MuVo V100 Media Compatibility
The MuVo V100 plays standard MP3 files and unprotected WMAs. It also supports Microsoft’s PlaysForSure initiative, which means that it can play DRM protected files you purchase from a wide variety of online stores, including Wal-Mart Music Downloads, AOL Music Now, Napster, Yahoo Music and at least a dozen others.Since the V100 is not made by Apple, it cannot play songs purchased through the iTunes music store. Since it is not a Zune, it cannot play songs purchased from Microsoft’s proprietary Zune store.
Contents of the MuVo V100 Box
The V100 comes bundled with Creative’s MediaSource software, a pair of ear buds, and a disposable AAA battery. Unfortunately, Creative does not include a belt clip or armband Since Creative does not sell armbands or clips for the V100, users will have to either keep the V100 in a pocket or shop for a third-party case.
Size of the MuVo V100
At a size of 2.93″ x 1.44″ and a thickness of only 0.59″, the V100 fits easily in even the smallest shirt pocket. Sure, the V100 is a lot larger than iPod’s microscopic shuffle and it’s even a tad longer than Creative’s own Zen Nano, but how small does an MP3 player really need to be? The LCD screen and built-in USB connector, both key components, have to take up some space.
MuVo V100 Battery Life
Its standard battery slot gives the V100 an advantage over competitors such as the iPod shuffle which use built-in rechargeable units, because travelers can easily carry replacement batteries or buy replacements. V100 owners who want a rechargeable player, can simply purchase rechargeable AAA batteries.In real-world use with a standard Duracell battery, the player matched Creative’s 18-hour battery life claim.
Voice Recording on the MuVo V100
If you like to talk to yourself and record it, you’ll appreciate the V100’s built-in microphone. If you’re planning to record distant sounds, like the voice of a teacher lecturing in front of a college classroom, buy a dedicated voice recorder. In my tests, a speaking voice captured more than 10 feet from the microphone was muffled. Low-volume sounds, such as a cat’s purr, were indistinguishable from background noise, even when captured at point blank.
Connecting the MuVo V100
The MuVo V100’s best feature is its built-in USB 2.0 interface. Slide off the unit’s battery pack and you’re looking at a USB key drive with an LCD screen.Many of the V100’s competitors – including the second-generation iPod Shuffle and Creative’s own Zen Nano – eschew the built-in USB connector and require you to connect with proprietary cables. The problems with these other players’ use of a proprietary cable are two-fold. First, you are forced to carry the wire around with you if you plan to connect to more than one computer. Second, the cables are very easy to lose and replacements may be hard to come by.
As with any USB drive, you can pop the V100 into an available port and Windows or Mac OS will recognize it as an external drive. While you will need to use Windows Media Player or Creative’s bundled MediaSource software to transfer DRM-protected songs, you can copy unprotected music files to the V100 simply by dragging and dropping them to the drive. If you have extra room after transferring all your Flock of Seagulls albums to the V100, you can pile on non-music data like the collection of high-res photos you took at last week’s Star Trek convention.
Sound Quality of the MuVo V100
MuVo V100 Menus and Controls
The MuVo V100 has a deceptively simple set of controls. The unit has only four buttons: a power key that doubles as a pause button when pressed lightly, volume + and – keys, and a multipurpose scroll wheel.To use the V100, you must first learn the mysterious ways of its scroll wheel. When moved forward or back, it navigates through songs, song folders, or menu items. When depressed, it acts as an enter key which confirms your choice of a folder or a menu item. When lightly moved back and forth during audio play, the it serves as a jog dial.
The scroll wheel serves so many functions that it turns into a roulette wheel in untrained hands. Woe betide the listener who tries to navigate through a 60-minute long podcast file and accidentally pushes the wheel hard enough to jump to the next song. Trouble waits for the impatient newbie who tries to skip ahead with the V100 in his pocket, depresses the wheel by accident, and ends up surfing settings rather than songs.
Once you get the hang of the scroll wheel, however, you’ll find yourself exploring the graphic equalizer settings, toying with the LCD brightness settings, or even using the voice recorder function. You’ll also appreciate the V100’s ability to easily move between folders and songs. The V100 allows you to shuffle through songs randomly, play sequentially by filename, move between tracks, or move between folders.
MuVo V100 Folders
More experienced listeners will find themselves creating folders for music based on genre, artist, or album. The V100 comes with three main folders by default: Library A, Library B, and Library C.Unfortunately, any new folders you create will be treated as subfolders, whether those folders live in the drive root or underneath one of the three library folders. Once you get the hang of it, you can easily navigate to your custom folders by entering the V100’s “skip folder” mode and depressing the wheel to enter the root directory or one of the library folders.
MuVo V100 LCD Display
The V100’s LCD provides sharp, legible text and a bright backlight. The screen displays the basics and a little more, showing not only song titles, folder names, and time counters, but also lyrics if available.Seeing the lyrics to a song while it’s playing is a neat feature, but unfortunately the burden of finding and entering lyrics is on the user. It’s not enough to know the lyrics to a song; you have to program the actual timing of each word or phrase into a custom LRC file created by the player’s bundled software. A Google search revealed a handful of sites with only a few dozen LRC files each.
MuVo V100 Bundled Software
One of the best things about the V100 is that it doesn’t need any special software or drivers to connect to a PC. Nevertheless, the player comes bundled with Creative Labs’ MediaSource 5 suite. Divided into music organizer, audio batch converter, and media player applications, MediaSource can rip music from CDs, organize songs into folders, play media on the PC, and transfer files to portable devices like the MuVo V100.The MediaSource Organizer puts its own spin on organization standard features you’ll find in other music organizers. The first time you run the organizer, it analyzes all the music files on your PC and sorts them by artist. If you have the time and inclination, you can add myriad details about each track including a genre (ex: rock, pop, rap), a rating (one to five stars), and a mood (ex: romantic, aggressive, playful). You can then instruct the organizer to create smart playlists based on these criteria.
Unfortunately, what happens on your PC stays on your PC, because the V100 doesn’t support playlists. Apparently, Creative’s more expensive players have playlist functionality so this feature is more useful to owners of those products.
One feature that directly benefits V100 users is SmartFit. SmartFit maximizes the V100’s capacity by converting MP3 files into WMA format while they transfer. Users can choose lower bit-rates to squeeze even more songs onto the player.
Who Should Not Buy the MuVo V100?
Music fans who want to carry their entire collection of tunes with them at all times will be disappointed by the V100’s modest 1GB or 2GB capacity space. iTunes customers will be turned off by the inability of the V100 to play songs carrying Apple’s rights management scheme.
Who Should Buy the MuVo V100?
Listeners who want an extremely portable player with great battery life, solid sound, and the ability to double as a USB key drive will appreciate the V100. They’ll even learn to master the V100’s scroll “wheel of fortune” in short order.
Leave Your Comments Below