool looking and comes from a more trusted name in the MP3 player industry.
What if I want to listen to something on AM? I like to switch of the music and tune in the local sports radio station every once in a while...
Looks pretty cheap and plastic-like. Would rather get an iPod mini, Samsung 5GB, or better yet, the Creative Zen Micro.
What counts when launching any new device in this segment is design, design, design.... see Apple, and their smashing success... design is what matters first and foremost. This new Virgin player looks like a cheap cellphone... it's crap.
...it doesn't matter oogly how it looks, it's the sound quality that counts, right? Mind you, I'm holding a regular iPod in my hands as we speak and quite frankly I don't think there will be a design from anyone that can defeat's Apple's domination of industrial design and minimalism.
yeah id go for the new ZEN - who ever said the ipod was goog looking - it looks crap just like the new imac... they're loosing their touch.
When a company has to put in 2 headphone out on their player to induce people to buy, you know there's bound to be a problem somewhere down the line with the hardware, maybe when one headphone jack is toast, you can have a backup. And radio? The reason people have a thousand or so songs in their pockets or car is not to have to listen to the crap on radio, country music stations, talk shows about nothing etc. And design, still, unless you totally have no taste whatsoever, then run out to get one of these 'toys', that's right, it looks nothing more than a toy, seriously uncool piece of c#@p. Whoever spends this much dough on such a gimmick is bound to regret it down the road, do yourselves a favor, get an iPod or something else. Why should we buy mp3 players from a company that's into selling airline tickets as well?
Apple's ipod is way sturdier, cooler, and better. Aluminum Casing, Cool Design, and better because the os on it is amazingly simply-you can figure it out in seconds! Sorry but also apple is coming out with even more ipods so be ready for flash ipods and color screen ipods for christmas!
Jon Lim's comments above, display a hostility that is vitriolic and, dare I say, asinine.
The Virgin Player may not work for him/her but will probably work for many other people. Particularly people like me that want to be able to buy music unencumbered by proprietary software i.e. Apple iTunes. NOTE: you can only download music from the Apple site, no other sites.
And remember, Virgin is one of the most respected companies in the music business.
"NOTE: you can only download music from the Apple site, no other sites."
Everyone knows that's just totally wrong, right?
I have never used the iTunes music store with my iPod. I have filled it up with digitized and found MP3s, Wavs, and plenty of other non-DRM formats. Perhaps you are confusing the iPod and the sony devices?
AM radio would be a big plus. And the ability to record from the radio, with a record button or timer (would love to record Coast to Coast AM on a timer). A TV audio tuner would also be nice, when you're working out and want to listen to the news.
Mark Rush - Apple losing touch, you must be joking. If you like apple or not no one can argue that they are the market leader and it's not by chance. They have the complete package, some of the other MP3 players look good as well, but they don't come with iTunes and are not as easy to use as the iPod. As for your remark on the G5 being UGLY, i suppose that old beige box the size of a suitcase has more style. You should go to spec savers.
Even if the Virgin Player isn't very good looking...with a storage space at 5GB , two head phone and a tuner FM,Virgin Player can become a serious rival to Apple.
I agree that it is an ugly looking player and at an MSRP price of $249 it is not at all competitive with either Ipod or the new Creative Zen Micro. Suspect it will have to be discounted substantially in order to be sold.
for all the people that think the ipod mini is better you are wrong! in every catagory the vigin beats it. it has two head-phone jacks, fm radio, 1200 songs, smaller, not as heavy...Everything i listed the virgin can do that and the ipod mini doesnt. it may not look that good but it is better. and i am getting it.
It's definitely NOT the first instance of the Seagate 5GB 1-inch hard drive. We know at the least Seagates are also in the Dell DJ5, the Rio Carbon, the Creative Zen Micro, and the Olympus mrobe
I really do like this player from Virgin, it has something that the iPod mini won't have - exclusivity. That and the fact the person who bought it dared to think outside of the [apple] box.
My biggest concern is not the design, the features or the brand it's the price. For about £10-£20 more in the UK I can get a Creative Zen Touch which although bigger is a 20gig unit as opposed to 5gig. Do the math. The market these companies should be chasing now is people who already have a main MP3 player and want a smaller unit for the gym or jogging. $250 is too much to pay for a bit of miniaturisation imo.
OK, I'm going to stick my neck in the guillotine here and speculate as to why the Sam Hill anyone would want an FM tuner as a feature when the point of owning an MP3 player (IMO, anyway) is so that you don't have to listen to whatever is on the radio?
The first virgin 5GB player I got spontaneously deleted all of my music after 1 week, and then got completely messed up about a week later and would freeze my computer every time I plugged it in. I returned it, and the new virgin player I got did the same thing! Any mp3 player that would spontaneously delete songs after 1 week is using inferior technology. Do not buy this product!
If I were to buy this Virgin 5GB, how would I get music?
Also if I were to get an ipod, do I have to use iTunes and pay for my music?
My mp3 player is not working properly and i was wondering how i could make it work. I can get to the home page but when i go to select my music, it says its not there. It has not been droped it just stoped working one day.
I cannot believe what a hassle this crappy player has been! I finally got my music loaded onto it after 2 weeks of trying over and over...What a pain! I had to call Customer Service, I reformatted the drive a bunch of times, had to uninstall and reinstall software and copy to player...A NIGHTMARE! And of course this troubleshooting has ran me past Best Buy's 30 day return policy! I even had my IT guy here at work play with it--he got my playlists on the player, and the next day when my husband was listening to it, all the songs suddening ERASED!! WTF?!?! And now, if you haven't noticed, Virgin does not have phone support..all tech support must be done via email and I can't tell you how many emails I've sent already! I'm SO DISSATISFIED!! I would have bought a Creative Zen had I known the extra $$ would have paid for itself just not having to deal with this BS
Yep, Virgin Electronics is dead. We’ve just gotten confirmation from their PR rep that the company failed to receive additional funding from parent Virgin Group and that they’re quietly discontinuing all of their product lines (mainly MP3 players and portable speakers). They definitely did not get all sentimental about ending things—it’s only been about five months since they first introduced their 5GB MP3 Player, so we’re guessing sales must have been way, way worse than they’d expected. Anyway, if you did happen to buy one of their products, the rep made it clear that they will continue honor all warranties.
This device looks extremely plastic-like, along with crappy. Its so ugly. Virgin electronics won't make it anywhere with this thing. If you are looking for a mp3 player that has style i recomend the Olymps M:Robe100 or 500 model. Ig you want the best performing mp3 player stick with the iPod. I would never pay that price for this disgusting piece of sh*t. Thats all I have to say.
What a god awful piece of garbage. I have been putzing with this POS for a month now. I have tried moving the playlist from the software to the MP3 player, and all of the transfers fail. I tried pasting all of my MP3's in to the device via windows explorer, and the device would read "transferring", then the MP3's would actually show up in the "F" (the player) drive thru "my computer", tho they never actually show up in the MP3 player. I have deleted them re-added them, countless times. I reconnect the MP3 player up to the computer and open and sure enough the songs show up there, but they dont show up in the MP3 player.
This thing is horrible, STAY AWAY!!!
The "2 headphone sockets" idea was used on the Sony Walkman - the original, pale blue case and orange buttons Mk.1 Walkman. In the early 1980s... It even had a small mic on the side, not for recording, but for talking over the music. The instruction manual had 2 cartoon characters, both wearing Walkman headphones, with the talk button pushed in, one saying "I Love You" to the other.
The second ever Sony Walkman was the size of a cassette box (after hundreds of clones hit the market, Sony had to innovate to stay ahead) and didn't have the microphone, but it had a "mute" button on the headphone cable. I don't remember if it had 2 sockets or not.
My point? The original Walkman had this feature, but Sony discontinued it over the years. Presumably this was due to it costing too much to implement in every device, and not enough people using it. If I was doing 2 headphones out of one player device, "Y" splitters and extension cables are easily available.
As for radio - I rarely listen to radio, but if there was a new album release, or an interview with studio guests, I'd tune in. Or maybe I might want to listen to the news, or sports results...
Another practical reason to have a radio is if the battery gets too low to spin a CD or a HDD, you will have enough power left for radio listening. In a solid state player, the FM/AM tuner should draw less power than reading RAM and decoding MP3.
You might not have your choice of tunes, but if you are on a long bus/train journey, having something to listen to will be better than nothing!
On the Bright Side.. I found it for only $99.00 So really you can take a chance since the Mini is still $200.00
(the link for the $99 is "www.*eek.Com" - I filtered the G for folks who don't like Ads in the Postings!
It's on sale in one of the booths at the trade centre, Hall B, at the CNE in Toronto until Sept 5, 05 for $ 99 CDN. It has a 30 day warranty.
My friend bought one and it blows. It'll let you copy songs to it but they don't show up in your playlist. Same thing happened to him happened to Captain Stu. It's not worth 99 dollars.
U'RE ALL RETARDED!!!!
I think the virgin 5GB mp3 player rules, all the features work great and to put music u cannot simpily drag and drop but u must use windows media player, go to sync then bassically sync the songs onto the player! IT WORKS SO GET ONE!! I got it for 100 dollars CDN so it's well worth my money!
The instructions are quite clear about how to put music on the player. You need to install the software, which integrates itself into Microsoft Media Player. You can then use MMP Sync to transfer your music to your player. It's a bit of a hassle, but it works.
I'm using my player with Sony MDR-EX51LP Fontopia headphones and it sounds great, especially classical music. If it wasn't for the sound quality, I would have returned the player.
There is no resume play which is a pain, especially with long recordings.
Anyone, how do I record voice on my Virgin 5GB mp3? Thank you.
I've been playing around with my Virgin for a couple of days. Crappy software and a messed up system ruined a good idea! If only you could make directories and drag and drop files to the player.
Does anyone know how to make playlist files for this player? It would be great if I had different playlist to chose from. Not just last played or most recently played. It would be cool not to have to setup the player everytime I turn it on. I wish it would just startup with the way I programed it the last time I used it, at the same place or song I last played.
I had a hard time putting music on the drive with WinMedia player 10. Note WinMedia player no longer has device drivers for the player. After a reformat and reloading of firmware. Plus upgrading RealPlayer 10 with Harmony. I was able to sync music to the player. Finally a good use for RealPlayer!!!
I've not had a chance to check the battery life on the player. I do notice it will say it is fully charged, but when you plug the ac cord back in it willl start charging again.
Haven't decide yet if I will keep this player. It is a refurb from the Geeks,it was 99 bucks but I had a deal code, so it was only 89 plus shipping.
One last thing is there any user made firmware for this player? Or can I use firmware from another player on the this device? This would be a great machine if only.......
Hi there Yeadon 563, could you please tell me how to get this thing working after a reformat?? Mine would download music OK but then it would say cannot find music (what's up???), so I reformatted and all I get now is problem with hardrive message. This MI4 type file how do I put this in a root directory?? I'm a computer dummy as you can see. Thought I did this right but striking out! I'm really starting to hate this thing!!!!! Thanks sir or anyone who can help.
Hi, you need to make a system folder on the drive. Then copy PP5020.MI4 in the folder. Also make sure you have Windows Explorer setup to see hidden folders. Go to tool,folder options, click view and choose show hidden files and folders.
When you have PP5020.MI4 in the system folder be sure to press and hold the home button. After awhile you should see the 5gb sign. You will have to reload your music.
I also found a way for you to group your music on the player. You just have to change the ID3 Tags of your songs.
I burn my songs to Cd-rs. So first I use Jet Audio to turn my MP3s into WMA files. I use 128 I get a smaller size and can put more files on the drive.
Then I open up MusicMatchJukeBox. Add the songs I've conveted to my music libary. I then highlight all the files in the libray and edit the ID3 Tags. This time I used the genre type making all the songs of one genre. That way I can add as many cds as I want and have them in different genres.
When I get tired of the music I have on the player now I am going to try to just take the songs on the cdrs. And just make them an album name.
It is not like a playlist, but I never used a playlist with my other player either.
Hey are you able to use WinMedia player 10 to sync music? It does not work for me. I have to use RealAudio Player 10 to sync. When I go to Windows Media to get a device drive the Virgin Player is not even listed.
hths
Yeadon563
PS: In case you don't know how to make a folder. In My Computer open the Virgin device. Found the Window choose File then New then make new folder. Name it System.
I got a unit at the PNE in Vancouver, which is only open for the last two weeks of the summer. I got my unit on the second last day of the PNE and following the third day, just after my first actual full day of use. The unit DIED!!!
I've been contacting virgin support but they're a sh!t load of help... If anyone has any suggestions please post it...
I am getting the messege: "Oh Dear, This Hard Drive Isn't Working Properly Seek Help: " when I turn on the unit .... PLEASE!!! someone help me... I'm desperate to get my unit working...
I have tried almost everything... and I'm pretty peev'd that it died on me on the third day...
~J
Jewelz, You need to do a reformat then reinstall the software and firmware. Go to the Virgin site and download all the software for the player. You'll need the firmware PP5020.MI4. There is also a updated bootloader and of course the musicloading software for Windows.
Make a system directory on the Player and copy the MI4 file to it. After that make sure you press the home button. You should get the 5gb sign when it reboots.
To not get that hard drive message make sure you don't disconnect the usb cord when it says it is transfering. Before you disconnect it from your computer always remember to press the home button. You should have no problems then.
Anyone know of a user group for this player? I also suggest that you use RealPlayer10 or MusicMatchbox to sync music to the device. Oh you might have to reinstall the sync software on to your computer again.
If it says it is already on there just uninstall it then reinstall it. Let it find the player and you'll be ready to load music again.
hths
Yeadon563
Hello where would u get teh software and drivers if the site isn't there any more?
How did you guys get it to work with musicmatch or real player so far i can only get WMP10 to work. I'm running the latest updates from the virgin electronics site.
Btw my unit just went bonkers today (just under 2 months of use) it acted as if there were no tracks and wouldn't power down (normal or deep sleep).Got it working again by plugging it to my pc and reformatting and reloading the firmware. Don’t know if I had to go as far as reformatting but it did the trick.
A user group is an excellent idea.
Hello everybody. For all those ppl looking to make playlists. You can use Winamps playlist editor. Just transfer the m3u file to the players playlist directory. With Winamp you can use the sort function to arrange your list in various orders.
I also found a program called Mp3ListShellEx:http://www.gasanov.net/Mp3ListShellEx.htm. Once installed just right click the folder your mp3s are in and chose the program from the pull down list. It will put your files in the order they are in the folder. Then chose a name for the m3u and a place to save it.
One thing I foundout with playlists you can no longer use the scroll function!!! Geesh you find one way of getting around a problem, and the machine gives you another!! If you want to skip ahead you have to press the forward button. With 100 files in a folder this becomes a bore. No wonder they are not on the market anymore.
Even with all its problems if it had more battery life I could live with it. I am only getting 6 and a half hours with this thing. I paid 96 for mine at the Geeks. Philips Outlet has a reconditioned 15gig player for 89 bucks. I hear it gets at least 9 and a half hours of battery life after each recharge. Plus if the battery goes bad you can send it to Philips and they will put in a new battery for you.
I can try to sell this on Ebay for 70 or 80 bucks or give it to charity. 3 and a half more hours of battery life sounds good to me!
I bought 3 of these for my kids but only one is working. How do you reformat the disk on the player?
i would love to find out how "EASY" it is to get files on the dang thing. I have done it several times many different ways ( including the sync from WMP ) and NO luck. They are on the player but I get the Can't find songs message. If anyone can help me I would appreciate it. I have even reformated the dang thing. and yes the system folder was put back on along with the one file that is required.