Product Review

(4 of 5 Stars!), Thursday November 15, 2007

by Chase Norton

I bought this Recorder with the Sony Helmet Cam Kit, (see my review). The recorder is an awsome little gadget. What was expected to be only a recorder has really became my prime media player outside of the home. It is much smaller than I had thought, but dont plan on replacing your mini i-pod you have behind your ear. The screen is very bright with vibrant colors. The file management is easy to use. The music player gives tons of screen options including album art, track name and # , artist, and album names. You cam play music during picture slideshows too. The build in speakers are a little weak, so bring your headphones if you want to rock your head off. The recording, I feel, could have been handled better. Although the recording quality from my cam and television are far above my expectations, the recording interface is a little bothersome. A couple problems include the connection for the Video/Audio in and out, this connection is sensitive and if not connected absolutely flush the video is not recognized. Another is when my helmet cam runs out of batteries the recording stops and what had been recorded up untill battery failure is discarded. I lost an hour of video because I ran out of batteries in the last 10min of the trail, so make sure you have fresh batteries and stop every once in a while to save your recording on longer trips. The battery life long and sweet. You should never have to worry about running out of batteries as long as its on a fresh charge. When recording turn the screen brightness down all the way to save power.
Overall this product has been a superb Media Player, and although flawed, is a good recorder for the price. So if you want to do some recording when your not listening to music or watching movies buy this little guy. 5 out of 5 for a Media Player, but 4 out of 5 for a recorder.