Date: August 29th, 2005
Article by: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: Samsung Canada
<--SHOP FOR A SAMSUNG YH-820 5GB DIGITAL MP3 PLAYER IN NORTH AMERICA
<--SHOP FOR A SAMSUNG YH-820 5GB DIGITAL MP3 PLAYER IN EUROPE
PRODUCT SETUP
First thing you want to do before anything is completely charge your MP3 player battery.
When you need to charge your MP3 player for the first time, don't plug the USB cable to the computer, just connect the power to your wall outlet and insert the main connection into the player. Wait for the battery to charge before setting this unit up for the first time. The first time you charge the battery, it will take around 3 hours total to top it up. From then on when the battery is completely dead, the charge time will be in the 2.5 hour range. Don't leave this unit connected to the charger for anything longer than 12 hours or this unit will pose a fire risk. Why Samsung didn't include a circuit to stop the charging after the unit is charged up is beyond me. Topping it up over night should be safe, but just don't leave it plugged in for the weekend and leave.
With the USB cable still disconnected from the computer and the cable is disconnected from the player, pop the install CD into the optical drive and wait for it to boot up. When this screen pops up click and install the Drivers & Utilities. It will then ask you to restart and only when the machine has been completely rebooted can you plug the USB connection into your computer's USB 2.0 connection. Then connect the main connection to the MP3 player and allow Windows XP to load and install the proper drivers.
Alright, now that you have that out of the way, don't worry about install Napster Client seeing it is ONE OF THE MOST ANNOYING JUNK PROGRAMS I AHVE EVER DEALT WITH. It is a nightmare to get working and shame on Samsung for not including there free Samsung Music Studio instead of this over-complicated Napster garbage. If you want a copy of Samsung's Music Studio, you can still download it for free after a search HERE.
But even before doing that, you can unlock the "drag and drop" music uploading capability of this MP3 player by installing and upgrading this player to the latest available MTP firmware version HERE. Without it, you will have to rely on other software to transfer music to and from this player. With MTP, you MP3 copying is just like dragging and dropping any file in Windows Explorer. You could copy data to and from this device with the old firmware, but you could never gain access to the media directory.
Essentially, you can now upload data to the data folder for data backup or transportation and now you can drag and drop your MP3's directly to and from the Music directory without having to worry about getting WMP10 or Napster working properly. You are now capable of copying to and from this device and upload songs, photos, data and pretty well everything you need to transport.
To fill this player with the 1200 song load (128k) it is capable of holding you will need about 30-40 minutes to completely fill this device. Thanks to the USB 2.0 interface, 30-40 minutes is nothing compared to the 2 hours+ you would be waiting using USB1.1.
PRODUCT TESTING
Product Appearance
This small MP3 player is a little light on the visual details and sticks to keeping everything looking simple and clean. No flashy colors, no huge graphics, just basically everything you need to make a simple MP3 player without having it used as a fashion accessory like some other brands. Instead of paying for flashy styling, I would rather invest in a product with a full color display and features like the YH-820.
Product Practicality
From a practicality standpoint, this product has all the bases covered if you are in the market for a 5Gb MP3 player. Not only is it a MP3 player, you also get a photo viewer, a MP3 encoder, a voice recorder and essentially a portable 5Gb hard drive to transport or backup any needed data. The only problem I see with the practicality is the setup. Why Samsung didn't wait and release the product with the MTP firmware for drag and drop uploading I will never know, but if you stick to only the software on the CD, I can almost guarantee you will get SO frustrated with the setting up of Napster that you will send the product back. Why have a great MP3 player if you have to run a gauntlet to load it properly. To solve this Napster needs to get their butt kicked to the curb and Samsung needs to again use their own software instead of taking on promotional programs as their main product interface. Update your firmware before you do ANYTHING.
Product Performance
Once you have everything setup properly, this product is remarkably easy to use. The sound quality is great and you can easily enter the setup sub-menu to change the equalizer preferences to match your taste. The included earbud headphones do a good job at conveying the digital audio quality but don't expect them to handle too much bass. I suggest for the best listening experience you go and pick up a bigger set of headphones with lower frequency range capability.
MP3 voice recording and MP3 encoding is as easy as talking into the microphone or hooking up the audio patch cable and pressing record. Need to take some photos along to show the family, well, just upload them to the Photo directory and you can view them within seconds. Need to take some files on the road or back up some important files off of your hard drive for safe keeping? Just drag and drop to your hearts content.
Every feature this MP3 includes works flawlessly. Not once have I noticed a hiccup, problem or concern. If I can pick apart anything, the 20 second boot time could be shortened a little by removing the fancy animated splash screen at startup. Battery performance is not bad at 8 hours and the small reduction when compared to other players is more than likely due to the slightly higher power requirements needed by the color display. The battery will be extended if you don't heavily rely on the display backlight. Some people think that eight hours is not long enough when it is compared to other models, but directly comparing this player to any other manufacturer's model wouldn't be fair seeing they don't incorporate the same display and features.
