I'm a little new to this stuff, but I felt like this needed some sort of commenting on. The internet has a sparse amount of info for these players, so I thought I could add to it as a semi-experienced buyer.
I recently purchased an M-Walker Mp4 Player at a local computer surplus store. I was a little puzzled with the lack of detail, but I was able to determine the likely model of my particular player:
http://www.quantum-optimum.com/mp4/bl362.html
BL362 Bromine
2.8" TFT display, slim design
Support AVI, MP3, MP4, WMA and WAV format
Support mini SD expansion
Built in speaker
FM & Voice recording, USB flash disk
Built in 1/2/4/8 GB memory
My particular model is a 4GB, and determined that it isn't hacked. It's black and has a big V2 printed on the back.
Btw, if you bought one of these and are looking for possible missing utilities, you can check out the manufacturer's site:
http://www.quantum-optimum.com/
Go to the support tab at the top and click on the link to drivers. It has most of the MP4 players listed. Why not "all" is a mystery to me.
Well, lets get started.
Packaging:
Kind of hard to look at. It's an unpleasant shade of purple with fingerprint-prints (heh) all over it. I guess that's to promote the "touch" aspect but really it looks like those lolworthy graphics you get in those newer detective shows.
It comes with a power adapter, USB to USB AM-Mini 5 Pin cord, stereo headphones, manual, and software. The standard stuff, though I would have preferred it come with a strap, too :V
UI:
Very tidy looking interface. Most of it is black but the icons are nice and bright so they're pretty easy to see. Everything is consistently blue, and each menu has all the major functions you would otherwise use buttons for (ie. up, down, back). However, the options icon appears in places where it isn't used sometimes, which I found sort of confusing. It would have been more appropriate to leave it out for certain menus.
As for the buttons, they are small and horizontal across the bottom. A bit of a nuisance to use, but I guess since this is a touch model, the emphasis is on that feature. However, this poses a problem when entering settings and such. The "confirm/enter/okay" button is needed anyways in certain options (ie. settings) which kind of renders touch moot. Also, one other problem with the unit is they consolidated the On/Off function with the "back" and "hold" functions. A little messy, IMO.
Audio:
Goddamn, this unit is loud. I tried it at the lowest volume setting with in-ear headphones and the unit gave me a real headache. Even with the stock headphones, the unit would be loud enough to bother the person next to you. Hopefully this is addressed in a firmware update, but for now if you are planning on getting this, either get phones with an inline volume control or buy one separately. Don't have one on me now to really give the sound quality a review (away from home).
As for the built in speaker, it hisses quite a bit but it's very audible even at the lowest settings. I think this may have been what the manufacturers had in mind when they made the unit very loud (ie. enough for the built in speaker) but I guess didn't consider the effects on the phones.
There are five equalizer settings: Normal, Classical, Pop, Rock, and Jazz. Not much of a noticeable difference with the built in speaker, except that the classical and jazz settings are significantly quieter than the others.
What I didn't expect from such a cheap unit is that the music continues to play even when you've returned to the root menu. So you can listen to music while viewing photos Although there is a little delay when one returns to the song itself. Not so irritable, since using any of the other functions doesn't seem to interfere with the playing.
Video:
The unit has a very nice 2.8" screen and the video player has the option to flip vertically for viewing. This feature is especially nice since it expands the picture to fill the screen. Viewing angle is okay, but is inconsistent depending on the angle. I'm assuming the screen is lit from the top. It's not so great with darker shades, but is fairly good with bright colours.
The example .avi files have the maximum resolution to be 320:240, and supports Xvid codec and the audio stream as mp3. MediaInfo actually shows a bit of a discrepancy, so the unit is probably using an older version of Xvid. This means no mencoder - you're better off using the Surround Mp4 Tool (
http://www.oem-drivers.com/2007/11/1...d-mp4-tool-31/ ) that comes with it.
Camera/Photo:
It stinks. Even with a fair amount of lighting everything is a hue of green/yellow. Don't expect too much from this particular feature. Although nifty, it could have done without it. same goes for it's function as a webcam.
Other worth mentioning to note:
The biggest flaw to this unit is there is no way to adjust brightness. I was a little disappointed in this - the benefits to this function should be obvious. Also, there is little to no instruction on how the playlist function works. When one creates a favorite in the "My Favorites" option, one is left with a blank file with no clear way of managing. The file extension is *.alt, btw. Something for future reference. Maybe it's just me, but I had gotten used to arranging music using the directory structure, so the lack of a playlist to supplement this sort of bothers me.
Conclusion:
Overall, I have mixed feelings about the player. On the one hand, I am very fond of using it as a video player. On the other hand, the undocumented features of the music player makes me reluctant to give up listening with my Focus Mp4 player. I'll still continue to experiment, though.
Did it live up to the price I paid for? Not really. For $50 I think I could have spent it on something better. Well, not really. I probably would have blew it on something anyways.
M-walker Mp4 Players
