Mustek PVR-H140GB Personal Media Player

video player, SD/MMC card reader, voice recorder, photo viewer and useless things like calendar and games. It tries to do it all and does a very decent job for its price. Let me list about its performance in each of these modes.

1. Video Recorder: I think its ability to record video directly from a video source with component output is great. It allows recording from TV/VCR or DVD. It records only in stereo though. It has a very rudimentary time based recording where you can set it to start recordign your favorite show by giving it times. I like that it works with both NTSC and PAL systems.

2. MP3 Player: It can play MP3 and WMA files. The play back is as good as any other MP3 player I have used. The quality is not great on the supplied head phones. On any other quality headphones the quality is decent. The biggest drawback I see is that there is no mechanism for creating or playing playlists.

3. Storage Device: No complaints at all here. For the price, 40GB is very generous. Windows identifies it as a storage device as soon as it is connected. You can copy files like from any other drive.

4. Video Player: Even though they listed every video format as a "compatible" format in their brochure, the device can play only ASF files. All those formats become "compatible" because the software they gave converts all those formats into ASF format. I could not find any commercial video converter that would convert things to ASF format. So I HAD to use the provided software. If you record a show directly, it is automaticlly recorded in ASF format, so there is no conversion needed in this case. The sofware is so-so. It does a decent job of conversion but is is very slow. But there is no other option other than to use the supplied software. The sofware has depending on windows media conversion utility from microsoft which is free. In my experience it took about 6 hours of conversion for every 1 hour of video in DivX format. There is no direct conversion (ripping) possible from a DVD. You have to record a DVD using a dvd players and connecting the cable, cannot use software here. Video play back quality is very good though. The size of the screen is decent enough (lot bigger than the iPod) and it is very bright (explains low video battery life).

5. SD/MMC card reader: It has a SD/MMC card slot and you can copy files over from them onto the internal 40G hard drive. Very useful, if you have a digital camera and take lots of pictures. Instead of carrying a lot of SD/MMC cards or a notebook computer, carry this instead and keep transfering photos as the SD/MMC cards get full.

6. Voice Recorder: Voice recording is decent. I did not try this feature a lot and also I did not use any other voice recorder for me to do a comparision.

7. Photo Viewer: Photo viewer is decent. The biggest gripe on this is that, you cannot copy files directly using the storage device interface and view the photos. You HAVE to use the conversion software they provided. The conversion software I guess indexes them and creates thumbnails. But because of the good LCD, pictures look decent.

8. Other things I did not care about (yet). It has a calendar that sychronizes with outlook (again through the provided software), a couple of basic games, personalization stuff like personalizing the start up screen and such. I did not spend a lot of time trying these.

Overall positive: Lots of features. If you can get used to the interface and have some patience (both with the interface and with the software), it is a pretty decent machine. Video play back is bright and big. It does what it promises. Generous storage capacity.

Overall negative: Biggest negative is the interface. It is not intutive at all. e.g. there is a joystick to navigate, but there is a separate OK button. It is kind of on the heavy side and sometimes you can feel the hard disk rotating when you hold in your hand. Conversion software is very slow if you have lot of video downloads on the computer.

I have used this only for about 3 weeks now. Not having used for long time, I don't know how long this thing will last without giving problems.

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To start this product has all the features it says, but they way you read them are deceiving. You see this in some of the features I will explain.

Music: Just like it say if you bought this sole for playing mp3 files than it’s for you... allot more space than ipod video

Video: Don’t think you are going to get away with putting any movies that you might have on your computer on this device. You see the only format that I’ve found this product to play is ASF. The problem with this is the only converter out there is their own converter supplied with the product. The converter is cheap. It uses Windows media encoder 7.1 which is supposed to be way back when, in the windows 2000 age. So the converter will not even work if you have windows Xp and the new Windows media encoder 9. What you have to do is go on Google and search for the old encoder, and I think it was on like the 23 page. Then when you finally get it to work there is a chance that you file cant be converted and if can be converted it is dreadfully slow... I mean like you could go to china and back and it would not even be half way done converting a 300 mb file. Don't get this product if you are using it for movies. Check around for another device. DON'T GET THIS PRODUCT FOR VIDEOS OFF YOUR COMPUTER!!!!!!!!!!!

AV: Yes this feature is nice especially if you want to watch a show and be recording it to watch tomorrow. BUT if you were thinking that you could use this like a VCR then you are mistaken. You can set up times to record, but the device must be powered on and in standby mode for the scheduled recording to start. So if the battery runs out in the meantime then it just won't work. If you are going to use this feature for a sort of picture in picture to watch another channel of the TV while another channel is on, you need a VCR to intercept the channels to your Video-2/ AV section of your TV; otherwise you have to watch the same channel that is on the TV at that time. AND ALSO REMEMBER THAT THE AV Jacks HAVE INPUT AND OUTPUT ON TVS , SO WHEN YOU ARE CONNECTING THE DEVICE TO THE TV LOOK TO SEE IF THE AV JACK YOU ARE PLUGGING INTO IS INPUT OR OUTPUT. IF IT IS INPUT LOOK FOR THE OUT PUT. IF IT IS OUT PUT JUST PLUG IT IN AND GO TO THE AV SECTION AND THE TV SHOW SHOULD BE PLAYING ON THE PVR-H140.

SOUND RECORDING: Didn't use the feature much, but if you are into recording your voice than this feature is fairly nice

Games: Im sure you can code your own somehow... the ones that come with it though are lacking... I mean the tic-tac-toe is rigged.

Storage: If you are using this for a storage device then you are all set. Just plug it into your computer if you have win-XP then it should classify this device as a storage medium and just give it a drive letter and from there it is all drag and drop onto the drive.

The Battery: Well I’ve only had this for 2 days so I would not know much about the long run, but from what I hear the battery wears out after a while. For me, though, it ran out after about 4 hours of use, well almost ran out, I went to bed so I didn't find out.

Misc.: Other than that other things to bring up are that I could not get the stand to work. The head phones that came with it are NOT like the Ipod's headphones, but I liked them because they would stay in my ears.

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Ok people so i bought the mustek pvr-h140 last septemper. At first when i bought the player it would play video for about 3 hours which i was happy with. The player worked perfectly. NOW 5 months later if im lucky video might get to aprox 1 hour 50 min thats if straight after i charge it i dont waste time thinking what movie to watch whilst its on. The battery in this player is VERY VERY BAD. Also what makes it even worse whilst im playing music/video etc the player is starting to heat up. Yes thats right HEAT UP. not just the back of the player where the battery is positioned but the whole player heats up. Also the inbuilt speaker DO NOT PLAY AUDIO/VIDEO sounds through it on full blast which is not very loud. WHY THAT IS the speaker becomes to make crumbly sounds. Also if you are thinking of putting movies off your computer on it FORGET ABOUT IT. WHY? becasue u have to put all videos on it through the conversion program. I have a pritty fast computer and when this was converting 1mb every 10 min i thought this was rediculous. Yes the feature that you can record dvds,videos,tv is a nice feature but then again you cant just plug the thing up to the tv while a dvd is playing. WHY? because of the battery it wont last so whilst ur recording ur dvd etc the battery is about to die and the player is as hot as an oven. people before i bought this player i read all the great features it has yes they are great features but most of them will not work properly in the long run. I do not recommend you buy this player i mean PLEASE DONT BUY THIS PLAYER. pay more for quality. I was extremly happy the first 3 months after that its all downhill. my original score was 10 now i will give it a 3

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• you cant plug in unless to charge it. thanks for your help.

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At least thats what I thought I was buying. Oh, I got it used on ebay cheap. And still feel ripped off. If you like short movies, hey it does the job. BUT it does get hot before the battery goes dead. It does have a 40GB HDD that can act as an external drive on your PC, then the battery goes dead. If you don't give up, you can master the menu system if the battey lasts (but it dosent).

I have not given up on it but it's future has changed. If there were a way to usb it to my PDA/Smartphone it would help its future alot.

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