MP4 MTV AMV Player Review (Draft).

Ordered both the Visual Land VL-546 and the VL-547.  No surprise that they have a lot in common.  However, quite surprising that they have so many differences.

Each unit arrived about ten days after winning it on eBay.  Each came in a padded envelope, with identical boxes, the boxes designed to be generic across the line listing only the features they have in common - you know which unit's in the box because it shows through the clear window.

The front of the box reads:

...and these are indeed advertised on eBay as "MP4 Players".  Perhaps the most curious thing about the new MP4 players is that they don't play MP4 files ... to some folks, it seems MP4 has evolved from a file format to a figure of speech, generically meaning "video file".

Both items included (as "free gifts") a charger and an armband holster.  The charger plugs into A/C and charges through the USB cable included with the player. 

The armband holster (or some other solution) is needed because the player includes lariat-style earbuds, but not a belt clip (in fact, the earbuds' cord might not reach your belt if you're tall at all) and the player on a lariat bounces around if you're exercising while wearing the unit.

The units I received both had the version 3.5.35 firmware.  This firmware enables AMV video support, not MTV.  Both of these formats are uncommon in the US, but seem to be intended for small format players.  The AMV format appears to be substantially better, as it enables a simple type of compression, lacking in the MTV format.  However, the AMV audio is limited to 22KHz mono, which has some folks online complaining.

Important point (at least, I wish I'd found this info when I was considering buying one) - these units, advertised as having 1 GB of RAM, actually DO have 1 GB RAM!  This might sound silly, unless you know that there are a large number of similar inexpensive made-in-China players being sold as 512 MB or 1 GB players which only have 128 MB (or 256MB) RAM, even though the firmware reports 512 MB / 1 GB. 

In addition, these are well packaged, and include the latest firmware and CD with drivers, converters and utilities.  Nice work, Visual Land.

On the other hand a BIG MISS is that the units are advertised as USB2 devices on the auction (but not the box) - but they are NOT.  And at USB 1.2 speeds, filling up a 1 GB device can take a half an hour or more.  For some folks, this will be a deal-breaker.  Especially if you want them to double as USB hard drives for you and you regularly work with very large files.

One of the first questions to answer about these units to folks who've never seen one: do these things really do everything they claim to do?

The short answer is, yes, they really do play music (MP3 as well as WMV and WAV), play movies (in AMV format), play FM radio stations (in stereo if the signal's a decent strength), display e-books (text, though with no word-wrap), contacts (special import application), serve as USB hard drives (at USB 1.2 speeds), and play games.

Why, then, would anyone want an iPod Nano when you can get one of these for sixty dollars or so?  Some folks wouldn't - but the Nano has it's virtues - everything it does, it does very elegantly.

These units, on the other hand, do more - but not so elegantly.  A couple examples - everyone seems to complain about the speed of operation.  That is, the time between pressing a button, and having the associated action occur, is long.  Really long.  In some cases, really, really long.  In addition, the menus are laid out in very odd fashion.  The buttons work in unusuals ways.  (And note the 547 Nano-looking device does not have a click wheel - those are just five pushbuttons, but laid out to look just like a Nano's click wheel).

Side by side, the 456 is thicker but shorter, the 457 lacking speakers, a joystick (yes, a very big deal), and a second headphone jack. s

For example: to play a song, the sequence of buttons to push, if you're in Music Mode and want to select an album (folder) to listen to: push the Menu button, then from the menu use Left and Right to highlight Local Folder, then click the Menu button, use Left and Right to highlight the folder, or, if it's a parent folder, highlight "\", and then navigate to the folder you want, if it's a subfolder, highlight the parent folder and press Menu, then when you have the folder you want, press Play/Pause.  Then, when the display shows you the first music file, press Play/Pause again.

All of this wouldn't actually be so painful if it weren't for the delays after each button pressed.  Either the CPU's in these units, or the manner in which they're programmed, make them awfully slow.  An iPod Nano can't do half what these do - but it would never make me wait several seconds just to scan a folder.

When you pause a song of video clip, the pause takes a couple seconds, while the audio fades out.  Even worse, when you press the Right button to skip a song or clip, the song/clip continues to play for a couple seconds, fades out, then the next song/clip fades in.

Other things to note - the 1.5" screens are bright, but hard to see (like most such devices) in daylight.  They're OLED, so the colors look strangely pastel. 

When playing movies or music, you can fast-forward or rewind, but it's slow.  Fast-forwarding to the middle of an hour-long movie would take half an hour.  On the bright side, if you shut off the player in the middle of a clip or song, when you turn it on, it'll come up paused right where you left off.

Comparing the two: The VL-546 ("546" from here on) has major advantages.  The VL-547 ("547" from here on) is Visual Land's "Nano"-looking player, right down to the button layout (but totally different functionality, as noted, e.g. no click wheel).

Two differences make the 546 the unit to pick: the joystick and the 3.5mm headphone jacks.

The 546's joystick gives two options not available on the 547: Up and Down, which serves to turn the volume up & down. 

For what it's worth, the 546 only comes with one game (a type or "Minesweeper" game), while the 547 has two, a "Tetris" type game, and a move-the-blocks puzzle.  None of the games have any options, and I can't imagine anyone playing them more than once.

Not having a joystick, the 547 requires you to navigate a menu to adjust the volume (while listening to song, you press Menu, highlight Volume Set, press Menu again, press Left to lower the volume a notch (from 1-31, which each press taking a moment to take effect) or Right to raise the volume, with all the slow responsiveness mentioned before.

Secondly, the 546 has two 3.5mm (or 3/16") headphone jacks.  The 547 uses a 2.5mm jack - consequently, only the supplied earbuds will work (or a pair with the same tiny plug, or make a 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter as I have, so you can use any other headphones, preferably ones with a volume control on the cord).

This alone is enough reason to opt for the 546, unless you absolutely must have the flatter, Nano-er-looking device.

Also noteworthy, the 546 has built-in speakers.  This might not be useful for some folks, but if you're listening to voice content (comedy, lectures, talk radio), or even some music or movie clips, it can be quite handy.  Works with the Music Mode, AMV Video, and FM Radio - but note that the only FM Radio antenna is the headphones, so even if you're playing the radio through the speakers, the headphones must be plugged in to get reception.

As for the size, the 546 is twice as thick, but much shorter, which seems to give it a greater "wow" factor.

These units really do work - and do what they say they do.  Some of us may find them too difficult, or inelegant.  The button response, and the USB 1.2 interface, are very slow.  There's a pronounced learning curve to operating them.  And they're just a bit strange - the graphics are very, very non-Western.  For example, view this Opening Animation from the '547.  That's a jaw-dropper.

But they are a great value for the money, if you like this kind of thing.  I personally find them a lot of fun.  They could never replace an Archos AV320 or hard disk-based iPod , but they do things the others simply don't do.