Cinepal Personal Media Player 8IN HD 720P Videos Photos MP3 Review

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(More customer reviews)First thing, I bought this from Ritz Camera through the Amazon Marketplace. The site said 3-5 days to process the item, and another week or so to ship. I placed the order last Monday, and it was on my doorstep on Wednesday. Totally unexpected, and it really impressed me. Way to go Ritz Camera.
Now, onto the review:
I bought this video player because I like to watch Japanese dramas while I run on the treadmill. I'd been using my iPhone for this, but I'm training for a half-marathon now and staring at the iPhone screen for 5+ miles worth of running was wearing me out. I decided to buy a video player that was larger, but found out that there are not many on the market.
If you want to watch videos on a small device using files (not DVDs), you only have a couple of choices: iPad, the Cinepals from Aluratek, and the Archos tablets (which are now full-on tablet PCs). Since I didn't want to spend $500+ and I didn't want a tablet PC, this video player was the only option.
And what an option it is! It supports virtually every video file and codec, including the ubiquitous h.264, with no trouble. Video playback is smooth and fast, file transfers are quick, and - if you use an SDHC media card - there's plenty of storage on this sucker. The 1280x768 screen is gorgeous, and unlike the iPad or iPhone, you don't have to use Handbrake to convert files into a playable format. You download/rip them, and just shoot them off to the Cinepal. I am more than pleased with this device, and the price was excellent.
There are a couple of minor issues I have with it, but I didn't think they warranted me taking off any stars.
- Obviously Chinese made, and potentially low quality. The "manual" - if you could call it that - is a bunch of 8.5x11" printouts, not an actual manual. The only language options are English, Chinese, and a second type of Chinese. It has an internal battery that you can't replace. The device itself feels sturdy, though, and there's a one year warranty and I paid like $130 for it, so even if it craps out I can just replace it.
- The controls aren't very user friendly. I still haven't figured out how to change the volume, but I haven't really needed to, either, since I've been using headphones.
- The 4 GB (4x1000 MB) storage is enough for me, but I'd highly recommend a media card for any serious video watching.
- Two power buttons? Like there's one on the side and one on the front. If you turn the side one on, you can use the front one to turn it on or off. But if you turn the side one off, the front one doesn't work. Why not one power button?
- I don't think it charges via USB, only via plug in to the wall. I'm not 100% sure on this - like I didn't test it or anything - but I did take it out after having it plugged in via USB to transfer files and the battery life was shorter. The only explanation I have is that it wasn't charging.
Overall, I love this device, and I'm glad someone decided to make a video player for those of us who just want to watch videos and not check our email and do other tablet-PC stuff. It's about time more devices like this came out on the market.
I chose this one over the 8.9" 100 model (this is the 101) because it supports a few more video formats/codecs, it has a normal headphone jack, and has a higher resolution screen.


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