Keepin' it real fake, part XXXIIV: Zune ain't aloone

We thought the world record for the speed of knockoff went to TechFaith Wireless for their Q-before-the-Q, and their line of slick Windows Mobile-based knockoffs -- but it would appear we've been proven wrong. Everyone, say hello to Oriphe Industrial Limited's MPF2110, which is "liking Microsoft zune" (yeah, we're liking it too). The MPF2110 plays MPEG, AVI, AMW, and MTV video formats (what the hell are those last two?), MP3, WAV, and WMA audio, has an FM / voice recording, USB 2.0, a 1.5 or 1.8-inch display, and up to "2GB flash memory chip by Samsung/Hynix, the most reliable." (So, Samsung is an accessory to the crime; perhaps because Microsoft went with Toshiba?) Sign us up, we're going to buy ten thousand and sell them outside Zune-sponsored shows to see if anyone of those "artists and musicians" can actually tell the difference.

[Via The MP3 Players]

[jacob @ Sep 17th 2006 12:18PM]

MTV? so it can play MTV music videos? lol

[jon @ Sep 17th 2006 12:31PM]

Doesn't it look smaller than the actual Zune? :P

[Jake @ Sep 17th 2006 12:44PM]

You know, if they shortened it so there wasn't that ugly opaque box below the screen, I think I'd prefer this to the actual Zune. Partially because it'd probably cost about $100 tops.

[muzzambrotta @ Sep 17th 2006 12:53PM]

MTV formats? Since when MTV introduced its own format?

[Matt @ Sep 17th 2006 1:04PM]

MTV Video Format
The MTV Video format was created to allow video playback capabilities on inexpensive mp3 players without increasing the cost of those players. The format operates by displaying a series of raw image frames while playing MP3 audio.

The MTV format consists of a 512 byte file header, followed by alternating image and audio frames. While the audio frames are encoded with MPEG1 Audio Layer 3 (aka MP3), the image information is stored in uncompressed raw format, according to the player's display hardware specification.

During decoding of the video stream, the audio frames are passed to the mp3 hardware decoder, while the memory pointer of the display hardware is simply adjusted to the next raw image within the video stream. While this concept does not require additional * hardware for the decoding process, it leads to huge memory requirements as no compression is applied to the image information. For this reason the storage capacity of an MP4 player is effectively much less than that of a player that decompresses files on the fly.

[N @ Sep 17th 2006 1:09PM]

Damn, those forgers are quick.

[keefus @ Sep 17th 2006 1:24PM]

um, i'm pretty sure XXXIIV isn't a valid roman numeral.

[Chrsitan @ Sep 17th 2006 1:34PM]

Keefus you're right... I was thinking, was that 33 or 32-5 or 32.5 or ... no it just doesn't make sense...

[Ben @ Sep 17th 2006 1:52PM]

no,
XXXIIV
isnt a real roman numeral
if you want 33 its XXXIII
and 34 is XXXIV
but there is no XXXIIV

[cycomachead @ Sep 17th 2006 1:57PM]

keefus, I've been wondering the same thing
It's either 33, 34, or 37, well that's what I think

[Iconic Point @ Sep 17th 2006 2:08PM]

Microsoft needs to knock this and steal their color scheme. The brown zune had to be a color design that slipped through inspection. I like the gold yellow knock off reminds of flash gordon.

[Finished Law School @ Sep 17th 2006 5:05PM]

Aside from the crappy looking buttons this looks better than the Microsoft version - better colors and it is thinner.

[sfxazure @ Sep 17th 2006 6:46PM]

Funny thing, I got a free mp3 player thats REALLY similar to this. It's modeled after the ipod nano, cept with mechanical buttons instead of the scroll wheel. The best part is, this thing has the same horrendously placed ports in the same places. (including the audio jack on the side) The best part of the whole thing, though, was that the user manual didn't even have pics of the player. It had doctored pictures of the nano.

I'm amazed these guys haven't been sued straight out of the country yet.

[PEZ @ Sep 17th 2006 8:01PM]

These things made in China are JUNK. The memory are damaged - ALL the TIME, and suck the innevitable SHANOLLA. Trust your bust. These things stink out loud.

Yeah I had one - not with this zune-esqueness, but very similar, and everyone I contacted (ebay) had to return them. Luckily, the seller was more than helpful.

[asurroca @ Sep 17th 2006 9:21PM]

Wow, knocking off a product before it hits market. That's a new record! :-D

[Scorp76 @ Sep 18th 2006 1:17AM]

MTV n AMW r chinese written codecs. After all they want their own formats... cuz they hate u westerners for making money off them ;)

[Corrupt @ Sep 18th 2006 2:18AM]

Your comments: Out of curiosity I contacted the live chat on the site. It was
hilarious because every question resulted in the negotiated price
going up a few dollars, and PayPal orders incurred a 5% charge. Also,
the salesperson proceeded to add me on MSN, further convincing me that
there's only one or two people running the operation...that and the
picture of an mp3 player with the MSI logo on the site.

[Ghonius @ Sep 18th 2006 2:51AM]

Yea...just got off live chat with them. Is this place a joke? Dude wants a direct money transfer via Western Union to CHINA! Is he serious?

[Bazza @ Sep 18th 2006 5:53AM]

Well its official, Zune has landed. Biggest form of flattery......you arent a popular gadget in this world if you dont have a knockoff twin.

nice find! :)

[187 - John Doe @ Sep 18th 2006 6:25AM]

Oh man, who actually wants a Zune?

[Michael Writhe @ Sep 25th 2006 8:36PM]

i def do.

i hate i-tunes and dont much care for 3rd party software either. stability is nice to have.