Mustek PVR-A1 32 MB Personal Media Player

Excellent all around player for the money!

Strengths: So many features

Weaknesses: flimsy battery cover

Summary: This player has so many features packed into one small player that it is almost a work of magic. It takes SD cards which are now pretty cheap. The unit is pretty small with decent battery life (over 4 hours). This unit will even record your favorite show. The bad part is that it will only take SD cards up to 512K, it's construction is kind of flimsy, and you have to first re-encode any avi or wmv files you plan to play on the unit with the included software.

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Pretty good deal for the price....

Strengths: I think it is very easy to use. A good deal for the small price. Really nice if you want to record a tv show, just insert a/v jacks on the back of your tv, or vcr. Will not work through front jacks.

Weaknesses: Need to purchase sd card. My daughter accidently deleted important files for the operation of this unit. Had to return first one, but purchased another. Battery door cover, does not close properly.

Summary: After my teen daughter accidently deleted some important files on the mp3 player, I called Mustek. Very helpful, said that had never happened before. Could return for replacement. I returned it to the store I had purchased it from, and bought another one, as it is easy to use and my daughter loves it. Also had a problem with their file converter software. Mustek customer service sent a file email, that remedied the problem. Before that I would just drag items unto the card. The software converts video avi, wmv, mpeg & mpg files unto the unit. Very easy to also transfer mp3, jpg, and video (listed above) files unto using the software program that comes with the unit. I suggest using their program. Battery cover is hard to shut, but once you shut it, the batteries are secure. If using for movies, I suggest an extra battery. Overall nice product for the price. I even bought one for myself.

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The PVR-A1 is a great unit for the price. I bought ...

Strengths: 1) Excellent multi-media device for a gadget lover! 2) Price is very low for what you get 3)Great features incl. SD memory card (w/512 I get 3.5 hrs video!) 4) easy to understand and use

Weaknesses: 1) It does not give you the ability to add play lists for music 2) you must use the encoding software included for video conversion 3) battery life is just 'OK', xtra bat. would be nice for trips

Summary: The PVR-A1 is a great unit for the price. I bought it for my Daughter and she loves it. The ability to record television shows and take the unit on the road with us is fantastic!

We have a 512mb SD card and can fit 3-1/2 hours of TV or movies on the little card. My only requst would be a little longer battery time or replacement batteries. The fact that it has a rechargable battery is good and bad. Its good in the fact that you don't have to replace them, but bad if your on a plane or in a place without a plugin.

I would suggest investing in a better pair of headphones to use with this. My Daughter hated the earbuds.

Overall this unit is an incredible value for the dollar! Excellent!!!

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I bought this for my son's 13th birthday. It's an ...

Strengths: size, style,multi-function

Weaknesses: battery door a li'l flimsy

Summary: I bought this for my son's 13th birthday. It's an awesome product at a great price. Now my older son in college wants one!!

Very cool to have such a small device with so many different capabilities.

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PVR-A1 Personal Media

Strengths: Small and storage big when you use SD memory card

Weaknesses: Video is in MEPG 4.

Summary: Everything is Super Great. I will give 99% of satisfy. However, the only thing that disappoint me is the video. It is MEPG 4 which is not the DVD quality yet. Hopefully, it has the next generation which will give DVD quality.

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Mustek PVR-A1

Strengths: great features!

Weaknesses: does not play ogg files, has a short battary life

Summary: This is a great tool, a bargin at the price! It is like carrying a mp3 player, a video recorder, a voice recorder, all at the same time. The only problem with it is its short battary life, and that it requires a special type of rechargable battary rather than the standard AA, which would be more easily replaced.

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Really wanted to *love* this thing, but I think *like* is all I can muster

Strengths: A lot of features for the price. A "jack of all trades".

Weaknesses: Can do a lot of things but is not really an "expert" at any one of them.

Summary: It's difficult to find all this functionality in another solid state (non-hard disk) device and at this pricepoint. The PVR-A1 is a 96 x 77 x 20mm device, weighing 110gm without the battery, with a 2.5" TFT LCD screen. It comes with a 5 volt AC adapter/charger, rechargeable lithium-ion battery (equivalent to an NP-60 camera battery), audio/video cable to connect the PVR-A1 to any standard audio/video device that supports composite (red/white/yellow) output, a USB cable to connect it to your PC (it then acts like a SD/MMC card reader/writer), earphones and a faux leather case with some cushioning. It is a digital video player, digital video recorder, digital photo viewer, digital voice recorder, MP3 player, calendar with clock and alarm, primitive game player, and USB portable disk or SD/MMC card reader (as mentioned earlier). For audio output, the PVR-A1 has an onboard speaker or can support headphones/earphones for private listening. The PVR-A1 comes with only 32MB of onboard memory, so you will need to purchase SD or MMC cards to get any real use out of it. SD is the less expensive of the two and comes in much larger sizes than MMC. I have tested with SD cards as large in capacity as 1GB (the card I used supported write speeds of up to 50x; results may vary with lower speed cards). The firmware version pre-installed on my PVR-A1 is 2.7D. Some people say an earlier firmware version (2.6G) was better. You can modify that at your own risk.

The PVR-A1 does many things but only does any of them adequately. I will run through the functions I have tested and provide my comments.

Digital video recorder and player - The PVR-A1 is at its best recording and playing back videos. It supports two compression modes "LP" and "SP", with "SP" being the better in quality. At "SP", about 100MB equals about 30 minutes. The recorded video quality at "SP" is pretty good, with only minor inaccuracies in colors that you might only notice in recording and playing back cartoons (since they are usually rich in color), and plays back very well on the 2.5" screen. The videos can also be copied to your PC and played back on your computer, but, since your monitor is larger than 2.5", viewing the videos on your PC will show a lot of the limits of the compression format (like the pixellation and some problems with capturing very rapid motion - basically viewing at fullscreen on your PC is like watching an old VHS tape). Playback can be fastforwarded and rewound, but it seems the fastest you can move in either direction is at 2x (maybe it's 4x) the normal playback speed. This is a problem if you are watching the playback of a 2 hour movie and can't finish it all in one sitting, since you can't start off again where you left off and have to fastforward back to where you were. It's best to break up longer videos into smaller parts whenever possible so that it becomes easier to resume. The other thing I don't like about video playback is that, when selecting a video to playback, no filenames are shown. Instead, you get a thumbnail of the opening screen for that video clip which is not as useful.

Digital photo viewer - Pictures may have to be resized to display with the same aspect ratio as the screen. Other than that, this is pretty straightforward. When you put a new SD card into the PVR-A1, it creates a few directories (like "MP3" and "VIDEO" and "PHOTO") on the card. You can either copy your files into these directories or use the transfer software Mustek supplied (which also does conversions for you if the file type needs to be converted).

MP3 player - Video recording and playback is where the PVR-A1 is at its best. MP3 playback might be its worst. Playback of any MP3 files over 128 bitrate is choppy. There is no random playback support. You can't set playlists. You can't determine the order of play at all. I think it all depends on luck and where each song was written on the SD card. The songs list displays filenames but can only fit 8 characters, so any filenames over 8 characters long are automatically truncated. However, after all of that, it does play back 128 and lower bitrate MP3's well and at good audio quality.

Game player - The PVR-A1 comes with two games built-in: tic tac toe and that tile-shuffling puzzle game we are probably used to as cheap party favors when we were kids. The AI for the tic tac toe is pretty good, but it's still just tic tac toe. The tile-shuffling game is what it is. Neither are anything mindblowing, but they're there if you desperately need to waste some time.

All in all, this is a decent little gadget. It can do many things and was a pioneer of sorts (and still might be in terms of being able to hook up directly to any composite output signal for recording purposes). Just don't go in expecting too much from any of its individual features and you shouldn't go away disappointed.

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Great Products

Strengths: AV/In and Good Display

Weaknesses: The cover of the Battery

Summary: Great Product for the Price!!! Also very small and compact.

Nice Features and great to Record favorite Channels.

Very usefull when insert a bigger SD Card and also work like an MP3 Player.

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What a Gadget!

Strengths: A personal media center at the right price point. Expandable memory with cards. The rechargeable battery is user replacable! No problems with Mustek CService in the past Direct Print

Weaknesses: The battery door is a bit flimsy. No toll-free no. Will it be upgradeable in the future?

Summary: I did not realize that this has a portable card reader, too. I looked at other media centers and the prices were too much for my wallet. First, I like the package I received, including the software, instructions, cables, strap,and a carrying case, among others. I have an older MP3; there is no way to remove the rechargeable battery w/o sending it back to the manufacturer. The battery cover is flimsy. I found a Lion charger for under $30; it has car charger & home. The instructions seem easy enough. There is a quick start guide. (I have trouble knowing which way to install a battery.) It has a light that goes out when it's fully charged. I am going to register my warranty on-line. There are additional instructions and troubleshooting at the web-site, and a new "livechat." I noticed that one should have the PVR ready before installing the software. I also received Video Studio6. I'm going to e-mail customer service & see how long it takes to answer and how well they answer my question; re: will it be upgradeable to new formats in the future? For now, I am a happy customer. You are able to use & charge the unit as long as the battery is not allowed to go too low. It would have been nice to have a built-in radio to record from. Very good for now!

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